FBReader for Maemo - new screenshots!

MishaS · 08-07-2005, 01:28 PM

Since there's some interest toward the Maemo/Nokia 770 port of FBReader, I updated the page with new screenshots.

I'd really appreciate your feedback (about both the program and the screenshots).

Colin Dunstan · 08-07-2005, 02:08 PM

Misha those look cool. One feature that strikes me immediately is the light font against dark background. It still surprises me that a lot of e-book readers don't support this feature, despite it's usefulness. First, it is easier on the eyes. And second, at least this is what I think, it saves battery because less pixels are illuminated.

TadW · 08-07-2005, 02:33 PM

Misha:

Great screenshots. The full-screen mode rocks! So many words in one line... much better than reading on my PDA. I have a few questions:

- will FBReader for Maemo support other file formats such as Plucker or Palm Doc? Both are well documented I think.
- if you support Plucker documents, do you also support tables?
- are custom fonts supported? Truetype fonts perhaps?
- is there a file size limit for e-books?
- how fast does the screen refresh when you browse? Can you browse by line and by screen?
- is autoscrolling supported? if yes, how practical is it with the Nokia display. On my PDA, the texts seems blurry with autoscrolling enabled not really useful.

MishaS · 08-07-2005, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TadW

Great screenshots.

Thank you

Quote:

- will FBReader for Maemo support other file formats such as Plucker or Palm Doc? Both are well documented I think.

FBReade on maemo won't support anything that FBReader on Zaurus does not support. Both Plucker and Palm Doc are in plans. However I'm not sure how full the support will be. Documentation is not perfect...

Quote:

- if you support Plucker documents, do you also support tables?

tables are in plans. And not only for plucker.

Quote:

- are custom fonts supported? Truetype fonts perhaps?

FBReader allows to use all fonts that are available in the system. The program does not have own mechanisms for using fonts. And I am afraid Nokia 770 won't have means for installing additional fonts.

Quote:

- is there a file size limit for e-books?

Not that I know of.

Quote:

- how fast does the screen refresh when you browse? Can you browse by line and by screen?

I'd say it allows comfortable book reading. Our measures showed somethinh like up to 40ms per page. it significantly slower if you rotate the screen. At the moment you can only scroll page by page. Line by line scrolling is in plans.

Quote:

- is autoscrolling supported? if yes, how practical is it with the Nokia display. On my PDA, the texts seems blurry with autoscrolling enabled not really useful.

No, autoscrolling is not supported. It's in plans while it has lower priority compared to the items mentioned above.

Thanks for your questions

TadW · 08-07-2005, 03:53 PM

No problem, I love to ask questions

(as long as you don't mind them!)

- Autoscrolling is not a big deal, I've never got used to it anyways.

- Scroll by lines would be cool, especially if you could use the stylus for "dragging" the screen up and down.

- You sure the Nokia wouldn't allow for additional fonts? That's a limitation of Maemo then I assume.

- Plucker support would be very convenient. I believe a lot of people on this board are using Plucker as their primary e-book reader and it would be nice if one could just copy existing Plucker e-books over to the Nokia. Btw, how do you generate FBReader e-books? Is there a special desktop tool available?

Bob Russell · 08-07-2005, 04:13 PM

I'm starting to really get the feeling that I'm gonna have to buy a Nokia 770! I don't normally use multiple devices (that's why I have a Treo despite the smaller screen), but the Noka on Linux might just be enough to change my mind about that.

As far as the reader, I also really like the full screen mode (hope you can exit the mode easy also) and button for portrait/landscape. The screenshots look beautiful.

I'd like to see PalmDoc and iSilo and Plucker supported also, but text and html is enough to make it useful to me. (The zip support is very nice also!)

A scroll option for dragging the screen (like iSilo) would be very nice. And I didn't see whether or not bookmarks are supported, but that's very important to me also.

I'd like to see something that allows me to choose a set of directories that are considered part of the library. (Hopefully there's no special import required.) I like to be able to just move the file to a directory and then access it from the reader.

It's also nice if I can see the whole name in the book list if the name is long (don't care if I have to scroll to do it). I like to also see the size and format of the file and whether it's on the card .

Don't know if any of those things are included or planned, but doesn't really matter -- looks like a nice program and one more reason to be tempted by the 770. Thanks for the updates. I hope you'll keep them coming.

Brad · 08-07-2005, 04:37 PM

I have been wanting to play with Linux and the 770 is looking real good. I am so glad that another ebook reader is being ported over to the Nokia in addition to Plucker. I really like Plucker, but I would hate to have only one ebook reader and format available for the 770. Being able to read TXT and HTML really helps.

I would love to see the addition of PalmDOC, because so many ebooks are available in that format.

The screenshots look great, thanks for posting them.

MishaS · 08-07-2005, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TadW

No problem, I love to ask questions

(as long as you don't mind them!)

No, I don't mind them. I considerr them to be a special case of feedback

Quote:

- You sure the Nokia wouldn't allow for additional fonts? That's a limitation of Maemo then I assume.

Quite sure.

I wonder however how it could have been overlooked

Quote:

Btw, how do you generate FBReader e-books? Is there a special desktop tool available?

There is a tool called Book Designer. Me perrsonally prefer to either download them from one of two "libraries" available (http://lib.aldebaran.ru, http://fictionbook.ru) or use a simple text editor (vim) to create fb2(xml) directly...

doctorow · 08-07-2005, 07:12 PM

Am I correct that FBReader is currently only available for the Zaurus and the Maemo platform?

doctorow · 08-07-2005, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorow

Am I correct that FBReader is currently only available for the Zaurus and the Maemo platform?

And if yes, could someone give me a tip how to run Maemo without owning the Nokia 770?

MrSaint · 08-08-2005, 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MishaS

There is a tool called Book Designer. Me perrsonally prefer to either download them from one of two "libraries" available (http://lib.aldebaran.ru, http://fictionbook.ru) or use a simple text editor (vim) to create fb2(xml) directly...

Misha, do you have the link to Book Designer?

MishaS · 08-08-2005, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSaint

Misha, do you have the link to Book Designer?

A list of applications is available here: http://www.fictionbook.org/en/programs/redact.html

The site itself is devoted to the format, and they have a forum. The forum is primarily Russian speaking, however they have a section for English speaking people.

BookDesigner itself is available as a zip file. I'm not sure if the guy has a home page for that application.

MishaS · 08-08-2005, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorow

And if yes, could someone give me a tip how to run Maemo without owning the Nokia 770?

As for running maemo on a desktop computer, you can try Maemo LiveCD. Sorry I do not have personal experience with it.

MishaS · 08-08-2005, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorow

Am I correct that FBReader is currently only available for the Zaurus and the Maemo platform?

As the official page states, FBReader is only available for different platforms for Zaurus.

As long as we talk unofficial stuff, it is available

Qt variant for desktop
Gtk+ variant for Desktop
Maemo

You can download the sources and try to build them. Unfortunately the instructions are far from being complete.

And, just in case, no, it was not tried on Windows or Mac OS X.

MishaS · 08-08-2005, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobR

As far as the reader, I also really like the full screen mode (hope you can exit the mode easy also) and button for portrait/landscape. The screenshots look beautiful.

The full screen mode is toggled using hardware key "full screen" (which is the common way for most of the applications that are going to be shipped with Nokia 770). As for portrait/landscape switch, I decided to use hardware key "select". It can also be done using the menu.

Quote:

I'd like to see PalmDoc and iSilo and Plucker supported also, but text and html is enough to make it useful to me. (The zip support is very nice also!)

PalmDoc and Plucker formats are in the plans. As for iSilo, this is a propriatory format. There's documentation for some old format, I'm not sure if it's gonna be implemented though.

Quote:

A scroll option for dragging the screen (like iSilo) would be very nice.

It's not there.

Quote:

And I didn't see whether or not bookmarks are supported, but that's very important to me also.

Bookmarks are not supported.

But they are in plans. Probably it's gonna be implemented _after_ the next version.

Quote:

I'd like to see something that allows me to choose a set of directories that are considered part of the library. (Hopefully there's no special import required.) I like to be able to just move the file to a directory and then access it from the reader.

You have no import, you just specify as many directories as you want with your books.

Just do not forget to separate them with ':'. I provided a screenshot that shows how you can control this.

Quote:

It's also nice if I can see the whole name in the book list if the name is long (don't care if I have to scroll to do it). I like to also see the size and format of the file and whether it's on the card .

Thanks for the feature requests

08-07-2005, 01:28 PM	#1
MishaS Connoisseur Posts: 79 Karma: 52 Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Helsinki, Finland Device: Nokia N810/Nokia E51	FBReader for Maemo - new screenshots! Since there's some interest toward the Maemo/Nokia 770 port of FBReader, I updated the page with new screenshots. I'd really appreciate your feedback (about both the program and the screenshots). Last edited by MishaS; 11-25-2005 at 02:39 PM. Reason: updated link to the screenshots

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08-07-2005, 02:08 PM	#2
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	Misha those look cool. One feature that strikes me immediately is the light font against dark background. It still surprises me that a lot of e-book readers don't support this feature, despite it's usefulness. First, it is easier on the eyes. And second, at least this is what I think, it saves battery because less pixels are illuminated.

08-07-2005, 02:33 PM	#3
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	Misha: Great screenshots. The full-screen mode rocks! So many words in one line... much better than reading on my PDA. I have a few questions: - will FBReader for Maemo support other file formats such as Plucker or Palm Doc? Both are well documented I think. - if you support Plucker documents, do you also support tables? - are custom fonts supported? Truetype fonts perhaps? - is there a file size limit for e-books? - how fast does the screen refresh when you browse? Can you browse by line and by screen? - is autoscrolling supported? if yes, how practical is it with the Nokia display. On my PDA, the texts seems blurry with autoscrolling enabled not really useful.

08-07-2005, 03:53 PM	#5
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	No problem, I love to ask questions (as long as you don't mind them!) - Autoscrolling is not a big deal, I've never got used to it anyways. - Scroll by lines would be cool, especially if you could use the stylus for "dragging" the screen up and down. - You sure the Nokia wouldn't allow for additional fonts? That's a limitation of Maemo then I assume. - Plucker support would be very convenient. I believe a lot of people on this board are using Plucker as their primary e-book reader and it would be nice if one could just copy existing Plucker e-books over to the Nokia. Btw, how do you generate FBReader e-books? Is there a special desktop tool available?

08-07-2005, 04:13 PM	#6
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I'm starting to really get the feeling that I'm gonna have to buy a Nokia 770! I don't normally use multiple devices (that's why I have a Treo despite the smaller screen), but the Noka on Linux might just be enough to change my mind about that. As far as the reader, I also really like the full screen mode (hope you can exit the mode easy also) and button for portrait/landscape. The screenshots look beautiful. I'd like to see PalmDoc and iSilo and Plucker supported also, but text and html is enough to make it useful to me. (The zip support is very nice also!) A scroll option for dragging the screen (like iSilo) would be very nice. And I didn't see whether or not bookmarks are supported, but that's very important to me also. I'd like to see something that allows me to choose a set of directories that are considered part of the library. (Hopefully there's no special import required.) I like to be able to just move the file to a directory and then access it from the reader. It's also nice if I can see the whole name in the book list if the name is long (don't care if I have to scroll to do it). I like to also see the size and format of the file and whether it's on the card . Don't know if any of those things are included or planned, but doesn't really matter -- looks like a nice program and one more reason to be tempted by the 770. Thanks for the updates. I hope you'll keep them coming.

08-07-2005, 04:37 PM	#7
Brad Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 201 Join Date: Sep 2004 Device: Cybook Gen3 / EB1150 /iPhone	I have been wanting to play with Linux and the 770 is looking real good. I am so glad that another ebook reader is being ported over to the Nokia in addition to Plucker. I really like Plucker, but I would hate to have only one ebook reader and format available for the 770. Being able to read TXT and HTML really helps. I would love to see the addition of PalmDOC, because so many ebooks are available in that format. The screenshots look great, thanks for posting them.

08-07-2005, 07:12 PM	#9
doctorow Guru Posts: 914 Karma: 3410461 Join Date: May 2004 Device: Kindle Touch	Am I correct that FBReader is currently only available for the Zaurus and the Maemo platform?

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