PRS-T1 Cool Reader vs FBReader vs Reader

[vietchovui]

The top and bottom paragraph margin are already set to 0. There are still big spaces as you can see in the picture.

[Fewns]

i'm really happy with coolreader 3.0.55 - especially for its language based hyphenation function;
also the font gamma function is very useful;

[parkher]

I have T1 only recently and can offer only initial observations.

I am using it only for reading fiction novels. I don't need any fancy features, but the following is extremely important to me:

1. Wide margins in landscape mode. The text width must be in the range of 8.5 - 9 cm, therefore margins must be 1.5 - 1.7 cm on each side.

2. Navigating to the books through deeply nested custom folders where I keep my books sorted the way I like it.

3. Quick switching between books. I read many books simultaneously, or just open some.

4. Quick switching between portrait and landscape would be welcome too, although, I guess, eventually I will settle for something.
However, quick switching between landscape and portrait requires separate settings for margins. It makes no sense to set different margin values each time when changing orientation. I don't see any support for this in any reader.

5. comfortable and quick look up of words in dictionaries


1. Sony Reader

CONS:
- I cannot make wide enough margins for the landscape mode. Not usable at all.
- And, of course, lack of support for many popular formats.
- lack of support for navigating through nested folders.
- probably much more, I don't want to waste my time on it because it cannot even open my books - they are of wrong formats and in wrong folders for it to open.

2. FBReader

CONS:
- it is a torture to adjust settings because buttons do not work
- left right margins - max value 30 - needed at least to 120 in landscape mode. However an additional margin can be set for the default paragraph, so there is a workaround.
- does not support separate margin values for portrait and for landscape modes. This is especially bad because it takes very long time to adjust margin values because of the lack of button support - when I need to go from 0 to 100 I need to do many multiple scrollings on the touchscreen.
- has only one mediocre font available - perhaps other fonts may be installed for it, though.
PROS:
- supports navigation to the books through nested folders.
- seems that it has a direct link in its settings to last opened books

I did not try FBReaderJ yet. If buttons are working in it, it might be much better.

CoolReader:
PROS:
- easy to adjust settings, buttons are working
- buttons are working for page turning
- a number of fonts preinstalled of which 1-2 are really not bad
- can navigate through nested folders with books
CONS:
- max left right margin value 100 is not quite enough for landscape. Just a little bit more needed. Maybe 120 or 130. The workaround - to set additionally margins for the default paragraph.
- no margins separately for portrait and landscape modes, however margins can be adjusted very quickly, not a very big problem. Still, to change the orientation is not a single click operation.
- no direct link to last opened books ("Recent Books" folder) that I can find. If I am staying in that folder, I can continue switching among books there. But if I have to get somewhere else to open a new book, I then have to return back to it step by step through a very long sequence of nested folders I am using.

I still need to test the dictionary support in those readers and the availability of good dictionaries themselves.
I cannot say anything about dictionaries at this time.
My expectations are very high, though : I have a PB902 which has excellent dictionaries and very comfortable, very quick way to use them.

UPDATE:
I just tried ColorDict from Cool Reader.
First impressions are terrible.
Maybe I need to lear to use it.

1. It does not react to backward/forward keys, if the whole description does not fit onto the screen, uncontrollable scrolling is needed - I never know how far it will go.
As far as I can tell, page up/page down is working neither with buttons nor with touch screen.

2. I was not able to find (so far?) how to switch to a different dictionary.
It seems that the same word in all the available dictionaries is show simultaneously and you have actually to scroll (with that uncontrollable scrolling) to the place where the next dictionary begins !!! I

3. words often are not recognized correctly, additionally endings have to be removed manually to get a match.

5. even if there is an exact match, the dictionary stays in the list, the word is not expanded. Actually, this is not so bad, only one additional tap is needed. But why?
Instead, a way to the list of words should be available in the dictionary.

I am so accustomed on PB that the word is correctly recognized and opened, that I can go by pages inside the dictionary, that I can switch to any other dictionary I like without leaving that word, that I can get to the list of the words any time I want, or to the keyboard if needed.

What I so far got on T1 is simply shocking.
I hope that I just haven't yet found how to control ColorDict.



If I missed something, please correct me.
I am especially interested in quick access to "Recent Books" from Cool Reader.

UPDATE:

turns out, it is possible in CR3 to map "Recent books" to some key ar tap action
So this solves an important problem. Still, the current folder is not preserved, after using this "Recent Books" feature when opening a new book you will have to navigate to your books starting from "Recent Books".
But still, it is pretty much enough for me.

The remaining issue: I need a better dictionary app than ColorDict - it is not suitable for e-ink devices. If it at least had a page down/page up mapped to the keys or to the taps on the screen. But it does not.

UPDATE 2:

I now installed GoldenDict 1.3.0. It is much better than ColorDict - so much more control. Still everything is worse than on PocketBook, except one thing:
on T1 it is possible to look up words that are themselves used in the dictionary to describe or illustrate the original word. In other words, it possible to go deeper into a chained lookup. I missed that on PB.

Anyway, now T1 with CoolEdit is becoming pretty enjoyable.

[samy2]

I like coolreader so far, but:

For many books i need the dictionary, in this case the original-App is the best! Other 3d-PartDictionarys are to slow and to bad (als ColorDict). Also the annotation is needed (with pen and without pen) for non-fiction book.

So for me non of the Reader-Apps are quite perfect. For fiction in my native language coolreader is god so far. For non-fiction and books in foreign languages i have to use the original app...

[blz]

Hello,

I've been using sony's app for a while, loving the way one can select text and then either send to a note, use the dictionnary, go to wikipedia or mark (note or underline): the selection is perfect, (reactive and precise), and I enjoy in some cases handwrinting on the page. It though lacks copy/paste, and link to other aps (evernote, as I point hereunder)

I'm in the field of trying FB reader, much more customisable and I like very much being able to send quotes to evernotes: that's brilliant and very usefull to me.

but, there is a but (3 in fact):
- I don't know why and if this can be tuned, on my sony the selection is unprecise and quite "wrong": when I point the stylus on a wordn it happens that the selectioned word is the one on the line above, and it's very hard to move preciselly the arrows.
- the quoted text can not (or I don't know how to do it be highlighted (once you've copied to evernote, the highlighting vanishes).
- FB doesn't let you handwrite a note (underline, draw a sign) on the page as sony reader does.