I read a lot on my tablet. I also have a Kindle, but the tablet is always with me, and carrying two devices makes no sense at all. So, over time, the tablet became my main tool for reading (in addition to its other important functions). I mostly read books in PDF (some books require layout preservation) or, for the most part, in EPUB/FB2. These are two formats that are quite similar in terms of their philosophy.
I’ve tried a ton of different reading apps, and I’ve purchased at least five in addition to the native iBooks. But I still haven’t found the perfect option for myself. That’s why I periodically switch between different apps.
The closest to ideal for me is KyBook. In fact, I liked the first version more than the current KyBook 2. The new version, in my opinion, is overloaded, which affects basic functionality, requiring too many extra steps. However, the first version had occasional rendering glitches, and now the author is no longer developing it. Nevertheless, it still has its undeniable advantages:
- It’s almost universal: it supports all the formats I need—PDF, EPUB, and FB2.
- It displays pages when viewing the table of contents (which helps me gauge the length of chapters).
- It can show footnotes on the same page, meaning the footnote text pops up above the main text instead of redirecting to the end of the book, as most readers do. This is incredibly convenient because you don’t lose your place and can see the context immediately. However, it seems to only work for FB2.
- It natively supports an English-Russian dictionary (which is sometimes very useful), with translations popping up in the same way above the text. And it works in all three formats.
- Although a bit clunky, it keeps a history of the last few books (which is handy since I often read several books in parallel).
- It allows you to create a folder structure for better organization of your library (though I have to admit, the new version makes this very inconvenient. The old version did it better because the new one introduced the concepts of “Books” and “Files.” Folders only work for files, while some other functions only work for books. It’s incredibly frustrating).
- It displays the current progress, the number of pages in the book, and the remaining pages in the chapter. Although it only shows progress as a percentage on the “recently read” tab, it’s not a big deal since I don’t need that feature often.
- It allows for scrolling through PDFs (not just page flipping) and provides zooming options. Plus, it can convert PDFs to sepia.
There are other features, but they’re less essential.
Unfortunately, the program has its downsides. Rendering glitches occur from time to time, where all the paragraphs merge together, including the headings. Sadly, I haven’t been able to fix this. And this leads to the second downside: the developer, who used to be very responsive, has recently been slower to reply to user questions, often redirecting people to the FAQ, which, by the way, is very superficial and doesn’t answer more complex questions. Plus, it often seems like the developer takes many questions personally, which makes for an overall unpleasant experience. I can understand that on a human level sometimes, but after all, it’s the customers and buyers asking.
The second contender is Marvin. An excellent reader. I bought both the second and third versions (both had free versions, but there are also premium ones). When compared to KyBook, here are the differences:
- It only supports EPUB.
- It doesn’t display page numbers in the table of contents (or I couldn’t find this feature).
- It supports either system dictionaries, transferring to Lingvo (which requires purchasing the dictionaries separately), or using a web lookup. However, this is still inconvenient since it can’t display an English-Russian translation directly above the text, and jumping to another app is less comfortable (the web option isn’t ideal either: it’s inconvenient and requires internet, which isn’t always available).
- It can’t show in-text footnotes. But to be fair, I haven’t seen any other reader, including foreign ones, that does this either.
And then there’s the third option: the native iBooks. In terms of features, it’s the most limited. It displays PDFs only in the original color scheme, with no scrolling (just page-by-page flipping). Most of KyBook’s advantages for EPUB are also missing.
There are other apps, but they’re also quite limited or outdated. So, I mostly stick with KyBook, but when its minor flaws or the interface issues in the new version become too annoying, I switch to Marvin or iBooks.
What do you use for reading? What features are essential to you when reading?
