CalibReader: an EPUB and PDF reader for iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo

[CalibReader_]

Hi everyone,

I'm a solo developer, and CalibReader is the app I built because I keep my books in calibre and wanted that library on my phone, readable offline, without moving it into anyone else's cloud. It's an EPUB and PDF reader for iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo. It's on the App Store now: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6777391511

Every setup I tried split this into two apps: one to sync the calibre library to the device, and another to actually read in. CalibReader is both, finally in one app: your calibre library, synced and browsable the way you organised it, plus the best reader I could build, one that feels like reading a real book.

I'd like to hear from calibre users trying it on their own libraries, especially if you have an iPhone Duo.



LIBRARY: your calibre library, synced

• Point it at the folder that holds your calibre library (the one with metadata.db): Dropbox, OneDrive, a NAS or home server over SMB, or a folder on the device or in iCloud Drive.
• You choose at setup: copy your whole library to your device for offline reading, or copy just the catalogue, with each book downloading when you open it. Later syncs only pick up what changed.
• Series and series index, tags, ratings and publisher come across as you set them in calibre.
• Reading positions and read status sync between your devices through a small file in the library folder. Start reading on your phone, and later when you pick up your iPad to continue, you're exactly where you left off.
• Read status, % read and last read can go back into calibre with a free desktop plugin, CalibReader Sync, which is in calibre's plugin index: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=375871
• Home shows what you're reading and what you added recently. Grid, list and series views, every series in order with your progress, filters you can stack (read status, author, genre, series, tags) and search.
• The full synopsis, page count and publish date for every book.
• Cover picker: swap in another edition's cover, or bind any book in leather. Books with no cover get one found automatically.
• Light or dark mode for the whole app.
• Single books can also be opened from Files, Mail or AirDrop.
• No account, no uploads, no subscriptions.
• Tested and working with 40,000-book libraries.

READER: built to feel like a book

• Two pages side by side on iPad and iPhone Duo, a single page on iPhone, or continuous scroll.
• Real page curls, forward and back, or a simple flip. Turning back curls the previous page in from the left, as smoothly as turning forward.
• Every book opens on a title page that turns over like a real one.
• On iPhone Duo: unfold it and the book is a two-page spread; close it and the book's cover is on the outside, and the line you were reading stays put through every fold.
• Calm controls: on iPhone, a slim bar at the top shows the chapter and your progress, with Back, Contents and Aa in a small bar under the text. Tap the middle of the page and they all disappear.
• Font, size, line spacing, margins and justification, applied live, with proper hyphenation for justified text.
• A "Book's own formatting" switch for when you want the publisher's styling.
• Parchment, sepia, black and navy themes, or any colour you like.
• Table of contents, chapter navigation, a clock and a progress footer.
• A built-in dictionary that works offline: long-press a word and tap Define.
• In scrolling view, the end of a chapter is a firm stop; tap the edge to carry on.
• Your place is kept to the line through crashes, app updates and library switches, and leaving the app never moves you.
• PDF support: two-page spreads on iPad and iPhone Duo, and it remembers your page.
• Use external reader: open MOBI, CBZ and other formats in another app of your choice.

Price
You can import and browse your whole library and read any 3 books in full for free. After that it's $9.99 once to read everything. No subscription, no account, no ads.

What it doesn't do yet

• It's iPhone and iPad only for now. Android is close behind, and Android foldables will get the same two-page spread.
• Google Drive isn't supported on iOS, but it will be in the Android version.
• It doesn't connect to the calibre Content Server or OPDS catalogs, or act as a calibre wireless device. It reads your library folder directly, so no server is needed.
• Your own custom columns don't show in the app yet, and ratings, highlights and annotations don't go back to calibre yet. Highlights and notes are next, saved into calibre's own annotations.
• Read status uses a Yes/No column named read_status. Choosing your own column is coming; until then the plugin shows how to copy yours over once.

Website: https://calibreader.com
Help pages: https://calibreader.com/help/
Demo on iPhone Duo: https://youtu.be/aPAax-0lJsI
The screenshots use public-domain books from Standard Ebooks, but the design really pops with real modern book art.

I'll be reading this thread every day and would like to hear what breaks, what's missing, and what you'd change.

CalibReader is an independent app and is not affiliated with calibre.

Mike

[JSWolf]

Does it have a header to show how many pages left in the chapter along with the chapter title and the footer to show how many pages left in the book along with the book title? Does it have ADE/RMSDK page numbers and if not, can you please add them?

In the animated GIF, there's too much wasted space at the top and bottom of the screen.

Does this have the ability to add your own fonts? Does this have the ability to adjust the font weight?

[CalibReader_]

Thanks for mentioning ADE/RMSDK - I honestly didn't know about these until today. I have a thing about page numbers on ebooks too (CalibReader already looks up each book's print page count, regardless of your library - no custom column needed).

Looks like we're on the same page (ha, sorry) re: ereader details in certain aspects.



Here's what CalibReader does now:

1. Margins are user adjustable. Because the chapter info lives in a small floating pill instead of full-width header and footer bars, nothing needs reserved space. The next app update takes margins to true zero everywhere. If you install it today: scrolling view has true zero margin possible on all four sides. Single page and two-page views have a nonzero margin at the top and bottom (until the update). I agree, that GIF shows very relaxed margins / overly generous whitespace, maybe even in excess of what a typical analog book has - but hey, let the user choose how they want to read.



2. A small header pill shows the book, the chapter and progress (total book %). On an iPhone it shows the chapter number; on iPad there's room for the chapter's title too. Tap the middle of the page to show/hide the pill. (Less obtrusive than a device-width banner that eats major screen real estate - my personal preference is calm/minimal while still showing everything you need at a glance)

3. The two-page spread shows the page number within the chapter on each page.



You can also keep the book's original style and font (its own formatting), or set your own font (serif or sans), size, line and paragraph spacing, justification, a theme (Parchment, Sepia, Navy, Black) or any background colour, and Single Page, Dual Page or Scrolling with Curl or Flip page turns. All of it live-updates as you change it, and every time you rotate the device or change view modes, your EXACT place/line is kept. (Another nit-pick on other ereaders that I had to fix). And the table of contents actually works - it's the book's real ToC, and every entry takes you to the right place (surprisingly many ereaders get this wrong).

If a cover is missing or blurry, CalibReader fills it in or upgrades it automatically, and Choose Cover lets you pick a high-res cover from other editions yourself.

Coming next:

- (thanks to your comment) ADE/RMSDK page numbers, so they're the same on every device and font size, plus the book's own print page numbers when the EPUB has a page-list.

From what I read, RMSDK works out pages from each chapter's compressed file size, which surprised me - clever, if a little odd. You'd know far better than me, though.

Already on the roadmap:

- An optional header with the chapter title and pages left in the chapter, and a footer with the book title and pages left in the book.
- Importing your own fonts, with proper font weights: pick a heavier weight from the font's own family (or slide the weight on variable fonts).

What is your ideal header and footer? You've thought about this more than most, and it's fairly simple to make tweaks.

[The Old Man]

Rather than loading my entire Calibre library I found just going to individual folders (cloud or local) works well. Creating a new calibre library with a specific genre works better than importing my entire library. Doesn’t seem to be a way to expand a graphic to full screen which is generally accomplished by double-tapping.