iPad Bookmaster - ePub and PDF reader for iOS

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by iLurker

Just a quick/early review to anyone who may be on the fence about purchasing Bookmaster. After purchasing Bookmaster SE today and playing around with the settings, here are my thoughts:
...

Thank you very much for your compliment!

Everyone in our team is excited to see your information-rich and constructive feedback documenting your BookMaster app discovery process and initial usage experience.

Looking forward to hearing from you again, as the app will keep on improving.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

...
I'm looking forward to the iPhone version of BookMaster and hoping that when setting up one device (iPad) as a server that all the information about the library will be transferred to the second device (iPhone). Things such as reading position, font and layout settings, any meta changes and, perhaps most importantly, Sets details.
...

The Server View, a unique feature of BookMaster SE, works as follows (as of v1.4.1):

Server View is where you make your app act as an OPDS/HTML book server instead of a client

- Serve OPDS-capable apps running on another iOS device or Android device
- Serve HTML clients such as web browsers running on iOS, Android, Mac or Windows
- Support client browsing by sets, tags, title, author, series, date added, date last edited, date last read, format, file size
- Transfer individual book files back to PC via Wi-Fi like a reverse PC Upload

This built-in server behaves kind of like calibre's Content Server (with no third-party plug-in or modification), and standard OPDS servers from Gutenberg, Internet Archive, Feedbooks, etc. Thus, it does not behave exactly the way you expected.

When the iPhone version is finally available on the App Store, we will certainly keep on enhancing both iPhone and iPad versions. Meanwhile, I do hear you, and I take your expectation as the first user suggestion of this kind. Thank you.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

Question: What Calibre columns are used when transferring to BookMaster, and is there a mapping available?

In the context of calibre's (OPDS/HTML) Content Server:

1. Calibre does not have any special support of BookMaster. So whatever configuration you choose in calibre is common to all compatible clients, such as its first intended client Stanza, which pioneered OPDS catalog.
2. Calibre does not (seem to) have any way to let you choose which columns (metadata) to present to its clients.
3. Regardless of what Calibre chooses to present, BookMaster downloads the following kinds of metadata, if available, from any compatible OPDS server, including Calibre's:
   Title, Series, Volume (Series Number), Author, Description, Tags and Cover Image.
   All of the above types of metadata are editable within BookMaster. Open any book's Book Info View and tap Edit to see more details [screenshot]

It would be useful, for example, to set up Sets in Calibre before transferring.

I don't think that's possible, as there is no equivalent "Book Set" concept in Calibre as in BookMaster.

[pugsley]

I switched to Bookmaster earlier this year and find it the best reader I have used so far for iOS (on iPad mini). I have been reading about Marvin 3 and took a look, but will stay with Bookmaster. In my opinion it is cleaner, more elegant, suits my needs well.
One request - the option to turn vocabulary off within a book does not stay off. If I define a word then turn off the vocabulary display, it turns itself back on the next time I define a word. I don't use notes, so not sure if that stays off.
And occasionally when changing brightness with a swipe, a word is selected and requires several taps to clear.
Neither of these are major - I will continue to use the app. Just thought I would ask...
Thanks.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by pugsley

I switched to Bookmaster earlier this year and find it the best reader I have used so far for iOS (on iPad mini). I have been reading about Marvin 3 and took a look, but will stay with Bookmaster. In my opinion it is cleaner, more elegant, suits my needs well.

One request - the option to turn vocabulary off within a book does not stay off. If I define a word then turn off the vocabulary display, it turns itself back on the next time I define a word. I don't use notes, so not sure if that stays off.

The relevant switch is called "Display Vocabulary", which controls the "display" of vocab highlighting, but not the auto-vocab-collection implied by using Define. After the final (not beta) iPhone version is released (soon), we'll add a new switch for this auto-vocab-collection, as you have requested. The switch "Display Notes" works similarly for notes, but there is no such auto-notes-collection issue.

And occasionally when changing brightness with a swipe, a word is selected and requires several taps to clear.
Neither of these are major - I will continue to use the app. Just thought I would ask...
Thanks.

Vertical swipe (for brightness control) and long press (for selecting words) are two distinct gestures recognized by iOS system software, but not specific to the app. So it's worthwhile to practice those gestures in general. In the case of BookMaster, since you can do the vertical swipe pretty much anywhere on the screen (except on the menu and buttons) as long as the swipe is vertical enough, why not swipe on the left or right page margin? Then, even if you rest your finger on the screen for too long, it won't trigger a word selection, as there is no word on the margin in the first place. Let me know if this tip works for you.

Thanks for asking. As there are so many possible ways to improve a product, once the basic functionality is there, it really helps to know what our users truly need.

[pugsley]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

The relevant switch is called "Display Vocabulary", which controls the "display" of vocab highlighting, but not the auto-vocab-collection implied by using Define. After the final (not beta) iPhone version is released (soon), we'll add a new switch for this auto-vocab-collection, as you have requested.

Excellent.

Vertical swipe (for brightness control) and long press (for selecting words) are two distinct gestures recognized by iOS system software, but not specific to the app. So it's worthwhile to practice those gestures in general. In the case of BookMaster, since you can do the vertical swipe pretty much anywhere on the screen (except on the menu and buttons) as long as the swipe is vertical enough, why not swipe on the left or right page margin? Then, even if you rest your finger on the screen for too long, it won't trigger a word selection, as there is no word on the margin in the first place. Let me know if this tip works for you.

Did not know you could swipe for brightness in the margins - thought it was center only. This works great. Thanks again.

[lbrockmueller]

I also am a big fan of BookMaster. Marvin 3 has some amazing customization and library management abilities, but I like the simplicity and elegance of BookMaster. Oh, to have such extraordinary choices now! I particularly like the ability of using Publisher Style in BookMaster with some user customization options, such as background and text colors. The one major feature I'm missing is the option for the time (clock) to display in the header while reading.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by lbrockmueller

I also am a big fan of BookMaster... I like the simplicity and elegance of BookMaster. Oh, to have such extraordinary choices now! I particularly like the ability of using Publisher Style in BookMaster with some user customization options, such as background and text colors.

Thank you for your compliment!

This is way we describe BookMaster on our webpage:
BookMaster is a beautiful, sophisticated, feature-rich and well-integrated ebook reader app for iPad that will pleasantly change the way you read, learn and organize.

As for EPUB reading, text and background color customization is relatively easy and common these days, but the ability to turn practically ANY (beautiful) image into a usable (beautiful) background image for comfortable reading is not. For users who have a high aesthetic requirement, BookMaster gives her an easy-to-use tool for such unusual level of customization.

One of the biggest advantages of EPUB is that its core representation is based on the powerful and sophisticated open standard HTML and CSS (of webpages), rather than some weaker or proprietary standard. Some of the earlier EPUB books, like those converted from Project Gutenberg's TXT ebooks, did not really take full advantage of the layout expressiveness of EPUB. Thus, earlier generations of reader apps do not pay much attention to faithfully rendering according to Publisher's Default. In our test suite, we have a lot of beautifully designed ebooks by well-known publishers. For these books, you really want to preserve their publisher's default and modify only one or a few parameters, rather than turning off their publisher's default and let some reader app to re-do layout from scratch.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Maplepop Edition) (AAIW), bundled with BookMaster, is just one such example intended to illustrate the importance of the ability of do user-override of layout parameters on top of Publisher's Default. It's interesting to use this ebook as a very useful test case to evaluate the sophistication of the EPUB layout engine under the hood. You may export the book to another app on the same device via "Send to...". Attached is a screenshot of a page of Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper of AAIW, taken with Calibre's e-book viewer. It does render faithfully. So does BookMaster (of course!) But some other reader apps that are discussed a lot recently on mobilread.com do not pass this test.

In general, BookMaster prefers to deliver sophisticated features without a plethora of options. It just works!

The one major feature I'm missing is the option for the time (clock) to display in the header while reading.

This request and other similar requests that will affect the header and footer design will be addressed after the iPhone version is released (really soon).

[svenlind]

I know you are busy developing an iPhone version.

But I would like to know if there are any plans for the possibility of making custom commands as discussed in #59 ?

That would make Bookmaster the very best epub reader, it already has the very best rendering of text and a beautiful and convenient user interface.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by svenlind

I know you are busy developing an iPhone version.

But I would like to know if there are any plans for the possibility of making custom commands as discussed in #59 ?

That would make Bookmaster the very best epub reader, it already has the very best rendering of text and a beautiful and convenient user interface.

Thank you for your compliment.

I'm happy to pre-announce that the next iPad version and the new iPhone version will support Translate as well as Define (using iOS built-in dictionaries) as context menu items (i.e. what you can do after a string is selected).

After that, we are playing with the idea to let users define 'Define', including your suggestion in post #59.

[sbaylor]

The iPhone version was finally available on the App Store yesterday, along with the updated iPad version. The version numbers are all 1.5.

Starting with v1.5, BookMaster has been renamed as MapleRead.

With the change of the app family name and the additional support of iPhone, I have started a new MapleRead thread to address further questions related to v1.5 and later.

[DaleDe]

There is a wiki page for this product. I renamed it to MapleRead.

Dale

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

There is a wiki page for this product. I renamed it to MapleRead.

Dale

Great. But the content is a bit out-dated with respect to v1.5. For example, it does not mention CX -- for iPhone.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by cedhax

Great. But the content is a bit out-dated with respect to v1.5. For example, it does not mention CX -- for iPhone.

Please fix it. Anyone can edit the wiki pages.

Dale

[adrian1944]

Headers and Footers

I am trying to find a way to edit the information given in the header and footer of the reading screen. The Book name and percentage read at the top and the chapter name, total pages and number of pages read at the bottom.
I feel sure I am missing some way to select what is actually shown or not have some of the information, gaining extra reading lines.
Alternatively I am looking for some way to change the level (dim) these information items.
I feel sure these options are here somewhere but I would like help in finding them.