this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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I would like to introduce Alexandria, A FOSS ebook reader that I have been working on for a little over a year.

This project was heavily inspired by an existing application for linux called Foliate. However, Foliate lacked some features that I wanted. In particular, cross platform support (Desktop & Mobile), A split screen reader, and cross platform syncing.

While far from complete, I would love feedback on what has been done so far. Currently, only Linux and Windows builds are available. But though utilizing Tauri and responsive UI, the app should be easy to bring across platforms.

Thanks!

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooG0MQvKiEs

Project: https://github.com/btpf/Alexandria

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well done!

Just a heads up though, there's an existing server/client app combo also named Alexandria commonly used in public schools and libraries (in the US anyway). It's more of a book inventory and check-out system, but the shared name for a related app could still cause some confusion, and might prevent schools and libraries from utilizing your helpful tool.

Just thought you should know. Your efforts deserve to stand on their own!

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

Thank you so much. I would be open to renaming it and even taking suggestions in the future.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Could always go with a different suffix to keep the name itself - Alexandrio or Alexandrius or something?

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

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=ooG0MQvKiEs

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Good fucking bot

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Starred. Hopefully it works well with e-ink android, like my boox.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'll second the interest in working well on a boox. Mostly that means the ability to do decent contrast, which a reader should definitely do anyways.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good set of supported formats. Is it safe to assume that text and PDF are also supported?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No. PDF is currently out of scope. The app is built around EpubJS and is really more designed for responsive book formats. Including PDF support would mean incorporating something like pdf.js and would require tons of effort and rewrite which is off course at this moment.

Plain text files are also not supported currently, But this can be included for the 1.0 release. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This looks really promising for me. Is there any chance of opds support? I couldn't find anything on the GitHub page.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a feeling this will be a heavily requested feature. So there is a chance :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Make sure it's OPDS-PS, it will work great with Kavita :)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

is not there yet for me (no android), but i subscribed to releases, and i will be there to see this grow!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Idk how I didn't know this was a thing, thanks! Also subbed to releases and excited to see this grow

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

BTW, this is now trending on Hacker News.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37303960

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sadly it seems like the AppImage doesn't work on Nobara (Fedora spinoff). Any chance we can get a flatpak for it?

Picture showcasing the error in the terminal

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think this is happening because I built against a newer version of glibc. Very sorry about this. I will try to get a Flatpak out as soon as I can. Btw, what screenshot tool are you using? Love the transparency.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It's Gnome's default screenshot tool, it adds some padding by default :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Never seen a Tauri app yet. Looks very promising. I shall bookmark this for the future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Amazing! Can't wait for the android version to come out!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Awesome. I always wanted something like Foliate for Windows. Looks very promising. Great work OP.

If possible, get your App listed on WinGet too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Impressive, very nice. Waiting for fb2 format

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Very nice to see a Tauri app. Any plans to add macOS support?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Looks good! Funnily enough I just started a small personal project doing something like this to learn Sveltekit and typescript.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I subscribed to releases! Good work so far!