Experiences with Stanza for Desktop?

Steven Lyle Jordan · 03-07-2009, 09:55 PM

Has anyone tried out Stanza for Desktop from Lexcycle? It is a beta app, but I wanted to evaluate it. It seems to have some display problems with some fonts, across many formats. I also notice it doesn't display italics.

Has anyone else tried this, figured out which formats it displays best, etc? Has anyone tried its export tools?

Leep · 03-08-2009, 10:57 AM

Have used it to convert books to epub for my iTouch but find it pretty bare bones, with no editing capability. It definitely does not look as glitzy on my PC as it does on their website, but does do a lot of formats. It is definitely easy to use.

They are supposed to be coming out with a major update within a couple of months. Maybe this is where the screen shots are coming from. Interestingly, my installed beta version shows an expiry date of March 16th.

I do prefer the mobile version on my iTouch over ereader.

cheers

Steven Lyle Jordan · 03-09-2009, 09:59 AM

I'm hoping that in the future I can use it on my PC to reliably see how my novels will display on an iPhone or iPod Touch. I get the impression that it's not there yet.

GntlmnBndt · 03-09-2009, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I'm hoping that in the future I can use it on my PC to reliably see how my novels will display on an iPhone or iPod Touch. I get the impression that it's not there yet.

Not at all... It gives a very poor impression of how the book will look on the iPhone, or iTouch in my case. I used Book Glutton's ePub converter for a while, and it worked very well (no options, but the defaults happen to match my preferences), but it seems to be down recently. In the interim, I have tried Calibre a few times, but I am still getting the hang of it.

In any case, once you have the book in ePub, you have to open it on the desktop version of Stanza to share it with the handheld version (again, you can use Calibre for this, but I am still getting the hang of that), and I am always surprised at how poor it looks on desktop Stanza. Before I realized what was happening, I converted a few books repeatedly thinking there was something wrong with my source or process. Thankfully, once it is opened on the handheld, text formatting and other useful things are all where they should be.

According to the comments on the Lexcycle forum, they are trying to implement things like italics support on the desktop, but I do not know when that might happen.

I don't know of any good way to preview how a book will look on the handheld without using a handheld. I do know that the free iPhone SDK includes an emulator, but I haven't played with it.

The Bandit

Steven Lyle Jordan · 03-09-2009, 12:46 PM

Thanks for the confirmation. Well, let's keep our fingers crossed that Lexcycle will finish and fix up the desktop app.

Moejoe · 03-10-2009, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Thanks for the confirmation. Well, let's keep our fingers crossed that Lexcycle will finish and fix up the desktop app.

Hey there Steve,

My experience has been that Stanza pretty much mangles the text on the desktop, but it looks alright on the iTouch screen. Download a few of the free epubs from Feedbooks and look at them in Calibre, then in Stanza and you'll see what a mess it seems to make.

fugazied · 03-11-2009, 11:50 PM

I used it briefly, not really impressed. As the other posters mentioned, it's bare bones and the results aren't spectacular.

03-07-2009, 09:55 PM	#1
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Experiences with Stanza for Desktop? Has anyone tried out Stanza for Desktop from Lexcycle? It is a beta app, but I wanted to evaluate it. It seems to have some display problems with some fonts, across many formats. I also notice it doesn't display italics. Has anyone else tried this, figured out which formats it displays best, etc? Has anyone tried its export tools?

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03-08-2009, 10:57 AM	#2
Leep Guru Posts: 739 Karma: 1018859 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Near Seattle Device: kindle1, K3, K3G (thanks MR), iTouch, Kindle Touch	Have used it to convert books to epub for my iTouch but find it pretty bare bones, with no editing capability. It definitely does not look as glitzy on my PC as it does on their website, but does do a lot of formats. It is definitely easy to use. They are supposed to be coming out with a major update within a couple of months. Maybe this is where the screen shots are coming from. Interestingly, my installed beta version shows an expiry date of March 16th. I do prefer the mobile version on my iTouch over ereader. cheers

03-09-2009, 09:59 AM	#3
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	I'm hoping that in the future I can use it on my PC to reliably see how my novels will display on an iPhone or iPod Touch. I get the impression that it's not there yet.

03-09-2009, 12:46 PM	#5
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Thanks for the confirmation. Well, let's keep our fingers crossed that Lexcycle will finish and fix up the desktop app.

03-11-2009, 11:50 PM	#7
fugazied Wizard Posts: 1,305 Karma: 1958 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: iPod Touch	I used it briefly, not really impressed. As the other posters mentioned, it's bare bones and the results aren't spectacular.