Best cross-platform e-reader: BookFusion?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by skillachie

By default we try to follow the styles defined when the books are created. However, we do allow for customizing various options.
We have a full override publisher settings that will be released soon starting with iOS as well. This will allow readers to have full control over how the book is displayed despite the publisher recommended CSS styles

The best way to do multiple overrides is to allow each override to be turned on or off That way we can override what we want and leave the CSS to handle what we want. Can you do the overrides this way for iOS?

[peaceridge]

Tap the left edge to move forward is my most wanted feature as I hold my ipad mini in my left hand and it is so easy to just tap with my thumb rather than trying to hold the mini in my left hand as I swipe - clumsy is my middle name! Otherwise I have to bring up my right hand to tap.

Originally Posted by skillachie

You are correct that we do not have custom touch zones. Currently we have some defaults

- Tap right edge/swipe right to move forward
- Tap left edge/swipe left to move backward


However, I have observed that it requires moving your thumb/hand to a different location on the device but with your custom touch zones and gestures you can move forward and backwards from the same location on the screen.

We do not have support yet but this is one of the most requested features. https://bookfusion.hellonext.co/p/cu...ap-zones-areas We have added it to the backlog of items to work on.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I seem to remember you used Calibre in the past. What changed?

I simply no longer find it very useful/necessary. I organize my book collections in Drobpox folders, and that suffices me. I can also load them straight from Dropbox to my 8+ reading devices (including the e-ink PocketBook), so it's no longer necessary for me to use Calibre for any operation, really. (Also, I use several Windows computers, and Calibre used to act up occasionally, when I tried to keep its database in sync across multiple Windows computers, using Dropbox. It just no longer seemed worth the bother for me...)

Calibre is a fine piece of software, but I just no longer find any particular use for it.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Hmm... background textures motivating someone to read is one of the weirdest things I've heard.

Makes perfect sense, if you think about it. People enjoy looking at beautiful things more than they enjoy looking at dull and boring things. Because I find background textures more beautiful to look at than looking at dull and boring solid-color backgrounds (which can be downright sleep-inducing, if truth be told), then this motivates me to read more and longer – because who wouldn't want to prolong his or her experience of looking at something that's beautiful?

Originally Posted by Sirtel

More features is always better than fewer.

I fully agree with you, but you'd be surprised to hear all the foul copout excuses that the darn corporations come up with, Apple foremost among them! Alleged "feature bloat".

"Yeah, our Apple software is so dumb on purpose, tailor-made for users with a sub-70 IQ, so as not to confuse our poor users with too many features and options!"

It's really a despicable, condescending attitude towards users of software.

If a piece of software is well-designed, it can never confuse anyone with "too many features and options".

For all I care, there can be a basic mode of BookFusion, providing users with all the basic options, while more demanding users might activate the advanced mode in BookFusion settings, providing all the rest of the options. It's not necessary to design software that way, but always possible!

The foul copout of "feature bloat" and "too many options" is baseless and unpardonable.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Faterson

I simply no longer find it very useful/necessary. I organize my book collections in Drobpox folders, and that suffices me. I can also load them straight from Dropbox to my 8+ reading devices (including the e-ink PocketBook), so it's no longer necessary for me to use Calibre for any operation, really. (Also, I use several Windows computers, and Calibre used to act up occasionally, when I tried to keep its database in sync across multiple Windows computers, using Dropbox. It just no longer seemed worth the bother for me...)

I keep most of my stuff in Dropbox as well, including my ebook collection. But I couldn't manage without Calibre, having tens of thousands of ebooks. Folder management isn't sufficient for me. I load my Kobos from Calibre, even though the Sage has Dropbox support (which I've used a couple of times, perhaps). Calibre is just faster and easier, with its automatic metadata and collection management for Kobos. But yeah, it takes a lot of time to get the metadata right in the first place.

Makes perfect sense, if you think about it. People enjoy looking at beautiful things more than they enjoy looking at dull and boring things. Because I find background textures more beautiful to look at than looking at dull and boring solid-color backgrounds (which can be downright sleep-inducing, if truth be told), then this motivates me to read more and longer – because who wouldn't want to prolong his or her experience of looking at something that's beautiful?

Oh, I get it. I'm a wallpaper nut - I've collected thousands of different wallpapers for my tablets and computers, which I switch frequently. Fancy background just isn't something I need for book reading, but then I read most of the time on eink, of course.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I read most of the time on eink, of course.

I would, too, if e-ink software were more advanced, particularly when it comes to annotating, on which I rely so much. But I realize it's tough – an e-ink screen will never be quite as responsive as a traditional LCD/IPS/Amoled screen...

If @skillachie & his team can improve BookFusion so that it becomes a truly great e-reader app, and then if they can make BookFusion available on e-ink devices, that would be fantastic.

My trouble is that I currently possess a PocketBook, which is not Android but Linux.

So I guess BookFusion developers would need to approach the PocketBook team in Switzerland and make a special arrangement, so that it becomes possible to install BookFusion on PocketBooks. KOReader has made it possible, so BookFusion could, too, if they find this worthwhile.

You know, only last year, PocketBook released their first truly advanced color e-ink device, the PocketBook 741 InkPad Color:

https://www.pocketbook-int.com/us/pr...k-inkpad-color

This one would really tempt me, especially if I could install BookFusion on it! And it's not prohibitively expensive at all – can be had for around €250.

Another nice option, perhaps (although "only black-and-white"), similarly priced, could be the brand-new Xiaomi Moaan InkPalm Mini Plus 5.84 (3rd Gen):

https://goodereader.com/blog/product...n-ebook-reader
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004397262841.html

It runs Android 11, so I could install both BookFusion and Moon+ Reader on it straightaway.

And who knows, @Sirtel: perhaps even my usual Moon+ Reader background textures would be enjoyable there as well – even though it's a black-and-white e-ink screen!

Now, finally to make good on my promise to @skillachie, here is my list of current BookFusion issues/feature requests, ordered by priority as I perceive it.

Only the first 4 items on this list, @skillachie, are "show-stoppers" for me. But I'd hate to miss some of the other features listed below them, which have been available in Moon+ Reader and/or Marvin for many years.

CURRENT BOOKFUSION ISSUES/FEATURE REQUESTS

ORDERED BY PRIORITY

1. custom background textures (unlimited savable themes; on-the-fly fast switching) must-have
2. stop converting highlights to plain-text upon export must-have
3. freehand-drawing/annotation of images-only PDF files must-have
4. custom fonts must-have
5. book files information (number of words/characters; file size in KB/MB; estimated time to read; book sorting options according to these criteria) must-have
6. custom headers & footers Marvin feature parity
7. syncing volatility/data security: enable one-tap, on-demand backup of current bookshelf to Dropbox/Drive GoodReader feature parity
8. adjust screen brightness via swipe up/down Marvin/Moon feature parity
9. quick navigation inside book via gestures (1-finger, 2-finger, 3-finger swipe; 1-finger, 2-finger, 3-finger tap...) Marvin/Moon feature parity
10. feature parity across all BookFusion platforms (for example: no multiple-color highlights and no tags currently available on Android; no way to upgrade from the Android app...) missing feature/bug
11. unclear highlights sharing functionality: "public" switch apparently makes no difference for me bug/unclear feature
    • bulk public share/export of all highlights from a particular book/tag wish/feature request
12. miscellaneous bugs, such as:
    • new books I start reading refuse to automatically appear at the top of the screen (in the "You're reading" section) bug
13. BookFusion for PocketBook e-ink readers wish/feature request
14. voice notes futuristic wish/feature request
    • make it possible to record a book annotation not only by typing or drawing it, but also by dictating it
    • ideally: let the recorded voice annotation be stored externally (for example, in Dropbox/Drive), with only the URL to that recording being stored within the book itself; otherwise, voice notes would quickly inflate the sizes of the book files themselves – make them bloated

If you can, @skillachie, within the next 12 months, implement at least the top 4 issues from the above list in BookFusion, I can definitely see myself prolonging my BookFusion subscription, perhaps also moving to a higher paid tier, and perhaps also switching to BookFusion as my main (or even only?!) e-reader app on all platforms.

Thank you in advance if you can make any of the above items a reality in BookFusion!

[DNSB]

One of the things I love about calibre and using search on both calibre and my eInk devices is not having to waste time maintaining a complex directory structure to allow easily finding books. Hmmm... want to locate all books with Al Robertson as a co-author? Easy-peasy with search. Using a directory structure? A massive PITA.

As for using calibre with Dropbox, if you are very careful to only use one computer at a time to access your library and are very, very lucky, you may be able to use Dropbox to store your library. Unfortunately, there are just too many message on Mobileread starting with words to the effect: "I've had my library in Dropbox/OneDrive/iDrive/Amazon Cloud/Box/whatever for years and suddenly I can't access my library/I'm getting errors accessing my library/hundreds of books in my library have gone missing/whatever other errors you care to think of. Most of the time the response is to point the user at I am getting errors with my calibre library on a networked drive/NAS?.

For me, local storage for libraries and a one way sync to my various backups works just fine.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by DNSB

One of the things I love about calibre and using search on both calibre and my eInk devices is not having to waste time maintaining a complex directory structure to allow easily finding books. Hmmm... want to locate all books with Al Robertson as a co-author? Easy-peasy with search. Using a directory structure? A massive PITA.

I don't feel it's as bad as that... At least not for the example you stated. I'd be sure to include "Al Robertson" as part of the book's file name, so that it would pop up instantly in a simple Dropbox search, regardless of the folder in which the book might be stored.

Plus, because I mirror Dropbox on my Windows computers, searches can also be performed using my preferred Windows file manager, Total Commander. (It can look inside EPUB files if so instructed.)

It all comes down to what @Sirtel mentioned:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

yeah, it takes a lot of time to get the metadata right in the first place.

Ultimately I decided it was no longer worth the bother for me. (Keeping everything neatly organized in a local copy of Calibre.)

Originally Posted by DNSB

As for using calibre with Dropbox, if you are very careful to only use one computer at a time to access your library and are very, very lucky, you may be able to use Dropbox to store your library.

That's part of the trouble. I routinely run several Windows machines simultaneously (such as the desktop computer along with the notebook), and it might happen for me to inadvertently open Calibre on both machines at the same time... This can wreak havoc with Calibre's database, given that Dropbox will attempt to keep it in sync across devices at all times. I think I ran into such trouble a couple of times years ago, and that was another thing that demotivated me from continued use of Calibre.

Originally Posted by DNSB

For me, local storage for libraries and a one way sync to my various backups works just fine.

Good for you, and to each their own, but I can't help thinking that the reverse way of setting it up is more in tune with the 21st century.

That is, it appears more logical nowadays for the central storage to be located in the cloud, and for local storages to only access those parts of the cloud that are needed at the moment on a particular device.

(Of course, another full copy of the library may also be stored/mirrored elsewhere, so that the primary cloud copy is not the only full copy of the library, in case of a catastrophe befalling the cloud provider. That's why I'm asking @skillachie to make it possible for us to keep backups of our library – or at least of selected BookFusion shelves – in Dropbox or Drive alongside the in-house cloud storage provided by BookFusion.)

The reverse way – for main storage to be local, and trying to keep it in sync with all devices using a cloud/syncing service (let alone manual wifi/Bluetooth connections) strikes me as a "20th century way of doing things".

In other words, what I think we really need in 2022 is Calibre in the Cloud. (As an option: those users who distrust cloud services and who prefer to run Calibre locally might continue doing so, of course.) I would welcome a Calibre Cloud service enthusiastically! Then I might perhaps sacrifice all those hours needed to fix all the metadata in my e-books.

But hey, here comes BookFusion! In the app stores, it's being advertised not only as an ebook reader, but also as an "ebook organizer and manager with cloud sync". So, perhaps BookFusion's cloud service can become that "Calibre Cloud for the 21st century", if Kovid Goyal has no plans to turn Calibre into a cloud-based service optionally.

Originally Posted by Faterson

Another nice option, perhaps (although "only black-and-white"), similarly priced [around €250], could be the brand-new Xiaomi Moaan InkPalm Mini Plus 5.84 (3rd Gen):

https://goodereader.com/blog/product...n-ebook-reader
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004397262841.html

It runs Android 11, so I could install both BookFusion and Moon+ Reader on it straightaway.

I eventually chose a different route: I've noticed very positive reviews for the latest cheap Onyx Boox Poke 4 Lite e-ink reader, so that's what I've just purchased, and it should be delivered to me later this week.

It was only €157, so not too much expense for (largely) testing purposes. At the same time, the quality should be solid, according to reviews. The device runs Android 11, so I'm really looking forward to running Moon+ Reader Pro, BookFusion and KOReader on it. I'll be able to provide direct feedback to @skillachie as to how BookFusion behaves on such a 6-inch e-ink screen.

My thanks to @skillachie (for mentioning that BookFusion is, in fact, available on e-ink devices running Android) and especially to @Sirtel, without whose ravings about e-ink readers in this thread it would certainly not occur to me to purchase another e-ink reader at this point.

But standard, contemporary, full-fledged and open Android on an e-ink reader – that's really a new twist I haven't seen or tried before, so it will be interesting to try and employ it in action, despite the slow annotation capabilities.

The non-availability of multi-color highlights (well, at least not visibly so) on a black-and-white screen will pose a major obstacle for me, but perhaps I can find a way to get around it. (Maybe a "red" and a "blue" highlight – those two colors are the ones I use most frequently, and each of them has a set purpose – do look sufficiently different even on a grey-scale screen, so that the continued use of them will be possible even on a non-color e-ink device?)

As to colored e-ink devices, I took a closer look at user reviews for PocketBook 741 InkPad Color I mentioned earlier, and while most owners of it seem if not happy, then at least OK with it, quite a few owners (on Amazon and elsewhere) are complaining about it, claiming "colored e-ink is not ready for serious play yet", and advising anyone wishing to enjoy color on e-ink devices to wait another 2 or 3 years so that the technology can further mature.

That kind of user feedback certainly disincentives me from potential purchase, as does the fact that it's a Linux device, instead of Android.

On the other hand, I took a look at the instructions for installing KOReader on PocketBook, and they seem pretty straightforward, so while it's true PocketBooks run on Linux, it seems to be a very open flavor of Linux.

So, perhaps it might not be all that difficult after all for @skillachie and his team to prepare a BookFusion installation package for PocketBook. Maybe they can accomplish it even without asking PocketBook for permission. If they succeed in doing so, I'll be happy to test BookFusion on my PocketBook InkPad 3. It's really a great device, as far as e-ink readers go, although I've found quite a few user complaints about it online, too. Not as many as about the color version of the device, but it appears it tends to break down under intensive use for some users. Perhaps because I've only been using it occasionally over the last 4 years, it's been operating flawlessly for me. Alas, there are all those e-ink limitations, especially regarding annotations.

Anyway, PocketBook's newest pride, only introduced this summer, is the PocketBook Era, and I'd definitely be interested in giving it a try, especially if @skillachie and his team make it possible to run BookFusion on non-Android PocketBooks as well!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Faterson

I don't feel it's as bad as that... At least not for the example you stated. I'd be sure to include "Al Robertson" as part of the book's file name, so that it would pop up instantly in a simple Dropbox search, regardless of the folder in which the book might be stored.

I rather deliberately choose that author. Currently, i have 6 books to which Al Robertson contributed a story. The shortest author list is 14, the longest is 22. I tend to collect anthologies.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Faterson

...That is, it appears more logical nowadays for the central storage to be located in the cloud, and for local storages to only access those parts of the cloud that are needed at the moment on a particular device.

(Of course, another full copy of the library may also be stored/mirrored elsewhere, so that the primary cloud copy is not the only full copy of the library, in case of a catastrophe befalling the cloud provider. That's why I'm asking @skillachie to make it possible for us to keep backups of our library – or at least of selected BookFusion shelves – in Dropbox or Drive alongside the in-house cloud storage provided by BookFusion.)

The reverse way – for main storage to be local, and trying to keep it in sync with all devices using a cloud/syncing service (let alone manual wifi/Bluetooth connections) strikes me as a "20th century way of doing things".

Personally I agree with you in this. I too would like a "Calibre in the Cloud". But I can manage with a local copy, if need be, as Calibre is indispensable for me and there is nothing comparable to it, free or paid.

My thanks to @skillachie (for mentioning that BookFusion is, in fact, available on e-ink devices running Android) and especially to @Sirtel, without whose ravings about e-ink readers in this thread it would certainly not occur to me to purchase another e-ink reader at this point.

[Faterson]

My latest e-ink reader, the Onyx Boox Poke 4 Lite, has arrived, and I'm happy to report that BookFusion works on it just fine!

Here is BookFusion's home view on the e-ink screen:



When you make a screenshot of it directly on the device, it looks like this when transferred to a color screen:



That looks a lot worse than the black-and-white version in reality. (This cheap Onyx e-reader only has a screen resolution of 758 × 1024 pixels, which, on a color 6-inch screen, isn't enough for quality color display, but for a black-and-white e-ink reader, it's perfectly adequate.)

Here is a scanned PDF book (images only) when viewed in BookFusion on this e-ink device:



It's perfectly sharp, and a joy to read – even on such a small 6-inch screen.

In fact, I have discovered that BookFusion's display of PDF files is superior compared to Adobe Acrobat's display of the same PDF files! That's just incredible, and incredibly embarrassing for a multi-billion corporation like Adobe, that a startup like BookFusion can already beat it in terms of the display of PDFs. What I mean is, Adobe Acrobat is unable to remember the zoom level you prefer as you flip through your PDF book – it goes back to default zoom after every page flip. Well, that's corporate software for you.

As to EPUBs, here is one in BookFusion on this e-ink device:



Once again, perfectly sharp picture and a joy to read.

However, here we already begin seeing some of the current deficiencies of BookFusion on Android when compared to BookFusion on iOS. (I know it's only temporary.) For now, BookFusion on Android doesn't support paragraph alignment (no "justify paragraphs" is possible). Of course, that's elementary functionality. It was only added to BookFusion for iOS a few weeks ago, so I'm sure it will be added on Android as well.

Another deficiency is the inability to load custom fonts in BookFusion. I really like only two fonts currently offered by BookFusion: Bookerly and Volkhov.

Yeah, all the other BookFusion fonts are usable as well, but I just don't find them all that attractive.

This is and always will be entirely subjective. App developers can never oblige everyone's tastes in terms of fonts, so really the only proper way to deal with this is to enable custom fonts.

Compare the above screenshot with the following beauty – that's Moon+ Reader in e-ink, and books look just as stunning there as they do on a phone or traditional tablet. Why am I not surprised?



You can see the nicely justified paragraphs there, and a font that in my estimation is even nicer than Bookerly – Libre Baskerville, which I set up as my default Day Theme in Moon+ Reader. (That's very different from the ordinary Baskerville font offered by BookFusion, which I find too indistinct.)

You can also see the very nice footer offered by Moon+ Reader, whereas in BookFusion, there is no footer and header at all, as you read your book. In BookFusion, you need to tap the center of the screen, and only then, headers and footers appear. But unlike in Marvin, they are not customizable in any way. So, when it comes to headers and footers, there is huge space for improvement for BookFusion.

By the way, that small circle in the bottom right corner of the screen isn't Moon+ Reader or BookFusion, but Onyx Boox's "navigation ball". It can be completely disabled, but I find it useful (its menu options can be customized to your liking), so I keep it visible at all times. (The ball can be dragged to any area of the screen you prefer.)

Just to showcase Moon+ Reader's abilities in terms of custom fonts and themes, here are the 24 themes/custom fonts I set up in Moon+ Reader Pro on my new e-ink device (I later added Bookerly as theme/custom font no. 25):



I use dozens of dark themes, with custom background textures, on my iPads and Android tablets and on my phone, but here on the black-and-white e-ink screen, a dark theme really does not make sense. It just doesn't look good. I left one dark theme in Moon, just for the sake of formality (employing the only non-serif font I use: Futura), but I don't think I'll actually be using it to read anything on this e-ink device.

Same goes for custom background textures. They just make zero sense on an e-ink device, because they resemble ghosting that is such a negative feature of e-ink screens. So, now I understand you guys who were sneering at my suggestion that no custom background textures were BookFusion's current weakness no. 1. I guess all of you are e-ink fans! I still claim that custom background textures are the no. 1 priority (at least for my needs), but that certainly doesn't apply to black-and-white e-ink devices. (And probably not to color e-ink devices, either.)

Now that we've mentioned color e-ink devices: I have researched this some more, and I learned that when displaying any colored content, a color e-ink device switches to one third of the nominal resolution of its screen! That's completely ridiculous. No wonder folks are complaining about colored e-ink devices – both Onyx Boox Nova Air Color and PocketBook 741 InkPad Color. The colors are too washed out, they say, and black-and-white text too dark. No wonder, because what happens is that these color e-ink devices' screen resolution only gets used when viewing black-and-white content. When displaying colored content, their screen resolution gets instantly reduced by 66%.

For example, the PocketBook741 InkPad Color's screen resolution is 1404 x 1872 pixels (that's luxury on an 8-inch screen), but as soon as something colored needs to be displayed, the resolution drops to embarrassing 468 x 624 pixels! Yep, colors must look bad then. It's like going back to the 1990s, to all those fat VGA monitors with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.

I guess colored e-ink isn't ready for play yet, and we need to wait another 3 or 5 years for the technology to develop.

To sum it up, @skillachie, I don't think any major fixes need to be performed for BookFusion in order for it to be usable on a black-and-white e-ink device. I believe BookFusion on e-ink is just fine as it is now. Any issues I have observed are issues with the Android app, and have nothing to do with the black-and-white e-ink screen.

Maybe, if you could create an exclusive "Snow White" theme for BookFusion, that would probably be appreciated by e-ink users. Because any dark interface element tends to look awful on an e-ink screen. But even without such a "Snow White" theme, BookFusion is perfectly usable on e-ink as it is now.

Here, though, is another nasty Android bug, @skillachie, I discovered in BookFusion while testing it on the e-ink reader: when you open a PDF file in BookFusion for Android, it resets the fonts in all of your EPUB books (!) back to the default font, which is, naturally, ugly. It makes no sense for this to be happening, but it does happen – on Android. This nasty bug doesn't exist in BookFusion for iOS and for the web.

Some other Android bugs I noticed earlier were rearing their ugly heads on e-ink also. For example, you open a book, read it for a bit, yet it fails to appear in the upper You're Reading section. Once again, it's only a bug occurring in Android; iOS and web are fine.

Uploading a new book to the Android app is really a messy process – unlike in the iOS app or on the web, it's unclear whether you have imported the book successfully or not. And then, when you upload the same book a second time, just to make sure it's there, an error message pops up, saying, "This book already is in your library." But it can't be seen anywhere! Neither in the You're Reading section at the top of the screen, nor below among "All Books". Even force-quitting BookFusion and restarting the app several times doesn't resolve this issue.

Another important feature currently missing in BookFusion on Android is the inability to remove a book from the "You're Reading" section, etc., whereas this is possible in iOS and on the web. On iOS, you simply tap and hold any book, and various options pop up. No such functionality on Android currently.

As to Android apps, in general, on this e-ink device, everything is more or less fine. Getting Google Play Store enabled was a rather arduous, trial-and-error process, but I got it done eventually somehow. Most Android apps can be installed without any issues (such as Google Drive, Google Keep, Google Translate, any browser you want, etc.). A few refuse to get installed via Google Play Store, such as Dropbox, but I was able to install it using the Onyx App Store, even though it's an older Dropbox version that apparently never will be capable of an update. But Dropbox annotations syncing worked just fine for me in both Moon+ Reader Pro and in Adobe Acrobat even before I installed the Dropbox app – both Moon and Acrobat simply used my preferred Windows and Android browser, Vivaldi (the true heir of Opera!), to authenticate themselves via Dropbox's web interface.

One of the things that made me ecstatic about this new e-ink device is that you can even install SwiftKey keyboard on it – the finest Android and iOS keyboard there is. So, one of the things I kept mentioning to Sirtel in this thread as a major weakness of e-ink devices, no longer applies. Because using SwiftKey as your keyboard, you can type just as fast on your e-ink device as you can on your phone or regular tablet. I never expected that anything like this would be technologically possible, but it is very much reality now.

And so, in terms of annotations, I'm faced with the final obstacle: no multiple-color highlights on a black-and-white e-ink screen. Here is what multiple-color highlights look like on my e-ink device (screenshot is from Dynalist, my preferred note-taking app):



As you can see, even on a black-and-white e-ink screen, purple is very easy to tell apart from yellow and red. So, I might perhaps continue using these particular colors even on a black-and-white screen. However, the colors within the pairs of red and orange, as well as green and blue, are too close to one another, so I would have to ditch one highlight color within each pair.

Here is how KOReader and Moon+ Reader get around that obstacle: they support multiple types of underline. And that works equally well on black-and-white e-ink screens as it does on color phone and tablet screens. Single underline, double underline, dotted underline, dashed underline, strike-through and traditional highlighting – those would be 6 types of highlighters that don't rely on colors in any way.

Therefore, @skillachie, it would be great if you could enable these various types of underline in BookFusion as well, and they can then, on black-and-white e-ink devices, nicely provide the functionality typically provided by highlight colors on color-enabled screens.

As to default e-reader software installed on this e-ink device, NeoReader, it's completely unusable. Customization options are downright pitiful – broken or not really improving the display of books. Particularly the font selection is atrocious: I basically found a single usable font, and even that font is ugly. Perhaps NeoReader is more advanced on more expensive Onyx Boox e-readers, but this is a tragedy. I would uninstall NeoReader from the device immediately, but it can't be uninstalled – only hidden. OK. Since it's an Android device, I don't really mind – I immediately loaded all my books into Moon+ Reader, BookFusion and Adobe Acrobat.

Onyx's Book Store is useless as well. You can't actually buy anything in it (unless you're in China, I guess), so it only offers public-domain books, but in a totally haphazard, chaotic fashion. No organization whatsoever. And even the editions offered are very much suspect. I downloaded Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a test, only to find out it started in the middle of the book, and it was a slapdash Project Gutenberg effort.

Compare that with BookFusion's superb offering of free e-books in its own store. The Standard eBooks library is available, which, while being based on work of volunteers just like Project Gutenberg, only accepts top-quality work in its catalog, so these are superb editions. (Unfortunately, it looks like all Standard eBooks in BookFusion's library are in English only for now.)

As to this e-ink reader's battery, it drains pretty fast if you use it as a regular Android tablet, not really as an e-reader (particularly if you also keep the two separately adjustable lighting options active at all times: warm/orange and cold/blue light). In such a case, I guess the battery would only last about 10 hours, just like on a traditional tablet. However, if you do use it as an e-reader, and especially if you switch off screen lighting in daytime, the battery should last a lot longer than on a typical Android tablet. Is it going to be days, or weeks? We shall see. I've so far spent most of the time setting up the device rather than reading on it, so I've been unable to observe any e-ink battery advantage as yet, but I'm sure it will be there once I actually start using the device for reading books.

To sign off for today, I leave you with a joke. Whenever I install the predictive SwiftKey keybaord on a new device, and set up sync with my cloud account in it, I let SwiftKey type out an entire nonsense letter for me, based entirely on its own predictions, drawn from my writings over the years. I always have a good laugh at whatever SwiftKey comes up with. At the same time, it's slightly alarming. If the following letter that SwiftKey automatically typed out for me after getting installed on my new e-ink device truly reflects the habitual state of my mind and soul, I think I should go and consult a psychiatrist right away:

I just completed an activity with Runkeeper and I am not sure what to do with it but I will be sure to send it to you as soon as I can manage to make myself understood sufficiently in your language to explain that you do not know what to do with your life and how you can be a good writer and you are a vibrational writer and you are a writer and a writer is a writer who writes about the world of art and photography for her and her wife and friends who have a great experience in the area of art and photography and the Philosopher’s Stone is a great place to work with and enjoy the outdoors and the beautiful beaches and beautiful colors and the style of the world and the education of the world and the world of the rule of life and the world has changed much in recent years and the world is a very popular place to live in and out of that area of life and the world is a very close relationship with the energy that is your Source which does always feel good to be a loose puck and a good idea to have a good life.

[Faterson]

I have just discovered another show-stopping issue in BookFusion (goes to show I really only currently use it occasionally to read a single book out of the 12+ I'm currently reading):

There is currently no search option (within book files) whatsoever in BookFusion, on none of the 3 platforms (iOS, Android, web).

That's elementary, basic functionality, of course, so I added it to my above list of BookFusion bugs/feature requests, putting it at #5 and tagging it as must-have.

While I was at it, I also added another sorely missing piece of functionality, putting it at #6 in the list and also tagging it as must-have. It's about missing book file information.

In BookFusion, you currently have no way of knowing how long or short any book in your library is – other than actually opening it and looking at the (completely random, depending on your screen size) "page" number in the book's footer.

There should be a standard way of looking up this information, both without actually opening the book and while the book is opened.

At a minimum, in addition to "page/screen" numbers (which, apart from PDF files, will vary depending on your current device/screen size), the non-changing data of number of words and number of characters for each book file should be available, along with file size (in KB and/or MB).

Library sorting options should include "from longest to shortest" book (and vice versa), "from largest to smallest" file size (and vice versa), etc.

I also like Moon+ Reader's estimation of "time necessary to read the book" (or to finish the book as you're reading it), which (I think) Moon+ Reader dynamically adjusts and updates depending on your actual speed of flipping the pages as you read the book.

Of course, "time to read" is even more guesswork than the random "(pseudo-)page" numbers in the footer, but I still find it useful in Moon+ Reader, and seeing that time estimate there in the footer at all times motivates me to continue reading the book and finish it faster, perhaps.

Thank you, @skillachie, if you can add these features to BookFusion later on.

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The best way to do multiple overrides is to allow each override to be turned on or off That way we can override what we want and leave the CSS to handle what we want. Can you do the overrides this way for iOS?

This is the exact default behavior in the iOS app.

The addition that we will add is a toggle to completely disable all publisher styles since we have observed based on other readers feedback there are books that want to enforce certain styles and we need to override those styles completely to allow for the other overrides to work.

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Tap the left edge to move forward is my most wanted feature as I hold my ipad mini in my left hand and it is so easy to just tap with my thumb rather than trying to hold the mini in my left hand as I swipe - clumsy is my middle name! Otherwise I have to bring up my right hand to tap.

I agree with this and find it annoying myself as well to have to move my hand. Customizable tap areas is on our list.

[skillachie]

@Faterson

If @skillachie & his team can improve BookFusion so that it becomes a truly great e-reader app, and then if they can make BookFusion available on e-ink devices, that would be fantastic.

My trouble is that I currently possess a PocketBook, which is not Android but Linux.

So I guess BookFusion developers would need to approach the PocketBook team in Switzerland and make a special arrangement, so that it becomes possible to install BookFusion on PocketBooks. KOReader has made it possible, so BookFusion could, too, if they find this worthwhile.

You know, only last year, PocketBook released their first truly advanced color e-ink device, the PocketBook 741 InkPad Color:

We plan to make optimizations for e-ink Android based devices.

Unfortunately, we think our time would be better spent working with Android e-ink providers, since most do not have the cross platform based solution and it would be mutually beneficial. This is less likely with PocketBook.

In anycase, a core focus will be on Android based e-inks once we finish the Android refresh.

Now, finally to make good on my promise to @skillachie, here is my list of current BookFusion issues/feature requests, ordered by priority as I perceive it.

Only the first 4 items on this list, @skillachie, are "show-stoppers" for me. But I'd hate to miss some of the other features listed below them, which have been available in Moon+ Reader and/or Marvin for many years.

CURRENT BOOKFUSION ISSUES/FEATURE REQUESTS

ORDERED BY PRIORITY


- custom background textures (unlimited savable themes; on-the-fly fast switching) must-have

- stop converting highlights to plain-text upon export must-have

- freehand-drawing/annotation of images-only PDF files must-have

- custom fonts must-have

- search within book must-have

- book files information (number of words/characters; file size in KB/MB; estimated time to read, etc.) must-have

Thank you for sharing this list. We should be able to address these within the next 12 months.


I must say #5 is basic and is already supported not sure how you missed the search icon but I will address this with screenshots in another post.


book files information - You can see the file size, file type from this list from just the book cover. The only thing not displayed on the cover is the estimated time to read

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by Faterson

I have just discovered another show-stopping issue in BookFusion (goes to show I really only currently use it occasionally to read a single book out of the 12+ I'm currently reading):

There is currently no search option (within book files) whatsoever in BookFusion, on none of the 3 platforms (iOS, Android, web).

That's elementary, basic functionality, of course, so I added it to my above list of BookFusion bugs/feature requests, putting it at #5 and tagging it as must-have.

While I was at it, I also added another sorely missing piece of functionality, putting it at #6 in the list and also tagging it as must-have. It's about missing book file information.

In BookFusion, you currently have no way of knowing how long or short any book in your library is – other than actually opening it and looking at the (completely random, depending on your screen size) "page" number in the book's footer.

There should be a standard way of looking up this information, both without actually opening the book and while the book is opened.

At a minimum, in addition to "page/screen" numbers (which, apart from PDF files, will vary depending on your current device/screen size), the non-changing data of number of words and number of characters for each book file should be available, along with file size (in KB and/or MB).

Library sorting options should include "from longest to shortest" book (and vice versa), "from largest to smallest" file size (and vice versa), etc.

I also like Moon+ Reader's estimation of "time necessary to read the book" (or to finish the book as you're reading it), which (I think) Moon+ Reader dynamically adjusts and updates depending on your actual speed of flipping the pages as you read the book.

Of course, "time to read" is even more guesswork than the random "(pseudo-)page" numbers in the footer, but I still find it useful in Moon+ Reader, and seeing that time estimate there in the footer at all times motivates me to continue reading the book and finish it faster, perhaps.

Thank you, @skillachie, if you can add these features to BookFusion later on.

Search

How can an eBook platform even consider it self to be serious if basic search is not within the Books? Are you sure you used BookFusion or even have the latest version installed.

Please double check the app you have installed. Search is available across iOS, Web and Android all accessible from the same location via the search icon.

See the images below that have search




Please correct the blasphemy in your post sir.




Tagging

You are currently able to tag both books and individual highlights in the iOS and Web App.

1. Tagging books from the edit screen






2. Tagging highlights


Click the tag icon next to the color icon.





3. Book File information

As mentioned in the previous post we already do provide some of this from the book cover. File size( KB/MB), Tags and other data.





The only thing we do not have on the book cover currently is the number of words and total estimated time. We can look at including these additional details


We recently added number of pages left in chapter in the iOS app and will also add the ability to tap and change this to time left in chapter.

4. Additional sorting options

Library sorting options should include "from longest to shortest" book (and vice versa), "from largest to smallest" file size (and vice versa), etc.

To be honest, we have never had the request to sort by file size before. How does this sorting option helps you to pick what to read next or when searching for a book?