Leafmark — I built an EPUB reader because I never got over Marvin

[AkiraT]

Hi everyone, first post here.

I was a Marvin user until the very end, and nothing since has scratched the
same itch. Apple Books keeps my highlights hostage, and the subscription
apps want $100 a year for books I already own. So I spent the last few
months building the reader I was missing. It went live on the App Store
last week.

It's called Leafmark. The one principle: your books and highlights are
yours. Your library is plain EPUB files on your device, highlights export
to Markdown (mine go straight into Obsidian), and there is no account, no
cloud, no tracking.

Reading is free with no limits — import your whole library and judge the
rendering yourself. Three public-domain classics come pre-installed so you
can try the feel in the first minute. A single one-time purchase unlocks
unlimited highlights, the Markdown export and reading stats. No
subscription, ever.

To be upfront about what it does not do yet: no collections or tags, no
sync, no PDF, no DRM, no OPDS.

I would really value the judgment of the people here, especially former
Marvin users: what is the one missing thing that would stop you from
switching? That answer decides what I build next.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6781045740

A few screenshots attached. Happy to answer anything.

[JSWolf]

Does Leafmark support user fonts? Does it support adding weight to the fonts?

If not, are these features on the to do list?

I'll give Leafmark a try. Thanks.

[AkiraT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does Leafmark support user fonts? Does it support adding weight to the fonts?

If not, are these features on the to do list?

I'll give Leafmark a try. Thanks.

Thanks, Jon — honest answer: not yet, on both counts.

Today the font picker has the publisher's default plus four built-ins
(serif, sans-serif, Georgia, Palatino), with size, line height and margin
controls. No user font import and no weight adjustment yet.

Both are going on the list. The rendering engine I build on (Readium) can
register custom font files, so importing your own .ttf/.otf is realistic
rather than wishful — that one I expect to do first. Weight adjustment I
need to investigate; if the engine exposes it for variable fonts, it will
ship alongside.

If you do give it a try, I'd love to hear how the rendering itself holds
up for you.

[JSWolf]

Thank you for your answer. I will try it and I will report how I find it. I'm using an iPad Pro 202 12.9 inch and an iPhone 15 Pro Max. So I can report on both.

[The Old Man]

I just tried Leafmark and like it very much! My requirement are not very great and Leafmark seems to have met them all on my brief look. Easy to add books, text size,margins, adjustable, highlites, notes, dictionary, dark mode. So far - A+

Just noticed - graphics display nicely but there is no way to enlarge the graphic to full page.
Bookmarks?

[AkiraT]

Thank you — this genuinely made my day. An A+ from someone on this forum means a lot, and I'm really glad the basics (adding books, text size and
margins, highlights, notes, dictionary, dark mode) all landed for you on a first look.

Both of your notes are good catches, and neither is in yet:

- Full-page images: right now tapping an image only toggles the toolbars. Letting illustrations open full-screen with pinch-to-zoom is going on
the list.
- Bookmarks: also not there yet — today Leafmark just remembers your last position per book. Proper, multiple bookmarks are a natural fit and I'll
build them. If there's a particular bookmark behaviour you're used to (Marvin's, say), tell me and I'll match it.

And to close the loop on the fonts from earlier in the thread: custom font import + weight adjustment are already working in a dev build, so
there's more on the way. The iPad Pro 12.9" and iPhone 15 Pro Max are both devices I test on, so reports from either are very welcome.

[JSWolf]

Images should not just be made full screen. They should be able to be zoomed.

[AkiraT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Images should not just be made full screen. They should be able to be zoomed.

Understood — full-screen on its own isn't enough; it needs pinch-to-zoom and pan so you can actually inspect the detail (maps, plates, etc.).
That's how I'll build it.

[The Old Man]

Bookmarks. I use multiple bookmarks to reference a page I wish to return to. I could use highlights bit a quick click on a quickly visible bookmark icon helps.

The more I use this app the more I like it. When bookmarks available I will buy.
One more comment, however. After selecting a word or sentence the menu that pops up offers “copy, lookup, translate, etc. and I must click the little right arrow to get to highlight. I would like “highlight” available from the initial menu. Small personal choice.

[AkiraT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Images should not just be made full screen. They should be able to be zoomed.

Thanks for giving Leafmark a try and for all the specific questions.

v1.5 just went live with bookmarks, image zoom (tap any image to
pinch-zoom), custom font import (OTF/TTF/TTC), and a font weight
slider. Should cover everything you mentioned.

Let me know how it goes on your iPad Pro and iPhone.

[AkiraT]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

Bookmarks. I use multiple bookmarks to reference a page I wish to return to. I could use highlights bit a quick click on a quickly visible bookmark icon helps.

The more I use this app the more I like it. When bookmarks available I will buy.
One more comment, however. After selecting a word or sentence the menu that pops up offers “copy, lookup, translate, etc. and I must click the little right arrow to get to highlight. I would like “highlight” available from the initial menu. Small personal choice.

Bookmarks landed in v1.5, just went live — tap the bookmark icon in
the toolbar, and you'll find them in the Contents tab.

Also added image zoom: tap any image to view full-screen with pinch and double-tap.

The highlight menu position is unfortunately an iOS limitation — the
system decides what fits on the first page based on screen width. I
can't control the order.

Thanks for the kind words.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AkiraT

Thanks for giving Leafmark a try and for all the specific questions.

v1.5 just went live with bookmarks, image zoom (tap any image to
pinch-zoom), custom font import (OTF/TTF/TTC), and a font weight
slider. Should cover everything you mentioned.

Let me know how it goes on your iPad Pro and iPhone.

I'll give it a try soon once I can get v1.5.

[The Old Man]

Bookmarks! Graphics! Nicely done!

When saving highlites Leafmark produces a file called “text”, no extension.
I would suggest naming the file “book name - author name” with the extension txt.

[JSWolf]

I have found some issues.

Boldness should be called font weight. 125% does nothing. The foot weight should also have fine granular control. This following post from another thread describes how the font weight should work.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I think that JSWolf means that adjusting the weight of the font used to display the text should not be done by changing which variant of a font is used as the 'regular' text font, but by programmatically adjusting the weight of all the variants.

So if, say, Times New Roman is selected as the font for text display, -Regular should be used for ordinary text, and -Bold for bold text, etc.

But if the font weight control is used to indicate that text should be 'bolder', all weights of Times New Roman should programatically be made bolder.

Plain text should still be Times New Roman-Regular, but made programmatically bolder
Bold text should still be Times New Roman-Bold, but made programmatically bolder

It's a different way of looking at how that control should be implemented.

The idea is, I think, that the font family should just control the font family used. Which variant of a font family should be used should be just the usual -Regular, -Bold, -Italic, etc.

The weight control should control how much artificial weight is added to each variant.

Next issue is that when adjusting the font size. line height, and margins, I cannot see the text on the screen on my iPhone.

Line height is too large. There is no way to make it any smaller.

Margins should allow the text to go all the way to edge of the screen. Also, margins should have a more fine adjustment instead of .50x to .75x.

When displaying the cover, it's not properly displayed in landscape. In landscape, there is white space above and below the cover.

Landscape doesn't work. There should be a setting for columns and a setting for the space between columns. As it is, There white space above and below the page. There's too much white space on the left/right side of the screen. It should be over to the left side of the screen and go fully to the right side (depending on L/R margin settings).

In portrait, there is too much white space at the bottom of the screen.

There should be an option for a header showing how many pages are left in the chapter and a setting to show a footer with how many pages read and how many pages in the book. The page numbers should use ADE (RMSDK) page numbers.

When using import font, do you have to import a ZIP file containing all the fonts or do you import the fonts one at a time?

And speaking of fonts, you should allow choosing from all of the system fonts that come with iOS/iPadOS.

[AkiraT]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

Bookmarks! Graphics! Nicely done!

When saving highlites Leafmark produces a file called “text”, no extension.
I would suggest naming the file “book name - author name” with the extension txt.

Thank you for giving Leafmark a try, and for taking the time to
write up what you found.

The highlights export is a bug. It should not be dropping a bare
"text" file with no extension. Your naming suggestion is a good one.
I will use the book title and author name, with a .txt extension.