Test EPUB files using Google Play

[Morganucopia]

Thanks to the wonderful crew at eBook Ninjas, I discovered that EPUB developers can upload and test their eBooks using Google Play. See the attached thumbnail for a screenshot of their uploader.

From Google:

Upload your personal documents to Google Play, and read them anywhere.

• Keep up to 1,000 EPUB or PDF files in Google Play for free.
• Upload from your computer or import from Google Drive.
• Read anywhere: in the web browser, on Android phones and tablets, or with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
• Page position, bookmarks, and notes are synced to the cloud, so you can pick up reading where you left off.

File size can't exceed 50MB, and it may take a few minutes to finish processing before you can read.

Make sure you have the appropriate rights to the uploaded content.

I tested an EPUB I'm currently working on, and discovered a few things:

1. It's best to wait a bit after uploading an EPUB before trying to open it in their viewer, otherwise you'll end up with a nasty error screen. The cover of your book also doesn't appear right away in the thumbnail preview of the book. I found that if I went somewhere else in Google Play and came back, everything seemed to work and appear properly.
2. The fonts I embedded don't seem to be working. You can choose the font you want to view the book in, but there doesn't appear to be a way to turn on publisher settings.
3. I ended up with several blank pages that do not appear under other platforms, such as Nook, ADE, Kindle, etc., that I've tested on.

Hopefully readers will find this useful. And apart from using Google Play on the web, this also works on mobile devices, so it should give any developer a real good idea how Google's Android book apps will render their EPUBs.

[JSWolf]

Why did you attach a low contrast, small size image that we can't read?

[Morganucopia]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why did you attach a low contrast, small size image that we can't read?

Sorry. It's fixed now.

[Aerys]

Thanks, unfortunately Google Play Books is not yet available outside of North America.

It will be great if it will become the de facto standard ereader for Android devices, less devices for us to tweak our epubs to view on.

[Toxaris]

Actually it is also available in Europe in some countries like Belgium.

[Morganucopia]

Originally Posted by Aerys

Thanks, unfortunately Google Play Books is not yet available outside of North America.

It will be great if it will become the de facto standard ereader for Android devices, less devices for us to tweak our epubs to view on.

Can't you use it in your web browser? I didn't realize Google was country specific with their offerings.

[PoP]

Thanks for the news Morganucopia. Google Play sure makes an invaluable addition to ebook renderers but here is a (challenging) japanese test it miserably failed.

Good for general reading, wouldn't rely on it for testing.

[Morganucopia]

Originally Posted by PoP

Thanks for the news Morganucopia. Google Play sure makes an invaluable addition to ebook renderers but here is a (challenging) japanese test it miserably failed.

Good for general reading, wouldn't rely on it for testing.

Thanks for the link, PoP. Wow, Google Play really did fail that test miserably. But then, wouldn't it be important to continue testing with Google Play because it shows how that book would render to people using that setup. Now you need to code some workaround for that system that you could maybe address with a media query in your CSS code.

You should also test your Japanese books with Readium on Chrome. Readium is supposed to completely follow the EPUB 2 & 3 standards, and it should considering it's a project from the IDPF. I'd be curious how your test would render.

[PoP]

Originally Posted by Morganucopia

Thanks for the link, PoP. Wow, Google Play really did fail that test miserably. But then, wouldn't it be important to continue testing with Google Play because it shows how that book would render to people using that setup.
Agreed : to test Google Play implementation. Not to test epub3.
Now you need to code some workaround for that system that you could maybe address with a media query in your CSS code. As a last resort and possibly for only commercial reasons or perhaps as a scholar exercise. The standard should stand as is with the (idealistic) target to be implemented thoroughly by any and all renderers.

You should also test your Japanese books with Readium on Chrome. Readium is supposed to completely follow the EPUB 2 & 3 standards, and it should considering it's a project from the IDPF. I'd be curious how your test would render.Sure, time permitting, I will certainly try it

Replies inline

[PoP]

Originally Posted by Morganucopia

...
You should also test your Japanese books with Readium on Chrome. Readium is supposed to completely follow the EPUB 2 & 3 standards, and it should considering it's a project from the IDPF. I'd be curious how your test would render.

I updated the thread with a Readium test I was impressed