iOS 26: Are various ebook reader apps compatible with it?

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by GeniusJ

Maybe take another look at FBreader. You can get very granular about spacing in the headers and text layouts. It requires a bit of tweaking to get it juuuuust right, but it might work for you.

I'm looking at it, but can't find the customization part. Ex, it has way too many lines between paragraphs. How can I get rid of them? Also, I said yes to page numbers and show clock, but it does neither. Doesn't show book title on top. Am I missing where to set up these things? Or, does it only do this on the purchased version? I don't want to buy it unless it does what I need.

But it did install my font! Thumbs up for that.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GeniusJ

Just curious, have you tried Maple or FBreader? Because they both do those things. FBreader in particular is very customizable, and MapleRead is the most stable that I've seen.

I, too, mourned Marvin for a time but the above two readers were good replacements.

FBReader is very poor as it doesn't deal with the CSS well enough. And too many customizations that you cannot turn off.

[GeniusJ]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

I'm looking at it, but can't find the customization part. Ex, it has way too many lines between paragraphs. How can I get rid of them? Also, I said yes to page numbers and show clock, but it does neither. Doesn't show book title on top. Am I missing where to set up these things? Or, does it only do this on the purchased version? I don't want to buy it unless it does what I need.

But it did install my font! Thumbs up for that.

Maybe it's because I have a purchased version? Not sure why you are seeing things differently.

I think it ultimately comes down to this: Marvin is dead and you need to choose the best replacement you can find with features you can live with. To me it sounds like Maple with iFont is the closest you're likely to get.

[GeniusJ]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

I'm looking at it, but can't find the customization part. Ex, it has way too many lines between paragraphs. How can I get rid of them? Also, I said yes to page numbers and show clock, but it does neither. Doesn't show book title on top. Am I missing where to set up these things? Or, does it only do this on the purchased version? I don't want to buy it unless it does what I need.

But it did install my font! Thumbs up for that.

Here's how I have my FBreader set up regarding fonts and spacing, which pretty much is what Kindle app looks like for the most part.

Text Appearance
Font: Bookerly
Line height: 110
Show two pages in landscape: on
Margins: left 30, right 31, top 20, bottom 26, space between columns 20.
Alignment: Justify
Hyphenate words: on (and this is where FBreader goes overboard and hyphenates probably too much when in Justify mode).

Progress Indicator
Height 20
Horizontal margin 11
Reading progress: as page number and percentage
Show clock: no, the iPad does that natively
Show batter level: also no
Colors: This is up to you
Show chapter marks: yes
Max number of marks: 80

Screen -> Taps zones (this is where FBreader excels, in that you can specify different actions for each customizable tap zone)

ePub-specific Options (this is where I disagree with the previous poster who said FBreader doesn't handle CSS well)
Font size: off (this prevents the book settings from overriding your personal settings, up to you if you want the book to follow CSS exactly).
Text alignment: yes (follow what the book CSS says)
Margins: yes (follow what the book CSS says)
Colors: this is up to your personal preference whether you want to follow what the book CSS says.

The one thing it does not appear to do which you said was a deal-breaker for you is showing the book title at the top of the page while in reading mode. However, if you can live with that and try to remember what book you're reading you might find the rest of the flexibility worth giving it a shot.

The attachment shows what my FBreader looks like with the above settings. No weird file spacing present.

[GeniusJ]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

FBReader is very poor as it doesn't deal with the CSS well enough. And too many customizations that you cannot turn off.

My experience is 100% different on both points. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by GeniusJ

Here's how I have my FBreader set up regarding fonts and spacing, which pretty much is what Kindle app looks like for the most part.

Text Appearance
Font: Bookerly
Line height: 110
Show two pages in landscape: on
Margins: left 30, right 31, top 20, bottom 26, space between columns 20.
Alignment: Justify
Hyphenate words: on (and this is where FBreader goes overboard and hyphenates probably too much when in Justify mode).

Progress Indicator
Height 20
Horizontal margin 11
Reading progress: as page number and percentage
Show clock: no, the iPad does that natively
Show batter level: also no
Colors: This is up to you
Show chapter marks: yes
Max number of marks: 80

Screen -> Taps zones (this is where FBreader excels, in that you can specify different actions for each customizable tap zone)

ePub-specific Options (this is where I disagree with the previous poster who said FBreader doesn't handle CSS well)
Font size: off (this prevents the book settings from overriding your personal settings, up to you if you want the book to follow CSS exactly).
Text alignment: yes (follow what the book CSS says)
Margins: yes (follow what the book CSS says)
Colors: this is up to your personal preference whether you want to follow what the book CSS says.

The one thing it does not appear to do which you said was a deal-breaker for you is showing the book title at the top of the page while in reading mode. However, if you can live with that and try to remember what book you're reading you might find the rest of the flexibility worth giving it a shot.

Thanks so much for going to the trouble of detailing this for me! I'll give it a try and see how it reads.

[GeniusJ]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Thanks so much for going to the trouble of detailing this for me! I'll give it a try and see how it reads.

I edited my original post with a screenshot to show you how my options look when configured.