Which Reader for which Platform to support?

[Slevin#7]

This topic has certainly been covered countless times, but I'd still like to take the liberty of asking for your opinions here.

I want to provide eBooks for a private community, which should be readable on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and Linux. Which readers would you recommend to be supported?

I've tried several readers and I am very disappointed with almost all of them for their unwillingness to adhere to EPUB standards: stylesheets are completely ignored, books are consistently displayed differently than intended, you can find basically every conceivable manifestation of crap in one or the other reader.

Let's start with

1. iOS:
Apple Books is fairly usable. Which secondary application should be supported?
ADE certainly not, nothing works there at all.
PocketBook ignores margins for p-tags, I don't know if you can enforce that. Also, graphics are split, which seems to be a problem in general (solutions like float don't let the graphics get centered, for example).
Yomo is similar to PocketBook, but in addition also ignores h1-6 formatting.

2. Android:
Google Play Books is better than nothing, but not perfect either.
Which app would be your number 2 for Android?

3. Windows:
Calibre seems to work reasonably well.
Thorium as an alternative works, but for chapters in separate HTML files that contain graphics, a vertical scrollbar may got displayed on all chapter pages (probably cannot adapt larger images correctly to the viewport).
Any other recommendations here?

4. Mac:
Which reader would you recommend for MacOS (Calibre and Thorium)?

5. Linux:
Which reader would you recommend for Linux (Calibre and Thorium)?

I'd like to thank you very much for all your recommendations.

[Quoth]

2. Number one for Android for me would be Pocketbook. It properly does all the CSS/HTL and does not spy. Supports OPDS/WiFi to Calibre Content Server and PDFs (on suitable screens). The only use for Google Books is Google free titles that can't download. Bluefire, Aldiko and Lithium work on older Androids.

5. I don't read ebooks on Linux, only check links. TOC etc. Calibre or Okular (though the default settings need changed).

3. I used Windows seriously 1993 - 2016. Best solution is Calibre, or change to Linux (free) or Mac (new laptop).


I only use desktop/laptop for huge PDFs or checking epubs, so I'd never use Thorium as too much works on it that doesn't work on most dedicated ereaders (I have Sony, Kindles, Kobos etc) or apps. Most people read on a phone, so I check on small screens inc an ancient Android 5 that is 4.3" as well as big tablet screens (Pocketbook on Nxtpaper 11 and Nxtpaper 14).

[Slevin#7]

Originally Posted by Quoth

2. Number one for Android for me would be Pocketbook. It properly does all the CSS/HTL and does not spy. Supports OPDS/WiFi to Calibre Content Server and PDFs (on suitable screens).

Thank you for your insights.

May I ask you regarding PocketBook: is the p-tag margin issue, meaning not applying the stylesheet margins, also present on Android?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Slevin#7

This topic has certainly been covered countless times, but I'd still like to take the liberty of asking for your opinions here.

I want to provide eBooks for a private community, which should be readable on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and Linux. Which readers would you recommend to be supported?

I've tried several readers and I am very disappointed with almost all of them for their unwillingness to adhere to EPUB standards: stylesheets are completely ignored, books are consistently displayed differently than intended, you can find basically every conceivable manifestation of crap in one or the other reader.

Let's start with

1. iOS:
Apple Books is fairly usable. Which secondary application should be supported?
ADE certainly not, nothing works there at all.
PocketBook ignores margins for p-tags, I don't know if you can enforce that. Also, graphics are split, which seems to be a problem in general (solutions like float don't let the graphics get centered, for example).
Yomo is similar to PocketBook, but in addition also ignores h1-6 formatting.

2. Android:
Google Play Books is better than nothing, but not perfect either.
Which app would be your number 2 for Android?

3. Windows:
Calibre seems to work reasonably well.
Thorium as an alternative works, but for chapters in separate HTML files that contain graphics, a vertical scrollbar may got displayed on all chapter pages (probably cannot adapt larger images correctly to the viewport).
Any other recommendations here?

4. Mac:
Which reader would you recommend for MacOS (Calibre and Thorium)?

5. Linux:
Which reader would you recommend for Linux (Calibre and Thorium)?

I'd like to thank you very much for all your recommendations.

For Windows, MacOS, & Linux, why not just use calibre and then everyone on those platforms will be using the same program.

As for iOS, I'm using BookFusion. It works well and there is an Android version. So those on iOS, iPadOS, and Android can all run the same program.

That's all of the platforms you've listed sorted.

[Slevin#7]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As for iOS, I'm using BookFusion.

This seems to be the first reader which respects almost everthying I want, thanks for the tip.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Slevin#7

This seems to be the first reader which respects almost everthying I want, thanks for the tip.

Happy to help.

[Turtle91]

I, and probably a lot of people, don’t like being locked into a subscription model. Mostly because if you stop paying you lose all your books???

Check the software for that before you decide.

[RbnJrg]

1. On Android: Cantook, Kobo, PocketBook, Lithium, Reasily, InfinityReader. All of them support epub3 very well.

2. On Linux: Foliate, Thorium, Calibre Viewer; also could be Koodo Reader but the last version is buggy.

3. On Windows: Thorium, Koodo Reader, ADE 4.x, Icecream Ebook Reader.

4. On iOS: Bluefire, Kobo.

Regarding your issues on Thorium, very probably due to epubs bad built. Thorium is based on Readium and honors very well css2/css3 properties.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I, and probably a lot of people, don’t like being locked into a subscription model. Mostly because if you stop paying you lose all your books???

Check the software for that before you decide.

I don't pay the subscription. I send eBooks to Dropbox or OneDrive and download from there.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

1. On Android: Cantook, Kobo, PocketBook, Lithium, Reasily, InfinityReader. All of them support epub3 very well.

2. On Linux: Foliate, Thorium, Calibre Viewer; also could be Koodo Reader but the last version is buggy.

3. On Windows: Thorium, Koodo Reader, ADE 4.x, Icecream Ebook Reader.

4. On iOS: Bluefire, Kobo.

Regarding your issues on Thorium, very probably due to epubs bad built. Thorium is based on Readium and honors very well css2/css3 properties.

Why not just go with calibre viewer for Windows, Linux, and MacOS? That would make things so much easier to have the same program on all three systems.

[Falkor]

For Mac:
Apple Books is quite nice, I found no issues with it. Unlike any other software I tried, it can do hanging punctuation.
Calibre’s ebook-viewer is good as well. Again: no issues.
Thorium is neat, but it does seem to have some quirks. Sometimes it interprets font sizes differently from other readers. Also, for page breaks I had to use "-webkit-column-break-before" instead of "break-before" or "page-break-before".

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Thorium is neat, but it does seem to have some quirks. Sometimes it interprets font sizes differently from other readers. Also, for page breaks I had to use "-webkit-column-break-before" instead of "break-before" or "page-break-before".

You are right regarding the fonts and indeed, you need to use "-webkit-column-break-before" (or to use "-webkit-column-break-after") for page breaks; all programs based on Readium must do it. But that is not an issue.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why not just go with calibre viewer for Windows, Linux, and MacOS? That would make things so much easier to have the same program on all three systems.

Yes, you can. But take into account that Calibre Viewer has issues to show background colors, font colors and background images. I don't say is a bug but a decision by Kovid.

[DNSB]

Perhaps deserving of mention is that since the calibre e-book viewer is based on Chromium, it is not very useful for finding issues with ePubs since like most web browser based code, it does it's best to hide any issues.

[Slevin#7]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I, and probably a lot of people, don’t like being locked into a subscription model.

Yes, this is definitely something to bear in mind. Also, apps like Epub Reader (iOS) with large advertisement injections are not really in my love. Good software will always find a way to make revenue without to be annoying or even going sketchy .

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

1. On Android: Cantook, Kobo, PocketBook, Lithium, Reasily, InfinityReader. All of them support epub3 very well.

2. On Linux: Foliate, Thorium, Calibre Viewer; also could be Koodo Reader but the last version is buggy.

3. On Windows: Thorium, Koodo Reader, ADE 4.x, Icecream Ebook Reader.

4. On iOS: Bluefire, Kobo.

Thanks for the list.

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

Regarding your issues on Thorium, very probably due to epubs bad built. Thorium is based on Readium and honors very well css2/css3 properties.

I will take a closer look to my eBook build, although I don't think that there are any big issues. EPUBCheck (https://github.com/w3c/epubcheck) is very happy with my work^^, and Sigil and Calibre are also not much complaining. If I don't find a solution for that problem I might come back to you with an example book?

Originally Posted by Falkor

For Mac:
Apple Books is quite nice, I found no issues with it.

Apple Books is imo thoroughly good, but the head is a bit annoying. I know the book I'm reading, I don't have to sit the title on the top on each page.

Originally Posted by Falkor

For Mac:
Also, for page breaks I had to use "-webkit-column-break-before" instead of "break-before" or "page-break-before".

Is it enough to go with this kind of solution of fallbacks?:

  -webkit-column-break-before: avoid;
    -webkit-page-break-before: avoid;
            page-break-before: avoid;
                 break-before: avoid;