Version 5.3 (refinement)

[petrjahoda]

■ New features
- Calibre-Web NextGen is a new book source in Add Books › Add Source. Browse and download your books, and your page and read status sync both ways. Pair with a Code signs in without typing your password.
- Go to Page adds Live Preview, which turns the book as you drag the ruler. Close without Go and you are back on your page.
- The Go to Page ruler marks your bookmarks and highlights, and the Now tag scrolls back to your page. Tap the page numbers at the bottom to open Go to Page.
- Tap to Turn Page can Fade or Sweep into the next page. Choose it under Animation, for EPUB books, comics and PDFs.
- Customize Toolbar offers Go to Page, Scroll, Invert Images, Light or Dark Theme and Prevent Sleep. Hold the reader toolbar to switch them on.
- Highlights that another app, such as Preview or Acrobat, saved in a PDF show up as your own. The file is never changed.
- Statistics can import your KOReader reading time from BookOrbit and Grimmory. Switch on Import Reading Time on the server's page.

■ Improvements
- Every Library sort has section titles and the side index again.
- On iPad, List and Compact can show two columns again. Find Two Columns in Edit Library.
- Edit on Home, Library, Statistics and Roadmap can hide the summary at the top of the tab.
- Calibre Mapping has an Abandoned field, so the Abandoned status syncs with a Calibre Yes/No column.
- Calibre virtual libraries import as collections more reliably, and Import as Collection files a shelf you already synced.
- KOReader Sync now signs in to Calibre-Web Automated and Calibre-Web NextGen.
- An OPDS catalog can deliver an audiobook too, when it is a single file.
- In Read Aloud, the voice you pick shows Prepare for Background Listening right under it.
- The side rails keep their symbols clear of the page text.

■ Fixes
- A Calibre-Web catalog lists your whole library, not one book per letter.
- On iOS 18, the Library title menu and the Done button in Select are back.
- On iOS 26, letting go of a slider no longer leaves its sheet faded and the app ignoring taps.
- In a PDF, Note and Share in a highlight's menu open again.
- The Library's side index no longer covers Edit at the top of the page.

■ Localization
- All new text is natively translated across all 20 supported languages.

[mikepmiller]

Thanks so much for the 5.3 update! It fixed a few minor issues that cropped up in 5.2, and the toolbar customization is awesome! I wouldn't have thought to include an invert images toggle, but I will use it a lot. As always, I love the quick iterations and improvement.

One potential suggestion: what would you think about adding a flag to enable or disable the section groupings in the library? (To be clear, I mean the indicated parts of the attached screenshot.) It's not a huge deal for me, but I actually preferred the behavior in 5.2, where the library was sorted by last read date, but there weren't any specific groupings.

As I said, that's not a huge deal for me, so if you've gotten a lot of feedback to the contrary, no need to change it.

Thanks again!

[petrjahoda]

Hi Mike, thank you for the nice feedback and about that section grouping... how should it work? Like... how should it look before/after?

[mikepmiller]

Since I'm in grid mode, I was imagining it'd just look like one single grid, so something like the (very crude ;-)) attached mockup. If you were in list mode or compact mode, it'd just be a single list (exactly as items in the same section are currently grouped).

[petrjahoda]

AHA, now I get it, you just want a switch, that will switch off/on that grouping by 'anything'. Now I understand that 'disabling the sections'.
Yes that can be done. Going to the to do list.

[mikepmiller]

Yes, exactly! Sorry I wasn't clearer to start, and thanks so much for working on it!

[gustophersmob]

I’ve noticed on both 5.2 and 5.3 that the toolbar operation seems very sluggish. For example, when I tap the table of contents or settings buttons there is a noticeable delay before they open. If you go a few menus deep in settings, each menu is sluggish to open and when you hit the back arrow, the arrow highlights and takes a second before it goes back. I’m on an iPhone 13, latest iOS 27.0.1.

[petrjahoda]

Hello hustopgersmob, this is strange, first time I am hearing this. There is no reason for it.
Anyone else please experiencing this?
Does it do with all epub books?
If you completely close the app and open again... the same? (I suppose you did it, but jusk asking).
Can you send me a screenshot of JustRead with toolbar opened, just to simulate it with me exactly with the setting you have on toolbar?

EDIT: I even crafted an epub with 1000 highlights, 1000 bookmarks and 1000 chapters (as I thought there may be a problem) and even with this I see no sluggishness.

When I see problem (with those 1000+1000+1000 epub) is when I switch my phone to Low Power (but then my whole phone is sluggish), so I have few more questions for you:
1. Is Low Power Mode on?
2. Does it happen in every book, or only some?
3. Is it slow right after you open a book, or does it get slower the longer you read?
4. Is the rest of JustRead slow too (Home, Library, App Settings), or only inside a book?
5. Which reading theme do you use (and is your iPhone set to Light or Dark mode)?
6. Do you use Read Aloud with a Natural voice, or Background Listening? Is Page Curl on? Is Per-Book Preferences on? About how many books are in your library?
7. Do you use any accessibility features, such as VoiceOver, Voice Control, Switch Control, Bold Text or a larger text size?
8. How much free storage does your iPhone have?

[gustophersmob]

Ok, I posted a video here to try to show it. You can’t see when I tap the table of contents or settings buttons, unfortunately. Today, the table of contents is working normally. It slows down a little after I go into the settings menu, but not much. You can really see what I mean when in settings and I hit the back arrow and it highlights and takes a longer than normal time to go back.

https://imgur.com/a/mRbHluh

To answer your questions:

It does it on the 4 epubs I tried, and it is persistent even after force closing the app. I have no annotations or highlights in any books, so it isn’t that.

1. Is Low Power Mode on? - no
2. Does it happen in every book, or only some? - it does it on the 4 I tried
3. Is it slow right after you open a book, or does it get slower the longer you read? - no, it seems slow right from the start
4. Is the rest of JustRead slow too (Home, Library, App Settings), or only inside a book? - ive only noticed it in the toolbar, nowhere else so far.
5. Which reading theme do you use (and is your iPhone set to Light or Dark mode)? - day reading theme, app theme is set to default and I’m on light mode.
6. Do you use Read Aloud with a Natural voice, or Background Listening? Is Page Curl on? Is Per-Book Preferences on? About how many books are in your library? - not using read aloud, curl is off, I don’t use per book preferences, and there are currently 14 books in my library.
7. Do you use any accessibility features, such as VoiceOver, Voice Control, Switch Control, Bold Text or a larger text size? - no
8. How much free storage does your iPhone have? - ~69GB

Edit to add: I just hard restarted the phone and that did not change the behavior.

[petrjahoda]

Thank you for it, the video seems normal to, it is noticeable, when you touches and when actions happens, so from the video I should say it behaves normal was, but those back in the end video are great for me to see, something is there, thank you for all the information, will look into it.

[petrjahoda]

Found it, fixed it and will do a small 5.3.1 version release. Thank you for the detailed information.

[gustophersmob]

Thanks, I appreciate it as always!