KOReader vs patched Nickel?

[Uncle Robin]

I've reached a point where I'm comfortable with the idea of installing KOReader on my Libra, but I'm curious about what advantages it offers over Nickel with the handful of patches I enable.

First, I NEVER read PDFs on my Libra - nunca, jamais, mai, niemals, not ever. I have the impression that PDF reading is a major part of KOReader's raison d'être.

Second, I read with headers and footers off - only the progress bar showing.

Third, I have advanced font control for sideloaded fonts enabled.

Given those contextual details, what am I missing out on by not using KOReader?

[Jellby]

In-page footnotes (as "real" footnotes, no need to tap anything)
Better annotation and dictionary/search experience (at least if you can find good enough dictioaries)
More flexible style tweaking, if you want to
Possibility of skipping non-linear sections (if defined in the book)

But the CSS support is a bit worse (e.g., no max/min width/height)

[Alan_S]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Given those contextual details, what am I missing out on by not using KOReader?

Why you think you're missing anything out? If you're satisfied with software you're using, where's the problem?

I wasn't satisfied with nickel, I tried koreader (I also try to avoid pdf as much as I can) and I was ... well, it was sort of love at first sight.

But, I can't tell you what you're missing out. Some of the features that blew my mind may leave you totally unimpressed.

I think that there's only one thing you should do: Try and see. Or, of course, don't. Whatever. I'm really not one to tell you if you're missing anything in your life.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Jellby

In-page footnotes (as "real" footnotes, no need to tap anything)

Thanks for your detailed and helpful response Jellby. It has strengthened my belief that there is little advantage for me in using KOReader. The new stock Kobo dictionary is so much better than the old one that it meets my needs, and the first point you list (quoted above) is an active turn-off for me - I like having footnotes hidden until tapped, saving screen real estate for the body of the text while still letting me read the footnotes if I choose to.

I genuinely appreciate your reply because it was exactly the sort of helpful response I was hoping for. I'd wondered if there was feature of KOReader that would make me think "woss I gotta have that!" and so asked as I did.

[pazos]

@Uncle Robin: Yup. Most people that are fine with their current reader don't need to use KOReader.

Anyways, KO is a power tool, not exactly consumer friendly, but all these things can be enabled or disabled at user will. That's the whole point of it.

Some screenshots about the style tweaks feature that could give you a hint of the tweakable nature of that specific feature:

1. landing page of style tweaks
2. text tweaks
3. misc tweaks
4. misc tweaks -> footnotes

And that's is just a part of the picture. There're plenty of things that most users won't need (including full text translation, html/css viewer, user specific style tweaks, reading stats as the screensaver, the ability to apply different css styles based on the path of the file or changing a bunch of settings with a single gesture. These to name a few)

For most people I know recommending KOReader as a reader is almost the same as recommending GIMP as a picture viewer. It is a bit overkill and there're simpler, easier, better looking tools to do that job

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by pazos

For most people I know recommending KOReader as a reader is almost the same as recommending GIMP as a picture viewer. It is a bit overkill and there're simpler, easier, better looking tools to do that job

As an occasional GIMP user, that's a great analogy, thanks! The full text translation does sound interesting, though.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

and the first point you list (quoted above) is an active turn-off for me - I like having footnotes hidden until tapped

If it wasn't clear, that's an option. You can choose to have footnotes as plain end-notes or whatever they are in the book.

[Jellby]

Oh, something else I forgot:

True smallcaps with the right font. And I don't mean an embedded smallcaps font, but the true smallcaps for whichever font you choose for your main text.

[pazos]

Yup. The other side of the story are a few of us, accustomed to KOReader, facing a Kindle/Kobo stock and thinking a bit about MS Paint.

[Uncle Robin]

I wonder if a more informative question might have been: "What's your tinkering-to-reading ratio?"

[pazos]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I wonder if a more informative question might have been: "What's your tinkering-to-reading ratio?"

As an end user I definitly save time by eating a crapload of nasty formatted ebooks directly with KOReader instead of fixing them manually in Sigil.

In the same vein I save time writting work reports on Markdown instead of using office tools. That doesn't mean I would recommend my specific workflow to others.

I understand book curators that want to spend time tunning their libraries. I don't. I just want to read. The same with music: I don't need iTunes, just a bunch of folders with my music and sensible file names.

[Frenzie]

First, I NEVER read PDFs on my Libra - nunca, jamais, mai, niemals, not ever. I have the impression that PDF reading is a major part of KOReader's raison d'être.

That's a bit of a catch 22 though. If you're not using KOReader, of course you're not reading DjVu/PDF, because it's slow and a pain. (And in the case of DjVu, unsupported.)

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Given those contextual details, what am I missing out on by not using KOReader?

If you don't feel like you're missing anything, quite possibly nothing. But trying coolreader, KOReader and Plato just requires a few minutes of your time — probably less than you've spent in this topic by now. If you're curious enough for that, maybe just do it. ^_^

The Wallabag plugin has become an unexpected killer feature for me over the past year. But of course you can also get Wallabag on plain Kobo with wallabako, or use Pocket instead.

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Thanks for your detailed and helpful response Jellby. It has strengthened my belief that there is little advantage for me in using KOReader. The new stock Kobo dictionary is so much better than the old one that it meets my needs, and the first point you list (quoted above) is an active turn-off for me - I like having footnotes hidden until tapped, saving screen real estate for the body of the text while still letting me read the footnotes if I choose to.

Fwiw, KOReader can do that too.

[NiLuJe]

Originally Posted by pazos

As an end user I definitly save time by eating a crapload of nasty formatted ebooks directly with KOReader instead of fixing them manually in Sigil.

^ This. .

[Frenzie]

To a lesser but still substantial degree that's also true for not so great scans in DjVu/PDF, btw. Except there it's something like ScanTailor, unpaper or k2pdfopt instead of Sigil.

The new zoom to comic panel feature is also quite neat for what little manga I read on my device. I actually have an Izneo subscription right now (mainly for Franco-Belgian comics in French), but I use that on my laptop. I wouldn't want to lose the color.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

That's a bit of a catch 22 though. If you're not using KOReader, of course you're not reading DjVu/PDF, because it's slow and a pain.

Nope, you're utterly wrong about this, absolutely no Catch-22 situation here. The reason I don't read PDF ever on my reader is that my reader is too small, and the few PDFs I do read need not only larger screens but also color displays. I don't even read many PDFs on my 10.1 tablet, I read most of the PDFs I do read on my 28-inch monitor.

Originally Posted by Frenzie

The Wallabag plugin has become an unexpected killer feature for me over the past year. But of course you can also get Wallabag on plain Kobo with wallabako, or use Pocket instead.

I've disabled Pocket on my Kobo, which I think shows exactly how much I value that kind of service. I ditched my Dropbox account years ago too, not interested in services of that kind either.