Windows-Specific Ereader Software?

[therealTOEBEANS]

Hi! I use my Surface Pro device for most content consumption, but I keep my Calibre library on my desktop computer. I'm a bit new to the ereader scene, sorry.

Is there a way to get something like KOReader for Windows? Just the ereader software part, with a lot of ebook format options. I don't need to keep and organize my whole ebook library on my wimpy tablet!

Maybe there's a simple way to do this, but I can't seem to find any info about this online.

[Sirtel]

You can use the calibre viewer on your Surface. While it can't be installed separately from full Calibre, it can be used as a separate application, once installed. It has lots of features and support for many formats.

It's what I use to view ebooks on my Windows devices.

[Apache]

I use a Surface Pro and have Calibre installed on it. You shouldn't have any problems running Calibre on your Surface Pro.
Apache

[Quoth]

You might want Sumatra for PDFs. Works well on Windows surface/touch.

Calibre Viewer will run standalone for real ebooks.

[Gormagon]

One can also use Sumatra for epub, mobi, cbr, cbz and txt files. There's really no need for calibre on Windows if you have Sumatra installed (and sort your ebooks in folders).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Gormagon

One can also use Sumatra for epub, mobi, cbr, cbz and txt files. There's really no need for calibre on Windows if you have Sumatra installed (and sort your ebooks in folders).

Sumatra has no customization options and displays epubs very poorly. It's great for PDF files, not so much for anything else.

[Gormagon]

What is there really to display in epub files? It's just text, some CSS and maybe some pictures. While it may be nice to change the font I rarely see the need to do it, except if the font is Comic Sans of course.

Sumatra versions <3.4 had a feature for customizing the ebook UI in the advanced options of the settings menu wth EbookUI. This is missing in later versions. The most recent version is 3.5.2.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Gormagon

What is there really to display in epub files? It's just text, some CSS and maybe some pictures. While it may be nice to change the font I rarely see the need to do it, except if the font is Comic Sans of course.

The way Sumatra displays epubs is just awful. No way to customize line-height, paragraphs, text-indents (and it doesn't display them like they're specified in the css), no Table of Contents, no special fonts embedded in the book and a hundred more things. Maybe you're used to it or just don't care, but I definitely can't read a book that way.

[Gormagon]

Well, I usually don't read ebooks on my Windows computer, even though the screen is much larger than the screens of tablets or e-readers. So I mainly use Sumatra if I want to look something up in an epub file while working on my computer.

I just opened 4 epubs and they all have a table of content under "Bookmarks" in Sumatra.
The text of these files sometimes display italics, underlined text, a large first letter at the beginning of a chapter, different fonts, white text on black background…I really haven't look in the html files and the style sheets but to me it looks like the epub displays just fine in Sumatra v3.5.2. 64-bit.

A valid point for me would be "customize line-height" though, but then I can just increase the size with the + in the magnifier in Sumatra.

I really like software that can open various files of a kind like text files such as pdf, epub, mobi, txt, cbz, cbr in Sumatra or puicture files like jpg, gif, png, psd, eps and so on in irfanview.

[Sirtel]

Hmm... my version of Sumatra was actually quite ancient, installed several years ago. I updated it and yep, it does display epubs better now. But still, I prefer the calibre viewer. More options.

As to someone not needing Calibre if they have Sumatra? You must be joking, right? I could understand not needing the viewer, but all the other things Calibre does... removing the DRM, converting, editing metadata, editing the html and css... and good luck with folder management if you have several thousand books and need to find something of which you only remember a vague outline of its synopsis, not the title or the author. Happens to me all the time. I can find it in Calibre by searching for keywords in the comments or browsing specific genres or custom categories. I could never find it in a folder-based system.

[therealTOEBEANS]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You might want Sumatra for PDFs. Works well on Windows surface/touch.

Calibre Viewer will run standalone for real ebooks.

Thanks for your help!

[therealTOEBEANS]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You can use the calibre viewer on your Surface. While it can't be installed separately from full Calibre, it can be used as a separate application, once installed. It has lots of features and support for many formats.

It's what I use to view ebooks on my Windows devices.

If that's the best option, I guess I'll just have Calibre installed on both computers... lol

My question I guess then is about whether I can treat my Windows tablet as an ereader like a Kindle or Kobo this way. So like, housing all my ebooks on one device, and having a copy of them on another.

I guess it's all a bit redundant when your ereader is a whole PC. haha!

I appreciate everyone's help here. Cheers!

[Gormagon]

"So like, housing all my ebooks on one device, and having a copy of them on another."

Since I'm not a fan of Calibre and more of a folder guy I would just go with folders and Sumatra on a Windows device, if I use it mainly for e-book reading.

The content of the folders can easily be checked and copied with Winmerge. Actually I use Winmerge to check and copy the music content of microSD cards for my DAPs (Digital Audio Players), so I would just do the same with epubs, pdfs, cbr, cbz etc.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You might want Sumatra for PDFs. Works well on Windows surface/touch.

Calibre Viewer will run standalone for real ebooks.

I have Sumatra on my Surface for reading pdf books and Calibre for epubs. I prefer it this way.
Apache

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Gormagon

"So like, housing all my ebooks on one device, and having a copy of them on another."

Since I'm not a fan of Calibre and more of a folder guy I would just go with folders and Sumatra on a Windows device, if I use it mainly for e-book reading.

The content of the folders can easily be checked and copied with Winmerge. Actually I use Winmerge to check and copy the music content of microSD cards for my DAPs (Digital Audio Players), so I would just do the same with epubs, pdfs, cbr, cbz etc.

Calibre allows me to edit or correct the metadata and replace poor book covers while importing the book.
Apache