Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf) • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#11

Post by Phrodo_00 » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

casmith wrote: post #8

Very cool project! Is it open sourced?

Would be cool if it was MPL, BSD, or MIT Licensed. Could eventually be embedded into browsers.

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#12

Post by SamBam » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 9:52 PM UTC

javapnews wrote: post #2

Try to read ebooks via browser and couldn't find one that really works that able to replace desktop readers. Made one that usable for daily use. Comments and suggestion welcome.

Can you describe what motivated you to build an ebook reader for the browser, when multiple free desktop and mobile book readers exist?

Also, do I need to keep the screen open if I want to save my place in my book? It doesn't seem to save my book or my location when I reload the page.

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#13

Post by keyle » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 9:58 PM UTC

The open file button doesn't do anything on Safari?

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#14

Post by Brendinooo » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 9:59 PM UTC

Is this using https://github.com/futurepress/epub.js/ under the hood?

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#15

Post by dublinben » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 10:10 PM UTC

imedadel wrote: post #6

This is really good! I couldn't find a good lightweight ePub reader. Is it open source though? I'd love to customize it a bit :)

Foliate is a wonderful FOSS ePub reader for Linux. It seems to offer all of the customization options you listed.

https://johnfactotum.github.io/foliate/

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#16

Post by ORioN63 » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

Any way to get this to be the default pwa/app for opening said filetypes in Android?

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#17

Post by imedadel » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 10:25 PM UTC

dublinben wrote: post #15

imedadel wrote: post #6

This is really good! I couldn't find a good lightweight ePub reader. Is it open source though? I'd love to customize it a bit :)

Foliate is a wonderful FOSS ePub reader for Linux. It seems to offer all of the customization options you listed. https://johnfactotum.github.io/foliate/

Just downloaded it. It solves every single problem I had. Thanks!

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#18

Post by alfonsodev » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 10:35 PM UTC

javapnews wrote: post #2

Try to read ebooks via browser and couldn't find one that really works that able to replace desktop readers. Made one that usable for daily use. Comments and suggestion welcome.

Amazing! Great job! I'm so curious about your process

What programming language did you use?

What was the harder part?

Which format was the hardest?

How long did it take you?

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#19

Post by foxfired » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 10:46 PM UTC

Thanks for building this. I'm trying to make my book available in all these formats but my biggest issue is that it is hard to read a book on both desktop or mobile.

Does anybody knows of any interesting UI that works for books? I've looked into interactive books but it's only fun for few pages and then it leans more toward annoying. Any suggestions?

Re: Show HN: A usable eBook reader inside a browser (azw3, mobi, ePub, pdf)

#20

Post by xtracto » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 10:53 PM UTC

javapnews wrote: post #2

Try to read ebooks via browser and couldn't find one that really works that able to replace desktop readers. Made one that usable for daily use. Comments and suggestion welcome.

hey, I actually was working on something similar ( forking from https://github.com/satorumurmur/bibi which is an open source epub reader ), but my objective was to allow

a) To save books in some place online like s3 or gdrive etc.

b) Allowing to use the "bookmark" feature across sessions.

My use case is that sometimes I am reading a EPUB and I have it in my tablet, but sometimes I have my computer, and othertimes I have my phone. Currently I have to download it 3 times to read it and remember the bookmark.