Epub 3.3 standard from W3C supporting highlights/notes compatibility between devices?

[Bertrand]

Thanks DNSB.

Your 1st link is the version (September 2021, almost 3 years) that I had found.

On the other hand, I hadn't seen the other page. Lots to explore.

Originally Posted by DNSB

There is an old version from 2022 at /readium/r2-testapp-kotlin/releases/.

You can also take a look at the Other toolkits related to Readium page which lists quite a few apps based on the Readium Mobile toolkit.

[Bertrand]

Thanks for the links, Kevin.
But, as far as as I can tell, those links are for the Thorium Browser, not Thorium Reader ?
Am I missing something ?

Originally Posted by KevinH

The most recent thing for Thorium on Android see:

https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Android

Its last release was on May 17th of this year.

There is also the main repo at:

https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium

as well.

[KevinH]

Whoops! I just assumed when I searched Thorium and Android that it would be the e-reader. I did not know a Thorium Browser even existed.

Sorry

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Thorium e-reader is now available for Android. It is epub3 compliant with lots of nice features.

That's nice to know! I've had it on my PC for some time now. I'll be adding it to my phone immediately to check it out.

EDIT: Not in the Play Store for me. I do have the Readium Android app. Guess that'll have to suffice.

[DNSB]

Once again, read to the end of the thread before replying...

I thought that was a fork of the Chromium web browser not an ePub reader.

[RbnJrg]

There are quite nice apps that support epub3 on Android. None of them is perfect but practically all of them support about 90-95% of epub3 protocol.
You can check PocketBook, Cantook (based on Readium), Reasily, Lithium, Kobo Books, Infinity Reader, BlueFire Reader. The main issue with them is their support for MathML (is not good). But with javascript you can add MathJax on all of them.

[Bertrand]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Whoops! I just assumed when I searched Thorium and Android that it would be the e-reader. I did not know a Thorium Browser even existed.

Yes, it's confusing. They both use the same name "Thorium", and they seem to be unrelated.
To resume :
- Official page for Thorium Reader. I didn't find any mobile versions on this website.

Too bad, I was curious because I like the desktop version.

(Out of curiosity, I installed the Thorium browser. Could not test it, , it crashes at every opening on my phone, Android 14...)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

There are quite nice apps that support epub3 on Android. None of them is perfect but practically all of them support about 90-95% of epub3 protocol.
You can check PocketBook, Cantook (based on Readium), Reasily, Lithium, Kobo Books, Infinity Reader, BlueFire Reader. The main issue with them is their support for MathML (is not good). But with javascript you can add MathJax on all of them.

How many of these apps support ePub 3.2?

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How many of these apps support ePub 3.2?

Cantook for example, employs the last version of Readium's rendering engine. All of them support 90-95% epub 3.2; maybe PocketBook has the most outdated rendering engine.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

Cantook for example, employs the last version of Readium's rendering engine. All of them support 90-95% epub 3.2; maybe PocketBook has the most outdated rendering engine.

90-95% means that even if these programs get ePub 3.3 compatibility it does not mean that the it will get the annotation feature.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

90-95% means that even if these programs get ePub 3.3 compatibility it does not mean that the it will get the annotation feature.

Just keep moving those goal posts Jon....

You know, I heard the zombie apocalypse is going to start sometime next week...I doubt they will want to read ebooks so we might as well give up now!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Just keep moving those goal posts Jon....

You know, I heard the zombie apocalypse is going to start sometime next week...I doubt they will want to read ebooks so we might as well give up now!

Changing the way these apps do annotations is going to be a major task. The other issue is how to do the new annotations so they are the same as what everyone else is doing. And then there is the issue of converting the existing annotations to the new annotations. I can see this feature of ePub 3.3 either taking a rather long time or not happening for some apps.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I can see this feature of ePub 3.3 either taking a rather long time or not happening for some apps.

You've mentioned that a time or three already.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Changing the way these apps do annotations is going to be a major task. The other issue is how to do the new annotations so they are the same as what everyone else is doing. And then there is the issue of converting the existing annotations to the new annotations. I can see this feature of ePub 3.3 either taking a rather long time or not happening for some apps.

Perhaps, they won't bother to try to match the existing and incompatible annotations? Developers will have a choice of using the standards based system or continuing to go their own way.

I do agree it will take quite a bit of time for the new annotation system to become common and there will always be the NIH types so will insist their way of doing annotations is better.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps, they won't bother to try to match the existing and incompatible annotations?

That's my hope. Why carry the complexity (and implementation bugs) of schemes that didn't catch on when that can be hidden in converter tools that can be dropped when nothing new is showing up in obsolete formats?