Why cant Marvin do PDFs?

anonymust · 03-02-2019, 08:32 PM

Why cant Marvin3 on my ipad open PDFs?

I love the app soo much working alongside with Calibre

Valkrider · 03-03-2019, 02:11 AM

It was never designed to. Don't forget that pdf's are really just images where as epub's are proper re-flowable text files.

pwalker8 · 03-03-2019, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valkrider

It was never designed to. Don't forget that pdf's are really just images where as epub's are proper re-flowable text files.

Well, no they are not just images. PDF is a page formatting language. Some people use it to display page images rather than text, but that's not really it's primary use. It is different than epubs, of course, but Books handles both, so it's not irrational to ask the question. The answer is that PDF is a different format, just like mobi and any number of formats. The developer of Marvin focused on epubs.

HarryT · 03-03-2019, 08:21 AM

If you want to view, manage and annotate PDFs on an iPad, get "GoodReader". It is (IMHO) by far and away the best PDF tool around for the iPad.

(And no, PDFs are assuredly not "just images"!)

pwalker8 · 03-03-2019, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you want to view, manage and annotate PDFs on an iPad, get "GoodReader". It is (IMHO) by far and away the best PDF tool around for the iPad.

(And no, PDFs are assuredly not "just images"!)

About 15 years ago, I had to write a program to display Text from PDF's at work. There is actually quite a bit of documentation on reading PDF's.

HarryT · 03-03-2019, 03:11 PM

Since 2008 the PDF file format has been an ISO standard (ISO 32000-1) and hence is fully documented:

https://www.iso.org/standard/51502.html

cedhax · 03-04-2019, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you want to view, manage and annotate PDFs on an iPad, get "GoodReader". It is (IMHO) by far and away the best PDF tool around for the iPad.

(And no, PDFs are assuredly not "just images"!)

If you just want to view, manage and annotate PDFs as well as EPUBs, all in the same app, on any iOS device, then get MapleRead SE. IMHO, it is the best app for this purpose.

HarryT · 03-04-2019, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cedhax

If you just want to view, manage and annotate PDFs as well as EPUBs, all in the same app, on any iOS device, then get MapleRead SE. IMHO, it is the best app for this purpose.

Does it allow you to have multiple PDFs open simultaneously and rapidly flip between them? That's a basic function which is essential when using PDFs for academic research, but which is sadly lacking in many apps. GoodReader does it extremely well - it allows you to rapidly flip between documents (or even different parts of the same document) and to view two documents side by side in portrait mode.

anonymust · 03-20-2019, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you want to view... PDFs on an iPad, get "GoodReader"

Does GoodReader have OPDS syncing features? so I don't have to drag and drop files to my iPad

HarryT · 03-20-2019, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anonymust

Does GoodReader have OPDS syncing features? so I don't have to drag and drop files to my iPad

I don't know, I'm afraid. It supports loading from Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, as well as FTP, WebDAV, and SMB servers.

GoodReader supports the "Open With..." protocol on iPad, so even if it doesn't support OPDS natively, would you not simply be able to browse the OPDS catalogue using a web browser, select the book that you want, and use "Open With" to open it in GoodReader?

cedhax · 04-04-2019, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anonymust

Why cant Marvin3 on my ipad open PDFs?

I love the app soo much working alongside with Calibre

Marvin Classic and Marvin 3 were never designed to work with PDFs in the first place. Supporting PDFs reasonably well simply requires a lot of extra development work relative to what's needed to be done for EPUB. I bet there will never be PDF support in Marvin 3, since I've used both apps and watched its development history over the years.

If you just want to view, manage and annotate PDFs as well as EPUBs, all in the same app, on any iOS device, and work well with Calibre OPDS content server, then get MapleRead SE. IMHO, it is the best app for this purpose. I've used it for years.

HarryT is a big fan of GoodReader. It is a very good app too. I've used it too. But for what you want, it seems to be an overkill in some aspects, and insufficient in other aspects such as Calibre OPDS content server.

skillachie · 07-31-2019, 09:36 PM

Not Marvin but you could take BookFusion for a spin. You will be able to read PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CBZ/CBR and several other formats while your highlights, bookmarks and reading progress will be synced across all devices.

We just released an updated iOS app which has several improvements. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bookfusion/id1141834096

Additionally we also have a nice Calibre plugin to allow you to easily sync your eBooks across all your devices. More at https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre

PS: Founder at BookFusion. Please feel free to PM me with feedback or suggestions.

03-02-2019, 08:32 PM	#1
anonymust Book Reader Posts: 43 Karma: 13674 Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Earth Device: Pocketbook *** (Touch HD 3)	Why cant Marvin do PDFs? Why cant Marvin3 on my ipad open PDFs? I love the app soo much working alongside with Calibre

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03-03-2019, 02:11 AM	#2
Valkrider Addict Posts: 311 Karma: 1250000 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kobo Libra, iPadAir2, PRS600, iPhone 6, iPod, Palm TX	It was never designed to. Don't forget that pdf's are really just images where as epub's are proper re-flowable text files.

03-03-2019, 08:21 AM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	If you want to view, manage and annotate PDFs on an iPad, get "GoodReader". It is (IMHO) by far and away the best PDF tool around for the iPad. (And no, PDFs are assuredly not "just images"!)

03-03-2019, 03:11 PM	#6
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Since 2008 the PDF file format has been an ISO standard (ISO 32000-1) and hence is fully documented: https://www.iso.org/standard/51502.html

07-31-2019, 09:36 PM	#12
skillachie Addict Posts: 322 Karma: 511124 Join Date: Mar 2012 Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10" , Kindle Fire, Pixel 6"	Not Marvin but you could take BookFusion for a spin. You will be able to read PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CBZ/CBR and several other formats while your highlights, bookmarks and reading progress will be synced across all devices. We just released an updated iOS app which has several improvements. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bookfusion/id1141834096 Additionally we also have a nice Calibre plugin to allow you to easily sync your eBooks across all your devices. More at https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre PS: Founder at BookFusion. Please feel free to PM me with feedback or suggestions.