MapleRead - eBook Reader and Server for iOS

[romad]

Sorry, I missed the "iPad Pro 3". As I said, the "less than a second" was using "Classic Book" mode; the page turn was faster using "Modern Book" mode; I didn't test "Modern Scroll".

As for "proper proportions", I haven't noticed anything other than the type in graphics being too small to read, is that part of what you mean? The only other problems are when the publisher puts a graphic on two succeeding pages (even and odd) that is too big for 1 page and becomes unusable when reduced to fit on a single page but this is usually in PDFs. By the way I use MapleRead SE as I needed an app to replace iBooks.

[Kubaton]

Originally Posted by Aurinko

I'm looking for the best epub reader for my iPad. I've so far tried Books, Hyphen and MapleRead, and while MapleRead seems the most feature-rich out of these, there are some huge annoyances:

1. It's slow as f... Takes about two seconds usually just to display the next page/pages when I'm flipping through pages. I guess the delay is about the same for loading chapters in "modern" view. For the duration of loading pages there is the circle animation. The speed really is atrocious compared to pretty much anything else I've tried, and not even in the ballpark of acceptable.

2. In a lot of apps I find myself speed-flicking through pages, e.g. when I need to reference something that I know was three pages back. In MapleRead (in non-continuous page modes) I can't do this, because the app takes a long time after a page transition before it begins taking touch input again (at least the swipes). Again the latency is so ridiculously high I'm truly baffled how anyone can use this app. My Sony DPT-S1 with its pathetic SoC and Android 2.x can outperform the newest MapleRead CX on my 3rd gen iPad Pro. This is actually related to the first item in the list, but the issues might be separate from each other on implementation level so I separated them here.

3. Images are displayed with incorrect aspect ratio. I'm not sure if I should be complaining to the ebook publisher or the app developer first, but in Calibre's ebook viewer this problem didn't seem to manifest. When I'm viewing an .epub in the "modern" mode (continuous view without discrete page boundaries), the images are grotesquely stretched to fill the screen horizontally, but not scaled vertically to maintain correct aspect ratio. I didn't find a setting in MapleRead that would fix this.

All of these issues are totally unacceptable and definite dealbreakers for me. If I'm doing something wrong, or there are settings I have missed, or anyone has any tips & tricks on how to overcome these issues, please let me know.

I have MapleRead SE and I think it's pretty great. I've never tried flipping through pages quickly but I just tried it and there was about a second delay between page turns when the animation was set to slide. Have you tried changing the animation to instant? I tried it and, well, the pages changed in pretty much an instant even when quickly flipping through pages. Although, there was a very short delay at chapter changes.

Edit: I forgot to mention I'm using an iPad Pro 11".

[haroldgh]

I'm a long-term Marvin user coming to grips that development is dead and it'll never be updated. Trying out Mapleread.

The little multitasking bar for the iPhone X swipe gestures disappears after a couple of seconds, but then comes back after I do anything on the screen. I find this very annoying and ideally would like it to go away permanently. If that isn't possible I would like it to always show. Is there any way to accomplish either?

Marvin keeps the clock in the upper left "ear", faded out. Is there any way to show it in Mapleread the same way, without showing a full header? I like to keep screen margins short to show as much text as possible.

Also, I'm sure I must be missing something, but there appears to be no easy way to find a file in the iOS Files app and then "open in Mapleread". I can't for the life of me find it in the list, I can open this .EPUB file in 100 other apps, Slack, Gmail, Outlook, iBooks, Kindle, but Mapleread just isn't in the list.

When I copy the EPUB file to the Mapleread CE folder on my iPhone, it shows up under the iTunes tab but doesn't import. Nothing shows up on the Queue tab at all. To get it to import, I had to go to the Mapleread CE folder in the Files app and then tap it again. Is this extremely circuitous method really the best way to import books from iOS Files?

Really what I would like is for a button inside Mapleread to open the standard iOS Files picker, then I navigate to my file, tap on it, and I'm _done_.

[netdiver]

Hello everyone.

Does anyone have problems with importing images in order to create a custom theme? The popup window which allows you to choose from an album of photos in my ipad air freezes as soon as it opens.

Really strange, because the feature used to work in the past.

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by netdiver

Hello everyone.

Does anyone have problems with importing images in order to create a custom theme? The popup window which allows you to choose from an album of photos in my ipad air freezes as soon as it opens.

Really strange, because the feature used to work in the past.

It still works for me as usual with the latest version (3.2.1) of MapleRead SE and iOS 13.3 running on my iPhone and my iPad.

[crane3]

I am trying out the MR SE 3.2.1 library as a replacement for calibre companion which is heading downhill rapidly.

I have loaded my calibre library several times trying to get sorted books in calibre date added; found that I had to use Calibre as a content server to load instead of OPDS on my NAS to have the date switch work.

"Minor" point but will be helpful if MR can also have the selected authors by the particular alpha to be able to load from Calibre instead of just an individual author. This will greatly enhance the initial loading by author group instead of going thru each individual author. I thought I had read about a limit of downloading the books so getting all of them by specifying by title or date? Maybe it was just for opds servers?

Perhaps an extra step or "down arrow" when a group is selected?

Will try the "all at once" by date to see what would happen (only ~800 books); reason is I found that I missed something using the "by tag"........

[crane3]

Back again. Doing a selection by title works for all; just need to press the 3 dots at the bottom of a page/display/screen to get more titles. Looks like what I read about the limits is for OPDS group loading.

I do remember that my 1st use of opds was with my synology nas running cops which had a repro of the pc calibre library loaded. At that time I was able to download by author group to MR. Don't know why the difference & limitation other than the Calibre date date switch didn't work.

Now I wonder if I add books from the opds on the nas, would the calibre dated add work now?

[Memoir74]

Been using MapleRead SE for a week now and am happy with how it performs.

Several niggles though:

- It’s not customised for the Max iPhone screen with a gap at the top and bottom;

- It doesn’t count the number of words in a book. TBF very few ebook readers do, but Marvin and KyBooks both did. I found it handy in terms of finding out the true length of a book.

- The cloud stuff is a bit of a mess. It’s not that intuitive and if your download a book on the iPhone you need to download it again on the iPad and then sync. This is because the app isn’t using a shared server - which I understand, given the cost, but I’d pay for a genuine cloud service if it was offered.

Otherwise I like this app more than the other ebook readers out there, and I’ve tried most of them. It has my favourite font - Iowan Old Style, the margins and text size etc are fully customisable and it’s reasonably smooth on screen (when you’re turning a page). I’d recommend it. Hopefully it’s regularly updated.

[skb]

Hi everyone. Revisiting MapleRead on my ipad. I usually put ALL my books on my reading device and I want to update my list.

How can I delete ALL the existing books in MapleRead? I tried a "drag & drop" solution and it seems to have duplicated all the existing ones. I tried using iMazing (before I remembered that I could add books wirelessly via MR. Doh!).

Anyway, I'd like to work from a "clean slate" as it were. Is this possible?

Thanks

Oh and due to previous, yet unsuccessful attempts, although no documents show in File System, they're in Backup (which MR seems to be accessing). I've really stuffed this up, haven't I?

Edited again to say I think I've cracked it. I viewed all books by filetype (which was all the epubs) and the selected Edit. When I selected All, I could then Delete.

Phew. I have no idea how I got myself in this situation. Thanks anyway!

[peaceridge]

Is there any way to get the time to show up in the header? I know I can tap on the screen and it will show up, but I lose the page count until I re-tap on the screen. I'd just like the time to hang out up there, maybe before the book title.

[BlankEyes]

[QUOTE
By the way, have you tried the following new features of MapleRead 3.1?

- Enhanced the import command to also recursively import book files from folders
- Added tighter integration with Files app so that files and folders can be copied between the app's File Sharing location and other locations, including cloud drives and AirDrop via Files

By combining the 2 new features above, I can easily import hundreds of my books already organized by folders on some of my cloud drives, and have them added to (new) book sets in MapleRead. Super convenient!!! [/QUOTE]

[BlankEyes]

I remember some time ago I read a very interesting article om Tidbits called: " Better than the Printed Page: Reading on an iPad
:https://tidbits.com/2018/03/15/bette...ng-on-an-ipad/

That article proved to me just how much devotion the MapleCrew is putting in.

I very much appreciate your work

[svenlind]

Originally Posted by BlankEyes

I remember some time ago I read a very interesting article om Tidbits called: " Better than the Printed Page: Reading on an iPad
:https://tidbits.com/2018/03/15/bette...ng-on-an-ipad/

That article proved to me just how much devotion the MapleCrew is putting in.

I very much appreciate your work

I agree about Mapleread. And the article that you link to is very interesting.

[BlankEyes]

Originally Posted by svenlind

+1 from me. Very elegantly implemented.

Totally agree! Is it at all normal for reading apps to have this function? (install your own fonts).

[BlankEyes]

When I log in to my account on Maplepop; how come there are many more books listed in the Directory that has been deleted long time ago?