Moon+ reader pro idiot guide please

[Faterson]

Right, I e-mailed a bug-report to the Moon+ developer with a handful of screenshots to illustrate the issue.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Faterson

To me, it would be. You seem to have only about 6-7 words per typical line of text, whereas I have around 9-10 of them (2013 Nexus 7). That indicates either that your screen is smaller than usual on tablets, or that your font is larger than usual on tablets. And that's OK, but you then need to accept some of the consequences this brings in the display of e-books.

I heard a recommendation that for text to be nicely readable, lines of text should contain approximately 60 characters -- not more, and not much less. I think my preferred themes in Moon+ Pro contain between 40-50 characters per line of text, so I'm pretty close to that recommended ideal. In your screenshots, you have -- a rough guess -- only about 30 characters or so per line of text, which again indicates a rather non-standard setup for a tablet screen. (One would be more likely to expect to see such short lines of text on a small mobile-phone screen.)

I have a Nexus 7 too. You should see how few words per line on my phone! I used to prefer full justify for my books but with a font size small enough that it was formatted ok it was just too small to read. My vision would be double after reading from the strain. So I did have to get used to the left justify, but it's better than double vision.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Solid Color Background Textures.

Just a technical note, Blossom: those are not textures. Textures are the opposite of solid-colour backgrounds. Textures means: not the same colour throughout the background; there's got to be some variation built in. I find that essential for comfortable reading of e-books. For example, most of my night-themes are predominantly black, but with blotches of red thrown in to introduce some variation to the monotony of a solid-colour background.

In contrast, the link you posted only shows solid-colour backgrounds -- zero textures. I despise all solid-colour backgrounds, and couldn't/wouldn't read e-books with them, unless forced to. (Another reason why I consider Kindle and iBooks unusable e-reader software for me.)

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Just a technical note, Blossom: those are not textures. Textures are the opposite of solid-colour backgrounds. Textures means: not the same colour throughout the background; there's got to be some variation built in. I find that essential for comfortable reading of e-books. For example, most of my night-themes are predominantly black, but with blotches of red thrown in to introduce some variation to the monotony of a solid-colour background.

In contrast, the link you posted only shows solid-colour backgrounds -- zero textures. I despise all solid-colour backgrounds, and couldn't/wouldn't read e-books with them, unless forced to. (Another reason why I consider Kindle and iBooks unusable e-reader software for me.)

I know that but there are textures in way they are image files. We call them solid or plain textures in the graphic design business.

Anyways there are many here who may find this useful when trying to find a comfortable reading background in a hurry as using RGB value you can look it up as well but this is like you can bookmark your favorite background color without making a full theme for it. They are pretty nifty to use as you can use the alpha slider to changed to the shade to get it just right. Most people read on solid colors so this can help those who might have problems figuring out how to get the right color for them. Great if you are off line and away from a Computer and can't look up the RGB value or you just want to bookmark a background color to read on instead.

[Faterson]

That's some lightning-fast bug-fixing by Shawny of the Moon+ Reader... The bug first reported by Purple Lady, with first letters of hyperlinks cut off when the first-line indent is set to "1", is already fixed in the most recent Moon+ Reader Beta version!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Faterson

In another book I've just checked now, I can see the same issue as Purple Lady in her ToC (see the second screenshot below, which shows my day mode). That's a Project Gutenberg free EPUB, so it's likely badly formatted.

No it is not likely badly formatted. Instead of making assumptions you might want to actually look at the code. I looked at the code for books having issues and they were all using standard inline TOC links.

Originally Posted by Faterson

Nevertheless, this shouldn't be happening even with badly formatted EPUBs, so I'll be sending these screenshots to Shawny of Moon+ Reader so that he can take a look at the bug.

Thanks for forwarding her concern.

Originally Posted by Faterson

You seem to have only about 6-7 words per typical line of text, whereas I have around 9-10 of them (2013 Nexus 7). That indicates either that your screen is smaller than usual on tablets, or that your font is larger than usual on tablets.

The beauty of using a tablet is that you can change the font as you wish. The whole concept of epub is it is a reflowable standard. There is no such thing as "larger than usual on tablets" your font is whatever you set it to.

Originally Posted by Faterson

And that's OK, but you then need to accept some of the consequences this brings in the display of e-books.

What consequences are you referring to? She has no consequences because she chooses to use left justification and thus avoid any large gaps between words.

Originally Posted by Faterson

I heard a recommendation that for text to be nicely readable, lines of text should contain approximately 60 characters -- not more, and not much less.

Isn't it great that we are no longer tied down to paper books. Now we can determine what is best for each of us.

Originally Posted by Faterson

In your screenshots, you have -- a rough guess -- only about 30 characters or so per line of text, which again indicates a rather non-standard setup for a tablet screen.

You seem to be overly concerned with some fictional "standard" or ideal. You must realize that what you refer to as "standard" is different for each person. Your ideal, her ideal and my ideal are all different. Just because she has her tablet set for 30 characters a line does not in any way mean that it is a non-standard setup. My current book on my Nexus 7 is set to about 25 characters per line.

Originally Posted by Faterson

It's nice that Moon+ allows us to experiment freely, as if each of us were a professional typesetter, and allows us to save an unlimited amount of themes, employing various fonts and specific font sizes ideal for this or that particular font.

Yes it is nice. Something you might want to keep in mind.

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

So I did have to get used to the left justify, but it's better than double vision.

I'm with you all of my books are formatted left justified for the same reason. I'm 55 and I prefer not to use reading glasses so I also have my fonts quite large.

Originally Posted by Faterson

That's some lightning-fast bug-fixing by Shawny of the Moon+ Reader... The bug first reported by Purple Lady, with first letters of hyperlinks cut off when the first-line indent is set to "1", is already fixed in the most recent Moon+ Reader Beta version!

That is great to hear. Since all of my books already have paragraph indents the way I like them this was a none issue for me, but if the developer is going to include this great option for folks I'm glad he managed to make it work with typical inline Table of Contents found in many books.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

Instead of making assumptions you might want to

Instead of needlessly posting on an issue that has already been resolved, you might abstain from posting on it.

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

There is no such thing as "larger than usual on tablets"

There definitely is. The majority of users would have more words/characters per line than shown in Purple Lady's screenshots.

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

What consequences are you referring to? She has no consequences because she chooses to use left justification and thus avoid any large gaps between words.

Those are exactly the consequences, as I see them: the extremely ugly left-aligned book text, or perhaps large gaps between words, or perhaps too many hyphenated words. Your mileage may vary: what I consider bad consequences, may be pure ecstasy for you. I don't care!

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

You seem to be overly concerned with some fictional "standard" or ideal.

Nope, that is only in your imagination. I don't give a damn about what anyone prefers -- and I said so repeatedly in foregoing posts. Anyone is free to use any layout he or she wants to use.

[Faterson]

Android 4.4.2 OTA system update is now available (well, at least on my 2013 WiFi Nexus 7, though I had to call it up manually from the Settings app), and it fixes the italics/bold bug in Moon+ Reader Pro.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Android 4.4.2 OTA system update is now available (well, at least on my 2013 WiFi Nexus 7, though I had to call it up manually from the Settings app), and it fixes the italics/bold bug in Moon+ Reader Pro.

Not for me yet. I will keep checking.

[snoozer]

Originally Posted by Blossom

What I do with my fonts is actually edit them to fit perfectly for me. The font in the screenshots are Trebuchet with the weight set at 25/20. I have whole sets of each fonts each at a different weight of 5% up to 40/35. I fine Mantano renders font a bit thicker than they actually are while Moon+ renders them thinner then they actually are. Mantano has a problem with fonts size jumps which is actually worse than Kindle Sizes. So I had to make sets that are scaled down 5% smaller to look normal. I also have some sets enlarge by 10% to fit on eInk or phablets.

One thing about Moon+ is the RGB value you can use to set the color of the solid background but editing it a bit tough as the color wheel is way too small to set anything. so I came across this site and have downloaded many of their greys and cremes to use in Moon+

Solid Color Background Textures.

Thanks for the link to the backgrounds. What is a good size to download to use in Moon reader?

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by snoozer

Thanks for the link to the backgrounds. What is a good size to download to use in Moon reader?

I am using 1024x768 but you could probably get away with the smallest sizes 800x600 seeing they are just plain colors it shouldn't matter.

[Faterson]

My experience, even if it's not a solid-colour background, but a textured one, is that the size of the custom background image doesn't really matter. Moon+ Reader Pro is smart enough to employ the selected image file so that it is nicely and evenly spread out across the screen.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Faterson

My experience, even if it's not a solid-colour background, but a textured one, is that the size of the custom background image doesn't really matter. Moon+ Reader Pro is smart enough to employ the selected image file so that it is nicely and evenly spread out across the screen.

You have to take in account jpeg artifact that will show up if the image is too small. It's not applicable with plain colors but if you use something too small it will look pixelly. I think anything that doesn't need to be tiled around 800x600 or larger should work fine though although I had a few paper textures that I think it tiled and looked odd so I deleted them.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Not for me yet. I will keep checking.

Mine came through last night, and the italics are fixed!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Mine came through last night, and the italics are fixed!

Mine just showed up after I left WiFi on for an hour or two. So that seems to have pushed it out. My Italics and Bold text are fixed too!