Block Quotes / Moon+Reader

[lazorbeam]

Does anyone know how to force Moon+ Reader to respect existing block quotes and line breaks formatting? I'd like to view these while still reading with my set Visual Options (margins, font type/size, etc.). On other ePub readers (Marvin), these have rendered just fine.

What happens currently is that these blend with the rest of the text which can be confusing when the story is depicting a letter or news article, etc.

It's viewable under 'Preview with Publisher Formatting'. I understand that Moon+'s thing is to allow customization and I greatly approve of that, but as I haven't enabled any 'Disable CSS' options, I don't feel like this should be masked at this point.

Any help is appreciated! After testing about 12 Android epub readers, I've decided that Moon+ is the best for my needs, but there's a lot of things like this that are unreasonably frustrating...

[jackie_w]

My experience is that there is no 'perfect' Android reading app. You have to choose the 'least deficient' for your particular needs. The following are my personal opinions.

Preview mode may be the only way to see blockquotes correctly in Moon+ which is quite poor for honouring CSS IMHO. FBReader and CoolReader are OK with blockquotes and have lots of config options. CoolReader is awful for dropcaps.

If honouring CSS is your priority then you'll have much better results with Mantano (not free) or Pocketbook (free). Pocketbook has more config options but some are well-hidden. Mantano has limited font-size control but pretty good line-spacing control (via Themes in Premium version). Pocketbook is the other way round.

FWIW I can't say I've had any trouble with line-breaks in Moon+ or any of the other apps, if you're talking about the <br/> tag.

[lazorbeam]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

My experience is that there is no 'perfect' Android reading app. You have to choose the 'least deficient' for your particular needs.

For real. I really like my iOS and it's been a hard adjustment to reading on Android. In general, I like Moon+, but I agree that it should honor existing CSS that hasn't been overrided/defaulted by personal settings. There are a few other things there that are consistently problematic for me as well (basically ease of use related).

Thanks for the detailed explanation into the other apps. I've tested each of them and discarded them for one reason or another. I'm going to retest (and maybe make a chart...) and see if I prefer one at this point. I'm glad to know other people are equally particular about their reading app.

Also, about <br/> -- it does seem to render this in something like a poem/address, but it doesn't seem to when it's used more as a gap-space.

[JSWolf]

Give Bluefire Reader a try. It's based on RMDSK (ADE) and it does respect your CSS just like ADE does.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by lazorbeam

For real. I really like my iOS and it's been a hard adjustment to reading on Android.

I've never used an iDevice myself. I've often read that good epub reading apps are in short supply, but that GoodReader is king for PDFs.

Originally Posted by lazorbeam

In general, I like Moon+, but I agree that it should honor existing CSS that hasn't been overrided/defaulted by personal settings. There are a few other things there that are consistently problematic for me as well (basically ease of use related).

If you can be more specific about what's important to you I'll be happy to pontificate further (provided they're features I care about at all, that is).

Originally Posted by lazorbeam

... (and maybe make a chart...) and see if I prefer one at this point.

Good idea. That would be interesting reading

Originally Posted by lazorbeam

I'm glad to know other people are equally particular about their reading app.

It's more of a curse, to be honest. I think I'd be happier if I was less picky

One major benefit of Android is, if you're already a Calibre user, there's no finer app for managing your ebooks than the Calibre Companion app. It's library management features are miles ahead of anything offered within any individual reader app plus it interfaces seamlessly with all the apps mentioned above (and others) so you can do the actual reading of books in whichever app takes your fancy on a given day.

[lazorbeam]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

It's more of a curse, to be honest. I think I'd be happier if I was less picky

It IS a curse. I wish I cared less about these things.

So I've gone through ten ereader apps including Moon+ and... I'm going to try FBReader for awhile. Or maybe Pocketbook.

None have 100% of the features/customization that I love with the Marvin iOS app, but FBReader seems pretty good. PocketBook has nice settings and exports highlights to html(!!!) but I'm currently having an issue there with holding view settings across books (font, background color) and sometimes the background won't change at all from white, even to one of the app's preset options. After these, I'd still go with Moon+.

I did begin an actual chart (bc I'm ridiculous) but it turned into a lot of 'No'/'Poor' entries.

Highlights from my search:
-FBReader and Pocketbook were the best for minding CSS; smooth page turning, forward/backward within same touch-space
-Pocketbooks got a BIG win for exporting highlights to html; highlighting/notes themselves were also smoother.
-Pocketbook and Aldiko do quick corner bookmarking (I didn't expect that to be exceptional).

-Mantano Free has basically no options, so I imagine Premium must be much better.
-EbookDroid was an interesting option that, to be polite, did not meet my needs.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Give Bluefire Reader a try. It's based on RMDSK (ADE) and it does respect your CSS just like ADE does.

I checked out Bluefire but I...couldn't import my books? I kept tapping 'Import' and it brought me back to my (empty) bookshelf. So, it may be very good, but I didn't get to test it.

Originally Posted by jackie_w

If you can be more specific about what's important to you I'll be happy to pontificate further (provided they're features I care about at all, that is).

You asked for it. I bolded the things that Moon+ was not doing, but my perfect ereader would: auto-import from a watched folder; have corner bookmarking (seriously, so few apps did this); export highlights to an html file; respect CSS unless set to be overridden/have good formatting options; allow tap/flick in same place to move forward/backward. Those seem....pretty possible to me. You find some but not all of these in the apps I checked today.

If I really could pick anything, I would also like these things (because they exist in Marvin and it was glorious): two-finger controls (up/down warmth settings; left/right fling to next bookmark/end of chapter); anti-bump guard (that is, not being so sensitive to the slightest edge bump and move a million pages (MOON+ READER).

And that's what I did this evening.

[barryem]

When you get used to a particular software interface, be it an ereader or anything else, everything else seems inferior. Sometimes the solution isn't finding just the perfect program but just getting used to change. A lot of that is just letting the small stuff stay small.

I switched from IOS to Android early on and I liked it better right away but I still had my Ipod Touch and after a few months of Android every time I went back to the Ipod I found it irritating. I never found it irritating before I started using Android. The problem wasn't IOS, it was my new habits.

Barry

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by lazorbeam

You asked for it. I bolded the things that Moon+ was not doing, but my perfect ereader would: auto-import from a watched folder; have corner bookmarking (seriously, so few apps did this); export highlights to an html file; respect CSS unless set to be overridden/have good formatting options; allow tap/flick in same place to move forward/backward. Those seem....pretty possible to me. You find some but not all of these in the apps I checked today.

Well it just goes to show everyone's different. I don't think I'm going to be any help on most of your must-haves.

I never highlight or annotate and have little to no use for bookmarks so haven't put much effort into comparing those features. However, all the reading apps I have allow bookmarking via one or two taps. If only one tap in top right corner is acceptable then Pocketbook, Moon+, UBReader, Mantano work for me.

I care a lot about internal CSS being honoured so find Mantano, Pocketbook excellent and UBReader, Gitden not too bad. But the latter two don't really have as much configuration as I'd like. I could also live with FBReader if I had to. For CSS I find Moon+ too frustrating for words unless Preview mode is used. However, Preview mode's forced page-scrolling rather than page-turning and no TTS, means I rarely use Moon+ except when having discussions like this one. I wish I liked it more because its developers seem to be very proactive.

In general I can't say I've had much trouble paging back/fwd with either tap or swipe in the apps I've used so I'm not sure I've understood your problem.

Re: line-breaks <br/>, I don't think they're considered well-formed HTML unless they're enclosed within a block tag, e.g. <p>, <div>. Maybe that's why you're having trouble???

[Barty]

Unfortunately if you care about respecting the formatting, moon+ is terrible. Fbreader is better but a still breaks down in places.

The RMSDK based readers are better but then turns to be thin on features and customizing.

There's nothing on android as good as Marvin

[lazorbeam]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Well it just goes to show everyone's different. I don't think I'm going to be any help on most of your must-haves.

I haven't heard of UBReader or Gitden - perhaps I shall check if my FBReader/Pocketbook trial doesn't work out. I hope whatever glitch I'm having with PB stops because I like it well otherwise.

I'm using these on a Kindle Fire (which is much wider than a phone) so maybe that's why I'm having the back/fwd issue? I find, if I'm tapping forward with my right thumb, I can't physically reach far enough to the left to slide back - you have to start way over to the left.

The book that started this whole thread did have <p> and <div> tags and showed up just fine in every other app outside Moon+ so...just their quirk I suppose. I'm not an expert on HTML though. Thanks for supporting me in this endeavor, btw!

Originally Posted by Barty

There's nothing on android as good as Marvin

I have been learning this to my eternal dismay! It seems like no one knows what Marvin is either, so I'm glad there's another fan. If I'm being fair, I've noticed a few glitches with it lately and I'm concerned that they're not working regularly on it with Gerty out (which is NOT an ereader replacement!).

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I care a lot about internal CSS being honoured so find Mantano, Pocketbook excellent and UBReader, Gitden not too bad. But the latter two don't really have as much configuration as I'd like.

Thank you very much. I care about CSS being honoured too, so Mantano was my way to go. I like, however, number of pages by chapter and by book, and I couldn't find it in Mantano (only pages by book and going to index to see the page number of the following chapter). Gitden, however, shows me page by book and, with a touch, page by chapter.

Yes, it doesn't have a lot of configuration but, as I don't usually care a lot about it, it's fine for me.

[jackie_w]

Glad to help ... even if it was accidental