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I'm looking for a epub reader app for Android 4.0 which is NOT one of the following:
OReader
FBReader
Cool Reader
Other requirements:
load EPUB files (my homemade ones are directly converted from HTML using Sigil and occasionally may contain some Japanese characters and internal # anchors; in short, the whole book is in a single HTML file inside the EPUB file); other formats (including HTML) are welcome
has popup English-English dictionary or is compatible with ColorDict (or similar dictionary app)
allows some adjustment of display (set font size, white background, turn off page turning animations etc.)
supports local (href="#chapter1") anchors for document navigation
it would be nice if the app was fast andor lighweight
Some background:
I bought a Onyx Boox T68 ebook readertablet and I have a small problem with it. I can't install FBReader on it. The device comes with FBReader preinstalled (among other software1), but it's buggy and crashes on my homemade epub files (I had no problems with those in FBReader on my cell phone and on a cheap tablet that had very similar specs and same OS as Onyx Boox T68). The preinstalled dictionary takes the whole screen and is a little bit slow, so I would much prefer to be able to use ColorDict, however preinstalled FBReader (and it appears all of the preinstalled readers) is incompatible with ColorDict.
For a second I thought I can install regular FBReader on the device, but because there is already a version of FBReader installed, I can't do that. I can't uninstall any of the preinstalled apps either. The only way for me to uninstall those would be to root the device, but I don't want to do that because I'll lose the warranty.
I tried to rename and compile FBReader myself, but after spending 4 evenings on the problem I give up (finally I managed to build FBReader, but I wasn't able to rename the package for some reason).
1. There is OnyxReader, OReader, FBReader and Cool Reader. Of the 3 OReader appears to be the fastest and most stable (actually I haven't encountered any problems yet), but it isn't compatible with ColorDict (at least the preinstalled version isn't) and internal anchors don't appear to work.
Edit:
After a lot of trial and error I finally managed to rename and compile FBReader. While it has some minor issues of it's own (doesn't refresh eink screen, doesn't hide the non-standard top android bar, when zoomed chapter headers end up being too big in compare to regular text, no physical page turning button support) it's much more stable and does everything I required perfectly xD
And yes, ColorDict also works the way it should. Unlike in Moon+ where the dictionary popup took half of the screen for some reason, in FBReader it takes a small part of the screen and never ends up covering the selected text.
This said, other recommendations are welcome. Even if they don't help me out directly, they might help others with the same problem as I had.
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(6)More posts by @Helen
6 Comments
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The number one reader for me is Moon+ ... one of the few apps I have used money on!
It has a free version, so you can try it out or just go with the free one indefinitely (I found the adds popping up every time you close a book kind of annoying).
I found it by looking at this Wiki page, where it has "Yes" in all the places I wanted it to and then some:
Comparison of Android e-book reader software
The number one feature I would point out in supplement to all the other features, people have mentioned, is the fact that you can change color of text and background to your hearts desire ... I have mine set with lime green text on very dark green background (I happen to like green), which I find is easier on the eyes than black on white (even with the brightness turned down).
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Ebookdroid rocks . You should absolutely have a try on this one ; pdf , djvu and epub reader .
Re-Editing...
I was always looking for a fairly good ebook reader for my Android phone, the best i have found so far , in my opinion, is EbookDroid , here is why (in my opinion)
it is free (to use)
It is free application , i have never seen ads on it .
quick and light
it loads the whole book only for the first time encountering it , once the book is in the library list its pages load only one page at a time with many bookmark and scrolling futures.
the place of the page is saved on the excite so the next time the readers find themselves continuing reading the same page.
Inverted Colors;
Inverted colors : this is one of the major futures, thought i found only recently that you can apply this option for the whole screen in Android (Settings->Device->Accessibility->Negative colors) this future enable you to read white letters on a black screen , making staring at the screen for long time easy on the eyes and the battery.
DJVU and Epub support
Only recently this ones was supported .
Automatic cropping (in options) and using the volume button to scroll through pages
Very stable .
For more detail take a look at : code.google.com/p/ebookdroid/ and : play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ebookdroid
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I use moon+pro on my T68 it works well. Only draw back is it does not refresh the page. None seem to but the built in stock ereader and I don't like the library set up on those compared to moon.
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Aldiko, though not perfect, is by far the best ebook reader available for Android. It has full support for all ePub features, plus PDF, and has a reasonably nice UI unlike all the other apps.
It has all the features you asked for, except built-in ColorDict support - however, you can "share" selected text using the Android sharing system, which allows you to share it to ColorDict. One extra tap, but it works.
UB Reader also works well - it has the best ePub formatting support of any reader I've tried. But it has a poor UI compared to Aldiko. It has some kind of dictionary system of its own built in, which I have not tried.
Regarding the other suggestions :
Google Play Books is not a good solution as it can not directly open files on your device, you have to upload them to Google.
Moon Reader has equal functionality to Aldiko in many respects, but (in my opinion) a horrible, outdated UI and much worse ePub formatting support.
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I recommend... Google Play Books:
Read offline
Bookmark pages, highlight text, and add notes
Elegant 3D page turns
Bookmarks, notes, and reading positions are synced across your phones, tablets and computers
Search within books, use dictionary, find geographical information, discover web results, and wikipedia right on the page
Select fonts, font size, and layout for flowing text books
Choose day, night, and sepia reading modes
Listen to books with text-to-speech when publisher allows
Upload PDF or EPUB files to your library
And you can also read your uploaded epubs on the Google Play - My Books page.
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Moon+ Reader
Supports txt, html, epub, pdf, mobi, umd, fb2, chm, cbr, cbz, rar,
zip or OPDS
Full visual options: line space, font scale, bold, italic, shadow, alpha colors, fading edge etc.
Adjust the brightness by sliding your finger along the left edge of the screen, gesture commands supported.
Highlight, Annotation, Dictionary (Offline or Online, support Google, ColorDict, Fora, etc.), Translation, Share functions all in moon+ ebook reader.
5 auto-scroll modes: rolling blind mode; by pixel, by line or by page. Real-time speed control.
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