this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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Any good ebook readers for Android? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I am looking for a nice ebook reader app for android but it's proving to be quite difficult. Every app I stumble open misses at least a few things I want. So here is a list of things I want:

-Material You UI

-Custom themes

-Font selection

-Dictionary or translator integration

-Page view (NO scrolling through the book)

A few things that could be nice but not necessary:

-I use Foliate on desktop so a way to sync with that

-Make white parts of the black and white pictures same color as the backgroud.

I think that's all. I searched a lot but to no avail. Hopefully this community helps me and others. Thank you guys in advance.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

I was at the same spot as you a few months ago and searched for the same.
Pretty much all of the FOSS readers sucked UX wise.
There were a few great proprietary ones on the PlayStore, but they were crammed up with ads and trackers.

Lastly I switched to Librera, which was the best FOSS reader I tried.
But even that wasn't great.

So, I'll give you a completely different advice than all the other commenters here: buy yourself an e-reader.

I did the same and couldn't be more happy!
I'm a big fan of "do one thing and do it right" (I made my phone pretty dumb and also own a digital camera for example).

Readers feel superb. They have a very comfortable display (almost like reading on real paper), don't distract you and the battery lasts for weeks.
You can also sync them easily via USB.

Just don't buy a Kindle. Aim for a more open solution, like a Tolino or Kobo.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I would buy one if I could at this point. But our money is really shit right now and I am a student trying to stay alive. Thanks for the recommendation though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yep get a second hand Kobo for £30 and install Koreader on it. Or if you fancy, Kindles can be had cheaper, but they will require a jailbreak to use Koreader.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

You can install KOReader on Android as well. Well it lacks OPs material Design requirement, but it fulfills the other.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Aim for a more open solution, like a Tolino or Kobo.

Pocketbook runs Linux, IIRC.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Have you tried KOReader yet? It's not Material UI and doesn't have any sort of "theme", since it's very focused on just showing your text, but it lets you extensively pick fonts and styles for your books, has dictionary lookups (tap and hold), page view, and it can sync with itself (available on the desktop and many physical ereaders). My main gripe is that it's very configurable, and I don't personally like many of the defaults. After setting it all up it's quite powerful, and I use it on my physical ereader, Android phone, and desktop PC in roughly the same configuration.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes I have but it’s either pure white that burns your eyes or eye burning white letters on deep space black and I do not want that. I really want the app to either adapt to my material you theme (which is yellow-brown colored and really nice to look at I think) or give me the option to make my own theme.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You can change the background color by changing the ["cre_background_color"] key in settings.reader.lua (again, I dislike needing to configure it like this). On my Android and desktop I set it to ["cre_background_color"] = "0xECECEC",, which inverts into a nice gray when I set it to night mode, then I invert all the image colors so they're a normal color. ~~Font color can't be changed though, TMK.~~ You can change font color with custom CSS snippets.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not sure about UI font color, but user style tweaks can change book font colors.

:root {
	color: yellow;
	background-color: navy;
}
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Wow I feel dumb for not thinking of that. In my defense I like the text as #FFF on gray. KOReader's arbitrary CSS snippets and style tweaks are really neat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm interested in installing KOReader on my Kobo. Its good, portable and lightweight software

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is all I needed to do so: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314220

Run the script from the second post, then eject the Kobo and let it install. Afterwards you can open it from the new NickelMenu button at the bottom right. My Kobo just stays in KOReader mode all the time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Thank you for the link. Saved!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

These requirements are really specific. Whites parts of black pictures in particular, I can't think of anything that implements that.

Anyway, these probably don't have everything you want, but I use Librera:

website: https://librera.mobi/

Github: https://github.com/foobnix/LibreraReader

No material you theme, but I know it has font selection, and dictionary/translation integration.

The website claims it supports custom themings, and CSS. I can find the options in my app, but I haven't touched them.

It also supports custom fonts, including user added ones.

It supports sync between librera instances (Google Drive has first class support), but not with Foliate.

It defaults to "book mode" which is page

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Bit off-topic...Librera is decent but I hate that I can't use custom background without changing the opacity. It seems like it doesn't have the ability to use a background but it rather puts the image on top of the text and then lowers the opacity of the custom image, which doesn't look nice.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The first requirement is where they tend to fall down.

That said, the defacto standard is Moon+ Reader. That said, I use Legado for my epub consumption needs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Gonna jump in to agree that Moon+ Reader seems to be the most commonly used. And for good reason: it's very customizable and it does a great job presenting text in an easy to consume way.

OP, I'm sure you've already tried it, but consider giving it another go. You can make it do nearly all the things on your list.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Honestly, IMO they all suck. I've tried most around up until about 4 or 5 months ago when I gave up, and each one has some really annoying issues. that I never managed to work around

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I think we are in the same boat. I am going to learn programming just to make apps I want to use at this point though that may not be that bad actually...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I used Lithium in the past until I bought myself a Paperwhite (still dislike Amazon).
Maybe it ticks of some of your points.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It probably doesn't meet your requirements, but ReadEra is good. There's a free version and a paid one called ReadEra Premium. I paid for the premium version, but I can't remember what the difference is between them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I like lithium so far

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Not sure if anyone mentioned lithium on F-droid but I've been p happy with that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I paid for the full version of FBReader years ago. I poked around a few months ago looking for anything better and they all came up short. Even has a plugin for comics.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Cool Reader was the best I found. Not sure any FOSS reader reads DRM.