[HN Gopher] Foliate: Read e-books in style, navigate with ease
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Foliate: Read e-books in style, navigate with ease
        
       Author : ingve
       Score  : 506 points
       Date   : 2024-07-19 05:48 UTC (17 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (johnfactotum.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (johnfactotum.github.io)
        
       | Buttons840 wrote:
       | Does it manage my "library" for me?
       | 
       | I can open PDFs on every OS I've ever used. Like, just open the
       | file, find a PDF file in some directory and open that PDF file
       | and see a render of the PDF.
       | 
       | I've never found anything that can do the same for ebooks without
       | also trying to manage my "library". Like, if I just want to peek
       | at a random epub file it will add it to my "bookshelf"
       | automatically and makes that a very prominent part of the
       | program.
       | 
       | Can I use this to just open an epub file?
        
         | exe34 wrote:
         | koreader is very polite about this, unlike calibre.
        
         | Bayes7 wrote:
         | Check out sioyek, it's great and can open epubs like normal
         | pdfs:
         | 
         | https://sioyek.info/ https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek
        
           | flobosg wrote:
           | Sioyek uses the MuPDF engine, which supports EPUB:
           | https://mupdf.com/
        
           | Ringz wrote:
           | I stumbled over it but didn't installed it because the
           | website doesn't mention the ebook functionality.
           | 
           | "Sioyek is a PDF viewer with a focus on technical books and
           | research papers"
        
           | zeke_the_cat wrote:
           | Nightmarish with a tablet.
        
         | specproc wrote:
         | I like foliate, certainly one of the slicker options out there,
         | but yes it does have the behaviour you describe.
         | 
         | I do have need of a library, but there's not much point for me
         | if it's just one or two types of document. I've just moved to
         | the new Zotero 7 beta, which has epub support, has always
         | managed PDFs and web snapshots, and since Zotero 6 has
         | supported rich annotation.
         | 
         | Perfect setup for me. One library containing all my notes,
         | citations and reading.
        
         | skydhash wrote:
         | Zathura and okular can do it, as well as Sumatra on windows,
         | but they suffer from ugly defaults. The best reader is koreader
         | (kobo device in my case) as it let you customize the reading
         | experience.
         | 
         | I tried creating a reader (macos) based on mupdf (koreader also
         | used it) and it's definitely possible to have an epub viewer. I
         | also dislike bookshelf type software if they try to manage the
         | files as well (a simple database can be fine). So far. I just
         | use these to check the epub file and do the reading on the kobo
         | instead (or convert to pdf if I want annotations (ipad)).
        
           | II2II wrote:
           | It's worth noting that KOReader is available for desktop
           | Linux users, both as a Debian package and AppImage. The
           | interface is better suited to touch screens though. I suspect
           | that is why noone has bothered to port/build it for other
           | desktop operating systems.
        
             | graemep wrote:
             | Its what I use on a Linux tablet because of the better
             | touchscreen UI. Foliate did not work as well.
        
           | joveian wrote:
           | Zathura will by default keep a history and your position in
           | each document, which I personally don't like (I want it to
           | start from the beginning each time) but you can change this
           | with 'set database "null"' in the config file. I tried
           | zathura for pdfs a while ago but went back to evince due to
           | the nice feature of showing all search results in a sidebar
           | when you search. Unfortunately evince doesn't support epub.
           | My zathurarc so far is:                 set database "null"
           | set adjust-open "width"       set scroll-wrap false       set
           | font "monospace light 24"       set statusbar-home-tilde true
           | set window-title-home-tilde true       set window-title-page
           | true       set guioptions "v"       map [fullscreen]
           | <PageDown> scroll full-down       map [fullscreen] <PageUp>
           | scroll full-up       map [normal] <PageDown> scroll full-down
           | map [normal] <PageUp> scroll full-up
           | 
           | The font option just seems to cover the interface font (which
           | is tiny if you don't set it) and guioptions "v" means no
           | default status bar but always a vertical scroll bar. Page up
           | and down use viewable pages instead of the default document
           | page.
           | 
           | I was also just looking for an epub reader due to this Humble
           | book bundle on game design that mostly only has epub:
           | 
           | https://www.humblebundle.com/books/all-about-gaming-mit-
           | pres...
        
         | lf-non wrote:
         | Foliate's core function is an ebook reader and not library
         | management. Once installed you can double click your epubs to
         | open them on foliate - it will not move around your stuff.
         | 
         | There is a library view in the app but it is mostly a history
         | of recently accessed files.
        
         | pjerem wrote:
         | Ironically, the best ebook reader that just worked like you
         | said was Microsoft Edge when it had its own engine, before it
         | became "Chrome but even worse".
        
         | freddie_mercury wrote:
         | Calibre works exactly the way you suggest, so I'm not sure why
         | you haven't found it.
         | 
         | It comes with an app called ebook-viewer that doesn't do
         | anything except view ebooks. It doesn't automatically add it to
         | the calibre library management.
        
           | Scaevolus wrote:
           | Calibre's built in ebook viewer is very ugly.
        
             | xangel wrote:
             | I use it for everything but actual reading.
        
           | johnchristopher wrote:
           | > Calibre works exactly the way you suggest, so I'm not sure
           | why you haven't found it.
           | 
           | JFC, that's not how the installation and the first run of
           | Calibre works at all. I'd write "I'am not sure why you think
           | people would think calibre is first a manager library and not
           | a book reader after installing it" but I'd be lying.
        
             | karolist wrote:
             | I think Calibre advocates forgot what it's like to setup it
             | for the first time and what a messy ugly process it is for
             | new timers. A containerized version needs VNC access to set
             | it up and perform some un-intuitive UI actions
             | https://docs.linuxserver.io/images/docker-
             | calibre/#applicati...
             | 
             | I've used https://www.kavitareader.com/ but it's not
             | perfect either, this space could be "disrupted" by a Plex
             | like product with opensource + licensed offerings but the
             | target market is pretty small I think.
        
               | exe34 wrote:
               | nix-shell -p calibre
               | 
               | I'm not sure what the container is for...
        
             | OscarTheGrinch wrote:
             | Yeah I'm currently running Calibre, which works fine for my
             | needs, but my gripe is that it takes up around 1gb of space
             | on my tiny old system.
             | 
             | Can someone please tell me the diskspace requirement for
             | Foliate?
        
               | vetinari wrote:
               | Foliate itself is about 12 MB.
               | 
               | However, it needs flatpak runtime. If you already have
               | different flatpak apps, this is not an issue, it is going
               | to be shared with them, but if this is going to be your
               | first-and-only flatpak app, you need to add few hundreds
               | MB.
        
           | TiredOfLife wrote:
           | Calibre reader default to auto changing the opened file.
        
           | squidbeak wrote:
           | But it brings a densely featured library manager along with
           | it. The OP seems to just want something to open books.
        
           | alias_neo wrote:
           | I love Calibre, even calibre-web, which I can use as an ebook
           | store by modifying the URLs in my Kobo eReader so that I can
           | download ebooks from my server directly from the eReader over
           | WiFi.
           | 
           | I use Calibre to manage my collection, create book covers if
           | I need to for non-boo k documents, web for organising and
           | occasional looking up of things, and eReader for reading.
        
         | 9dev wrote:
         | I'm actually working on something like this:
         | 
         | https://github.com/project-kiosk/kiosk/tree/v3
         | 
         | I'm still deep in the trenches, though. That project is like my
         | personal zen garden of deadline-free software development, so
         | don't expect a release soon. Happy if someone would be
         | interested in contributing, though :)
        
         | adrian_b wrote:
         | On Linux, I prefer to use MuPDF for just opening any epub file.
         | 
         | That was originally a PDF reader, but it has been working for
         | some time also with epub files.
         | 
         | It renders the pages not only very fast, but also better than
         | any other epub reader that I have tried (all the others seem to
         | make worse choices about the relative sizes of various page
         | elements).
        
         | bmacho wrote:
         | > I can open PDFs on every OS I've ever used.
         | 
         | I can't do that, on windows, or linux. I _loved_ the experience
         | that evince on ubuntu gave me for comics /manga some years ago
         | (what I want: continuous pages, no menu or scrollbar visible,
         | centered, fixed width, variable width, scrollbar on edge hover
         | to show progress), and nothing that I've tried comes _remotely
         | close_.
         | 
         | I was able to come close with HTML + CSS so I am partially
         | content.
         | 
         | - - -
         | 
         | A recent big failure of mine is to find a music player on
         | F-Droid, to listen to albums, that                 - is capable
         | to play a song,        - is capable to seek in the song       -
         | doesn't need access to every media file ever on my phone, only
         | the actual file (either by popping up the file chooser, or the
         | file is opened from an another program)
         | 
         | I've checked at least 15 of them, and I think it is possible.
         | I've found multiple examples that can do two (video players
         | that don't need access to every file, can go forward/backward
         | but refuse to play songs, also music players that don't need
         | access to every media file, but can't jump to a position). I
         | eventually had to give up on this one.
        
           | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
           | I'm pretty sure VLC (from f-droid) does what you want. It
           | might prefer to have full file access, but you can just deny
           | that and just open files from a file browser or whatever.
        
             | bmacho wrote:
             | Is it working for you? It is not working for me, it keeps
             | demanding permissions. It might be something specific to my
             | phone, but also unlikely, since there _are_ video and audio
             | players that can play videos and audio without _any_
             | permission at all.
        
               | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
               | Just tested, TLDR yes it works.
               | 
               | Steps:
               | 
               | 0. Uninstall VLC (I just did this to reset its
               | permissions+config)
               | 
               | 1. Install VLC (3.5.4 from fdroid)
               | 
               | 2. Open VLC
               | 
               | 3. It'll start with a splash screen, click next.
               | 
               | 4. Next screen is VLC asking what permissions you want to
               | give it. Pick the leftmost of the 3
               | 
               | 5. Finish the setup wizard
               | 
               | 6. It prompts for notification permission, which I
               | allowed
               | 
               | 7. You should be at a screen titled "Permission not
               | granted", with 2 buttons. Click the right button to pick
               | a file
               | 
               | 8. Use the system file dialog to pick a file
               | 
               | 9. It plays
        
               | bmacho wrote:
               | I don't have "2 buttons" on the screen titled "Permission
               | not granted", and no file dialog. Also not working, when
               | asking VLC to play the file from another program. Must be
               | a bug or incompatibility somewhere. Also this must be the
               | reason why I wasn't able to find a music player on
               | F-Droid then :| Thank you for checking!
        
               | vetinari wrote:
               | Just be aware, that music player without file access
               | won't be able to traverse/list directories, so playlists
               | won't work. This is a limitation of any file-picker based
               | file access (e.g. flatpak applications on linux,
               | accessing files via portals have exactly the same
               | limitations). As the sibling comment says, it is possible
               | to run vlc this way, but be aware of the limitations.
        
         | carlosjobim wrote:
         | FBReader does this on MacOS
        
         | Matl wrote:
         | Calibre has a 'standalone' ebook viewer component.
        
         | weaksauce wrote:
         | maybe there's a firefox extension you could use that when you
         | set the default file opener it works like that? or drag and
         | drop it on firefox with an extension.
        
       | reify wrote:
       | I used to always install Foliate when I installed a new linux
       | distro though it only opens epub and not pdf's. The default on
       | linux is Evince for Pdf.
       | 
       | Koodo is the way to go
       | 
       | However, more recently I have been using "Koodo" reader and
       | library for both epub and pdf
       | 
       | It has a great visual library too. I only use Koodo now.
       | 
       | https://github.com/troyeguo/koodo-reader
       | 
       | http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/koodo-reader-bin
        
         | dsr_ wrote:
         | It might be the most awesome software in the world, but if I
         | can't read the majority of bug reports, it's not something I
         | can feel comfortable using.
         | 
         | (This is not a flaw in the software, this is a flaw in me: I
         | don't know how to read -- I'm assuming it's Mandarin Chinese,
         | but I can't even reliably tell that.)
        
           | Milner08 wrote:
           | If thats really such an issue, you can just get the browser
           | to translate them for you?
        
           | TechDebtDevin wrote:
           | You have dozens and dozens of translation tools at your
           | disposal that take <10 seconds to solve that problem.
        
             | dsr_ wrote:
             | You want me to trust random translation tools on the
             | internet for technical issues?
             | 
             | No.
        
           | squigz wrote:
           | Not to be rude, but if that's the case, and you're unwilling
           | to use "random" translation tools like Google Translate, what
           | is the point of this comment? Not everyone in the world
           | speaks English. Do you want them to learn English and post
           | bug reports in English for you?
        
         | synergy20 wrote:
         | I have tried nearly all the epub readers mentioned.
         | 
         | Koodo is now what I use, it renders the best for me, I feel
         | like I'm reading a paper book, which is great to me, the fonts
         | and theme are great.
         | 
         | Calibre's epub reader is painfully slow to start, and it does
         | not look that good either.
         | 
         | I wish other epub readers can have better fonts and color.
        
       | relyks wrote:
       | This is my favorite e-book reader to use on my desktop :) (it's
       | great for epubs)
        
       | rkwasny wrote:
       | I'd love to have a beautifully designed version of Calibre for
       | macOS. I'd even pay for it! It would be fantastic to have a sleek
       | way to organize my ebook collection, especially if it could also
       | store papers from Arxiv etc.
        
         | mattkevan wrote:
         | I would love this too. Calibre is amazingly useful and
         | powerful, there's nothing else like it, but my goodness the UI
         | is ugly.
         | 
         | I've come to appreciate it as some sort of outsider art anti-
         | design, defiantly refusing to follow any notion of design
         | consistency and aesthetics. But still, a nicely designed
         | version would be amazing.
        
         | karolist wrote:
         | Would you mind listing some of the killer Calibre features
         | you'd expect to see in an MVP?
        
           | skydhash wrote:
           | Cover grid, virtual libraries, customizable details pane
           | (select the fields to show), filtering (both tree and
           | search), virtual libraries (collection), export template,
           | metadata editing and embedding (write to file).
           | 
           | Thats the few stuff I used regularly.
        
           | jkingsman wrote:
           | Not the OP, but my library management is 90% tagging, format
           | conversion, metadata fetch and editing, and format tune-up
           | (font subsetting or stripping fonts, fixing covers, etc.).
           | Virtual libraries keep me organized based on tags.
        
             | karolist wrote:
             | Hey, which program do you do that now with, Calibre or a
             | set of separate tools?
        
         | dsego wrote:
         | How do you feel about the built-in Apple Books?
        
       | __rito__ wrote:
       | I used to read all ebooks on desktop when smartphones didn't
       | enter the market. Now I read on Kindle and a dedicated tab.
       | 
       | There's only one kind of book I read on my laptop now-
       | programming books PDFs. To code side by side. That's all. And PDF
       | is better for rendering equations, graphs, code with syntax
       | highlighting, and figures.
       | 
       | I use EPUB for "flat" essays, novels, storybooks, poems, etc.
       | i.e. non-text/non-technical stuff.
       | 
       | And I use my Kindle or my tab always for that.
       | 
       | For the once or twice need of opening EPUBs on my laptop, I just
       | use Okular.
       | 
       | Won't install something via Snap/Flat or compile it for that one-
       | off kinds of use.
        
         | nyanpasu64 wrote:
         | A Kindle is a physical device and a tab is a tablet (I
         | initially thought it was browser tab)? My family sat/stepped on
         | two Kindles (crushing the screens to oblivion) growing up and
         | nobody has dared buy another one since; I don't know if it's
         | time to reconsider.
        
         | consf wrote:
         | Align well with the strengths and limitations of various
         | devices and file formats
        
         | anentropic wrote:
         | I bought a Kindle for this (programming books and PDFs) but was
         | quickly disappointed
         | 
         | The device itself is pleasant enough
         | 
         | But I should have guessed, the experience for managing any
         | content bought/downloaded from outside Amazon is almost
         | unusable
        
           | __rito__ wrote:
           | > the experience for managing any content bought/downloaded
           | from outside Amazon is almost unusable
           | 
           |  _Not at all_.
           | 
           | I buy EPUBs from all kinds of vendors, across multiple
           | languages. I also have many downloaded from Standard Ebooks
           | [0].
           | 
           | All EPUB works fine, and provides great experience- as long
           | as a file does not contain one of the following- custom page
           | illustrations, syntax highlighted code, graphs, charts, maps,
           | math equations, color comicstrip etc.
           | 
           | Just use PDF in tablet or laptop for arxiv papers,
           | math/programming books, etc.
           | 
           | Use Kindle for recreational reading- like novels, poetry,
           | essays, etc. I am a huge fan of reading since basically
           | learning to read. And I love Kindle! Am a user for last ~10
           | years.
           | 
           | [0]: https://standardebooks.org
        
             | anentropic wrote:
             | the EPUB files work fine
             | 
             | and it's possible to load PDFs on there
             | 
             | my complaint is that the tools for organising and managing
             | the library are crap
        
               | __rito__ wrote:
               | Yeah definitely. It's very slow, and the screen refresh
               | rate is sometimes frustrating.
               | 
               | But that is how it manages to hold its charge for a full
               | month!
        
       | dantondwa wrote:
       | I wish this worked on Windows too. In general, I'd love to see
       | all those lovely GTK4 apps on Windows, they look so nice.
        
         | boredhedgehog wrote:
         | There's Alexandria(https://github.com/btpf/Alexandria), which
         | was inspired by Foliate and supports Windows and MacOS.
        
           | rrishi wrote:
           | oh this is great. there's still room for improvement but it
           | satisfies my basic requirements very well.
           | 
           | thanks, this is quite useful for my macos.
        
         | shortrounddev2 wrote:
         | Did you try wsl?
        
       | thaumasiotes wrote:
       | > Enjoy features such as auto-hyphenation
       | 
       | Is this a feature of the app? Can I bundle an ebook with my own
       | hyphenations and ensure that only those hyphenations will appear
       | when Foliate displays the ebook?
       | 
       | Kindles have incredibly awful hyphenation. It seems to originate
       | from somebody confusing the algorithm for _hyphenation_ -- which
       | is  "there's a big list of hyphenation points for every word in
       | existence, and when you want to hyphenate a word, you look it up
       | in the list and choose the best available hyphenation point" --
       | with the algorithm for compressing the master hyphenation list,
       | which involves representing the list as a priority-ordered set of
       | rules for where a hyphen should appear based on a few surrounding
       | letters.
       | 
       | But the result is that Kindles are constantly trying to hyphenate
       | words based on a compressed list of words that doesn't include
       | the word that needs to be hyphenated, with results like
       | "Q-ingjiao".
       | 
       | This could be easily solved by checking every ebook for words
       | that don't appear in the master list, and bundling a custom list
       | of just those words with every book, falling back to the master
       | list in the common case where a word that needs to be hyphenated
       | isn't present in the custom list. But I guess nobody cares.
        
       | newzisforsukas wrote:
       | foliate is pretty good for epub. I have been using it for several
       | months, and definitely prefer it to fbreader, calibre, etc. It is
       | much faster than those. It has a good TTS interface as well.
        
       | __gotcha___ wrote:
       | been trying to use it on windows. Its a great app on linux.
        
       | __gotcha___ wrote:
       | Been trying to use it on windows. Best app for linux.
        
       | asimovfan wrote:
       | i need something like this for the chromebook / android..
       | 
       | the only app that works fine with chromebook is its own gallery
       | viewer, but has no bookmarks no annotations
       | 
       | in android theres only xodo which is paid and proprietary
        
       | nabla9 wrote:
       | I have been testing this for 15 minutes.
       | 
       | - enforces two page layout. I don't see how to fix it. advice
       | does not fix it:
       | https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate/discussions/1166
       | 
       | - can't open all pdf that other viewers can.
       | 
       | - zoom does not work, settings do nothing.
       | 
       | Result of the 'style' is smudge view you can't fix.
        
       | wahnfrieden wrote:
       | I'm using this app's EPUB engine for my iOS/macOS app, Manabi
       | Reader, which is for learning Japanese through reading (but I
       | want to expand to more languages and general purpose use soon)
       | 
       | https://reader.manabi.io
        
       | rubymamis wrote:
       | Linux needs more beautiful apps with attention to UX - the same
       | kind of care that developers of macOS apps put into their apps.
       | That's why even when I'm building an app for Linux[1] I start by
       | trying to make the best macOS app first.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.get-plume.com
       | 
       | EDIT: Spelling errors.
        
         | karolist wrote:
         | Beautiful app, how did you deal with Qt licensing if I may ask?
         | 
         | One nit regarding website, toggling dark mode causes a video
         | change that has some ugly flashing, I think you could improve
         | this by recording the video without dropshadow and adding the
         | shadow with CSS.
        
           | rubymamis wrote:
           | Thanks! I'm using the LGPL version of Qt, since I'm not
           | changing Qt's own source code I can release my app has
           | closed-source easily with dynamic linking. I could also
           | release it with static linking with no problem (in my
           | understanding), if I allow people to download the object
           | files as well so they can link them to any version of Qt they
           | want (but that's a bit too much for now).
           | 
           | Thanks for your suggestion, I'll consider it. But what do you
           | mean by ugly flashing? Is it the instant background change
           | that turn you off?
        
             | karolist wrote:
             | Yes, the background changes instantly, but video
             | replacement is slower, therefore for an moment the old
             | video shadow background appears distinctly from the site's
             | background color. This is on M1 Max 64 with latest Chrome.
             | 
             | Also, there's a problem with responsive text reflow on your
             | personal site, I've only noticed because I'm using a tiling
             | wm.
             | 
             | I've made videos to showcase
             | 
             | https://gofile.me/7cmOh/e1dTClPiT
             | 
             | https://gofile.me/7cmOh/VyHzagGGa
        
               | rubymamis wrote:
               | Thanks for taking the time to make the videos!
               | 
               | I think for the first issue, with the flashing, it seems
               | to flash to you, but it's just the theme being changed to
               | light, isn't it? Or you are specifically only talking
               | about the way the video container doesn't fit the rest of
               | the page while it's loading?
               | 
               | Regarding the second issue, good catch! I'll fix that.
               | Thanks!
        
               | karolist wrote:
               | Ha, I think you're right, it's the empty container with
               | grey background visible whilst the video is being
               | changed, I actually went frame by frame to confirm. It's
               | getting silly and super nitpicky so feel free to ignore
               | :)
               | 
               | https://imgur.com/a/Z0Yrl8h
        
               | rubymamis wrote:
               | Well, I care about tiny details like that, so always
               | appreciate such comments (:
               | 
               | I'll try to see what I can do about it to make the
               | transition easier on the eyes, so thanks for the
               | feedback.
        
       | adonese wrote:
       | Is there a nice ebooks reader on android. The options I keep
       | running to are rather very disappointing
        
         | alexejb wrote:
         | KOreader is quite nice after some setup.
        
         | gabelschlager wrote:
         | I quite liked ReadEra. Scans your phone for all epubs, allows
         | grouping and organizing them, but most importantly, has a good
         | looking, customizable reading interface.
        
         | DaSHacka wrote:
         | I use Librera FD from f-droid[0], I think it works great though
         | I don't typically read books on my phone (instead opting to use
         | an e-ink kindle).
         | 
         | [0] https://f-droid.org/packages/com.foobnix.pro.pdf.reader/
        
         | TiredOfLife wrote:
         | Moon+ reader for non technical books
        
         | hgyjnbdet wrote:
         | Mupdf.
        
       | mattkevan wrote:
       | I've not been happy with the state of desktop ebook readers for a
       | while, so I recently built a simple web-based ebook reader. It's
       | designed to be a quick and easy way to read books while also
       | providing decent layout and typography.
       | 
       | Although it's a website, books and reading histories are saved in
       | the browser's local storage and it doesn't track anything.
       | 
       | Here's the link: https://www.minimalreader.xyz
        
         | rrishi wrote:
         | any plans to add pdf support?
        
         | azdle wrote:
         | Hey, might I suggest adding a public domain example book? I
         | tried adding a couple of different epubs that I happen to have
         | on my phone, but it just says "Please select an EPUB file."
         | when I do. (Using mobile Firefox.)
        
           | mattkevan wrote:
           | That's a good idea, thanks for the suggestion.
           | 
           | It seems to be quite picky about which books it accepts
           | sometimes, will have to look into that :)
        
       | GEBIRGE wrote:
       | Foliate is really good with the security aspects of rendering
       | ebooks. See the author's foliate-js library project
       | (https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate-js?tab=readme-ov-
       | fil...).
       | 
       | I've recently written an article about the dangers of ebooks.
       | Maybe it's of interest to some: https://gebir.ge/blog/every-
       | trick-in-the-book/
        
         | nathansherburn wrote:
         | Thanks for the write up!
         | 
         | I just wanted to chime in to say the Foliate code is really
         | beautifully written too.
         | 
         | I was able to hack together an epub audiobook reader by running
         | a custom version of foliatejs in Microsoft Edge (which has an
         | amazing and free text to speech engine called "read aloud").
         | It's VERT hacky but you can try it here:
         | https://nathansherburn.github.io/foliate-js/
         | 
         | Works on mobile and desktop Edge.
        
       | joshstrange wrote:
       | The app looks beautiful, but I can't unsee the clipped buttons at
       | the top and bottom on the left. Why wouldn't you use the same
       | border radius as the window? Or have the window not be rounded?
        
       | mikae1 wrote:
       | For KDE Plasma users that dislike non-native looking GTK apps I
       | can recommend https://apps.kde.org/en/arianna/
        
       | throwoutway wrote:
       | Looks beautiful! While I mostly read on kindle, this makes me
       | want to setup a new Ubuntu install. Haven't had that feeling in a
       | while
        
       | codethief wrote:
       | My favorite thing about Foliate:
       | 
       | > Add bookmarks and annotations. Reading progress, bookmarks, and
       | annotations are stored in _plain JSON files_ , so you can export
       | or sync them easily with any tool or storage service.
       | 
       | > The data for each book is stored in a JSON file named after the
       | book's identifier.
       | 
       | > How are identifiers generated? For formats or books without
       | unique identifiers, Foliate will generate one with the prefix
       | foliate:, plus the MD5 hash of the file.
       | 
       | Finally, someone recognized the benefit of using file hashes for
       | ID purposes and my PDFs no longer get modified when I annotate
       | them!
       | 
       | Now I just wish music playlists used hashes, too...
        
         | explosion-s wrote:
         | Maybe I'm not understanding, but wouldn't using the file hash
         | to keep track of things make it really tricky if the file is
         | modified in any way? E.g. when annotating a PDF it would lose
         | all previous data associated because the hash would change
        
           | TuringTest wrote:
           | I guess they'd use a hash of the book contents, not the whole
           | file?
        
             | ericjmorey wrote:
             | You end up with the ebook file and an annotations and
             | bookmarks file. I'm assuming that the program would just
             | look in the same directory as the ebook file or some
             | configurable location.
        
           | braiamp wrote:
           | > Reading progress, bookmarks, and annotations _are stored in
           | plain JSON files_
           | 
           | The file is not modified.
        
             | cl3misch wrote:
             | I think they mean that the hash in the JSON record does not
             | match the PDF file anymore, after the PDF has been changed
             | by some other program.
        
               | kylebenzle wrote:
               | I agree but it seems the original PDF is not changed but
               | you are right, if it is edited directly and renamed then
               | it will fail to load the JSON.
        
           | mook wrote:
           | I download still-running fiction from the internet and read
           | them locally, and periodically replace the files with
           | versions with more chapters. It does not sound like the
           | workflow would work for me.
           | 
           | (This also means hashing the contents wouldn't work.)
        
       | p0w3n3d wrote:
       | This looks like a decent PDF reader too, especially with Adobe's
       | decision to cease shipping the Acrobat Reader to Linux
        
       | inSenCite wrote:
       | This look pretty neat, wish there were some decent ebook readers
       | for Android that can handle both pdf and ebpub....I was looking
       | into moon reader but it requires an obnoxious breadth of
       | permissions that seems very odd. Calibre is still my go-to on
       | windows
        
         | dsr_ wrote:
         | Have you tried KOreader? https://koreader.rocks
        
           | nvllsvm wrote:
           | I use KOReader to read epubs on Android, but not PDFs. Being
           | geared towards eink devices, KOReader lacks the smooth
           | panning+zooming one would typically expect in an Android PDF
           | reader. I've settled on using Bubble2 when I need to read a
           | PDF, though I'd prefer to use my laptop when possible.
        
       | casenmgreen wrote:
       | Can't view images.
       | 
       | This is because they are in webp format.
       | 
       | I have support for this format disabled in browser, because I
       | know of no simple native viewer on Linux, so I in effect cannot
       | save such images, because I cannot view them.
        
         | Lex-2008 wrote:
         | ffplay?
        
         | adrian_b wrote:
         | Firefox works fine as a native viewer of the saved webp images
         | on Linux, if you associate the file extension/file type with
         | it. Also Chromium/Chrome can be used for the same purpose.
         | 
         | The only disadvantage is that the browsers are slower and they
         | have much more inconvenient user interfaces than the dedicated
         | image viewers, for functions like zoom and pan or passing to
         | the next or previous image in a directory.
         | 
         | An alternative is to use the movie player "mpv" as the native
         | webp viewer. This is much faster and it has the advantage of
         | easy navigation in a directory with webp images and of easy
         | zoom and pan (you may need to edit the mpv configuration and
         | bind the ZOOMIN and ZOOMOUT commands to whatever keys you
         | prefer).
        
         | kaanyalova wrote:
         | Every image viewer i know of on Linux supports webm, do you
         | have libwebp installed?
        
       | rabbitofdeath wrote:
       | I love this on my laptop - but struggling for iOS - particularly
       | iPad - any good suggestions? I just want to read books, keep my
       | place and not have any ads -is this that hard?
        
         | dmd wrote:
         | The built in Books meets all those criteria.
        
         | leobg wrote:
         | Voice Dream Reader. Using it for 10+ years. Haven't found
         | anything that comes close.
        
       | sqeaky wrote:
       | Does it have a dark mode?
        
       | giraffes wrote:
       | Is there something like this for Windows?
        
       | garyfirestorm wrote:
       | I installed snap version of Foliate on Ubuntu20.04. And it failed
       | to work for me (when I open a valid epub, it is just blank). I'm
       | so disappointed when I see something that I badly want and it
       | doesn't work.
        
       | ntnsndr wrote:
       | I love this app! I recently went shopping for Linux readers and
       | came right back to Foliate for its common sense and feature-
       | richness beneath a clean UX.
        
       | beginnings wrote:
       | its written in javascript, I dont want javascript apps on my
       | system
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-19 23:03 UTC)