Koreader v. Coolreader

[93terp]

Sorry in advance for the more than likely dumb question, but can someone detail the differences between Koreader & Coolreader? What would each of these applications be used for (specifically on Kobo Aura HD), and what functionality would I get if I installed them? I've scoured through both forum threads and I can't ascertain what either of them do or functionality provided.

TIA

[Ken Maltby]

Hmm... This could take awhile.

As to which I prefer, at this time I would say Koreader, for what I read the most. But, both are developing rapidly, and both are fully functional now.

There is no cost/disadvantage to adding both to an AuraHD 281. There is no change to the way your existing Kobo software (Nickel) runs, in fact the two programs appear to Nickel as just another book or image. (I personally have no need for many of the "features" in the Kobo software and find the way it processes files to be annoying and troublesome. So I keep my thousands of ebooks in folders inside a hidden folder, which keeps them away from Nickel's processing. But, you need not do this to enjoy the two alternative readers.)

The alternative ereading programs are primarily for, well .. reading. For reading from a much larger number of file types than the Kobo software. (For me the inclusion of .pdb files is significant, others might have their own.) There are a few posters who find Koreader's PDF rendering much better than what the Kobo software provides.

The main functional improvement, from my point of view, is that both use a file browser to select your books, and that you can use a folder/subfolder and filename system of your own, to manage your library.

As for all the capabilities of each, and how the same features are implemented, for each of the programs, that would be a large post and would have to include notice that the development continues with features added and improved all the time. (Koreader has nightly builds that are actually more like beta software and the port of Coolreader gets updated within a few days of an issue being raised here.)

Why not just install both and see for yourself? Both work fine on the AuraHD 281. If you find that you could use some tips, like where to poke the screen to bring up the menus or something, the users here will gladly help out.

Luck;
Ken

[stasys]

For me Koreader is not usable because of bottom toolbar which appears when you touching bottom area of screen, so you can not turn pages using only one hand. In Coolreader you can program whole bottom screen area to turn page.

[hawhill]

Well, PDF, XPS and DJVU viewing is only present in Koreader, I think (that's where it started).

Both readers do the rest of the supported formats, which would be EPUB (to some degree, but pretty usable for what comes across), FB2, TXT, HTML (simple rendering here) and a bunch of others, like PDB (and even old DOC and CHM, I think).

The readers differ in their user interface.

From a developer's viewpoint, they are vastly different when it comes to developing the user interface. For Koreader, that is realized using Lua scripting, Coolreader uses C++ (Qt).

[93terp]

Thanks Ken Maltby, stasys, and hawhill for your replies. Are the Kobo plugins in Calibre still usable if you install Koreader or Coolreader?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by 93terp

Thanks Ken Maltby, stasys, and hawhill for your replies. Are the Kobo plugins in Calibre still usable if you install Koreader or Coolreader?

Sure, they generally are only effecting the Kobo software, which is unchanged.

Luck;
Ken

[KJB]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Hmm... This could take awhile.

...

Why not just install both and see for yourself? ...

Luck;
Ken

Interesting question that threadstarter 93terp raised, I was wondering about the same. It isn't easy to oversee what these readers offer and how to handle them.

"Install both and see": would this also possible on a Glo? Next to the existing standard software?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by KJB

Interesting question that threadstarter 93terp raised, I was wondering about the same. It isn't easy to oversee what these readers offer and how to handle them.

"Install both and see": would this also possible on a Glo? Next to the existing standard software?

In theory there should be no problem with all four readers running together on any of the kobos. I have only done it on my AuraHDs (the only Kobos I have). Also, running the most current versions of these programs may assume that your device is running under current firmware, but maybe not one that is too new. The differing models of the "Touch" seem to be prone to issues that other kobos don't seem to be encountering, at least that is the impression I get from the posts.

The posts here on your Glo seem to indicate that it is one of the more stable versions of the kobo device. There is also Stasys's post where he has had Koreader running on his Glo, even though he doesn't like the way the touch events are laid out. He likes Coolreader better because of that.

Luck;
Ken

[KJB]

Thanks for your reply. I'll give it a try.