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Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops

johnfactotum.github.io

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Re: Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops

#31

Post by throwaway5939 »

freewizard wrote: post #26
throwaway5939 wrote: post #24

I don't normally comment on HN, but this topic is something I've got a strong opinion on. I use Foliate to read epub's, but I've got one massive peeve with ALL e-readers. I'd really, really like for an option that tells the e-reader not to modify my epub. I don't use annotations, I really don't need the e-reader to bookmark where I've stopped reading. Just don't write over my epub!

Hmm, I mostly use Calibre for epub reading, and was not aware of it writes bookmark back to epub itself. Do you mean some e-ink reader updates .epub whenever you add bookmark? That seems an odd implementation.

I'm not sure what gets modified, but I've stopped using the Calibre epub-reader because I found that everytime I've read a book, my rsync backup script found changes in the epub. I once checked in the epub (it's a zipfile after all) and there seems to be an extra file added. Removing that solves the issue. It was a long time ago, I can't remember details.

Now I just copy my epub's to a temporary file before reading.

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops

#33

Post by Sprocklem »

throwaway5939 wrote: post #31
freewizard wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I mostly use Calibre for epub reading, and was not aware of it writes bookmark back to epub itself. Do you mean some e-ink reader updates .epub whenever you add bookmark? That seems an odd implementation.

I'm not sure what gets modified, but I've stopped using the Calibre epub-reader because I found that everytime I've read a book, my rsync backup script found changes in the epub. I once checked in the epub (it's a zipfile after all) and there seems to be an extra file added. Removing that solves the issue. It was a long time ago, I can't remember details. Now I just copy my epub's to a temporary file before reading.

FWIW, there is a setting to make Calibre's reader to save its bookmarks file outside the epub. I think the setting needed to be set in the reader itself.

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops

#34

Post by dorfsmay »

INeedMoreRam wrote: post #17

I've been using Calibre on all my devices for years and have hundreds of books annotated. Why would I switch to Foliate?

For me personally:

- Foliate looks better and is easier to read than Calibre

- Foliate opens the file o ask it to open and that's it, while Calibre starts to browse to all my folders and index every pdf and Epub file accessible from my laptop!

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops

#36

Post by LarryMullins »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #35
auggierose wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

epub may contain JS

I do not think that is true. My incredibly quick skim of the epub format is not finding JavaScript.

It's part of EPUB3: https://www.w3.org/publishing/epub3/epub-spec.html#sec-cmt-s...

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops

#38

Post by dunham »

nsonha wrote: post #11
paol wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ebooks are basically HTML, so this is one case where bundling a browser engine is going to be necessary in any case.

does it need a js engine though?

I took a quick look at the github repository (because I'm on macos), and it looks like it is written in javascript (and xml) using "gjs", which exposes the gnome libraries to javascript. So I think it's a gtk/gnome program, but written in javascript instead of C and using a webkit widget for the book itself.

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops

#39

Post by forgotpwd16 »

noelbautista91 wrote: post #22
INeedMoreRam wrote: post #17

I've been using Calibre on all my devices for years and have hundreds of books annotated. Why would I switch to Foliate?

Not OP, I haven't used Foliate either. Calibre UI is unappealing and too complex. Sometimes you just need a library of books without the clutter. Foliate looks simpler to use, but for some reason it doesn't allow bulk imports.

>doesn't allow bulk imports

Can drag-and-drop multiple epubs to library view and will be added (but directories raise an error). Can search 'epub' on file manager instead if files are spread in subdirectories.

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops

#40

Post by forgotpwd16 »

nsonha wrote: post #37
forgotpwd16 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App is written in JS and uses a JS library to render epub in the browser, how else could it work?

NOT "written in JS and use a JS lib"?

So you've some kind of problem with the implementation language? Because then you can say the same about any other. "Does it need to be written in Python?" "Does it need to be written in Rust?" What's even the point?
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