Calibre is great for managing an ebook library, and okay for reading ebooks but the reader is clearly not its primary focus, so I’m wondering what readers folks here use across platforms.
I know of a few, but I’m always on the lookout for different options that may have features I didn’t realize I’d love to use.
Depends on device for me. For android I use Librera for books, Tachiyomi/Kotatsu for manga/comics, on the old Kindle I was gifted (Kindle Touch 2) I use KOReader so I can read epubs. For desktop I do use Calibre for reading, though I’m not a big fan of their reader. I mainly read textbooks on desktop and find the search features useful, which is the main reason for using it, it all works well enough. I had issues getting Okular to work well on my computer, but I’ve heard it’s good? Here’s hoping I can unify things a bit in the future.
Eta: I forgot I actually started using Seeneva for comics, since I like the speech-bubble zoom feature
I had issues getting Okular to work well on my computer, but I’ve heard it’s good?
Which OS were you trying it with? I was pleasantly surprised when I found it was available on Windows, and a simple install had it working for me. Another option to consider if it still gives issues (and you’re on Windows) may be SumatraPDF, which despite the name supports a wide range of formats.
I use Koreader. It’s a bit heavy because it has basically any option you can think of, it works on a wide multitude of platforms, and can have weird bugs sometimes but hardly ever. But the way I read, I need some settings that aren’t in very many readers and it has them. Try it out.
koreader is good if your platform supports it.
I use a second-hand kindle on airplane mode and just transfer books to it from calibre. E-ink is better for my eyes.
Am I just a tech-peasant by using Book Reader? It’s not the flashiest but I dig it.
I like book reader. It’s simple and does the job.
Librera is the one I’d recommend if you care about customisation, and it also has TTS (Text To Speech), which is why I use it almost exclusively.
Myne is a beautiful and minimalistic app that lets you read books from the Gutenberg project. I have asked the developer, and they have no intention to add TTS functionality to the app.
Shosetsu is the best app for fanfiction (AO3 extension) and lightnovels. It recently got a TTS feature as well, but that feature is not very usable in its current implementation.
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Speaking personally, it’s just that non-eInk displays are simply what I have to work with and they don’t bother me to read on.
I’m kind of confused, given that most displays don’t use e-Ink…Do you minimize your web browsing as a result, or is it different compared to reading ebooks for you?Disregard the question, rereading your post you address it, it just hadn’t fully clicked as I’ve not talked to many people with your experience.
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I think AMOLED screens might make a huge difference. I’ve read countless novels on my phone with zero eye strain because the black pixels are actually entirely unlit and literally black. This means the brightness for the letters can be extremely low while remaining legible and comfortably readable for hours.
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came here to say this.
I’d like to hear from people who read more on those devices.
I started reading books electronically on my Palm Pilot III, later a Palm V, then a SONY Clie. I loved the convenience of it, especially because I didn’t have the shelf space for all my books at home and I’m into 800+page fantasy books that are a hassle to carry around. After reading on PDAs anything is a luxury. These days I read on my smartphone when out and 11inch iPad at home. It’s important to manage display brightness though to not tire the eyes, unlike eInk which depends on ambient light.
I generally use Google play books, it syncs across devices and have translation which is good as I started reading French books. But these features are also available on other readers like Kindle.
Interestingly I once worked on an eInk reader for a book chain competing with Amazon. I didn’t get any freebie though.
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I had a similar experience. Back before epub took off, I started reading Gutenberg books on my wince phone. I think I was using an app called jbookshelf. Even then I loved the convenience of it.
Once android happened, I switched to epubs and it was so much better.
Now I’m mostly using koreader, along with kindle and Google play books. I prefer reading anything in a foreign language on Kindle, because it’s so easy to look up words.
I use Lithium on android. The dark mode is great for night reading.
Not open source but the app is ad free and has zero trackers.
I also use Lithium.
Foliatehas been absolutely amazing. I love the simple interface that doesn’t look as dated ascalibre.If I only read on my phone, I’d use Librera. But for syncing between my Onyx Boox device and my phone, KOReader is hard to beat.
Switched from the proprietary moon+ reader to Librera because of this comment and I’ve been happy with it. Presentation’s quite different but all the functionality I like is there, including custom fonts. Thanks for posting about this software!
I really like Alexandria on desktop and there’s android support on the roadmap on GitHub.
ReadEra on android and Calibre’s reader on Xubuntu desktop.
Might look into some of the stuff suggested here.
Foliate on PC, Librera FD on Android.
I have Foliate on Linux too, it’s great.
lately I just open them on my phone and have the screen reader read it to me. I don’t have to turn pages and it works with the screen locked too.
I have a cheap Kobo and put KOReader and Syncthing on it.
I use Ttsu Reader. Browser-based so it’ll run on anything, and has all the conveniences thereof.
Edit: Unless I’m actually using my Kobo, then I’ll just use my Kobo.
Remarkable 2, but the PineNote might be usable now.
