Cool Reader on Android

[Jabby]

Just installed cr3.1.0-3 and think Buggins has jumped the shark. The new UI leaves a lot to be desired. I don't think there is any need for a bunch of icon buttons that can't be deciphered and are to small to tap. The current menu Ui is one of Cool Readers strongest points.

Regards - John

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by Jabby

Just installed cr3.1.0-3 and think Buggins has jumped the shark. The new UI leaves a lot to be desired. I don't think there is any need for a bunch of icon buttons that can't be deciphered and are to small to tap. The current menu Ui is one of Cool Readers strongest points.

Regards - John

Well he has just started working on it. Its mostly for ICS and newer devices as they dont have physical buttons. I just disabled the toolbar as I prefer to get as much text on a page as possible.

[Rand Brittain]

I just wish that a new UI could be allowed to wait until CoolReader actually renders EPUBs properly. There are still major bugs that prevent me from seriously considering it as my primary ebook software.

[Cayo]

The current version of Cool Reader has a bug regarding file directories.

I will go to a specific folder and choose an eBook to load. But once the phone reboots, if I load up Cool Reader and hit the Back button to choose another book - it no longer returns me to the originating folder. Instead, it goes to the Recent folder, which is NOT what it should be doing.

This makes Cool Reader very unpleasant to work with.

[zafaran]

I discovered CoolReader on Google Play to put on my new Samsung Galaxy SII running Android 2.6.x, and liked it so much that 3 days ago (7 August 2012) I went searching for an apk that I could side-load onto my Kindle Fire since Google adamantly refuses to recognize that the Fire is an Android device. Even with a lot of digging, the closest I can guess-timate for Android version on the Fire is something like 3.x--maybe--I could be wildly wrong on that point since the information was really cryptic in the sysinfo. I used the Maxthon Browser to directly download the apk from SourceForge into the Fire, installed it, and had a clean install with no issues.

So far CoolReader is behaving quite nicely, and not being nearly as twitchy as the built-in Kindle reader app when I'm trying to read .mobi formatted files--and I am aware CR's converting it out of .mobi into .fb2(?) format for internal use. That's not an issue considering I'm still reading .mobi formatted files on my Blackberry Torch 9810 with BB OS7 with the old, old, old MobiPocket Reader for Blackberry that hasn't had an update since before Amazon bought MobiPocket. It has no *clue* about multi-tasking, but it still reads the books very, very well.

Actual useability is one issue in my search for an alternate reader for the Fire. The other issue is/was the fact that I've been creating .mobi formatted books for almost 15 years and I've got about 4,000 of them in my current Calibre library, and I tend to keep a subset of about 1,500 of them on any of my devices at any given time. Even working for the last year with updating metadata in the older books when I have a chance and generating an .epub as an intermediate step to a new .mobi formatted file with the updated metadata still leaves a *lot* of books that are still .mobi only. The using .epub as an intermediate step is so I can use Sigil to tweak books originally generated with the really old MobiCreator Personal version from about 13 years ago since I don't like some of the formatting artifacts it left in the files. And .epub's been recommended by several experienced ebook designers as format of choice for making the original ebooks and/or conversions and then converting to other formats of various types that aren't as capable of as complex formatting as the .epub format is.

So far, CoolReader's handled anything I've thrown at it including an externally mounted 32 gig microSD card on the Galaxy with no problems, so bountiful thanks to the designer.

Pat in North Carolina

[citac]

I'm curious to see where the UI redesign is going. The covers frequently go missing, and it's not possible to enter settings unless I have a book open. It also crashes a lot more. I realize this is still a work in progress, and I hope to see a more stable version soon, since this is the best app for html and txt files that I've found.

[Buggins]

Originally Posted by citac

I'm curious to see where the UI redesign is going. The covers frequently go missing, and it's not possible to enter settings unless I have a book open. It also crashes a lot more. I realize this is still a work in progress, and I hope to see a more stable version soon, since this is the best app for html and txt files that I've found.

Yes, work is in progress.
Current version is 3.1.0-12
It will not go to Market until most of issues fixed.

Main reason for big redesign - necessity to support Android 3+ (including full screen and dimmed keys). Legacy menu is not available in this case - should be reimplemented.
BTW, for popup menu, I'm going to add labels to buttons and make it multiline.

[Dopedangel]

As long as you are reading this I would like to highlight 3 bugs

1. The naming of Author in the below should show up as Adrian Tchaikovsky but it shows up as Tchaikovsky Adrian

<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Tchaikovsky, Adrian">Adrian Tchaikovsky</dc:creator>

2. In the latest beta versions of coolreader the ability to ask it to scan a directory is missing

3. The cover page never shows up full screen like it does with other epub readers.

[citac]

Originally Posted by Buggins

Yes, work is in progress.
Current version is 3.1.0-12
It will not go to Market until most of issues fixed.

Main reason for big redesign - necessity to support Android 3+ (including full screen and dimmed keys). Legacy menu is not available in this case - should be reimplemented.
BTW, for popup menu, I'm going to add labels to buttons and make it multiline.

I'm confident that the end result will be very good, since you've often incorporated comments from users to new versions. Are you planning to include some sort of library management system, or will you keep it folder based? Either is fine with me, as long as it keeps on working so well with html and txt files. I haven't been able to find another multiformat reader that handles these to my satisfaction.

ETA OK, just installed the latest version, and I must say I do like where this is going. The icons are now much clearer and better, and the covers (well, thumbnails of the files - I call them covers for convenience sake) are back. I like the night theme, and the text in the html I tried seems... crisper? Most of my epubs don't have covers in the true sense of the word, so I can't comment on that. Don't have the time to test it ay more, but will in the next few days.

[Buggins]

Originally Posted by citac

I'm confident that the end result will be very good, since you've often incorporated comments from users to new versions. Are you planning to include some sort of library management system, or will you keep it folder based? Either is fine with me, as long as it keeps on working so well with html and txt files. I haven't been able to find another multiformat reader that handles these to my satisfaction.

There IS a Library feature in CoolReader.
For each book, there is a record in books database, with bok title, author, series name & number, reading state, rating, etc...
To navigate library, from Root View, use Search, Books By Authors, Books By Series, Books By Titles.

For epubs, fb2, and some other formats (mobi?) Cool Reader imports book metadata into library automatically (on first open of book, or entering directory with book, or Scan Directory action executed).

For books which don't have internal metadata (like plain text or html), long tap on book - Book info edit dialog will be opened. Enter title, author(s), etc.

[Jabby]

Seven or eight months ago you were talking about mirroring the left and right margins in two page mode. Are you going to do it? Any time soon?

I still can't go to % if I use a decimal point "." - I don't know if this because I should use a comma "," - which the ten key pad that pops up doesn't have.

Regards - John

[ncguy68]

Cool Reader and Jelly Bean:

My Asus TF300T was recently updated to Jelly Bean....now when I try to scroll through books in a directory it keeps going back to the top of the list when my finger is removed from the screen. Is this a known issue?

[citac]

Originally Posted by Buggins

There IS a Library feature in CoolReader.
For each book, there is a record in books database, with bok title, author, series name & number, reading state, rating, etc...
To navigate library, from Root View, use Search, Books By Authors, Books By Series, Books By Titles.

For epubs, fb2, and some other formats (mobi?) Cool Reader imports book metadata into library automatically (on first open of book, or entering directory with book, or Scan Directory action executed).

For books which don't have internal metadata (like plain text or html), long tap on book - Book info edit dialog will be opened. Enter title, author(s), etc.

I cannot believe I totally missed that. Admittedly, up to recently I didn't have much interest in the library function of any reader, and just wanted to read my files, but I will spend some more time getting to know those features. Thank you for clarifying that for me!

[ectoplasm]

Originally Posted by Buggins

Yes, work is in progress.
Current version is 3.1.0-12
It will not go to Market until most of issues fixed.

Main reason for big redesign - necessity to support Android 3+ (including full screen and dimmed keys). Legacy menu is not available in this case - should be reimplemented.
BTW, for popup menu, I'm going to add labels to buttons and make it multiline.

I really appreciate the full screen toggle and dimmed keys in Android 4. It took me a little time to figure out how to bring up the options menu with a open book, but once I figured that out, I'm glad to have the new version.

[Piper_]

Originally Posted by ectoplasm

I really appreciate the full screen toggle and dimmed keys in Android 4. It took me a little time to figure out how to bring up the options menu with a open book, but once I figured that out, I'm glad to have the new version.

+1! The dimmed keys were my#1 wish.
I love CR. so excited to see the new version coming along.

In case it's of any help, Buggins, here are the notes I've taken while testing the latest (aug 23rd) beta version.

Using Samsung Galaxy tab 2 7", ICS 4.0.4 stock.

- After changing options, must close book, close CoolReader, then reopen. or they don't take effect

- Crashes upon screen rotation

- If I am reading a book and leave it open in the background as I work in another app, I can't go back to the book - it won't display, and sometimes force-closes, until I delete the cache files.

- Profiles are such a great feature, but creating /defining one is unclear or unpredictable, as is Toggle Styles.

- Scan directory doesn't see book I deleted from the recent books list.

- Georgette Heyer's "Infamous Army" shows html and Chinese characters (displays everything correctly in fbreader.)

- Upon installing the new version, I was unable to access the menu and options until I deleted my .ini file, because i didn't assign a tap-zone for them in my previous install.

- If I turn on TTS in landscape 2 column mode,, when i turn tts off, the columns are chopped off. (Same behavior was in the official version.)

Unclear how to remove opds catalogs from home page.

Wish-list:
Option to hide books marked as finished
Option to show books by tags

Hope these are a little help to you. Thanks for all your great work.