BookShelves — Native EPUB Reader for macOS and iOS (looking for feedback)

[JSWolf]

Just updated to a new version and the rendering is still not fixed. I'd like to know when BookShelves is going to properly render, Thanks.

[QuietShelfLife]

Thanks for sticking with it, JSWolf. Quick rundown on what's in the App Store right now versus what's queued:

The latest version live on the App Store is 1.0.17 — that release was a different batch of reader CSS work (tables, horizontal rules, theme-aware borders) and didn't touch the paragraph-flow problem you reported, so if that's what you're on, the big white gaps would still be there.

1.0.18 was submitted to App Review earlier today and should clear in the next day or two. The change directly relevant to you: paragraphs are no longer pre-split before WebKit lays them out — they wrap naturally at the bottom of a page instead of being pushed whole to the next one. That's the specific cause of the white gaps.

Two settings worth pointing out in the meantime — both in the Aa popover in the reader toolbar:

• Line Spacing slider (1.0×–2.4×, default 1.5×) — drop it to 1.0× if a book's own spacing already feels loose
• Margin slider (0–60pt extra on each side) — pull this up if 40pt feels too narrow

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by QuietShelfLife

Thanks for sticking with it, JSWolf. Quick rundown on what's in the App Store right now versus what's queued:

The latest version live on the App Store is 1.0.17 — that release was a different batch of reader CSS work (tables, horizontal rules, theme-aware borders) and didn't touch the paragraph-flow problem you reported, so if that's what you're on, the big white gaps would still be there.

1.0.18 was submitted to App Review earlier today and should clear in the next day or two. The change directly relevant to you: paragraphs are no longer pre-split before WebKit lays them out — they wrap naturally at the bottom of a page instead of being pushed whole to the next one. That's the specific cause of the white gaps.

Two settings worth pointing out in the meantime — both in the Aa popover in the reader toolbar:

• Line Spacing slider (1.0×–2.4×, default 1.5×) — drop it to 1.0× if a book's own spacing already feels loose
• Margin slider (0–60pt extra on each side) — pull this up if 40pt feels too narrow

This sounds really promising. Once I get the new version, I'll let you know if anything should be fixed.

Question, when will we get the ability to add our own fonts and to adjust the weight of the fonts being used?

[JSWolf]

Any idea when the new version that will fix the CSS/layout issues be released?

[QuietShelfLife]

Version 1.0.18 is released and has *some* CSS/layout fixes (not yet all). I hope they go in the right direction. I'm looking forward to your feedback.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by QuietShelfLife

Version 1.0.18 is released and has *some* CSS/layout fixes (not yet all). I hope they go in the right direction. I'm looking forward to your feedback.

There are still issues with the rendering.

• The L/R margins are not correct. With margins of 0, the text should be at the sides of the screen. Also, the top/bottom margins are not correct. There is too much space ate the top of the page and too much space at the bottom of the page. The top/bottom margins should not be the same. You need less on the bottom then you do on the top. The top margin has to take into account the home bar. The header should be right under that. The footer should be at the bottom of the screen and the text close to the header/footer.
• The header and footer are not correct. The top header is just the name of the book and it's not even fully displayed. What should be in the header is the number of pages left in the chapter and the chapter title as it s in the ToC. There is no footer which should be showing the page you are on and the total number of pages.
• Windows and orphans are better, but still not perfect. Entire paragraphs no longer land on the next page. But it's like Windows and Orphans are on when they should be off.
• The gaps between paragraphs are still there and they are large.
• The font weight increase is not correct. The choice is bold or not. There needs to be fine control for font weight.
• Line spacing is also not correct. There needs to be more fine control and it needs to start at 0 with 0 being no line spacing and then the line spacing needs a set of values less then 1 before you get to 1.

There's still a ways to go.

[rfog]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There are still issues with the rendering.[*]The header and footer are not correct. The top header is just the name of the book and it's not even fully displayed. What should be in the header is the number of pages left in the chapter and the chapter title as it s in the ToC. There is no footer which should be showing the page you are on and the total number of pages.

Why?

Where is defined that in the editor rules? If you want a "perfect" Widow and Orphan like printed books, printed books does not have that. Some books have chapter title on top, others autor and book tittle, others nothing. Others like Dickens Works Edition de Luxe have a summary of the page. Why total page numbers on top? Why the current page on bottom? Real books do not have total page numbers in margins, and current page number can be on top or bottom or even at side.

Please, don't make your personal preferences the sanctioned ones. You are not the only who wants the perfect ebook reader and have to deal with partial preferences.

As a sample, why not this layout:

[JSWolf]

One other issue. This is an ePub reader. So please drop PDF. an ePub reader does not need to handle PDF.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rfog

Why?

Where is defined that in the editor rules? If you want a "perfect" Widow and Orphan like printed books, printed books does not have that. Some books have chapter title on top, others autor and book tittle, others nothing. Others like Dickens Works Edition de Luxe have a summary of the page. Why total page numbers on top? Why the current page on bottom? Real books do not have total page numbers in margins, and current page number can be on top or bottom or even at side.

Please, don't make your personal preferences the sanctioned ones. You are not the only who wants the perfect ebook reader and have to deal with partial preferences.

As a sample, why not this layout:
Attachment 222909

The header give no useful information. There is also no footer. SO it would be a good idea to fix the header/footer to give useful information. What you showed gives no useful information in the header. It's just the footer that's semi-useful. It would be good to have the chapter title shown as part of the header.

[rfog]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The header give no useful information. There is also no footer. SO it would be a good idea to fix the header/footer to give useful information. What you showed gives no useful information in the header. It's just the footer that's semi-useful. It would be good to have the chapter title shown as part of the header.

My sample tries to mimic an original book with extra info. It is built with Calibre, and sadly AFAIK it does not have option to show the chapter title when building a PDF. Normally, when I make one of those, I remove top header to show more text.

[JSWolf]

I just downloaded a new release and all of the problems I mentioned before still exist.

The problem is that things are being done that don't need to be done and thing that need to be done are not being done.

Do you care about people using the app? If you do, then make the layout work properly.

Forget PDF. Forget iCloud. Forget OPDS. Forget syncing. Forget everything except making it render correctly. It's a horrible disaster as it is.

[JSWolf]

Another update to Booksleves has landed and it's not fixed the rendering issue. All this other crap has been done to it except the most important thing which is proper rendering.

I'm going to give this one more update and if it doesn't get fixed, I'm done with it. It's awful as it is. It's useless. It needs to have the rendering fixed and if not, that's it.

[QuietShelfLife]

Thanks for the continued feedback, JSWolf. I know it's frustrating when the things you care about most aren't in the build you just downloaded.

To be transparent about where things stand: rendering improvements are being worked on in stages, not all at once. Some of what you're seeing (paragraph spacing, page number display) is already queued. Other requests like sub-1.0 line height and fine-grained font weight control are noted but further out.

The other features (iCloud, OPDS, format support) aren't competing with rendering work -- they're separate tracks that don't delay typography fixes.

I read every post here and the rendering reports you've submitted have been genuinely useful. I'll post in this thread when the next rendering-focused update goes live.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by QuietShelfLife

Thanks for the continued feedback, JSWolf. I know it's frustrating when the things you care about most aren't in the build you just downloaded.

To be transparent about where things stand: rendering improvements are being worked on in stages, not all at once. Some of what you're seeing (paragraph spacing, page number display) is already queued. Other requests like sub-1.0 line height and fine-grained font weight control are noted but further out.

The other features (iCloud, OPDS, format support) aren't competing with rendering work -- they're separate tracks that don't delay typography fixes.

I read every post here and the rendering reports you've submitted have been genuinely useful. I'll post in this thread when the next rendering-focused update goes live.

The rendering issues should be made the top priority. If it cannot render correctly, then it's not worth using the app. It has to properly render before all of the other changes. Everything else comes after. You do not fix the rendering in stages. You fix it all at once or at least the major issues first. It renders very poorly. So poorly that it's unreadable. What's the point of an app to read books when the books are unreadable? You need to get the priority correct. You are fixing iCloud and other things first. Those things are not important until after the rendering is fixed.