Marvin 3.0.3 is out

[quiris]

The problem: "Changing font size" == "Text shifting"

I noticed another problem that doesn't exist in Kindle app.

1) I am in a middle of the book.
2) The actual page begins for example with text "Lorem ipsum dolor sit met, consectetur adipiscing edit"
3) If I make a font size smaller the text "Lorem ipsum dolor sit met, consectetur adipiscing edit" doesn't stay on the same screen.
4) It shifts to a previous page.

I wish the text "Lorem ipsum dolor sit met, consectetur adipiscing edit" stays at the beginning of current read page. This really user friendly behavior is present on Kindle app.

[kguil]

@quiris I'm looking at the Kindle app right now and it certainly doesn't do that (and I don't see how it ever could given that the text is reflowing).

[quiris]

Strange. For me Kindle works as I described above. On entire font size range. On performed many many tests on different pages Kindle only sometimes shifts text, but only one time - any further decreasing and increasing font sizes doesn't shift text.

I don't know how Amazon Kindle developers did that but it is a wonderful usable feature.

[democrite]

Tested in iBooks and it does fairly well with trying to keep text at around the same place. Wouldn't it be possible to get some scroll position and restore as close as possible?

[Der]

Originally Posted by kguil

@quiris I'm looking at the Kindle app right now and it certainly doesn't do that (and I don't see how it ever could given that the text is reflowing).

Before I change font size in Marvin, I set a bookmark on the current page. Then I change the font size, which takes me to a different page...but I can return to the original page via the bookmark.

Can you implement some sort of "hidden bookmark" into the process of changing the font size, so that once the pitch has been modified, Marvin automatically returns to the page the user was on before the change?

[odamizu]

I wanted to follow-up on the point below as I think it's related to the font-size page-shifting:

Originally Posted by odamizu

... I'm finding that when I switch from Landscape to Portrait or vice versa, the page location shifts dramatically and I totally lose my place. For example, this morning I was at page 222 of 482 (46% overall) in portrait mode, but when flipped to landscape mode, it put me at page 207 of 482 (43% overall).

When I'm on the first page of a new chapter, switching Portrait to Landscape and vice versa works fine. If I change orientation in the first few pages of a chapter, the reading location will be slightly off. The further I am into a chapter, the greater the discrepancy in reading location when switching orientation. If I'm on the last page of a chapter, the discrepancy can be several pages off. This does not happen with Kindle for iOS (or Hyphen, for that matter).

Like Der, I find the only workaround is to set a bookmark before changing orientation, but sometimes orientation flips by accident if I move a certain way, then I can lose my place completely. The workaround for this is to lock orientation while reading, but having to remember to bookmark and lock orientation in order not to lose my place is cumbersome.

Originally Posted by kguil

@odamizu Yes I am. The only way to make brightness work only within an app is to overlay a translucent black layer on top of everything. This means that while the app will *appear* to be dimmer, the device will still be operating at full brightness, hence using up more battery life. There are other colour shifting, and user confusion issues that must be considered.

Thanks for the explanation. Since I usually read with device brightness very low, I think the translucent black layer may actually save battery life in my case. With Marvin, in order to get the brightness I want, I use "extra dimming," which makes it too dim, so then I increase brightness. And then, when I leave Marvin, the whole device is too bright, and I turn it back down. When I go back to Marvin, I turn brightness back up again. If I'm understanding correctly, in this scenario, using Marvin actually hurts battery life.

However, I know many people like the way Marvin handles brightness, and I am NOT asking for this feature to be taken away from them. I was simply wondering if there was a switch to toggle between in-app brightness and system-brightness (Marvin has so many customization options that I haven't figured them all out, so I thought maybe I had missed it).

[upnseams]

This will not work with my Ipad Air 2 no matter what I do. Even the older version will not work. Any suggestions. I am trying to load from Calibre.

[Faterson]

Calibre currently isn't supported by Marvin 3. Just load your books via Dropbox or other cloud storage, until the Calibre plugin is updated for Marvin 3.

[pwalker8]

Actually Calibre is supported very well by Marvin 3. You just can't use the plug in. You have to enable the sharing over the net in Calibre, then use the connect to ODPS selection in Marvin. I used it to download my almost 3000 books into Marvin 3.

[Spfamy1]

Just a quick note...I've just registered here as my old account at github seems to have atrophied and it seems MobileReads is the new "to be" place to discuss all aspects of Marvin 3 outside of Facebook. Correct? If so then I'm glad I'm here because I used to post about all the warts in Marvin Classic there. But I've got a bug report to post on Marvin 3 so I don't want to post it on Facebook...for obvious reasons.

I believe the old percentage of book read issue has migrated to Marvin 3. Yep. You guessed it...the battery drain and heating issue is alive and well in Marvin 3. I was in the parking lot of my local grocery store reading a bit in my car in the shade one day using Marvin 3. I took a quick nap while leaving my iPhone 6s Plus open on my lap with only Marvin 3 running. I awoke to the uncomfortable feeling something was unusually warm on my lap. I was shocked to see it was my iPhone all heated up. When I looked at Marvin 3 running I immediately deduced the percentage issue that was in Marvin Classic could be causing this issue. So I turned off percentage of book read in the General settings and noticed the iPhone started cooling off immediately. So with my first post here comes with a bang...the percentage read indicator caused heating issues in my iPhone running Marvin 3. I have, of course, turned off this feature immediately and will not use this until this gets confirmed and addressed.

[odamizu]

Where is this percentage read setting that I should turn off?

Sorry for my densitude. I looked under General Settings and couldn't find it, but there are so many settings, I could easily have missed it Thanks!

[Spfamy1]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Where is this percentage read setting that I should turn off?

Sorry for my densitude. I looked under General Settings and couldn't find it, but there are so many settings, I could easily have missed it Thanks!

It's under the General setting. That's the overall settings for Marvin 3 and you can find it on the left hand side with the knob colored symbol on the top left. Scroll down to percent indicator and you can turn it off.

[odamizu]

I looked under General Settings and EPUB Book Settings and I don't see anything referring to percentage read. What am I missing?

[Spfamy1]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I looked under General Settings and EPUB Book Settings and I don't see anything referring to percentage read. What am I missing?

My apologies the name of the setting is App badge. That's the one that shows the red marker on the Marvin icon with either percentage of book read etc. If you have it on I suggest you turn it off until this issue can be confirmed and a fix can be issued.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Actually Calibre is supported very well by Marvin 3. You just can't use the plug in.

That's what I meant, and I apologize for being imprecise. What I do, is that my Calibre library is automatically mirrored to the cloud (Google Drive for me), so I can download any Calibre book to Marvin via Google Drive. I just find it inconvenient to have to be running Calibre and Marvin at the same time on 2 computer devices in order to download books, so I prefer the Google Drive option (detour, if you will) instead.

Originally Posted by Spfamy1

Just a quick note...I've just registered here as my old account at github seems to have atrophied and it seems MobileReads is the new "to be" place to discuss all aspects of Marvin 3 outside of Facebook. Correct?

No – at least I really hope that isn't the case. Kris said a couple of weeks ago he would set up a GitHub for Marvin 3, and while I believe we should simply continue with the original GitHub, even a separate Marvin 3 GitHub would be a better solution than no GitHub at all. MobileRead forums are a mess (good for chatting, bad for actual problem solving), and Facebook... well, that's really a tragedy as a discussion venue. For more on reporting bugs, see this thread.

I likewise have a few dozen Marvin 3 issues to report, and I'm simply waiting for the go-ahead signal from Kris, in order to post them to GitHub – old or new, I don't care. I won't be posting them here on MobileRead, because these forums are simply hopeless in terms of (lack of) clarity, and also, you get personally attacked here just because you "dare" to report Marvin bugs or express any amount of dissatisfaction. So, for me, GitHub is really the only (effective) way.

Now, as to the issue you're reporting here, I can't confirm it. I run Marvin 3 on an iPhone and 3 various iPads, I do use the "percentage read" icon badge on all 4 devices, but I have no heating issues. I remember that some folks used to have this issue in Marvin 2, too, but I never experienced it there, either. Maybe I'm just lucky – I don't know.