Cross-Platform Software for ePub and PDF?

Bob Russell · 11-30-2014, 12:50 PM

I'm looking for cross-platform (Android, Windows and OSX) reading apps for non-DRM ePub/PDF. Ideally with progress synchronization and access to dropbox files.

Cool Reader, FBReader, Moon+, BlueFire were my hopeful targets, but they don't seem to work across all the platforms, and I'm not sure if they have progress synch. Amazon's Kindle Reader app might work, but I'd have to put my personal content on their cloud and ePub files have to be converted to mobi first.

Would appreciate any suggestions - even if just for Android and Windows (not including Mac).

eschwartz · 11-30-2014, 01:58 PM

I believe the Windows version of BlueFire recently(ish) got support for syncing with Android/iOS.
FBReader should've done it as of a long time ago IIRC...

Which platform don't they support? FBReader at least should be truly cross-platform, I believe you can even install it on Symbian/BlackBerry.

Bob Russell · 11-30-2014, 04:54 PM

Thanks eschwarts.

BlueFire looks like it may work for Android/Windows. I'll give it a try, but I don't like the way sync functionality is dependent on an AdobeID with a six authorized device limit - I usually end up with orphaned authorizations so I may use it up quickly, which probably forces me to contact Adobe for a reset or create another AdobeID. Less importantly, Mac isn't supported.

FBReader does sync for Android, and even has a nice web interface. But the Windows version is still alpha/beta, doesn't show signs of active development and doesn't appear to do sync. No support for Mac.

I expect that the ideal solution would just let me store books and progress info on dropbox, but I haven't found a solution yet that will do that for me.

eschwartz · 11-30-2014, 05:10 PM

Dang, that's a bummer.

Well, here's to hoping FBReader hurries up and gets some proper support.

I guess BlueFire really is the best option ATM. I remember the developer posted here about the big Windows update and it made several people very excited, because of the noticable lack of decent options. Any new cross-platform options is cause for excitement.

I don't think even Kindle will work, because IIRC the desktop app does not support Personal Documents downloading.

Bob Russell · 11-30-2014, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I don't think even Kindle will work, because IIRC the desktop app does not support Personal Documents downloading.

Thanks! You are absolutely right. Before checking your answer, I was just told by Kindle support that neither of the Windows apps support personal documents, nor cloud reader. So far BlueFire is best, but will keep looking.

Bob Russell · 12-01-2014, 09:03 PM

Turns out that BlueFire is not viable for me on Windows because of page turning. You either page turn by keyboard arrow or by touching the two tiny little arrows on the bottom right corner of the screen. Not practical on a tablet.

It is a bit of a shock to me that there is still no reading software for Windows and Android that supports progress syncing. Surely someone will post here to tell me that I've missed an obvious solution.

FBReader would have been a fantastic solution if they had added sync to the Windows version. But, unfortunately, it looks like they have been forced to abandon Windows in order to advance the Android version.

My fall back plan? Each book will either live on my phone or my tablet, but not both. I just need to figure out which apps are the best epub and PDF ebook readers on Windows.

eschwartz · 12-01-2014, 09:18 PM

It is a Windows tablet?

I know we have some stickies in the Windows devices subforum, but I really have no experience with it.

Windows as a platform doesn't really have a large ereading crowd, between desktop/laptops which are too bulky and Windows Phone/tablets which have so little market penetration.
You could use calibre itself, if you don't mind not having annotations support beyond simple bookmarking. It has touchscreen support too.

I believe I have heard mention of Sumatra PDF reader as well (it does EPUB also).

MachineGunJoe · 12-02-2014, 11:21 AM

Hi,

Thank you both for the hints so far. I tried BlueFire which made me very hopeful first.
However, during my first attempts syncing between both devices doesn´t seem to work very well at all. So far only once my desktop managed to recognize the Android´s reading position. Maybe I´m doing something wrong but since BlueFire gives you absolutely no information on how this is supposed to work and also no error messages, it´s hard to tell what´s going wrong. More importantly, annotations/bookmarks apparently cannot be synced at all and there´s also no way of getting annotations out of the Android app. Additionally I find it pretty annoying that I cannot use my external SD card to store my books. My ultimate goal is to sync files and annotations between different Windows PCs and Android systems (or even more). I joined a thread for that here, if you´re interested:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...03#post2991803

Bob Russell · 12-02-2014, 08:46 PM

Anyone know what FBReader for Windows is written in?

It's an open source project, so there might be an opportunity for a developer who likes e-books to contribute some dropbox sync functionality similar to the Android solution!?

I see that there are threads all over the web looking for book and progress synching across Windows and Android. My guess is that iPad users are more likely to sync to MacOS.

eschwartz · 12-02-2014, 09:01 PM

https://github.com/geometer/FBReader

Last commit was a single minor merge in Jan. 2014, and before that sporadic work ending in Nov. 2012

It is written in C++.

The author is an MR member, with 10 posts: @geometer

dwig · 12-03-2014, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

Turns out that BlueFire is not viable for me on Windows because of page turning. You either page turn by keyboard arrow or by touching the two tiny little arrows on the bottom right corner of the screen. Not practical on a tablet. ...

A possible remedy is TouchMousePointer. This little app creates an on-screen touchpad similar to the hardware touchpads found on many notebooks. It has a full screen mode that is transparent and converts the touch functions to mouse-like functions. It's a handy little accessory. I find it quite useful on my Dell Venue 8 Pro.

Check out:
http://www.lovesummertrue.com/touchmousepointer/en-us/

Bob Russell · 12-03-2014, 12:30 PM

Thanks dwig. Will take a look at that or similar utilities in conjunction with Bluefire.

And another possible solution comes to mind - hasn't there been news recently about being able to repackage Android apps to run in Chrome browser? I had previously planned to use android aps with the Blue Stax Android emulator but they now require a $24 annual subscription for a solution that may give me headaches anyway. The chrome android apps might be a good alternative.

Has anyone tried Android apps in Chrome (or looked at other Chrome ebook readers) for Windows tablet ebook reading, maybe even for using Fbreader with synchronization?

eschwartz · 12-03-2014, 01:40 PM

The app has to be specifically ported over, and other arcane junk -- suffice it to say, you cannot simply use any old app. I do know the OverDrive app finally made it to Chrome, which is big news for libraryphiles who want their Chromebook to totally replace their Windows PC. Speaking of which, that is an iOS+Android app which I believe syncs settings, maybe it syncs progress as well? -- in which case, Chrome Apps is starting to look good...

Bob Russell · 12-03-2014, 05:06 PM

I will give conversion of FBReader to Chrome a try. If it gets too painful or time consuming, I'll drop it quickly because I expect it then has to be done any time you want to upgrade to the latest Android FBReader release.

eschwartz · 12-03-2014, 05:46 PM

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-run-and...-op-1637564101
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2469232,00.asp

Yeah, technically, you can just *convert* an app into a chrome-extension.crx (and use the community imitation of App Runtime for Chrome) but in practice, that doesn't always work so well...

And you need unsupported tools to do it in Chrome, since the official method is ChromeOS only.

FWIW, it is my understanding that an app will (often) have to be designed in a way that is forgiving of the ARC porting, but if you can contribute that design to the FBReader source code (and I really have no idea what that entails, or even whether non-Google developers get to know, yet) then it shouldn't be a problem to repackage it.

The main problem is, this is still in the Land of Hack.

11-30-2014, 12:50 PM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Cross-Platform Software for ePub and PDF? I'm looking for cross-platform (Android, Windows and OSX) reading apps for non-DRM ePub/PDF. Ideally with progress synchronization and access to dropbox files. Cool Reader, FBReader, Moon+, BlueFire were my hopeful targets, but they don't seem to work across all the platforms, and I'm not sure if they have progress synch. Amazon's Kindle Reader app might work, but I'd have to put my personal content on their cloud and ePub files have to be converted to mobi first. Would appreciate any suggestions - even if just for Android and Windows (not including Mac).

12-01-2014, 09:18 PM	#7
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	It is a Windows tablet? I know we have some stickies in the Windows devices subforum, but I really have no experience with it. Windows as a platform doesn't really have a large ereading crowd, between desktop/laptops which are too bulky and Windows Phone/tablets which have so little market penetration. You could use calibre itself, if you don't mind not having annotations support beyond simple bookmarking. It has touchscreen support too. I believe I have heard mention of Sumatra PDF reader as well (it does EPUB also). Last edited by eschwartz; 12-01-2014 at 09:22 PM.

12-02-2014, 11:21 AM	#8
MachineGunJoe Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2014 Device: Windows PC/Android phone	Frustrated with BlueFire, looking for annotation sync Hi, Thank you both for the hints so far. I tried BlueFire which made me very hopeful first. However, during my first attempts syncing between both devices doesn´t seem to work very well at all. So far only once my desktop managed to recognize the Android´s reading position. Maybe I´m doing something wrong but since BlueFire gives you absolutely no information on how this is supposed to work and also no error messages, it´s hard to tell what´s going wrong. More importantly, annotations/bookmarks apparently cannot be synced at all and there´s also no way of getting annotations out of the Android app. Additionally I find it pretty annoying that I cannot use my external SD card to store my books. My ultimate goal is to sync files and annotations between different Windows PCs and Android systems (or even more). I joined a thread for that here, if you´re interested: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...03#post2991803

12-02-2014, 09:01 PM	#10
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	https://github.com/geometer/FBReader Last commit was a single minor merge in Jan. 2014, and before that sporadic work ending in Nov. 2012 It is written in C++. The author is an MR member, with 10 posts: @geometer Last edited by eschwartz; 12-02-2014 at 09:06 PM.

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11-30-2014, 01:58 PM	#2
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	I believe the Windows version of BlueFire recently(ish) got support for syncing with Android/iOS. FBReader should've done it as of a long time ago IIRC... Which platform don't they support? FBReader at least should be truly cross-platform, I believe you can even install it on Symbian/BlackBerry.

11-30-2014, 04:54 PM	#3
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Thanks eschwarts. BlueFire looks like it may work for Android/Windows. I'll give it a try, but I don't like the way sync functionality is dependent on an AdobeID with a six authorized device limit - I usually end up with orphaned authorizations so I may use it up quickly, which probably forces me to contact Adobe for a reset or create another AdobeID. Less importantly, Mac isn't supported. FBReader does sync for Android, and even has a nice web interface. But the Windows version is still alpha/beta, doesn't show signs of active development and doesn't appear to do sync. No support for Mac. I expect that the ideal solution would just let me store books and progress info on dropbox, but I haven't found a solution yet that will do that for me.

11-30-2014, 05:10 PM	#4
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	Dang, that's a bummer. Well, here's to hoping FBReader hurries up and gets some proper support. I guess BlueFire really is the best option ATM. I remember the developer posted here about the big Windows update and it made several people very excited, because of the noticable lack of decent options. Any new cross-platform options is cause for excitement. I don't think even Kindle will work, because IIRC the desktop app does not support Personal Documents downloading.

12-01-2014, 09:03 PM	#6
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Turns out that BlueFire is not viable for me on Windows because of page turning. You either page turn by keyboard arrow or by touching the two tiny little arrows on the bottom right corner of the screen. Not practical on a tablet. It is a bit of a shock to me that there is still no reading software for Windows and Android that supports progress syncing. Surely someone will post here to tell me that I've missed an obvious solution. FBReader would have been a fantastic solution if they had added sync to the Windows version. But, unfortunately, it looks like they have been forced to abandon Windows in order to advance the Android version. My fall back plan? Each book will either live on my phone or my tablet, but not both. I just need to figure out which apps are the best epub and PDF ebook readers on Windows.

12-02-2014, 08:46 PM	#9
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Anyone know what FBReader for Windows is written in? It's an open source project, so there might be an opportunity for a developer who likes e-books to contribute some dropbox sync functionality similar to the Android solution!? I see that there are threads all over the web looking for book and progress synching across Windows and Android. My guess is that iPad users are more likely to sync to MacOS.

12-03-2014, 12:30 PM	#12
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Thanks dwig. Will take a look at that or similar utilities in conjunction with Bluefire. And another possible solution comes to mind - hasn't there been news recently about being able to repackage Android apps to run in Chrome browser? I had previously planned to use android aps with the Blue Stax Android emulator but they now require a $24 annual subscription for a solution that may give me headaches anyway. The chrome android apps might be a good alternative. Has anyone tried Android apps in Chrome (or looked at other Chrome ebook readers) for Windows tablet ebook reading, maybe even for using Fbreader with synchronization?

12-03-2014, 01:40 PM	#13
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	The app has to be specifically ported over, and other arcane junk -- suffice it to say, you cannot simply use any old app. I do know the OverDrive app finally made it to Chrome, which is big news for libraryphiles who want their Chromebook to totally replace their Windows PC. Speaking of which, that is an iOS+Android app which I believe syncs settings, maybe it syncs progress as well? -- in which case, Chrome Apps is starting to look good...

12-03-2014, 05:06 PM	#14
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I will give conversion of FBReader to Chrome a try. If it gets too painful or time consuming, I'll drop it quickly because I expect it then has to be done any time you want to upgrade to the latest Android FBReader release.

12-03-2014, 05:46 PM	#15
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	http://lifehacker.com/how-to-run-and...-op-1637564101 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2469232,00.asp Yeah, technically, you can just convert an app into a chrome-extension.crx (and use the community imitation of App Runtime for Chrome) but in practice, that doesn't always work so well... And you need unsupported tools to do it in Chrome, since the official method is ChromeOS only. FWIW, it is my understanding that an app will (often) have to be designed in a way that is forgiving of the ARC porting, but if you can contribute that design to the FBReader source code (and I really have no idea what that entails, or even whether non-Google developers get to know, yet) then it shouldn't be a problem to repackage it. The main problem is, this is still in the Land of Hack.

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