Kobalt: an alternative reader app for Kobo devices

[Lys]

Originally Posted by Lys

Hi! I tried to install the latest beta 7 on my KLC (running 4.4623852 firmware), but Kobalt seems to have not loaded correctly.
I have no option in "More > Settings > Reading settings" menu, and all my files open with Nickel (despite having the option to open them to Kobalt if I long-press on them, but even if I do, they fall-back to Nickel).

I tried to uninstall it and install it again, but no luck. I'm running a bunch of mods (nickelmenu, nickelseries, your other mods, screensaver, nickelhardcover, koreader...) can be there something that is causing a conflict with Kobalt?

Thanks!

I managed to properly install it by removing https://github.com/redphx/nickel-screensaver

I don't know what is causing the conflict between the two mods, but I thought it was worth pointing it out in case anyone else was having the same issue

[fogice]

Originally Posted by Lys

I managed to properly install it by removing https://github.com/redphx/nickel-screensaver

I don't know what is causing the conflict between the two mods, but I thought it was worth pointing it out in case anyone else was having the same issue

Beta 7 added a feature that does the same thing as Nickel Screensaver, so that might be it.

[Dal Bhat]

What does Nickel Screensaver do/look like?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Dal Bhat

What does Nickel Screensaver do/look like?

Makes your screensavers transparent, AFAIK.
https://github.com/redphx/nickel-screensaver

You can have custom screensavers (non-transparent) without any modding. I use manually cropped and edited images for screensavers, for example, because I dislike having the book cover as the screensaver.

[MrSilverstrike]

Originally Posted by Lys

I managed to properly install it by removing https://github.com/redphx/nickel-screensaver

I don't know what is causing the conflict between the two mods, but I thought it was worth pointing it out in case anyone else was having the same issue

I made sure that Kobalt plays nicely with nickel-screensaver, but my agent reported that only the latest version (1.3.1) works well.

With older versions it was able to reproduce this issue. So if you want to keep Nickel Screensaver, just install the latest version and it should work with Kobalt.

[isaacbh]

Just to clarify, I don't have to convert my books to kepub anymore if I read exclusively in Kobalt? Is there any advantage to kepub in Kobalt?

[MrSilverstrike]

Originally Posted by isaacbh

Just to clarify, I don't have to convert my books to kepub anymore if I read exclusively in Kobalt? Is there any advantage to kepub in Kobalt?

There is no real benefit to having kepub files when using Kobalt, but if you plan on potentially reading with the built-in reader, it doesn't hurt either.

[Lys]

Originally Posted by MrSilverstrike

I made sure that Kobalt plays nicely with nickel-screensaver, but my agent reported that only the latest version (1.3.1) works well.

With older versions it was able to reproduce this issue. So if you want to keep Nickel Screensaver, just install the latest version and it should work with Kobalt.

I didn't even realize there was an updated version! I haven't been using Screensaver since quite a while, so I won't re-install it just now, but I'm glad the issue was a no-issue at all


I used Kobalt for my reading yesterday, and it was very nice and easy on the eye!

I really love how stats get stored back to Nickel, too! I was wondering if it's also possible to store back annotations/highlights (if it's not possible, I have to play around and see if and how it would be possible to store them back to calibre)

[MrSilverstrike]

Originally Posted by Lys

I was wondering if it's also possible to store back annotations/highlights (if it's not possible, I have to play around and see if and how it would be possible to store them back to calibre)

It isn't right now but it's something I'll look into in the future. The thing is: my annotations are incompatible (due to offering underline etc.) so I was thinking about offering two choices:

• Option A: annotations that are compatible with Kobo's system
• Option B: Kobalt's unique annotations, which gives you more control + export etc

But I'm not sure this is even possible yet. The difficulty is also that the annotation format needs to be compatible and it may be tricky to get it to work as expected.

The latest beta does offer you the option to export your annotations in a convenient HTML format. It's not ideal for Calibre, but it actually works pretty well, I think.

[fogice]

What does this setting do? I don't understand what a non-linear fragment is.

Hide non-linear fragments
Skip non-linear sections when turning pages. Links, Chapters, and page numbers can still open them

[DNSB]

Marking items as non-linear keeps them from displaying in the normal flow of reading the book. For instance, one book I have has an answer key at the end of each chapter. The answer key files are marked as non-linear in the .opf file so must be explicitly opened as going to the next chapter skips the non-linear file.

Note that non-linear applies to the whole file. You can't mark a chunk of a file as non-linear. And there is no specified order for the files though in most cases, you will see the non-linear file immediately following the referenced file. In the case of footnotes, they will likely be placed in a file after the readable content and marked non-linear so you don't get to read through all the footnotes at the end of the book.

So in the book you might see the following in the file browser:

chapter001.xhtml
answerkey001.xhtml
chapter002.xhtml
answerkey002.xhtml
chapter003.xhtml
answerkey003.xhtml
chapter004.xhtml
answerkey004.xhtml

And if you look in the .opf spine section, the answerkeyxxx.xhtml files would be flagged as say <itemref idref="answerkey001" linear="no"/>

<manifest>
...
<item href="text/answerkey001.xhtml" id="answerkey001" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
...
</manifest>
<spine>
...
<itemref idref="answerkey001" linear="no"/>
...
</spine>

[MrSilverstrike]

I just released beta 8 of Kobalt.

I highly recommend installing this particular one via the website, as that sets up the ignore rules so none of Kobalt's images end up in My Books.

I also made another big announcement...

[Dal Bhat]

Thanks very much for the option to show only the Kobalt splash screen when book is loading. So clean.

Edit: and here's an option you can add to the Hide Features list: Bold Reading. Never going to turn that on.

Anyway, this reader app just gets better and better. Well done!

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by MrSilverstrike

I just released beta 8 of Kobalt.

I highly recommend installing this particular one via the website, as that sets up the ignore rules so none of Kobalt's images end up in My Books.

I also made another big announcement...

I loved my first taste of Kobalt with beta 7, truly a thing of beauty that had me thinking about no longer needing KOReader. So your announcement came as a surprise, while it was even more surprising to see that someone on GitHub responded by basically posting my own reaction 1000% verbatim

Fwiw, I don't mind the reader taking longer to load - having accurate page counts and no pause between chapters feels much nicer to me. Speed isn't my top priority when reading, and I'm not changing the layout often enough to worry about a few seconds whilst a charge is supplied. Hopefully this provides a nice alternative for those who want it, but I hope the whole book rendering remains an option.

[howyoudoin]

Words I add aren't showing up on the my words section on the libra 2