Alternative Book Readers for the Rooted Nook Color

Originally Posted by SCION

I installed and uninstalled it a couple of times because it required much tweaking and doesn't have a visual appeal on its home screen. I was also expecting something like the stock reader or Aldiko in terms of settings. One day I decided to install it again and make the effort to go through the various options and appreciate the flexibility instead of complaining.

SCION:

I also installed and uninstalled - my epubs all had underlines on every line. If you painstakingly set the options, do you think it's as good/better than either Aldiko or the BN Reader? Neither of the latter two has detailed formatting options that I need.

[SCION]

For those who decide to try Moon+...

Under "Visual Options" if you're going to use "Page Flip Animation" make sure you choose "Real Page 2". The default option is "Real Page Turning Effect". This option causes problems when you want to select text (highlight, note, dictionary) that's not in the center of the screen.

Also, to access the dictionary feature you need to install ColorDict dictionaries. They are free. I installed four - English Wordnet, CMU American English Spelling, English Irregular Forms, and English Thesaurus. This was another reason why I uninstalled the app before. Didn't understand the installation of the required dictionaries.

Edit: You can also save your customized settings as a theme. This is great for playing around with options. Once you get something the way you like, save it. It comes with various themes already, so you may want to name your themes "My Daytime Theme" or "My Nighttime Theme" so as not to get confused with the app's themes.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by emt

SCION:

I also installed and uninstalled - my epubs all had underlines on every line. If you painstakingly set the options, do you think it's as good/better than either Aldiko or the BN Reader? Neither of the latter two has detailed formatting options that I need.

That's very strange. Were they underlines or hyperlinks? Where did the epubs come from? Are they epubs from bookstores and you removed the DRM or did you convert them from another format, or are they free epubs?

What are the formatting options that you want?

[SCION]

@penworth: Sorry this thread got off track. I know you are looking for apps that read epubs and PDFs.

[The Joker]

I've been going with aldiko the past 2 nights......I like the night screen better than the stock one......and the landscape option works well for me......

I suppose I might try moon+ at some point.......but since I don't have much of a library at this point, besides library rentals.......I'm OK with aldiko for now....

[mxrodriguez]

sorry to thread hijack.. but Im trying out moon+ reader and Im having one problem.
I cant seem to get images to load in my epub book. Is there a setting I need to turn on? The same epub shows the illustrations and charts in the text when reading with Aldiko.. but it doesnt seem to show them in moon+. Anyone have any ideas?

[PegS]

One of the reasons I installed Moon+ last time was because it rendered all the text of ePub of mine (a non-DRMed one, but one I did that Calibre ePub to ePub conversion with in order to have the cover show up on the Nook stock reader) into Wingdings. I wonder if it would have worked fine with the original ePub?

[SCION]

Originally Posted by jlmwrite

...
The other issue I experienced with Aldiko -- and something that I hadn't seen anyone else post -- was the intermittent page turn delay every few pages on ordinary sized books.
...

I noticed this as well. It's a 2.0 release, will probably be corrected in an update.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by mxrodriguez

sorry to thread hijack.. but Im trying out moon+ reader and Im having one problem.
I cant seem to get images to load in my epub book. Is there a setting I need to turn on? The same epub shows the illustrations and charts in the text when reading with Aldiko.. but it doesnt seem to show them in moon+. Anyone have any ideas?

I haven't encountered this issue yet. I downloaded a sample Kindle book to see if images would display in the Kindle app. They did. I then purchased the book (figuring I could use the Kindle app if it doesn't convert properly). I imported it into calibre and removed the DRM. Then I converted it to epub. Moon+ recognizes the images and tables.

[jlmwrite]

Originally Posted by SCION

I noticed this as well. It's a 2.0 release, will probably be corrected in an update.

Thanks for the confirmation. I will revisit Alkido after another update. The stock reader is amazingly fast at page turns, so I'm gonna stick with it for now...

[noaxis2]

Originally Posted by SCION

I would have stuck with the stock reader if it supported tags. I had no choice but to move on. Each person has preferences ranked in order of importance. Tags is at the top of my list. If there's an update that brings tags on board, that would be fabulous!

I'm using Moon+ now as my go to reader app for several reasons. Highlights, notes, bookmarks (all can be exported), social sharing in books (not just B&N purchased ones), varied backgrounds with texture, physical book page turn animation (varied speeds), able to import your own fonts, able to make text bold/darker, choice of smart paragraphs, remove line spaces, or paragraph indentation.

Moon+ is my first choice, Aldiko is second.

How in the blazing bells do you find the options and preferences???

[SCION]

Originally Posted by noaxis2

How in the blazing bells do you find the options and preferences???

I know, it's not intuitive at all. You must be in a book to access the settings. In a book, tap the screen in the middle and the menu at the bottom will appear. You can also use Button Savior or SoftKeys to access the menu. The first thing you want to do is uncheck Full Screen mode. If you don't, you'll find that the black screen at the bottom (time, battery, etc) covers the app menu sometimes.

[Rayven01]

I am on the Moon+ reader bandwagon as well. It's quirky and frankly a bit buggy, but the depth of options is unmatched and once you fiddle with it to your liking it works better than any other reader I've found.

Originally Posted by SCION

I know, it's not intuitive at all. You must be in a book to access the settings. In a book, tap the screen in the middle and the menu at the bottom will appear.

Note that sometimes in full screen mode this menu will not appear, giving you no access to the settings. Well, to be precise it does appear, it just appears behind the notification bar at the bottom so it's inaccessible.

To fix this long enough to turn off full screen mode tap the middle while in a book to bring up the navigation bar at the top, then tap the button in the upper left with the name of the book. This will take you back to the shelf view. If you fat-finger the button the page will turn backward.. just keep trying (happens to me a lot!). Tap on the icon for one of your books and it will load. At this point tapping the middle will bring up the bottom menu correctly and you can tap the last icon to access the settings. Full screen mode is under 'Miscellaneous'.

The pro (paid) version of this reader also includes text-to-speech. It requires you to install the "TTS Service Extended" app (free) from the market, but once you do that it will read books aloud with the android text-to-speech engine. It's admittedly robotic but it's good enough that I have been able to enjoy a few extra chapters of a fiction novel fine while driving to and from work.

[SCION]

Thanks for sharing Rayven!

[volwrath]

One feature I like in aldiko is the ability to swipe your finger on the left hand side of the screen up or down in a book to adjust the brightness. That is SOO convenient. Still checking out Moon+