PRS-T1 [PIC] The benefits of rooting the PRS-T1

[tayseidel]

Vish is right, but I updated coolreader with the latest version from their homepage to see if font aliasing was improved over the one that came with the root package.

[JSWolf]

If you are thinking of rooting based on he two photos in the first post, you are being cheated. FBReader is NOT wonderful overall at rendering ePub. It's not nearly as good as the ADE on the T1. The font shown in the pre-rooted T1 photo is the default ADE font. That doesn't really count for much. Amasis is a similar font to the on in the other photo.

[tayseidel]

JSWolf, I did say in a earlier post that FBreader ignores any styles set in a epub. I read mostly fiction novels, such as Star Trek novels so the issue isn't magnified for me. I like formatting to be uniform throughout and FBreader allows me to achieve this without spending time modifying an epub file. I like FBreader in this sense. However I switch to Coolreader if I need to read a book with the formatting intact.

Amasis is nothing like PMN Caecilia though. They are two completely different fonts. Even using Amasis in coolreader looked better than using Amasis in ADE. Though, ADE does a better job of displaying epubs than coolreader and FBreader do.

[Rand Brittain]

You have convinced me, sir! I have taken the plunge. That alternate homescreen isn't really ready for prime-time (although a really good homescreen designed for e-ink would be lovely), but I can set the Sony homescreen to read my books in CoolReader, which I've updated to the latest version. This is truly excellent, and I can read in Amasis without worrying about the game-breaking italics bug.

[Gustav Gans]

Both CoolReader and FBreader don't properly display my epubs, even not the free ones that came with the T1. This is not fixable by any custom settings. The Sony Reader has no problems.

[fjtorres]

Installing extra apps is just a matter of copying the apk files to a directory of your choice on the internal memory or sd card and activating it using the Root Explorer file manager.
Getting the apks is not terribly hard; several market apps work fine.
Or if you have an android phone, several backup apps will let you copy out the apk.

Accessing books isn't a big issue even with the default Sony homescreen; the included Bar shortcuts app lets you tap the bar to call up a list of apps to run (among other things) and the reading apps themselves have their own book listings and you can tell most apps where to look for books.
Since both the default Sony and Alternate Home apps are only for epubs, other formats like Kindle books will be invisible to them anyway.
The way I use mine is to chose the reading app first and then go pick the book.
Resuming an open book just takes you back to where you left off.

Not much to be concerned about, really.
Standard android tablet operating rules.

[treadlightly]

Thanks for showing us the photos! I took the plunge too based on your post and like that I can control the font and justification in fbreader without having to convert epub to epub in calibre. I also like the status bar. However I do find the swipe page-turning a little less sensitive in fbreader over the sony reader. I was wondering if anyone else noticed this.

[Gustav Gans]

I noticed that, too. I recommend using Cool Reader, whis is about as sensitive as the Sony Reader.

[Rand Brittain]

So far the only problem I see in CoolReader is that it doesn't seem to implement the margin-top I've assigned to my headings and likes to consolidate multiple headings into a single page. I'll try to keep current with the latest version and see what happens.

Incidentally, can I delete the .apk after I've installed it or do I need to keep it?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

Incidentally, can I delete the .apk after I've installed it or do I need to keep it?

I move them to a specific folder in the SD card.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tayseidel

I read mostly fiction novels, such as Star Trek novels so the issue isn't magnified for me. I like formatting to be uniform throughout and FBreader allows me to achieve this without spending time modifying an epub file.

+1
There are two basic schools of thought on ebook rendering:

One school believes ebooks *must* be rendered as the *publisher* chooses. They favor pdf or, if forced away from pretend-paper, locked-down epubs. It's *their* book.

The other school believes the consumer is paying the freight so they should have the option to read the ebook *their* way, regardless of what the publishing overlords may prefer.

I favor maximum end-user typographical controls and don't care a stuffed fig whether it displays "properly" or not as long as it is clean and readable. I favor Coolreader because its rendering starts with the embedded styles and then overlays *my* choices. It properly handles nested TOCs and it lets me disable the satus bar and use the entire screen for text.

It's *my* reader, *my* eyeballs, *my* money.

[Bidibulle]

How do you do to use the caecilia fonts in FBReader ?
I've downloaded them and put them in the mnt/sdcard/Fonts folder but I don't see them in the font menu.
Thanks

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by Gustav Gans

I noticed that, too. I recommend using Cool Reader, whis is about as sensitive as the Sony Reader.

Caecilia looks awful in the CoolReader that comes with the root package. Would it be improved with the latest version?

[tayseidel]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Accessing books isn't a big issue even with the default Sony homescreen; the included Bar shortcuts app lets you tap the bar to call up a list of apps to run (among other things) and the reading apps themselves have their own book listings and you can tell most apps where to look for books.

Two issues I have:

For one reason or another, the Sony Home app can't open successive books through reader apps other than the default ADE reader. On device startup, it will open a book in FBreader or Coolreader, but then can't open different books- it is stuck on the initial opened book. The alternative homescreen solves this to an extent.

You said you open books through the app (i.e. coolreader, etc) but the big, big, problem for me is scrolling up/down the list. On an e-ink device, forget it. Both FBreader and Coolreader don't use pages to display the booklist, they scroll. If you have figured out a way to get books to display list-style, page-style, let me know.

[tayseidel]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

Caecilia looks awful in the CoolReader that comes with the root package. Would it be improved with the latest version?

I updated coolreader, and Caecilia still didn't look good. Try decreasing/increasing font gamma. I think the default is 1.0. Try 1.5 or 1.9.

Also, many people like the Lexia DaMa font. It's similar to Caecila but some people prefer Lexia over Caecila. Try it.

http://www.fontpark.net/en/font/lexia-dama/