EPUB implementations

[pepak]

I wonder: Which readers, if any, have an EPUB implementation other than Adobe DE? Are there any which are based on standard browser engines, e.g. WebKit or Gecko?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pepak

I wonder: Which readers, if any, have an EPUB implementation other than Adobe DE? Are there any which are based on standard browser engines, e.g. WebKit or Gecko?

Without using ADE, you cannot borrow ePub/PDF from the library or use any ePub/PDF with Adept DRM.

[kovidgoyal]

The phone based ones all dont use ADE

[pepak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Without using ADE, you cannot borrow ePub/PDF from the library or use any ePub/PDF with Adept DRM.

I couldn't care less about that: I do not buy DRMed books, nor do I borrow them.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The phone based ones all dont use ADE

I should have added that I am interested only in e-ink-based readers.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by pepak

I couldn't care less about that: I do not buy DRMed books, nor do I borrow them.


I should have added that I am interested only in e-ink-based readers.

The Hanlin devices such as the Astak EZ Reader have recently added Cool Reader 3.0 support. This version can read ePUB although presently you have to append .fb2 to the file name to direct the ePUB to Cool Reader. The device can also use ADE by default so you can pick and choose based on the files.

Dale

[Jellby]

The FBReader included in OpenInkpot is not ADE (does it support ePUB, I wonder?)

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Jellby

The FBReader included in OpenInkpot is not ADE (does it support ePUB, I wonder?)

The answer to this and thousands of other questions is of course in our Wiki FBReader. It does support ePUB although not all of CSS and no Tables.

Dale

[charleski]

As far as I can tell, the Onyx Boox60 also doesn't use ADE, I would guess it uses a version of FBReader.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by charleski

As far as I can tell, the Onyx Boox60 also doesn't use ADE, I would guess it uses a version of FBReader.

It must use ADE. It supports DRM'd ePub right?

[pepak]

Seems to me that if I want e-ink, I am stuck with either ADE (which I rather hate from my PRS-505) or FBReader with missing features :-(

I wonder - just why do e-book manufactures avoid mature HTML engines and instead opt for brand new, and apparently worse, implementations? Is it simply that they won't use a DRM-less implementation?

On a related note: I have seen that a number of reader manufacturers support developing of tools for their devices. Does it mean that it would be possible to compile, say, a WebKit-based reader for them and use it instead of the default one? Has this been tried at all?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by pepak

Seems to me that if I want e-ink, I am stuck with either ADE (which I rather hate from my PRS-505) or FBReader with missing features :-(

I wonder - just why do e-book manufactures avoid mature HTML engines and instead opt for brand new, and apparently worse, implementations? Is it simply that they won't use a DRM-less implementation?

On a related note: I have seen that a number of reader manufacturers support developing of tools for their devices. Does it mean that it would be possible to compile, say, a WebKit-based reader for them and use it instead of the default one? Has this been tried at all?

Did you miss my post that said Cool Reader is also available? It is pretty good viewer with nice user customization features although I am not sure the TOC feature works yet on ePUB.

Dale

[pepak]

From what I read, it fits nicely into the "brand new, and apparently worse, implementations" :-(

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by pepak

From what I read, it fits nicely into the "brand new, and apparently worse, implementations" :-(

They have a windows version of both Cool reader and FBReader. Download them and give them a try. The dedicated versions are a slight bit better but this will give you an idea of the support for ePUB.

Dale

[charleski]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It must use ADE. It supports DRM'd ePub right?

Ah, according to Nate's review you're right, and the FBReader function isn't used for epubs. Strange, I could find no mention of that on their site, and ADE-support is the sort of thing I'd expect them to mention if they had it.

[paulpeer]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

They have a windows version of both Cool reader and FBReader. Download them and give them a try.
Dale

I've just tried their Cool reader version 3. Promising project, but still in early stage. As Dale said: No TOC feature yet for ePub. There is no CSS recognition yet (all characters are rendered with the same size, no italics, no bold, ...). But the good news: perfect rendering of "lesser used languages" such as Polish, Icelandic, Russian, Esperanto ... what of course could be expected of a Russian developer.