The Status of Marvin

[GeniusJ]

Originally Posted by leebase

FBReader ticks all my boxes.

Same here. It has all the features I need. And the developer is responsive to suggestions and problems.

[Turtle91]

• Works on both iOS and Android devices

I only use iOS, so this doesn't mean much to me.

• Syncs well between all devices

I don't sync between devices, but I do have an OPDS server and Marvin works perfectly with that.

• Configurable tap zones...I have 5 of the 6 zones for forwrd and 1 for backward

Marvin does this as well.

• Finger drag to change brightness/dimness easily

Marvin does this as well.

• FBReader Network - uses google drive, super easy to load and download books

I'm not familiar with this FBReader Network. Seems similar to the OPDS server I mentioned before??

• Supports series meta data for organization

Marvin does this as well.

• Doesn't have the best color presets, but totally configurable to come up with your own comfortable reading colors

Marvin does really well with color presets/themes.




It seems that there are only a couple items that handle things slightly differently than Marvin. If you MUST have syncing between iOS and Android devices then FBReader seems to be a good match. Otherwise Marvin is still awesome!


Cheers,

[peaceridge]

Adding to Turtle91's comparison:
Marvin shows the page numbering on the screen. FBReader requires a page tap to see it - drives me crazy. I much prefer Marvin's losing the current page in landscape as it can be easily worked around once you get in the habit of marking the page as you leave the app.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

It seems that there are only a couple items that handle things slightly differently than Marvin. If you MUST have syncing between iOS and Android devices then FBReader seems to be a good match. Otherwise Marvin is still awesome!


Cheers,

I liked Marvin. If you don't need to sync between iOS and Android - Marvin will still be great until it stops working with the latest iOS. When that is? No one knows. But Marvin isn't developed or supported anymore. So I moved on.

I used Stanza a long time as well until it broke.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Adding to Turtle91's comparison:
Marvin shows the page numbering on the screen. FBReader requires a page tap to see it - drives me crazy. I much prefer Marvin's losing the current page in landscape as it can be easily worked around once you get in the habit of marking the page as you leave the app.

For me, I also like the ability in Marvin to easily view all annotations from library view as well as filtering by other metadata information (Subjects/Tags, Publisher) and Smart collections. Filtering by Publisher is very useful for me for browsing downloaded fanfics by site. Subjects/Tags is useful for filtering by fandom, characters and genre.

I swap hands frequently so the swipe up/down for brightness control anywhere on the screen for Marvin is also much more convenient than the fixed right or left edge on FBReader.

I set the left and right tap zones to Next Page on both Marvin and FBReader since that's what I need most of the time. On FBReader it requires a long swipe (half the display) to go to previous page. Something I can't reach (2-col landscape) when holding/supporting the iPad with one hand just by the edges. On Marvin, I can easily do a short flick to go to the previous page.

Honestly, if Marvin stops working, iBooks would probably be my fallback. It's pretty locked down and I hate the page turn animations but as far as page turn controls, I find it to be closest to as "ergonomic" as I find Marvin.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I set the left and right tap zones to Next Page on both Marvin and FBReader since that's what I need most of the time. On FBReader it requires a long swipe (half the display) to go to previous page.

That's interesting. For me FBReader has 6 tap zones, 3 on each side. I set 5 to go forward and 1 to go backward. All just take a tap, no swiping.

I do miss the Radar feature from Marvin that will find all occurrences of a word (like a Character's name). It made some books easier to understand if I could go back to when a character was introduced and reread.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by leebase

That's interesting. For me FBReader has 6 tap zones, 3 on each side. I set 5 to go forward and 1 to go backward. All just take a tap, no swiping.

As I mentioned, I often switch hands so having page back on just one side is inconvenient but neither would I like to dedicate 1/3 on both sides just for page back.

99% of the time, what I need is page forward so I prefer the way the controls work on Marvin: almost entire screen for page forward plus short flicks on the few occasions I need page back.

I do miss the Radar feature from Marvin that will find all occurrences of a word (like a Character's name). It made some books easier to understand if I could go back to when a character was introduced and reread.

Now that you mentioned, the search function on Marvin where it shows a preview of results (similar to Kindle and iBooks) is also far, far more useful to me than the search function in FBReader. Search is something I use all the time so whatever I replace Marvin with must have similar search functionality.

I don't use Android so the FBReader Network/Sync is wasted on me. That's really the only feature on FBReader that's missing from Marvin. Apart from that, it seems Marvin has feature parity and some things, Marvin even handles better (e.g. metadata, filtering, search, sort options, etc).

I've tried MapleRead, KyBook, FBReader, Hyphen, etc. and there are none that I like as much as Marvin. Iirc, Hyphen came closest to all my must-haves but that's been abandoned now, too. Hence, I'll continue to use Marvin for as long as it functions rather than switch to another app that doesn't work as well for me just because Marvin is abandonware. When Marvin actually stops working, that's when I'll switch.

[leebase]

No doubt Marvin was (and is) an excellent reader app. I hate that the developer went on to other things. (good for him, bad for me). Like you, I've tried all the others. For whatever reason, none of them do it for me -- other than FBReader. Horses for course.

I'm glad there is at least on app that I really like.

Of note - I've been reading mostly on the Kindle app of late. Just too lazy to futz with the liberation. I now have no working machine/setup. I know...I just said I had my Mac working. Now it doesn't. I did no changes.

The kindle app also syncs with Audbile. I have been buying ebooks with the "add audible" option at times. It's really nice to have just one train of though. One book to read whether I'm "reading" or out for a walk listening.

The addition of an actual Kindle in my life has also moved me to using the Kindle app. There are times I just love it's size and light weight. And yet, my iPad mini has the best screen by far. I'm always inside reading so "great reading in sunlight" isn't a factor in the eInk device for me.

First world problems....too many choices in reader apps/devices and no single one is best at everything I want or do.

[witchkitten]

I didn't realize that Marvin had been abandoned by the developer until yesterday when I came here to try to figure out how to get some fixed format epubs to work. It's the first issue I've had with the software in years. Wanting to find an alternative to Marvin for when the app eventually stops working due to iOS incompatibilities, I've tried out the most popular alternative ereader apps suggested here and none of them work for me. They are all missing critical features or are visually unappealing.

Kybooks comes the closest to having what I want in an ereading app but the library is practically unreadable and customizing the layout of a book is clunky because you have hit apply every time you make a change. I also find the bars at the top and bottom unpolished and visually unappealing but at least it has the chapter length information. Neither MapleRead or FBReader display chapter length and progress through the chapter/how many pages are left in the chapter at the top or bottom of the page, which is one of the most important features to me in any ereading software. It's the main reason Kindle, Kobo, and Nook e-ink readers didn't work for me back when I was shopping for one some years ago and why I ended up with a LikeBook Mars. Moon+ Reader for Android is almost as good, if not equally as good, as Marvin in part because it has the chapter information right on the page while I'm reading among other things, so I specifically looked for a reader that could use the Google Play Store and run Android apps. Unfortunately, they don't make Moon+ Reader for iOS.

Apple Books does show the number of pages left in a chapter but the app doesn't allow me to customize the look of the book overall (margin sizes, line spacing, etc.), which is a dealbreaker. Neither MapleRead or Apple Books allows me to get rid of the page turn animations, which I hate, and FBReader doesn't allow me to connect to Calibre's OPDS server. It's the only ereader app I've used aside from Apple Books that doesn't search for local OPDS servers, but even when I manually type in the OPDS server address it says the URL is not supported. I also find the gray progress bar at the bottom ugly and distracting. Marvin is practically perfect in every way and I'm now going to live in fear of the day it stops working.

[rfog]

Witchkitten, only two things: currently, Kobo readers show the remaining pages in chapter, and Google Books too, and Google Books can be used in practically any device; iOS and Android App, and then it works into any web navigator (with reduced options). Worst thing of GReader is it does not have too much customisation options.

BTW, currently I'm using Kindle for all. Worst handicap is it shows remaining chapter **time** instead of pages. It is very accurate but I don't like it.

[witchkitten]

Originally Posted by rfog

Witchkitten, only two things: currently, Kobo readers show the remaining pages in chapter, and Google Books too, and Google Books can be used in practically any device; iOS and Android App, and then it works into any web navigator (with reduced options). Worst thing of GReader is it does not have too much customisation options.

BTW, currently I'm using Kindle for all. Worst handicap is it shows remaining chapter **time** instead of pages. It is very accurate but I don't like it.

Thank you for the suggestions. Although I’ve purchased several books from Google Play Books I’ve never used their software. I guess I always figured it wouldn’t customizable enough.

I might be misremembering about Kobo not having number of pages in a chapter. Perhaps there were some other issues with it. I’m sure things have changed a lot since I was looking too. It was many years ago. Kindle’s lack or page numbers for chapter length is the main reason I haven’t purchased one despite being tempted by the Paperwhite many times over the years. I actually prefer percentages for progress through the entire book although I don’t mind also having the page numbers so long as they’re dynamic. The static page numbers that the Nook uses (used to use?) are almost completely useless.

[Faterson]

Thanks to all for the various recommendations.

I need to take a closer look at (especially) FB Reader and Kybooks (again), I guess, since they got such strong recommendations on the foregoing pages. I can only say that when I tested them a few years ago, they didn't strike me as serious competitors of my (largely dysfunctional) Marvin & Moon+ Reader combo.

In any case, the only reason I visited this noxious thread again after a couple of years (happy with my opening post from 5 years ago; it quickly went downhill from there, but that's par for the course on MobileRead) is that I've recently become aware of the BookFusion app that does have potential to become a worthy replacement for us Marvin (ex-)lovers one day, just like Marvin replaced Stanza for us.

It's not there yet by any means, but I've just composed my opening report on BookFusion (frequently comparing it to what Marvin offers and doesn't offer) here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=348805

If you have any feedback on BookFusion, I will appreciate your posting it there (I'll be expounding my initial report on BookFusion later on) – or if you have even better replacement suggestions for Marvin.

I suppose, though, that neither FB Reader nor Kybooks offer the 3-way cross-platform functionality that BookFusion does, right? iOS + Android + web (Windows for me). If not, that would be a definite point in favor of BookFusion. (Of course, Kindle and Play Books are lost causes.)

[JSWolf]

I cannot speak of Kybooks, but FBReader is really bad at respecting the CSS. Basically, garbage..

[Faterson]

I did notice that assessment of yours earlier in this thread, Jon.

And I also thought of your typically strict judgments while testing BookFusion. What would be your reaction to BookFusion now?

In fact, I had tested BookFusion myself a couple of years ago, but quickly dismissed it back then as "not ready to play with the big boys".

It seems different now – looks like a lot of progress has been made over the last couple of years, as can be seen in their blog/change-log.

For instance, I think BookFusion have only very recently added highlights of multiple colors (still not there in the Android version, but fully customizable now in iOS and on the web, so even better than Marvin now in this regard), which is core functionality.

If there were no highlights of multiple colors in BookFusion a couple of years ago when I tested it for the first time, I'm not surprised I never took it seriously. No multiple-color highlights would be a complete showstopper to me in any e-reader.

As to PDF files... As explained in my big BookFusion post, some books simply aren't available as reliable EPUB files, and likely never will be. I would not insist on BookFusion to support PDF files fully, if BookFusion could be used for a one-time payment, like Marvin was. Then again, Marvin went bankrupt with that pricing model.

So I'm fine with BookFusion charging annual subscription fees, if it means reliable, long-term development for decades to come. So that we don't reconvene here by 2030, looking for a BookFusion replacement this time around.

It happened with Stanza for us, then with Marvin. I don't ever want to go through such ordeals again.

So, OK, I'm ready to pay an annual subscription price for a top-quality e-reader, if necessary, but in return, I expect BookFusion to provide full support of PDF files (including, crucially, freehand annotation of image-only PDF files), not just EPUB files.

For EPUB, BookFusion needs to provide everything that Marvin provides for us, on the same level of quality (and, if possible, elegance), and more. And for PDF, BookFusion needs to be at least on a par with Adobe Acrobat or GoodReader, when it comes to functionality needed for reading. (Editing PDF files is not necessary at all in an e-reader, of course, but annotation functionality must be top-notch.)

[GeniusJ]

Have you tried Mapleread SE for reading PDF files? I've found that it seems to be the best for PDFs when compared to others, including BookFusion.