[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Who talks about guessing? That kind of auto-switching never works properly, especially not in MS Word.

I'm saying users should be given the option to manually, transparently switch the iOS dictionary language on demand, on-the-fly, whenever they wish. (Look at the Kindle app.)

Manually and transparently are opposites If you are telling: add an option to switch the language aside of changing keyboard, well, another option instead of keyboard. I don't think it's so different (BTW, I explicitly mentioned Work because I know it doesn't work )

Originally Posted by Faterson

PS: I disagree with you that the rigid PDF format is preferable for displaying math formulas. EPUB is a relatively new format so it's not easy to create certain types of books in it as of 2013, but that doesn't mean PDF is a better solution long-term.

Novelty of format is not important for me, usability is. We are talking about today, not the future. And I know some people who use rigid PDF with 6" pages... very, very useful for math... There are a lot of options.

[lucretius]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

How do you expect the system can guess the language? As good as Word? Or OpenOffice, which is not better? Sorry, programming language here, not cristal ball.

Should be possible for eBooks as they can contain a language tag. I assume that's how it works in iBooks. I have a a german book which contains the word "time". The iBooks dictionary finds no definition for that. Searching for "time" in an english book finds the definition (without changing something on the language settings). So the only explanation I have for this behavior is that iBooks is using the language tag which is assigned by Calibre.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by lucretius

Should be possible for eBooks as they can contain a language tag. I assume that's how it works in iBooks. I have a a german book which contains the word "time". The iBooks dictionary finds no definition for that. Searching for "time" in an english book finds the definition (without changing something on the language settings). So the only explanation I have for this behavior is that iBooks is using the language tag which is assigned by Calibre.

That's right, it's the normal way to do it. I was talking about the moment you're writing, not reading, sorry.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

A book full of pictures for math formulas? Sorry, I don't think it's a good option. I've tried it and it's not much better than PDF, for me at least.

That's exactly what PDF is...a book full of pictures...or more accurately a book of pictures.

When done properly, pictures embedded in an ePub are very natural, with the exception that they don't change colors/fonts. Also, ePub does support math. Granted, epub3 makes it easier to display than epub2, but it is still doable.

[eVeNtInE]

Excellent job on the translation addition. Will be using Marvin far more now and can imagine it will be of great help, definitely the best ebook reader on the market now.

[kguil]

lucretius, you are right. The majority of EPUBs specify the language they are in - and Marvin detects it and knows it. The problem is invoking the dictionary in that language.

eVeNtInE, thanks. I'm glad you like it. Remember that the presets in the "custom button" configuration menu are just templates to get you started. I've written a post on how to set up menus for arbitrary languages http://blog.marvinapp.com/post/49619863627

[Nat Sabriel]

What do you think of the removal of iOS dictionary from version 1.5? I think it is not a wise decision since many iPad users don't have Internet access all the time. Removing an offline dictionary is a huge setback.

[Faterson]

Nothing has been removed in version 1.5, least of all the crappy iOS offline dictionary. You might want to at least glance at the last couple of pages of this discussion before posting what isn't true.

[Faterson]

And, there are many off-line 3rd-party iOS dictionary apps, such as Lingvo, which work even without Internet access, and unlike the iOS dictionary, are not crappy. Marvin now supports them all, via the custom buttons, in addition to the traditional "Define" button.

[andy88]

Originally Posted by Faterson

And, there are many off-line 3rd-party iOS dictionary apps, such as Lingvo, which work even without Internet access, and unlike the iOS dictionary, are not crappy. Marvin now supports them all, via the custom buttons, in addition to the traditional "Define" button.

Hi Faterson,

Could you kindly point me, as to how I could integrate 3rd-party iOS dictionary in Marvin ? I am not very pleased with the traditional iOS dictionary that Apple has provided.

Could you also recommend me some 3rd-party iOS dictionaries that you have found to be much better than the traditionally pre-installed iOS dictionary ?

Thanks a lot,
Andy

[Faterson]

Hi Andy,

I've just mentioned the name of that app above, and also several times earlier in this thread.

I recommend the iOS app Lingvo. Its price is symbolic, and it works on both iPad and iPhone. It's from the makers of FineReader, which probably you know is the best currently available OCR software.

Of course, it depends on exactly what languages (and language pairs) you are interested in, but for my (very broad) language interests, Lingvo satisfies most of the dictionary needs I have.

Unlike the crappy internal iOS dictionary, Lingvo gives you the option of both monolingual, and translation dictionaries. And all of them work offline -- no Internet access is necessary. Even better: you can have both dictionaries displayed at the same time. That is, you get an English word explained in English, and then also translated to a language of your choice, right below that.

Many dictionaries inside Lingvo are free-of-charge, while other, more advanced dictionaries from top-of-the-line publishers (like Collins), can be purchased additionally. Those advanced dictionaries tend to be very expensive (meaning up to a couple of dozen dollars), but you get what you pay for: top dictionary quality. None of the iOS dictionary crap where you can't even search within the dictionary, all the hyperlinks between various entries are dead, and you can't define words used in the definitions themselves. None of that crap in Lingvo -- dictionaries in Lingvo work just like they are supposed to work.

So, all you need to do is enable the Lingvo button in Marvin as one of your custom menu buttons, by entering the following as your command text:

abbyy.lingvo://{define}

This line is available as a preset in Marvin, so you don't need to type this manually! Just tap the Lingvo preset in Marvin when setting up your custom menu button, and that's it.

PS: Besides Lingvo, I also enjoy using the Larousse app as my French-to-French dictionary.

[kguil]

Nat Sabriel... The offline dictionary has not been removed. Offline dictionaries have been added. If you go to the home screen, settings (gear icon) and the "More" tab you'll still see "System Dictionary" (the same Apple offline dictionary Marvin always had).

I've written a tutorial how to add custom online dictionaries and an explanation on how the offline dictionary works here: http://blog.marvinapp.com/post/49858195407/

[kguil]

andy88... I've also written a couple of tutorials on the new custom buttons here: http://blog.marvinapp.com/post/49619863627/ and here: http://blog.marvinapp.com/post/49620387125/

They should help you get started.

[Barty]

I just stumbled onto Marvin and holy cow! Where were you when I was doing my book reading on the iPad? (I use an eink reader now)

Kudos to the Marvin team.

My only question for now is, can the top status bar be turned off?

Btw, I am fine with no PDF support. There are so many PDF readers for the iPad already, some of which are excellent. No need to be jack of all trades. Do one thing well.

[kguil]

Hi Barty... thanks. Go to the home screen, settings (the gear icon) and choose "Hide status bar while reading". When you go into a book, tap the middle of a page to turn off all buttons and the status bar.