Stand alone Android epub reader that handles formatting correctly?

[stumped]

I think that from a commercial perspective, developers think that 99.9% of app buyers really don't care about CSS, or have even heard of it, so they are happy with an app that disrespects CSS.
You obviously care, but annoying you only costs them one sale

I avidly read reviews before buying apps but I don't recall ever seeing one that complained about disrespected css. What people care about is apps crashing, skipping parts of text, not working with specific flavours of android...

[pazos]

Originally Posted by stumped

I think that from a commercial perspective, developers think that 99.9% of app buyers really don't care about CSS, or have even heard of it, so they are happy with an app that disrespects CSS.

Given that (some of) all time favorites are FBReader and Alreader I think you're right.

Plus, most of current android apps are still based on self implemented renders (like Ebookdroid, FBReader or Coolreader) instead of the new "web apps" that Readium/IDPF is trying to enforce to support epub3 fully.

Gitden is probably the best option for CSS lovers. It has amazing CJK support too.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by pazos

Given that (some of) all time favorites are FBReader and Alreader I think you're right.

Plus, most of current android apps are still based on self implemented renders (like Ebookdroid, FBReader or Coolreader) instead of the new "web apps" that Readium/IDPF is trying to enforce to support epub3 fully.

Gitden is probably the best option for CSS lovers. It has amazing CJK support too.

We have a wiki page on Gitden Reader.

Dale

[crane3]

Does any book or ereader app show a listing of the CSS info? like in a table of contents?

For those who want to "respect" the 'publisher's' CSS info, the CSS info listing would be much needed so as not to trample the dictated font or font size or even read in a landscape 2 column mode or perhaps the 'optimized' screen size. Oh are page numbers of the printed book part of the CSS?

Myself, I just want something that is pleasing to my bad eyesight & lighting conditions as I do not want the 'orange' lighting some like. The CSS info should be available without hunting for it as the CSS is not what a person wants it to be what it actually is in the ebook.

[pazos]

Originally Posted by crane3

Does any book or ereader app show a listing of the CSS info? like in a table of contents?

For those who want to "respect" the 'publisher's' CSS info, the CSS info listing would be much needed so as not to trample the dictated font or font size or even read in a landscape 2 column mode or perhaps the 'optimized' screen size. Oh are page numbers of the printed book part of the CSS?

Myself, I just want something that is pleasing to my bad eyesight & lighting conditions as I do not want the 'orange' lighting some like. The CSS info should be available without hunting for it as the CSS is not what a person wants it to be what it actually is in the ebook.

Try KOReader and style tweaks. You start with publisher css by default (only the tags supported by crengine) and you can set overrides. More useful/used settings are already available and self documented. See https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Style-tweaks

[crane3]

I have the KOReader installed on my Kobo 1 le; not impressed. Still not sufficient as it is unknown whether the claim for adhering to the CSS is true as the CSS is not a displayable/selectable item list.

Also, KOReader will not sort a book listing by date (most recent); in fact no way to see a sorted listing of the books, just the alpha by author is available. The claim that doing a search is quicker than browsing is not true, especially when there is no need to 'search' if the book is a 'recently' loaded book as in it is on the 1st page.

I want to use my preferred font which probably already 'violates' the CSS.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crane3

I have the KOReader installed on my Kobo 1 le; not impressed. Still not sufficient as it is unknown whether the claim for adhering to the CSS is true as the CSS is not a displayable/selectable item list.

Also, KOReader will not sort a book listing by date (most recent); in fact no way to see a sorted listing of the books, just the alpha by author is available. The claim that doing a search is quicker than browsing is not true, especially when there is no need to 'search' if the book is a 'recently' loaded book as in it is on the 1st page.

I want to use my preferred font which probably already 'violates' the CSS.

That would be a silly feature to display a list of the CSS. If you want to test if the program supports CSS, take an eBook and strip out all unused CSS. The modify each CSS entry with something you'd notice if it was respected. Then you'll know if it's resected.

I know that RMSDK (ADE) on my Kobo Aura H2O respects the CSS. I don't need to see a list of the classes to know this.

If there is no embedded font or font-family in the CSS, you are not overriding the CSS by the program allowing you to use your choice of font.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it that most reading apps for Android are garbage? and don't respect the CSS?

Considering that 99% of the books I read are composed of monochrome ascii with spaces, tabs and carriage returns, I think people make way too much fuss about fancy formatting. Sometimes I just copy the text into a simple ascii editor and read it in there. Works okay.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That would be a silly feature to display a list of the CSS. If you want to test if the program supports CSS, take an eBook and strip out all unused CSS. The modify each CSS entry with something you'd notice if it was respected. Then you'll know if it's resected.

I know that RMSDK (ADE) on my Kobo Aura H2O respects the CSS. I don't need to see a list of the classes to know this.

If there is no embedded font or font-family in the CSS, you are not overriding the CSS by the program allowing you to use your choice of font.

I do not care whether a program supports CSS or not as my criteria is how I like to see the text. There is also no reason for me to "respect" a putrid CSS configuration.

Hard RMSKDK will 'respect' the CSS to the end of time as the 'end of time' has not been reached.

The 'respect' to the "publisher's person" who did the CSS is just nonsense as it is not necessarily visually acceptable. I do not leave the TV set to use the manufacturer's config "out of respect" for the person doing the job; I change what I believe needs to be change for my viewing environment & eyesight perception.

I also do not leave the sound volume as 'published' by the publisher of the CD; prefer to adjust it to my ears at a given time & environment. I do adjust many things to my personal preference.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by Barty

Oh I very much want to use my own font face and text size etc. That's why I use epub rather than pdf.

What I mean by honoring the CSS is I don't want the reader software to do things like left align everything, including title and headings, just because I select ragged margin, or to have the same spacing between all paragraphs and the same first line indent when the book uses extra spacing and no indent to denote scene change. The fact that many books are poorly formatted or I don't like the choices the punisher makes doesn't mean the reader software should further mess things up.

While I agree whole-heartedly, I particularly want to express my sincerest thanks for a day-making typo.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crane3

I do not care whether a program supports CSS or not as my criteria is how I like to see the text. There is also no reason for me to "respect" a putrid CSS configuration.

Hard RMSKDK will 'respect' the CSS to the end of time as the 'end of time' has not been reached.

The 'respect' to the "publisher's person" who did the CSS is just nonsense as it is not necessarily visually acceptable. I do not leave the TV set to use the manufacturer's config "out of respect" for the person doing the job; I change what I believe needs to be change for my viewing environment & eyesight perception.

I also do not leave the sound volume as 'published' by the publisher of the CD; prefer to adjust it to my ears at a given time & environment. I do adjust many things to my personal preference.

I fix the CSS and when I am done, the eBook looks quite good. So I do want the CSS respected. Since you seems to hate the CSS, why not delete it and just read text files with no formatting?

[crane3]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I fix the CSS and when I am done, the eBook looks quite good. So I do want the CSS respected. Since you seems to hate the CSS, why not delete it and just read text files with no formatting?

You "fix" the CSS instead of "respecting" it??

I did not say that I hate the CSS but rather indifferent to what the CSS is in my eyes for reading preferences. My belief is that the "publisher's" CSS is not sacred or the only "correct" implementation; it the publisher's CSS is just the opinion/preference of the person doing the translation from text to epub and is not necessarily the author's preference nor that of the editor.

If the DRM is part of the CSS, then the CSS is definitely to be hated.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crane3

You "fix" the CSS instead of "respecting" it??

When the ePub is loaded into the eBook reading software, does it or doesn't it respect the CSS? If not, it's garbage.

If I don't like the CSS as it is, I'll change it. Once I am done, I want the program used to display the ePub to be able to display it as the CSS says to display it. I also don't want forced overrides. I've seen some programs that had some forced overrides that could not be tuned off and the settings were not to my liking. But if the program respected the CSS, then things would have been to my liking.

I did not say that I hate the CSS but rather indifferent to what the CSS is in my eyes for reading preferences. My belief is that the "publisher's" CSS is not sacred or the only "correct" implementation; it the publisher's CSS is just the opinion/preference of the person doing the translation from text to epub and is not necessarily the author's preference nor that of the editor.

If the DRM is part of the CSS, then the CSS is definitely to be hated.

But if you take away the CSS, you may as well be reading a text file. And some of these programs that don't respect the CSS make the display of the text worse then it it had respected the CSS.

DRM is part of the entire eBook.

[crane3]

The ereader app also "fixes" the CSS to what the ereader author thinks is correct. The difference is that the ereader does not 'permanently' alter the original CSS of a book.

The 'fix' that you apply does not mean that I like your 'fix' in the CSS where you disrespected the original CSS.

If I like the way the ebook is presented with its temporary changes to the original CSS, then it is a good 'fix'. Any changes you make to the original CSS means you also disrespected the published much more as it is 'permanent' rather than allowing the original to be presented by a different reader app.

[Tortuosit]

I want to get rid of some formatting and I am quite happy about Moon+ letting me decide...
It also can show a toggle to switch between altered and original css view, but for me there is no reason to use orig. css (wasted space, bad fonts and sizes...).