Program reviews. FBReader is a fast, easily customizable e-book reader for devices with the Android operating system. How to use the fbreader program for Android
General description of the application
Application FbReader allows you to read e-books from the screen of your Samsung Android smartphone. Supports the following e-book formats: oeb, epub, fb2, fb2.zip, and also allows you to directly work with archives in zip, tar, gzip format. Note that the application supports displaying pictures that are present in the book. The application has a fairly simple design, but all functional blocks are quickly accessible, that is, any control element can be reached in a few clicks.
In addition, it allows you to download books directly from the Internet, for this there is a special search for the largest Internet libraries.
Installing the application
First of all, you need to copy the application installation file to the memory card of your device. Next, find it and click once.
Click on the install button and wait a few seconds.
A window will then appear informing you that the application has been installed successfully. In order to immediately start working with the application, click on the “Open” button. If this is not necessary yet, then click “Finish”. The application icon will appear in your phone's menu.
Note that the application can also be installed from the Android Market.
Working with the application
It’s worth noting right away that in order to read books, they need to be copied to a memory card in a special folder “ Books”, which is automatically scanned by the application and all books are added to your “Library”. When downloading books, pay attention to the format, Fbreader accepts a limited number of formats.
When you first launch the application, a file opens with a brief description and guidance on the main functions.
By pressing the “Menu” key of your device, you will see a context menu that contains all the main application options. Here we see buttons:
- Library
- Bookmarks
- Search
- Network library
- Additionally
Library
By clicking on the “Library” button we will see the following menu. Here you can see all the books that are on your phone. " Favorites» - shows books that the user has independently marked.
Bookmarks
Let us immediately note that after opening a book, the context menu changes slightly - instead of the “Library” button, “Table of Contents” appears.
By clicking on the " Table of contents", we can quickly jump to the desired chapter within the book and then bookmark it.
To create a bookmark, again, call up the context menu and click on the “Bookmarks” button, after which a window appears in front of us where we just need to click on the “ Add a bookmark».
After that, by going into the book, you can quickly find the moment or fragment you liked, where you left off last time.
Search
This option allows you to quickly find a book in your library, for example, by title or author.
Network library
Night
This function is used for reading at night. As a result, the background color and the text color change places, that is, the screen becomes more contrasty and it is indeed more convenient to read in the dark in this mode.
Additionally
When you click on this button, another vertical menu appears with additional options. In particular, here are:
« Search» - quick search through the text of the book.
« Settings» - all settings for the application.
- Information about the book.
- Annotation.
- File information.
« Enlarge text" - increases the font size by one point.
« Decrease font» - decreases the font size by one point.
After opening a book, the first thing we see is the cover. At the bottom of the screen there is a progress bar that displays how far the book has been read. Note that the vertical bars represent book chapters. To the right of the progress bar the number of pages is displayed, and it depends on the font size. Next comes the display of the device's battery charge as a percentage. There is also a clock here.
You can highlight individual fragments in the text of the book. To do this, you need to make a long press, after which a selection zone and a small window with a menu appear. The first button allows you to copy the selection to the clipboard;
The next step is to immediately send the selected fragment to social networks, via SMS or by mail; the third button allows you to translate or get acquainted with the meaning of an unfamiliar word, but for this you will have to separately install a dictionary, which can be automatically downloaded from the Android Market; the fourth button allows you to create a mark in the specified location; and the last button simply closes the selection menu.
Setting up the application
The application settings mostly relate to the design and display of books, and there are practically no settings for the application itself.
Catalogs
This menu contains three items:
- “Catalog with books” - this item allows you to change the location where your library is stored.
“Font directory” - here you can copy new fonts or simply specify the folder where additional fonts are stored.
“Wallpaper directory” - this folder stores wallpaper for the background when reading a book, you can also simply change the folder, for example, to the one where you store pictures.
Appearance
This menu contains four items:
- “Automatic rotation” - the option is responsible for automatic screen orientation when the device is rotated.
“Status Bar” - when enabled, a standard status bar is displayed at the top of the screen.
“Status bar when you press the menu” - when the option is enabled, the status bar is displayed when you press the “Menu” key of your device.
“Turn off backlight” - this option automatically turns off the backlight when the device is idle for a long time.
Text
This menu contains all the functions that are responsible for displaying and designing the book font.
« Alignment" - is responsible for text alignment: left, right, center and edges.
« Transfers"- the option is responsible for automatic hyphenation in the text; it is best not to turn it off, otherwise the book may not be displayed correctly or beautifully.
Colors and wallpaper
In this section of the menu you can customize the color scheme of the text and its elements.
« Background color" - this option is active only if “Solid color” is set in the previous menu.
« Search results background" - determines the color of the selected text after searching inside the book.
« Plain text" - determines the color of regular text in the book.
« Hyperlink" - defines the color of the hyperlink.
« Visited link" - determines the color of the link that you have already visited.
« Basement" - determines the color of the bottom of the screen where the information panel is located.
« Mark background» - determines the color of the mark made in the text.
« Note text" - determines the color of the note text itself.
Indentations
In this menu you can specify the distance (indents) of the text relative to the edge of the screen.
Scroll bar
This menu allows you to customize the bottom part, where information and a progress bar are displayed.
« Basement height» - determines the height of the bottom of the screen where information elements are located.
« Basement color» - defines the color of the bottom of the screen (footer).
« Show tags by chapter" - we talked about this above, the option allows you to show/hide vertical marks on the progress bar that indicate chapters.
« Show hours" - turn on/off the display of the clock in the basement.
« Show battery charge» - turn on/off the display of battery charge.
« Show number of pages" - enable/disable display of the number of pages in numerical form.
« Font" - This is a general option for the entire footer that determines the font of the information displayed.
Screen
The menu is responsible for screen settings, and there are only two options.
« Adjusting screen brightness"- when you enable this option, you can adjust the screen brightness by swiping your finger across the left side of the screen while reading a book.
- Never turn it off.
- As long as the battery is at least half charged.
- While the battery is at least a quarter charged.
- Always turn off.
Turning pages
This menu contains options that control the process of turning pages while reading a book.
« Flicking on the screen» - allows you to select three options for paging: by tapping on the screen, dragging across the screen and a combined option - either by pressing or dragging.« Double click handling» - allows you to ignore double or accidental taps on the screen, in this case there will be no accidental turning of pages.
« Using the volume button» - allows you to use the volume button to turn pages.
« Scroll with buttons"- the option allows you to turn pages using a joystick, if the device has one.
« Animation» - allows you to select animation options for turning pages. There are three options: three-dimensional animation - imitation of turning a real page; shift with overlap - simply shift the page and overlap the previous one; shift is just a shift of text, at high speed it is practically unnoticeable.
« Animation speed» - allows you to adjust the speed of the page turning animation.
« Horizontal swipe» - when flipping, the page moves horizontally.
Dictionary
This menu contains options for managing dictionaries.
« Dictionary» - allows you to select the required dictionary.« Translator» - selecting a dictionary for translating foreign words.
« Navigate throughout the text» - when moving using buttons, only hyperlinks are marked.
« Long press action» - is responsible for actions when you long press the screen, contains four options: do nothing; highlight a word; start tagging process (default); highlight one word, and when released, begin the tagging process.
Images
The menu allows you to configure actions on pictures in the book. There are only two options:
« Long press action" - the option is responsible for the action that occurs when you long press on a picture in the book. You can choose three options: do nothing; select a picture; open the image in full screen mode.
« Background color of full screen image display» - allows you to customize the background color when viewing a picture in full screen.
Exit menu
Defines an option to exit the application. This menu contains four points:
« Previous book" - when you press the "Back" button on the smartphone panel, the application goes to the previous open book.
« Return via links» - goes to the previous menu that was opened earlier.
« Action of clicking the Back button" - defines the action after clicking the "Back" button. Two options are presented:
- Close with application.
- Show list of actions.
- Close the application.
- Show list of actions.
- Nothing to do.
Conclusion
It can be called one of the best applications for reading e-books on smartphones. But despite the excellent design and enormous functionality, the application seriously lacks support for more book formats. Perhaps in future versions the developers will add support for some formats in which books are often found on the Internet, such as rtf, txt, doc. Meanwhile, this is one of the few applications that allows you to work directly with archives, which greatly facilitates the creation and storage of your library. Also, the positive aspects of the application include the ability to download and find books directly from Internet libraries, where you can quickly find a book of interest or select a work to your taste.
Closest "rival" Fbreader is, which perfectly supports rtf, txt and doc formats, but cannot read archives. Coolreader also has much fewer settings to personalize the application.
Version: 1.1.2
Official website of the developers: http://www.fbreader.org/
Russian language
Distribution terms: Free
Format: apk
With the development of computer technology, the time of paper distribution of literature seems to be slowly disappearing, since now books, newspapers, magazines have become much easier to distribute through digital media, network storage, etc. And indeed, the book deteriorates over time, the paper loses its quality, turns yellow, and an unpleasant smell appears. In addition, it takes up a lot of space on the shelf, which is simply unacceptable in modern living conditions. In its digital copy, nothing is subject to damage, time is of no use to such a book, and losing it with proper care is much more difficult than the paper version. In addition, the size of a complete digital library is also of great importance. It is much easier to put a tablet or laptop (or even an electronic e-reader) with a program recorded on it and several hundred (or even thousands) of your favorite works in your backpack than to constantly carry around a whole bunch of Talmuds tied with a ribbon. This is literally the Stone Age! Therefore, today we will talk to you in more detail, how to read books on a computer using one of the best free reader programs FBReader(fortunately, its portable versions are available on both Windows and Android from Apple, so finding the distribution you need won’t be too difficult).
To open an e-book on your computer, you must first download it from the Internet. There are a huge number of resources with electronic repositories and digital libraries on the Internet, so we suggest you search for them yourself. If you find it very difficult to find a good library where all your preferred works and masterpieces of world literature would be stored, we suggest taking a look at the resources lib.ru, royallib.com or tululu.org. Of course, you can find much more valuable and rich electronic libraries on the Internet, and we leave it to you to search for them on the World Wide Web. But for a start, this will probably be quite enough, and for the most purposeful of our users, we invite you to leave your findings in the comments under the article.
So, we got that out of the way. What else is needed to read electronic literature, besides a tablet (personal computer, laptop, e-reader, handheld, etc.) and an electronic copy of the book itself? We also need a reader program that can open books in the appropriate format and display the information to the user. You can also find plenty of such programs on the Internet: CoolReader, ICE Book Reader, Caliber, and several dozen other software products available absolutely free of charge and without any functional limitations. But in our article we will analyze in detail one of the most popular e-readers in the CIS countries called FBReader, which has everything that the most avid reader and user of digital libraries needs: support for any, even the rarest formats, and adjusting the brightness and contrast of the screen, and selection of font size and appearance, and any other most popular options. You can download the version of FBReader you need for the corresponding operating system on the official project page - fbreader.org.
FBReader installation procedure
How to read books on a computer using FBReader? So, let's assume that your device runs Windows OS, and we need a version specifically for this operating system. We go to the above official website of the project and select the version for Windows from the list of systems.
A distribution download form for the OS version you have selected opens. Click on the button to start downloading the latest version of the stable installation package and begin the download procedure.
When the installer is downloaded, let's start installing it by double-clicking on the exe file.
At the first iteration, we are asked to specify the installation path for the program's boot files. Leave the path unchanged and click the “Next” button.
The next step is to select components for installation. We tick the required components of the application and click the “Install” button to start the installation procedure of the software product. If the first component “FBReader” is required for installation, then the second component “Create Shortcut on Desktop” is used to create a shortcut to the program launch file on the desktop. If you do not need this, uncheck this component.
To start the installation procedure, click on the “Install” button.
At the end of the installation procedure, when all files have been copied to the hard drive, a notification will appear with the words “Completed” at the top. Close this window by clicking the “Close” button at the bottom of the form.
So, now everything is ready - the application is installed on the hard drive, and we can use it to open the book we like.
Launching and preliminary settings of FBReader
We launch FBReader by selecting the item we need in the Start menu.
When we launch it for the first time, by default we see a standard description of the application with details of the preliminary configuration of the program. The most important thing that we need to specify before starting to work with the program is the path to the directory in which all your books are stored. The FBReader e-reader will add it to the index, and after scanning your books will appear in the list of available books for reading.
Click on the gear button to open the “Settings” window.
Here, in the “Catalogs with books” field, separated by semicolons, you should manually specify the path to the catalog where your digital library is stored. Those folders that are already specified by default should not be deleted. Just add another value at the end. Important Note: Do not leave spaces after the previous value, otherwise the path you need will not be recognized correctly.
It is also worth checking the “Search books in subdirectories” checkbox if you store books in a structured form by author or genre. In this case, all books located in subdirectories will be added to the index.
Now, if you have specified everything correctly, by clicking the first button on the top panel of FBReader called “Library”, a complete list of the library you have compiled will open. How to read books on a computer now that we have already prepared all the settings? Yes, it’s very simple: we select the work we need and start reading.
How to navigate through the book and library?
If you have already opened a book that interests you, you can scroll through it either by scrolling the mouse wheel or using the keyboard by pressing the up and down arrow keys. To go to the table of contents, click the corresponding button on the top panel.
Now about how to read books on a computer using search. This is another useful trick - searching by the contents of the book. If you started one of the books, but later there was a pause, and you returned to the same work after some time, you may have forgotten how this or that character is connected to the main character. The logical solution would be to look for mentions of him in the content, and look at the original occurrences of the character's name in context. This way you can remember what role the hero you have forgotten plays in the plot of the work. The search button is also located on the top panel, in its central part.
The two buttons on the right, “up” and “down,” allow you to move between occurrences of the search word in the contents of the book. So, you can look at all occurrences of a key query in the content and remember exactly what happened to a particular character as the plot developed.
Additional FBReader settings
There are quite a lot of settings in the program, but we will focus on the most important of them. In the “Language” section you can set the interface language. This option is configured in the Default Language field. If you want to see all labels for button names in another language (for example, English), simply set it in this field.
Another important option is flipping. You can scroll through several lines at a time by setting the appropriate value in the above field. This way, scrolling will happen much faster, and you won’t have to spend a long time looking for the continuation of the story.
The last handy feature in this section is to enable scrolling by tapping on the screen. If you tap the text at the top of the work window, it will scroll backward. If you tap on the bottom half of the form, the text will scroll forward. A very convenient option that migrated to FBReader from a similar standard function included in almost all e-book readers without exception.
Finally, the last parameter that is worth dwelling on in more detail is “Colors”. Here you can choose any color for the background of the working window, links, indicator, text itself, in the end, in accordance with your taste preferences. Here everything depends only on your imagination. Choose the color shades you like, and reading will be a real pleasure for you without fatigue for your eyes and visual senses.
FBReader understands almost all e-book formats without exception. Don't be confused by the name of this product: in addition to fb2, the application also copes quite successfully with mobi, epub and html.
We hope that with the presented material we have revealed for you the answer to the question “How to read books on a computer,” and now you can find this or that interesting book on the Internet and devote an hour or two of your free time to it.
FBReader is an excellent reader for Android devices that copes well with the most common book formats (fb2 (.zip), ePub, mobi, rtf, plain text). In order to start reading e-books, just copy the files downloaded in advance onto a memory card into the Books folder or use the built-in network library from which you can download books for free and buy books.
FBReader management and settings
Management in the program is very accessible and convenient. To turn pages, click on the right and left sides of the screen, as well as the volume rocker. In the program settings you can easily change the size, type and color scheme of both the font itself and the background. Indents, hyphens, line spacing and text alignment can also be adjusted.Bottom line
FBReader has the ability to customize flipping animation and other visual effects, which will make it feel like you are reading a real book. In addition, the program has the ability to quickly switch day/night modes or change the screen areas responsible for turning pages.FBReader is an easy-to-use reader with the necessary number of settings and a well-thought-out library for books. The program is distributed free of charge. There is a Russian interface language. You can install the utility on your computer, or download the application for a smartphone with Android or iOS.
Understands the following file formats: ePub, fb2, mobi, html, chm, rtf, pdb, txt, orb. You can also open any archive saved in: zip, tar, gzip and bzip2. Next, we’ll look at how to install FBReader on a computer or phone and how to use it.
For Windows PC
Go to the “Downloads” folder on your computer and run the downloaded file. The first window will indicate the path where the utility will be installed. If you need to change it, click "Browse". It takes up little space, only 13 MB. Click "Next".
At the end of the installation process, this window can be closed using the “Close” button.
Since the program can automatically add books to the library in ePub, fb2 and OpenReader formats, you need to specify the folders in which they are stored on your computer.
To do this, select the gear-shaped button on the toolbar - “Settings”.
Then on the "Library" tab in the field "Book catalogs" you need to add all addresses, separating them with a semicolon – “;” . After that, click "Apply" and "OK".
If you don't know the address, do the following:
1. open the folder where you store your books;
2. right-click on any of them and select from the context menu;
3. select and copy everything that is in the location field - this is the address;
4. Paste it into the required field, or you can write it there manually.
If your books are stored in different folders, then to create a library, you need to specify addresses for everyone.
To open the library, click on the first button at the top with the image of a stack of books.
This list will automatically add those books that are saved in one of the above three formats and stored on the PC in the folders whose addresses you specified above.
If you have a different book format that the program can open, then you need to add it to the library manually. To do this, click the plus sign with a book (either in the main window or in the library window) and find the desired work on your computer.
Using the library is very easy. Click "Show books" a specific author or from a specific category, select the one you need and click . If you want to close the program and then decide to return to reading, the book will open on the page where you left off.
There is also a “Delete” button here. Please note that this is not deleting the book from this list, but completely deleting the file from the folder on the computer where it is stored.
Now let's look at the buttons on the toolbar.
A stack of books with a picture of the Earth is access to online libraries. In them you can find the works you need, buy them, download and read them.
The next buttons are to return to the beginning of the book and cancel the actions taken. Next, the current page of the open book and a button to open the table of contents are shown.
FBReader does a good job of searching. Open the corresponding window by clicking on the magnifying glass, enter the desired word and switch between the results found using the up and down arrows.
The button that looks like a gear is “Settings”.
There are not so many of them here, but all the basics are there. You can select the language and encoding for an open book (the program can detect these parameters automatically); indicate how to leaf through the book; angle of rotation; color for background, links, indicator, etc.; decide on the font, letter size, line spacing.
After you make any changes, do not forget to click "Apply" and "OK".
If it is more convenient for you to have the book show not a scroll bar on the right, but a read indicator at the bottom, then you can display it. In the example, it looks like this, with the specified parameters installed.
For Android phone
If you are used to reading on your phone, then you can download the FBReader app for free either from the Play Store or the App Store. It is in Russian and it won’t be difficult to understand how to use it. But briefly, let's look at how to download the reader for Android and use it.
Go to the Play Store and enter the name of the application in the search bar. Then select it from the proposed list - the very first item with an open book.
Click the “Install” button and agree to the proposed conditions.
After the application is installed, log into it. A short instruction manual for using the program will immediately open. Nothing unnecessary is displayed on the screen, so that the upper and lower panels with buttons appear, press your finger on the screen.
At the top there is a button to open a menu, the name of the book and its author, select day or night mode, open a search window and a context menu with parameters.
The status bar and the number of the current page from the total are shown below.
There are also buttons to open the library. A network connection, like for a computer, is needed to search for books, download them and read them. It should be noted that they may not be complete or paid.
Once you enter the library, you can choose how to sort works to quickly find what you need. To add a book, select "File system" and find the one on your phone that you want to start reading.
Clicking on the three vertical dots on the right will open a menu for selecting options. There is screen orientation, changing font size, settings and additional modules.
In the settings, you can enable synchronization: enter the address of your Google account and all your books will be stored on Google Drive, and you can access them from any device. Also select the display of menu items and the type of status bar, the appropriate font and letter size, and more.
As for additional modules. They are needed if you want to open a file in PDF, DjVu, CBR, CBZ format, add a read-aloud or a beautiful library view. Select the one you need, click on it and download from the Play Store.
– FBReader Is it really capable of replacing such a universal and multifunctional “reader”? Or does it simply copy the functionality and capabilities of this application?
At the end of this review, we will try to answer the questions posed, and also choose the most optimal reading application, in the opinion of our editors. So, we are still interested in several important factors: accessibility, support for all popular formats, ease of use and stability. Well, let's get started.
Acquaintance
FBReader is different in that it is not replete with functional buttons, but provides our eyes with the main thing - the book. However, the application cannot boast of an impressive range of supported e-book formats, and when searching on Google Play, separately plug-ins also pop up. Is this an advantage or a disadvantage?
The advantages of the program include a multi-platform (Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Windows Phone, Linux and Blackberry), the presence of a Russian-language website and full user support.
First, a little history. The first version of FBReader (for the Sharp Zaurus PDA) was written in early 2005 by Nikolai Pultsin. In July 2007, Nikolay opened Geometer Plus LLC in St. Petersburg, and since June 2013, the program has been supported by FBReader.ORG Limited, registered in the UK. However, currently all rights to the FBReader code belong to Geometer Plus LLC.
Main features:
- Fast work;
- Comprehensively customizable parameters;
- Since version 2.0, FBReader supports synchronization of the book collection and/or with the FBReader book network;
- FBReader automatically hyphenates books;
- Allows you to quickly look up the meaning of a word in external dictionaries;
- ColorDict, all Slovoed dictionaries (and other Paragon dictionaries), Fora Dictionary, FreeDictionary.Org, LEO Dictionary are supported;
- Works with both YotaPhone screens;
- Books can be downloaded from the Internet, purchased on LitRes.Ru (directly from the program), or simply placed on a memory card in the /sdcard/Books directory;
- You can connect your own OPDS catalogs.
Beginning of work
After we tap the application icon on the desktop of the test device (Google Nexus 10), we are greeted by a window similar to Cool Reader, where we are warned that FBReader is launched in full screen mode, and to see the toolbar, you need to tap on the screen in the middle third ( everything is clearly shown by highlighting).
Next comes the description “About FBReader 2.1.7”, which provides brief instructions on how to manage the application and configure it. We click in the center of the screen, and it becomes clear that the description itself is an example of a “book” for familiarization with the “reader”.
Two windows pop up on a beige background: at the top and at the bottom, where at the bottom we see a navigation scale for the book (if you tap the “Back” button, which is located just below, you will return to the starting place of the book, even if you used text navigation) and several icons in top of the screen. As you might guess, this is the main menu.
basic settings
Let's take a closer look at the items included in the main menu.
Library. In it you can view your favorites, recently opened books, as well as documents sorted by author, title, series (convenient if you are reading a whole series of books by one author). Next are the books, divided into categories; we’ll tell you how to do it yourself below.
Now we are interested in the file manager.
For those who are too lazy to tinker with the files on their SD card, a quick search and scan of the device’s memory for text files has been implemented, which are activated by the corresponding icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
We type in “metro” and immediately find the treasured book, which we will use during testing (mobi format).
The program independently sorted all the books into appropriate categories, which corresponds to reality. It’s a small thing, but it’s nice because it saves a lot of time. If you want to change the category, authors, title and language of a book, just go to “Book Title” and select “Change” (or “Read”) in the upper right corner.
However, for now we are only interested in the basic settings. Return to the home screen and open the next tab.
Network library. As you might guess, it is used to work with online book catalogs. The first line is the book network FBReader, where we enter the notorious “metro” into the search and see a whole list of books offered.
By the way, the connection to the proprietary service occurred instantly, without any glitches. The only exception is that the Android system asked whether to allow the application permissions or not, but this is already standard procedure.
We click on the first book we come across, see all the information about it, and download it. In the upper right corner we are offered to read a local copy of the book, or delete it altogether. Similar actions can be performed with other available catalogs: Feedbooks, Litres, Reading magazine, ManyBooks Catalog, ePubBud catalog and Free Books Hub.
For example, if we tap on Litres, we will immediately be offered to download a convenient extension that allows us to open additional options when working with the catalog, as well as pay for purchases via SMS.
Well, it’s very convenient and without unnecessary problems. Remember how much work this requires in Cool Reader, and in its case the catalogs crash and are of little use for a Russian user.
However, for those who are not satisfied with the existing list of stores, it is possible to add the desired OPDS catalog yourself (enter its URL). To be fair, we note that a similar approach is implemented in Cool Reader.
In addition, at the very top there are shortcut keys: “Search the network”, “Add directory” or “Update all directories”, as well as “Manage directories”. The last item opens a new window where you can enable/disable additional services, as well as sort them as you wish, simply by drag-and-drop.
Everything is simple, clear and visual. We have enough loaded books, so let's move on.
Bookmarks. They are the next menu item, and in them we can not only leave notes for the book currently being read, but also view checkpoints for all books at once. A quick search by bookmarks has also been implemented.
If we return to the book itself, we can see the selected text, which will be our label. If someone is not satisfied with its gray background, then please tap on the marked fragment and change it to your taste (or remove the bookmark altogether).
The basic settings are finished, however, there is still a button in the upper right corner (in the form of three vertical dots), but we will talk about it in more detail when reading the book.
Book reading
So, open the book through the file manager (or simply scan all directories) and start flipping through the pages. By the way, when closing it, do not be afraid that the program will forget where you left off, since everything will return to its place.
There are no noticeable slowdowns either from the beginning of reading or later. Scrolling occurs in the classic way - by swiping from right to left. The font and background are pleasing to the eye, and there are no shortcuts to distract from reading. If you are not satisfied with swiping, just tap once on the left side of the screen to go back, and on the right to scroll forward.
Let us remind you that one tap in the center of the display brings up the main menu and a scale for quickly moving through the book in the page dimension.
Now let’s try to “drive” the “reader” according to formats. For this we will use the same books and magazines as in the case of Cool Reader.
The first thing that pleased me was that the file manager saw the pdf and djvu extensions, but cbr comics and html (chm) went unnoticed. The zip archive was also opened without any problems. In any case, it’s not bad, since the developer did not announce support for these formats.
However, after trying to open a pdf, we are immediately offered to download the corresponding plugin. In our opinion, this is the right decision, because why increase the size and resource intensity of the application if you never use this extension (besides, you can always remove it).
We do the same with djvu, and again we are offered to install a separate add-on.
After installing it, opening the file occurs without any problems.
However, when reading pdf, there are slowdowns, so in order to understand the “root of evil”, let’s open the resource monitor for both add-ons.
Everything becomes clear as daylight. The application itself consumes little - about 50 MB of RAM, but with plugins the situation changes. 50 MB are added for working with pdf (260 MB at peak load when opening a magazine with many illustrations of good quality) and 100 MB when opening a djvu file. It is worth noting that add-ons are not always active, but only when working with the corresponding extensions. However, if you close one of the above files, the plugins will still work and eat up RAM. Therefore, I had to forcefully close them through system monitoring.
To be fair, we note that after flipping through the book, pdf stopped slowing down, and djvu even flew like a “bird” (consuming more RAM). There were no glitches with the interface in either case.
Below is a table of FBReader testing with different book formats.
| Test | .fb2 | .epub | .doc | .rtf | .djvu | .mobi | .cbr | .html | |
| Book loading speed | Great | Great | Great | Great | Normal | Normal | Great | No | No |
| Display quality | Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | No | No |
| Reading/flipping | Great | Great | Great | Great | Normal | Normal | Great | No | No | 52/0 | 72/0 | 55/0 | 60/0 | 100/0 | 150/0 | 52/0 | No | No |
| Scaling pictures | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
For reading and speed of operation, the application can be given a solid “four”, if not “five”. Everything opened perfectly, without freezes and almost without “brakes”. There were no departures from the program. Naturally, you cannot scale images in pdf and djvu.
By the way, you should not think that the values presented above are constant values. The fact is that it all depends on the book, and the test used average options. Thus, a textbook in fb2 format (with low-quality pictures) takes up 63 MB of RAM. In addition, there is one nuance: if you constantly download books of different extensions and use them continuously, then resource consumption grows exponentially. Apparently it's all about the cache.
However, the peak load on the system during testing was no more than 300 MB. For modern devices, this is an insignificant indicator, but owners of rare gadgets may notice bugs in the form of slowdown (although it’s hard to call Google Nexus 10 this way, even though it’s no longer in production). That's sorted out.
Let's try to select a fragment of text. To do this, we make a long tap on the required piece, and then, using two sliders with two fingers, we expand the area of the required coverage of the text. Similar to Cool Reader, we are greeted by a pop-up menu with several buttons. The first key copies the selected area to the clipboard, which means we can paste it into an SMS.
The second opens a context menu where you can send the marked text via SMS/MMS, or email, or publish it on social networks, if the latter messengers are installed in the system.
The third button prompts us to install the ColorDict dictionary, which we will do for clarity. The dictionary has been installed successfully. We go into it, minimizing FBReader to the tray, and download the required language, of which there are several options (even Spanish). That's basically it - you can use it.
It cannot be said that the translation is carried out accurately enough, but the meaning can be understood, especially since in the future we will talk about how to download more professional dictionaries. By the way, ColorDict is a standalone application, not a plugin for FBReader, and it is absolutely free.
The key following the dictionary makes bookmarks in the text, as discussed above. Next comes the exit button from the context menu. Again, nothing superfluous - everything is simple and clear.
Now we can talk about additional settings.