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Best Free Electronic Book Reader
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Introduction
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There is a very thin line dividing an e-book reader and pdf-reader. While the pdf reader just needs to read pdf's, an e-book reader is expected to optimize the process of reading an e-book in your computer. Desired characterisitcs are:
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Discussion
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Choosing one best reader among the multitude available is both a tough task and insensible one. Once upon a time, the humble .txt format used to be the only form of data. Today, there are nearly unlimited formats. While, in the ideal world one would prefer all of his data to be in an open format, the same cannot be expected in real world. Our books are tied down in either .pdf or .lit or .pdb. So, one has to exercise his discretion in selecting the best reader. Among the various software discussed here, most aim to only present your book in an almost paperback-like format. Only few try to organize them and add value to the same. Since the main purpose is to read books and not just text, preference is given to those that add value rather than just display your book in a fancy format.
The reader includes an auto-column layout for optimal reading experience, with options for paperback page size, full width display, 2 or 3 column display with customizable font types, sizes and background colors. It supports .lit,.html,.txt and .pdf files. Mobipocket also claims to sync with all your mobile devices like the smartphone, blackberry or PDA. The main disadvantage is that it stores all of your books in a proprietary .prc version. What this means is that for every book you read, you need to import it into Mobipocket.
You can also set up Calibre to fetch news from websites and RSS feeds and convert it into a compatible format, so you can load up your e-book reader with information from your favorite sites. There's even a built-in web server so you can access your e-book collection remotely. It even has a cover-flow like browsing feature for your books. However, it tries to sort all your books in it's own preferred folder structure, so if you're are person who uses your own folder-hierarchy use this carefully.
With this application, you can shop eBook titles including New York Times Bestsellers, search inside your collection of eBooks and can even borrow books from your library but a library card required. It too offers a two-page layout. While it has all the polish and gloss of a Sony product it lacks some key features like a full screen interface.
Other eBook Reader Suggestions: Tom's eTextReader reads rtf, html and txt files. Useful features are opening files directly from zip archives and a downloading tool for Project Gutenberg files. But the entire software is a little bit outdated. It lacks support for some commonly used formats. You can check this out at http://www.fellnersoft.at/eTR.htm. yBook, is a beautiful piece of software whose main aim is to provide a 'paper book' experience on the computer screen. It even allows you to choose what color your pages are and provides a default two-page layout ( which can be changed) . It opens .txt, .pdb, .rtf and .htm files. This also has an Project Gutenberg downloader. If you want a simple reader that gives you a book like relaxed read then this is it. You can check this out at http://www.spacejock.com/yBook.html. |
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Editor
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This software category is in need of an editor. If you would like to give something back to the freeware community by taking it over, check out this page for more details. You can then contact us from that page or by clicking here |
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Tags
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ebooks, reader, comparision, best e-book reader |
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Comments
I use FBReader and AlReader2 to read most books. Google alreader2, the site's mostly in russian, but there's an english download link. Alreader is a gem of a reader.
Adobe Digital Editions was the main useful EPUB file reader I have found so far.
However Adobe wants to download and install this program for you !
I dont like websites or companies downloading and installing their programs - there is a stand alone installer download also available on the Adobe website with a bit of hunting.
Coolreader didnt faithfully show the documents intended layout - much like reading a Word document using Wordpad.
A great many companies now use this download feeder-type of software to "make the downloading process friendlier", but it really doesn't. Granted, that's my opinion, but what I find is that no matter how small a file the feeder file is, it nearly doubles the download and install time for everything. Not fun, but more and more a "necessary" evil.
Quite happy with the Kindle app.
Many people are, and that simply reinforces it's popularity in this particular realm.
CoolReader is by far the best ebook reader I've tried after having tried several in December 2011. In fact, I donated $10 to help support the development. (I try to support a few free programs around Christmas time each year).
Check it out at:
http://coolreader.org/e-index.htm
on SourceForge it can be found at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/crengine/
You won't go wrong. I highly recommend it and feel that it should be one of the top programs mentioned above. It is under active development. Version 3 has over 1,000,000 downloads and roughly 100,000 in the week I downloaded it.
Calibre has a portable version, too.
Reading EPUB documents on a Windows PC would be useful. Wish the top recommendation could do this basic function. YBook does not do this, even thugh it states so on the homepage
Also - whats the point of downloading some of these other programs that read .txt, or .pdf.
Calibre is a wonderful piece of software. The only problem is that it can't convert dual-paged, or multi-column, PDF to EPUB. EPUB is much easier to read on mobile phone, because the reader remembers the current position, unlike PDF readers.
Mobipocket does NOT read lit files.
ybook has this defect: so far as I can see, one cannot select a portion of text and copy it. (One can copy a page to the clipboard).
thanks.
Wife uses Amazon kindle for desktop when on the laptop ,download from Amazon.You dont have to use the Kindle machine.
I just tried out a bunch of e-readers: Adobe Digital Editions, calibre, Mobipocket, Sony, and Nook. Mobipocket was by far the best for my needs. It is the most flexible (more font options, more display options, good organizational schemes). Calibre was s-l-o-w-e-r than molasses, and had a quirky interface. The remainder were far too crude to even consider. I maintain ADE in order to be able to download library books, but its interface is bad for the eyes, and the software has virtually no options.
This category needs an editor. Site editors, please include Martview in your review, when you update this category. I've found it to be the best ebook reading experience on my widescreen monitor.
I didn't like the 3 options recomended in this section.
MobiPocket tried to import some files containing tables but the result was ridiculus. Didn't work for me.
Calibre interface made me puke all over the place.
Reader Library actually has a full screen feature but it is impossible to try to zoom in or out, so unless I have a magnifier with me, trying to read there is totaly useless.
My personal recomendation is Adobe Digital Editions wich is easy to use and totally free.
Adios.
dude try MARTVIEW just gottit today
calibre is by far the best
i know right this is so wesome how do you get to the book reader
Hello guys,
I am the new category editor for this. I have right now installed and am testing : Sony e-book reader, Mobipocket reader, ybook, Tom's reader, ICE and others. After a testing gap of one week , I'll post the final review .
Hi,
I'm excited to see you update this category! Is there any way that consideration could also be taken for whether programs will read .LIT files? Microsoft Reader may be free, but they've obviously given up on giving it any features that would make it truly usable.
Thanks
Hi,
I'm not exactly sure about .LIT files. And MS seems to have given up their Reader. In the next update, I'll be sure to inlcude .LIT as a feature.
New and full review coming up in a while
try mobipocket
Jeff
I would like to see another software catelog named OCR free softwares.
Check http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-ocr-software.htm
The pro version of eReader is now free; this works with .pdb files and there are versions for Palm, Windows, Mac, PocketPC, and apparently iPhone:
http://www.ereader.com/ereader/software/browse.htm
On Windows, I agree with the recommendation for yBook, which opens .txt, .pdb, .rtf and .htm files, and tries to format to look like a paperback book.
I tried Mobipocket, but it uses a proprietary version of .prc files, and doesn't handle other PalmDoc files well - I ended up ditching it.
Plucker (http://www.plkr.org/) is freeware for the Palm/PocketPC, and includes 'distillers' to convert .htm or .txt files into a compressed .pdb format for reading on the PDA. I tried this, but prefer iSilo, which isn't freeware but is more flexible. It isn't clear that Plucker is still being maintained.
I love eReader for Windows, and the parchment look is awesome looking!
Foxit PDF Reafer
Tom's eTxtReader
http://www.fellnersoft.at/eTR.htm
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