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FaeryLynne@sh.itjust.works

Anybody know of an ebook reader that actually works? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 6 months ago by captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works to c/freeebooks@sh.itjust.works

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I can't find one. I've tried about a dozen across Linux and Android, not a single one is even remotely usable. It may be that epub is a write-only format?

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Calibre doesn't render these files correctly. It opens up, for a split second the first page is rendered, then the left half of the background of the first page disappears, so I get a thin white rectangle with text that runs off of it, and then no other pages render.

I think the books I'm working with...they're similar in format to cookbooks or textbooks? A lot of pictures, diagrams, graphical elements, with text set over them, this sort of thing:

Probably needs to be a PDF?

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago

Yeah, that's definitely the use case for a PDF.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Wait! Have you tried sumatra?

It is/was an app on Windows that handles a pretty wide range of text files. Iirc, it did a decent job with some manuals I had in pdf and ebup formats. I can't promise it'll render right, just that it's an option that worked for a similar use case a few years ago

Edit: I didn't think of it earlier because it's windows based, but it might be doable on Linux nowadays https://sumatrapdf.org/

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Dammit, this is bugging me lol.

Do you have a way to share the file that you're comfortable with a stranger having? I can piddle with out and try it on stuff over the next couple of days and see if I can find something that renders right.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I got a bunch of woodworking books off Humble Bundle, the example above is Taunton Press' Complete Illustrated Guide To Table Saws. I'm comfortable with you having that book, not sure I'm comfortable distributing copies.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I did find a different book of theirs and ran it through the stuff I have on my tablet

The only one that gave a decent render was perfectviewer, which is mainly for comics.

Nowhere near as good as a pdf version of a different book from the same publisher, a recipe book.

I think you may end up being better off converting files to pdf and going that route

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I think I'm going to do that. Now to find conversion software that will do the job since Calibre seems to choke on these. Pandoc maybe?

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

That would be where I'd start