Cool Reader on Android

[Gustav Gans]

I use the latest version on a T1, and epubs are not properly formatted. Chapter titles have the same font size as normal text, for example, and there is no space between chapter titles and text, and before paragraphs that switch sceneries there is no gap either. Those are treated as normal paragraphs. Tables show borders when they shouldn't. The normal Sony reader application displays everything perfectly. Even the shipped example books are not properly displayed on the Cool Reader, and might serve as examples that everyone can compare. Is this to be expected at this stage of development, and is it going to be fixed?

[Buggins]

Originally Posted by Gustav Gans

I use the latest version on a T1, and epubs are not properly formatted. Chapter titles have the same font size as normal text, for example, and there is no space between chapter titles and text, and before paragraphs that switch sceneries there is no gap either. Those are treated as normal paragraphs. Tables show borders when they shouldn't. The normal Sony reader application displays everything perfectly. Even the shipped example books are not properly displayed on the Cool Reader, and might serve as examples that everyone can compare. Is this to be expected at this stage of development, and is it going to be fixed?

Normally, CoolReader should use styles specified in EPUB.
Is "Enable document internal styles" checkbox checked in Settings/Tab2?
Could you provide sample file with wrong formatting?

[scdill]

Originally Posted by Roxxas049

So strange I have another android device with a completely different os on it and it does the same thing. Hmmm I would say it's something in my Calibre program except for the fact that Aldiko and Mantano both work fine.

I have Cool Reader (version 3.0.54-3) on my Nook Touch working over wireless with Calibre running on a linux desktop. What I did:

I added to the Nook Touch an Online Catalog (replacing the XXX.XXX.XX.XX with the ip address of the desktop):

http://XXX.XXX.XX.XX:8080/opds

Note: don't use a trailing /

On the linux box, I want the Calibre Content Server available all the time so I added the following service:

/opt/calibre/calibre-server --port 8080

Note: if you do not want to run the content server outside of Calibre, you can run it from within as long as you keep the ports the same.

It appears that Cool Reader makes the initial connection to the linux box using port 8080, but subsequent connections using the default port (80). My workaround for this is to add a port map to the linux box by adding the following line to its /etc/rc.local (must have root privileges to do this):

/sbin/iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth+ -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080

Restarted the linux box fired up the Nook Touch and it worked.

Depending on your OS and your view of security, you might be able to run the Calibre Content Server at port 80 and forget about the remapping by starting the server on port 80 as root or as an Administer.

[Buggins]

Originally Posted by scdill

I have Cool Reader (version 3.0.54-3) on my Nook Touch working over wireless with Calibre running on a linux desktop. What I did:

I added to the Nook Touch an Online Catalog (replacing the XXX.XXX.XX.XX with the ip address of the desktop):

http://XXX.XXX.XX.XX:8080/opds

Note: don't use a trailing /

On the linux box, I want the Calibre Content Server available all the time so I added the following service:

/opt/calibre/calibre-server --port 8080

Note: if you do not want to run the content server outside of Calibre, you can run it from within as long as you keep the ports the same.

It appears that Cool Reader makes the initial connection to the linux box using port 8080, but subsequent connections using the default port (80). My workaround for this is to add a port map to the linux box by adding the following line to its /etc/rc.local (must have root privileges to do this):

/sbin/iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth+ -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080

Restarted the linux box fired up the Nook Touch and it worked.

Depending on your OS and your view of security, you might be able to run the Calibre Content Server at port 80 and forget about the remapping by starting the server on port 80 as root or as an Administer.

Thank you! Very interesting finding!
I'll fix port setting for connections.

[Buggins]

BTW, fresh win32 and MacOSX builds
cr3-qt-win32-3.0.54-27.zip
cr3.0.54-27-macosx-x86-x86_64.dmg

[Roxxas049]

Ok changing calibre's port to 80 allowed me to download books into my tablet using cool reader. I'm sure there are more things in the pipeline so I will hush for now and enjoy it.

[Buggins]

Originally Posted by Roxxas049

Ok changing calibre's port to 80 allowed me to download books into my tablet using cool reader. I'm sure there are more things in the pipeline so I will hush for now and enjoy it.

Should be fixed in new version

[scdill]

Originally Posted by Buggins

Should be fixed in new version

Thanks Buggins. Downloaded version cr3.0.54-33.apk, and it works perfect with Calibre on port 8080. My workaround in message #439 is no longer needed.

[Jabby]

Hi Buggins,

What are the chances of getting a center margin selection for the two page view? Using the left and right margins to set a proper center margin will eat up too much column width on an 8" (4:3) or to have a proper column width will create too wide a margin on a 10.1" (8:5).

Regards- John

[Buggins]

Originally Posted by Jabby

Hi Buggins,

What are the chances of getting a center margin selection for the two page view? Using the left and right margins to set a proper center margin will eat up too much column width on an 8" (4:3) or to have a proper column width will create too wide a margin on a 10.1" (8:5).

Regards- John

I have an idea. What if we mirror left and right margin for two pages mode?
Say, left and right margins will be applied to right page as is, and to left page - swapped. So, "right margin" will mean outer margin for two pages more, and "left margin" - inner margin.
I believe it will resolve your problem.
Should I do so?

[scdill]

Originally Posted by scdill

Thanks Buggins. Downloaded version cr3.0.54-33.apk, and it works perfect with Calibre on port 8080. My workaround in message #439 is no longer needed.

I tried to add or edit an online catalog with cr3.0.54-33.apk and could not. When I long press an existing catalog I get a popup with the title "OPDS Catalog" and the following choices:
Root
Recent books
Online catalogs
Current books

I reverted to cr3.0.54-31.apk and can now add and edit catalogs.

[Jabby]

Originally Posted by Buggins

I have an idea. What if we mirror left and right margin for two pages mode?
Say, left and right margins will be applied to right page as is, and to left page - swapped. So, "right margin" will mean outer margin for two pages more, and "left margin" - inner margin.
I believe it will resolve your problem.
Should I do so?

It sounds like a good plan if I understand you correctly. Is this how it would work?

The page 1 margins would be the reverse of page 2 margins such that if the right margin was set to a value of 2 and the left margin set to a value of 8 the results would be: The outer margins (left margin of page 1 and right margin of page 2) would have a value of 2 each. The center margin (right margin of page 1 and the left margin of page 2) would have a value of 8 each for a total of 16 for the center margin. To keep them straight they could be labeled left/inner margin and right/outer margin

If I have that right, it certainly would solve the problem.

Regards - John

P.S. The count of the margin selection runs 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8. Should that be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8?

[just_me]

Hi,

What about having an option to scan covers for all the books (at least in the current directory, not recursive)? I like seeing the covers in the books list but the only way I found of doing that is to open each book (if there is another way, please let me know).

Thanks.

[Roxxas049]

I was wondering also, when browsing the opds catalog if there is a setting that allows the book covers to be seen? or is that a programming thing?

[CyberCrystal]

First off, thank you so very much for this wonderful reader! My girlfriend and I LOVE the customization of it and surpasses all of the other e-reader applications we have found. We recently purchased a Toshiba Thrive to share between us and it had been working brilliantly until this morning when I updated the device OS to Android 3.2.1.

Now it no longer reads our books from the SD card where we had been storing them. It seems that Google has added official support for SD cards in Android tablets where previously they were hacked in by vendors such as Toshiba. In doing so, it has changed the way the sd cards are mounted in the OS. Previously the internal storage was called "/mnt/storage" and the SD Card was "/mnt/sdcard" now, the internal storage is called "/mnt/sdcard" (because it's an internal sd card) and the external SD Card is "/mnt/sdcard2".

Coolreader only shows what's on the internal memory and won't let us access the external SD Card. Is there any possible way to fix that with a software update? I have tracked down this potentially helpful information that may get you in the right direction.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/18692/android_32_upgrade Under SD Card Support.

Thank you again for such a wonderful program, and for taking such an active participation with your users!

-edit- We're running CoolReader 3.0.54-33 from the Android Market.