[Android App] CCompanion - Aldiko or Moon Reader

[Themus]

Been on Calibre all day today and see with the update there is Calibre Companion. Seems most people recommend using Moon+ Reader over Aldiko. I have loved Aldiko, but always try to have an open mind.

Lots of adjustments with Moon+ Reader. Not all my covers have come over as well as they did with Aldiko. A lot of generic covers now. Also for the life of me, cannot figure out how to get rid of the extra spacing between paragraphs. Gone through every visual option I can think of.

Does anyone have any thoughts on these issues and the overal issue of using Aldiko or Moon+ Reader?

Tom

[Themus]

Just purchased Calibre Companion and using now Moon+ Reader. The books transferred over great into Calibre Companion. I have even figured out the line spacing. Sure wish there was a manual for Moon+ Reader. Lot to learn. My biggest issue is with my own ePubs. Calibre and Aldiko handle them well. But Moon+ Reader seems to do two odd things:

1) My covers are isolated like normal books in that the text for the first chapters are right below the cover. In purchased ePubs, the covers are separate as in Aldiko.

2) Also, what is TextView. Everytime I open one of my ePubs, there is this circle with a plus sign in it. Touching that brings up a blank dark screen with no where to go.

Moon+ Reader does have more options and it is growing on me. Calibre Companion is impressive.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Themus

1) My covers are isolated like normal books in that the text for the first chapters are right below the cover. In purchased ePubs, the covers are separate as in Aldiko.

I use CC to open my books in Moon+ Reader and any new book starts at the cover then I move on to reading and don't look back. As long as the cover thumbnails show fine in CC I'm happy.

Originally Posted by Themus

2) Also, what is TextView. Everytime I open one of my ePubs, there is this circle with a plus sign in it. Touching that brings up a blank dark screen with no where to go.

The only time I see this little + is when I click on an image. To advoid this I just click outside of the image or swipe to move to the next page. Clicking on the + seems to take me to a view that allows me to view all of the images in the book. If you see an all black page there is a black image somewhere on it, just hit the back button, then change the page.

Originally Posted by Themus

Moon+ Reader does have more options and it is growing on me. Calibre Companion is impressive.

I agree. But even if there was a manual I would probably rarely use it. It takes very little poking around to figure things out. Another plus for some folks is that they added Mobi in the last update.

My eyes are very sensitive to backlit screens and I thought E ink screens were my only option, but Moon+ Reader allows me complete control and I have found settings/themes that work for me. I love the fact that you can change and save any theme to your liking. And the swipe brightness control works wonders.

After testing many readers I removed all but Moon+ Reader so a long hold on a book in CC opens directly into the reader app without the need to select a particular app.

Good Luck.

[ellett]

I too used Aldiko Premium for years, but it's always been inflexible about where books are located and I haven't seen any significant updates in a long time.

I tried Moon a couple of weeks ago after I started using Calibre Companion and find that the two work very well together. I do what @dwanthny does and let CC manage the library and when I select a book it opens up in Moon, and unlike Aldiko opening a book outside of its own data base, Moon remembers where I left off reading. Moon has lots of other capabilities, including fine tuning the foreground/background for best viewing / least eyestrain, and a lot of flexibility in what gestures and/or keys move forward and backward. I paid for Moon within a day after trying the free version and uninstalled Aldiko.

[cloudcover]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

My eyes are very sensitive to backlit screens and I thought E ink screens were my only option, but Moon+ Reader allows me complete control and I have found settings/themes that work for me. I love the fact that you can change and save any theme to your liking. And the swipe brightness control works wonders.

I'm in the process of trying to set up Moon+ Reader so as to minimize eye strain and was wondering what settings/themes you've found to work well.

Thanks!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by cloudcover

I'm in the process of trying to set up Moon+ Reader so as to minimize eye strain and was wondering what settings/themes you've found to work well.

First trying to read for any length of time on a monitor absolutely played havoc with my eyes. Ever since I had Lasik and hit my late forties my eyes have been very sensitive to back lit screens.

I experimented with a few of the themes first trying some dark backgrounds with various levels of blue or gray font colors, but I finally settled on using the Nature theme (I was surprised that this theme worked best for me) with the Shadow option checked and fonts that were scaled large enough for comfortable viewing. I also dropped the brightness down to 1%, but now that Moon+Reader allows levels below the minimum I usually read with the Nexus set to -12%.

Additionally this isn't for reading in the dark (although I can do that, but drop the brightness further) I usually have a light on behind me or to the side that helps adjust my pupils and minimize any eye strain.

Good luck in finding something that works for you.

[cloudcover]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

...fonts that were scaled large enough for comfortable viewing.

thanks for the response. i've been playing around with a few things and am a bit confused on the difference between the "font size" setting and the "font scale" setting. i did a quick search online but don't seem to be able to find info on that.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by cloudcover

thanks for the response. i've been playing around with a few things and am a bit confused on the difference between the "font size" setting and the "font scale" setting. i did a quick search online but don't seem to be able to find info on that.

On Moon+ Reader Pro I just left Font scale at 0 and adjusted the font size as I desired. For my old eyes to avoid using reading glasses I have my font size set to 40. I like that I can adjust the brightness or font size by swiping along the left or right sides of the screen. I rarely ever change the font size but do occasionally alter brightness as my surroundings require.

[internalaudit]

I'm new to epubs and purchased moon reader+ and CC lately.

I asked a friend to do the following test:
I marked a test pdf with highlight and notes and drawings, sent pdf to device via Calibre & Calibre Companion on Android. Annotations show up fine on Moonreader. Added more notes and stuff. At which point, I am not able to sync the new notes back to Calibre... eventhough there is a "Fetch Annotation" button which is greyed out. I will need to read more about it, but I believe it will work (eventually).

Is there anyway to annotate in moon reader+ and get those annotations back when I open the file on my pc using Calibre?

Many thanks.

[internalaudit]

Originally Posted by internalaudit

I'm new to epubs and purchased moon reader+ and CC lately.

I asked a friend to do the following test:
I marked a test pdf with highlight and notes and drawings, sent pdf to device via Calibre & Calibre Companion on Android. Annotations show up fine on Moonreader. Added more notes and stuff. At which point, I am not able to sync the new notes back to Calibre... eventhough there is a "Fetch Annotation" button which is greyed out. I will need to read more about it, but I believe it will work (eventually).

Is there anyway to annotate in moon reader+ and get those annotations back when I open the file on my pc using Calibre?

Many thanks.

Not possible for non-android device. Got a response from Moon+:

hi, the .po sync data file is used for Moon+ Reader only in android devices, it can't be read by other platforms or applications.

Regards
Seany