Comments on: Epub readers: Adobe Digital Editions, FBReader and OpenBerg Lector—reviewed with a little tough love

By: Fer Rush

Fer Rush — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:31:10 +0000

Great review. But a question for all:
I’d like to know more about the CSS specs that doesn’t work for epub. Joseph wrote: “To begin with, you should know that not all of the CSS 2.0 specification is supported in epub, so some things can’t be done.” I noticed that and it’s is frustrating. I can’t find a list of these things, is there a list, a review? I’m interested specially in using the selectors of css2 for atributes. Things like this :
*[lang|="en"] { color : red } (where * = any class en [..] is a attribute.
doesn’t seem to work at all.
Hope somebody can give me a link or an answer.
Ferdinand

By: Roger Sperberg

Roger Sperberg — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:21:50 +0000

I have used the FullFullScreen add-on to completely remove all visible signs of Firefox when reading a text in Lector.

I’ve also tried some double-column layouts that look very much like a hardcover double-page spread on my laptop.

With a stylesheet specified, you can also read any XML file in Lector, not just XHTML. The built-in SVG support is great, but does not include animation at present; the release of FF 3.0 should bring new capabilities.

And Lector will display MathML with no problem.

Roger

PS: I am beginning to explore what it will take to get Lector to run on the Nokia Internet Tablet. It looks very promising.

By: Yoric

Yoric — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:12:48 +0000

Just one quick word: removing the FF interface can be achieved by installing extension “FullerScreen” — and pressing F11.

By: Ebook Creation Links | Idiotprogrammer

Ebook Creation Links | Idiotprogrammer — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:29:08 +0000

[...] Joseph Gray reviews epub compatibility for current readers [...]

By: Joseph Gray

Joseph Gray — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:12:44 +0000

One additional comment. If DE does become too much of a nusance or a privacy concern, I’ll find some other software to read with, as I’m sure others will.

By: Joseph Gray

Joseph Gray — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:09:29 +0000

I’m not enamored with having ads in my ebooks, but I understand that ads are going to be used to support some free content. This doesn’t negate the need to be able to use the reader software offline, without problems. It also doesn’t negate the security and privacy concerns. In fact, if indeed things will become ad supported, does that mean that my reading habits will now be sold to advertisers, so I can be a target of unsolicited offers?

I’m on the US do-not-call list so that telemarketers don’t constantly bother me. I don’t want to deal with internet telemarketers as well.

By: Ahmed Hindawi

Ahmed Hindawi — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:44:30 +0000

This is an excellent review from Joseph Gray. Thanks a lot.

As for Adobe DE connecting to the internet even if you are readying a local file, Adobe said that future editions will carry advertisements (with two exceptions if I recall — if you have a subscription to their ad-free version of DE or if you are reading a DRMed document from one of their participating publisher customers where they will charging the publisher a DRM fee). May be this is one reason why ADE connects to the internet even if you don’t need that for the reading of a local file, since Adobe will need that in the next versions to serve the ads.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:42:59 +0000

Joseph did a great job. I hope you and others will use this comment area to suggest features you especially want in epub-capable readers. Folks at Adobe and other companies read us, and ideally they’ll see your comments and pay attention.

Speaking of the review, Joseph was oh so right about the need to make DE more like a standard windows program. It can still have a reading mode with the page surrounded by a dark background.

As for a PDA version, I hope it will be coming soon and that it will use a logical Mobipocket-style interface with simple icons on the main screen and well organized instructions “underneath.”

Thanks,
David

By: Bob Martinengo

Bob Martinengo — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:46:47 +0000

Nice job on the reviews.

Maybe its just Monday, but if this is the state of the art, I’m depressed. ‘Readers’ seem like a technology backwater at the moment.