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I'm looking for a epub reader app for Android 4.0 which is NOT one of the following:

  • OReader
  • FBReader
  • Cool Reader

Other requirements:

  • load EPUB files (my homemade ones are directly converted from HTML using Sigil and occasionally may contain some Japanese characters and internal # anchors; in short, the whole book is in a single HTML file inside the EPUB file); other formats (including HTML) are welcome
  • has popup English-English dictionary or is compatible with ColorDict (or similar dictionary app)
  • allows some adjustment of display (set font size, white background, turn off page turning animations etc.)
  • supports local (href="#chapter1") anchors for document navigation
  • it would be nice if the app was fast and\or lighweight

Some background:

I bought a Onyx Boox T68 ebook reader\tablet and I have a small problem with it. I can't install FBReader on it. The device comes with FBReader preinstalled (among other software1), but it's buggy and crashes on my homemade epub files (I had no problems with those in FBReader on my cell phone and on a cheap tablet that had very similar specs and same OS as Onyx Boox T68). The preinstalled dictionary takes the whole screen and is a little bit slow, so I would much prefer to be able to use ColorDict, however preinstalled FBReader (and it appears all of the preinstalled readers) is incompatible with ColorDict.

For a second I thought I can install regular FBReader on the device, but because there is already a version of FBReader installed, I can't do that. I can't uninstall any of the preinstalled apps either. The only way for me to uninstall those would be to root the device, but I don't want to do that because I'll lose the warranty.

I tried to rename and compile FBReader myself, but after spending 4 evenings on the problem I give up (finally I managed to build FBReader, but I wasn't able to rename the package for some reason).

1. There is OnyxReader, OReader, FBReader and Cool Reader. Of the 3 OReader appears to be the fastest and most stable (actually I haven't encountered any problems yet), but it isn't compatible with ColorDict (at least the preinstalled version isn't) and internal anchors don't appear to work.

Edit:

After a lot of trial and error I finally managed to rename and compile FBReader. While it has some minor issues of it's own (doesn't refresh eink screen, doesn't hide the non-standard top android bar, when zoomed chapter headers end up being too big in compare to regular text, no physical page turning button support) it's much more stable and does everything I required perfectly xD

And yes, ColorDict also works the way it should. Unlike in Moon+ where the dictionary popup took half of the screen for some reason, in FBReader it takes a small part of the screen and never ends up covering the selected text.

This said, other recommendations are welcome. Even if they don't help me out directly, they might help others with the same problem as I had.

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6 Answers 6

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Aldiko, though not perfect, is by far the best ebook reader available for Android. It has full support for all ePub features, plus PDF, and has a reasonably nice UI unlike all the other apps.

It has all the features you asked for, except built-in ColorDict support - however, you can "share" selected text using the Android sharing system, which allows you to share it to ColorDict. One extra tap, but it works.

UB Reader also works well - it has the best ePub formatting support of any reader I've tried. But it has a poor UI compared to Aldiko. It has some kind of dictionary system of its own built in, which I have not tried.

Regarding the other suggestions :

  • Google Play Books is not a good solution as it can not directly open files on your device, you have to upload them to Google.
  • Moon Reader has equal functionality to Aldiko in many respects, but (in my opinion) a horrible, outdated UI and much worse ePub formatting support.
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  • I have updated my answer to mention another good app, UB Reader, which you might want to try. And if you feel that this or one of the other answers does answer your question, please do accept it. Likewise, if you find a better solution do post it here as I'm sure we're all interested!
    – Caesar
    Sep 3, 2014 at 20:10
  • I like to occasionally try other readers. I tried both of these, and can't believe anyone would rate them anywhere near Moon + pro, much less better. The only reason I can see that the UI is better for Aldiko is that there are so few features to deal with. But it's sadly lacking in the features I use all the time, such as decent search, access to remote libraries (Aldiko isn't too bad), support for other formats such as mobi, and syncing multiple readers using Dropbox, I really don't see why the UI is outdated. Don't know about epub formatting, but I haven't noticed any problems
    – Marty Fried
    Sep 28, 2014 at 23:23
  • I posted this question about Moon+ Pro. I basically agree that css/epub support is horrible: ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/2495/…
    – idiotprogrammer
    Oct 6, 2014 at 1:00
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Moon+ Reader

  • Supports txt, html, epub, pdf, mobi, umd, fb2, chm, cbr, cbz, rar, zip or OPDS
  • Full visual options: line space, font scale, bold, italic, shadow, alpha colors, fading edge etc.
  • Adjust the brightness by sliding your finger along the left edge of the screen, gesture commands supported.
  • Highlight, Annotation, Dictionary (Offline or Online, support Google, ColorDict, Fora, etc.), Translation, Share functions all in moon+ ebook reader.
  • 5 auto-scroll modes: rolling blind mode; by pixel, by line or by page. Real-time speed control.
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2
  • Moon+ works with ColorDict (which is great), but for some reason ColorDict's popup ends up being too big (I can't figure out how to resize it). When I'm offline (might be related to loading adds) Moon+ will often appear to hang while loading something. However I discovered that the app just forgets to update the screen after loading a resource (i.e. loading a book, going to chapter etc.) if I click anywhere the loading box will disappear.
    – jahu
    Aug 25, 2014 at 8:56
  • Moon+ (Pro) has so many really useful features that others don't have that I'm surprised that minor cosmetic things could possibly outweigh the real features. The search is much more usable than others, the ability to sync multiple devices using Dropbox or Google, the ability to access so many libraries, including your personal Calibre library, instant changes to brightness or font size, etc. The most-used features can be configured to be easy to get to - the main UI rarely even matters (not that it's bad, IMO).
    – Marty Fried
    Sep 28, 2014 at 23:31
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I recommend... Google Play Books:

  • Read offline
  • Bookmark pages, highlight text, and add notes
  • Elegant 3D page turns
  • Bookmarks, notes, and reading positions are synced across your phones, tablets and computers
  • Search within books, use dictionary, find geographical information, discover web results, and wikipedia right on the page
  • Select fonts, font size, and layout for flowing text books
  • Choose day, night, and sepia reading modes
  • Listen to books with text-to-speech when publisher allows
  • Upload PDF or EPUB files to your library

And you can also read your uploaded epubs on the Google Play - My Books page.

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4
  • It's an eink device. "Elegant 3D page turns" This, erm, "feature" that can't be switched off makes Google Books completely unusable on eink (and annoying on other screens).
    – his
    Sep 20, 2014 at 20:09
  • @his, Google Play Books actually does provide an option to disable the 3D page turn effect.
    – Ricardo Veguilla
    Sep 20, 2014 at 21:08
  • Did you try this? It changes the effect to a full page slide which is equally catastrophic with an eink device. There is no way to switch off the page turning animation completely. Google Play Books on Eink is unusable.
    – his
    Sep 23, 2014 at 10:27
  • No, I didn't try it because I don't own an android e-ink device.
    – Ricardo Veguilla
    Sep 23, 2014 at 13:35
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I use moon+pro on my T68 it works well. Only draw back is it does not refresh the page. None seem to but the built in stock ereader and I don't like the library set up on those compared to moon.

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1
  • Out of all the apps I tried, FBreader preformed the best (I had to compile my own version to be able to install it). I managed to even add support for the physical page changing buttons. However, my T68 become unusable. First the battery died down and now the device goes into reboot loops almost always when not charging. Second I updated the firmware and now the system scans my SD card and internal memory for books every time I turn on the device (and it takes good 2-5 minutes each time). I hope I can get a replacement.
    – jahu
    Feb 12, 2015 at 9:01
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Ebookdroid rocks . You should absolutely have a try on this one ; pdf , djvu and epub reader . Re-Editing... I was always looking for a fairly good ebook reader for my Android phone, the best i have found so far , in my opinion, is EbookDroid , here is why (in my opinion)

  1. it is free (to use)

    It is free application , i have never seen ads on it .

  2. quick and light

it loads the whole book only for the first time encountering it , once the book is in the library list its pages load only one page at a time with many bookmark and scrolling futures. the place of the page is saved on the excite so the next time the readers find themselves continuing reading the same page.

  1. Inverted Colors;

    Inverted colors : this is one of the major futures, thought i found only recently that you can apply this option for the whole screen in Android (Settings->Device->Accessibility->Negative colors) this future enable you to read white letters on a black screen , making staring at the screen for long time easy on the eyes and the battery.

  2. DJVU and Epub support Only recently this ones was supported .

  3. Automatic cropping (in options) and using the volume button to scroll through pages

  4. Very stable . For more detail take a look at : https://code.google.com/p/ebookdroid/ and : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ebookdroid

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  • Welcome to Ebooks StackExchange. Answers are often received better by the community if you take the time to answer with a little more detail. I suggest linking to the Ebookdroid website and giving a more detailed explanation of why it "rocks". Also, if you are affiliated with Ebookdroid in anyway (not saying you are, but just in case), it is recommended that you include this information in a disclaimer.
    – Jason Down ♦
    Feb 14, 2015 at 16:51
  • First of all Thank you for the down voting on my first answer attempt ever on this web site ! But your comment might just be very productive in the way of preventing wrong and not specific answers I am not affiliated with EbookDroid in any way .
    – pigeon
    Feb 17, 2015 at 19:02
  • The downvote was not from me. I would rather leave a comment and give someone a chance to improve their answer before downvoting (and honestly I wish you were not allowed to downvote without leaving a comment). Thank you for taking the time to improve your answer and assist in providing more value to our community.
    – Jason Down ♦
    Feb 18, 2015 at 3:25
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The number one reader for me is Moon+ ... one of the few apps I have used money on!

It has a free version, so you can try it out or just go with the free one indefinitely (I found the adds popping up every time you close a book kind of annoying).

I found it by looking at this Wiki page, where it has "Yes" in all the places I wanted it to and then some:

Comparison of Android e-book reader software

The number one feature I would point out in supplement to all the other features, people have mentioned, is the fact that you can change color of text and background to your hearts desire ... I have mine set with lime green text on very dark green background (I happen to like green), which I find is easier on the eyes than black on white (even with the brightness turned down).

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