EBook readers and Ebook Library (Document Library)

[the accountant]

Great website - I thought I should contribute back.

I have tested this apps but have not tested audio text to speech. This may make them less portable but as ebook readers they are fine.

1/

Rudenko Book reader reads from inside Zip html and text files. Text to speech.
Converts to .defl Also gz achives but i could not rar achieves to work.

http://www.rudenko.com/ebook.html

No writing to user application. Registry not checked but i think not. Software is freeware.

700kb after compression

How to extract: Unzip and uniextract setup file and use files in app folder and compact.


Writes settings to: None

Stealth [?]: Yes

Unicode support: dont know

License: Freeware



2/

Coolreader 2.00.66 and 3.00.15

http://coolreader.org/e-index.htm

Read Aloud function saves your eyes.

Supported platforms: Win9x/ME/NT4.0/Win2K/XP Also vista SP2 but not stated on site.

Status: free for non-commercial usage. V3 version will be opensource but not stable and limited functions.

Opens books from .txt, .doc, .html, .fb2 or .rtf formats with automatic codepage (cp866,cp1251,KOI-8r,latin-1,unicode,utf-8) and format recognition (headers, paragraphs, etc...)
Supports RAR, ZIP, HA, ARJ, LHA archieves
Shows text as continuous Scroll or as Book.
Fully customizable colors, background images, text blending modes, and other ergonomic parameters.
Font antialiasing using a few different methods.
Fullscreen or windowed view mode.
TTS (Read Aloud) using SpeechAPI 4.0 и 5.1 (new!)
Pronounsation dictionaries (new!)
Dictionary editor (new!)
Table of Contents
Bookmarks
Text search
Mouse selection and Copy function
Export of formatted text to HTML or RTF
Stores history of opened books, their last positions and bookmarks.
Extra-smooth, customizable scrolling.
Multilingual interface

I couldnt get Rar or zip to work either. Single file zip work on v3.



2a.
CoolReader 2

Extract: Just unzip archieve to some folder and run cr2.exe

Writes settings to: None

Stealth [?]: Yes

Unicode support: No

License: Free for non commerial use

2b CoolReader 3

Extract: Just unzip archieve to some folder and run cr3.exe

Writes settings to: Application folder

Stealth [?]: Yes

Unicode support: Dont know

License: Freeware/opensource


3/

FBReader
http://www.fbreader.org/about.php

FBReader is distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL.
Main features:
Supported e-book formats are
ePub, an international e-publishing standard.
fb2, a Russian e-books standard de facto.
plucker, one of the most popular Palm e-book format.
Non-DRM'd version of Mobipocket, a popular commercial e-book format.
More formats.
Direct reading from tar, zip, gzip and bzip2 archives. (Multiple books in one archive are supported.)
Automatic library building.
Automatic language and character encoding detection is supported.
Automatically generated contents table.
Embedded images support.
Footnotes/hyperlinks support.
Position indicator.
Keeps the last open book and the last read positions for all opened books between runs.
List of last opened books.
Automatic hyphenations. Liang's algorithm is used. The same algorithm is used in TeX, and TeX hyphenation patterns are used in FBReader. Patterns for Czech, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Ukrainian are included in the current version.
Text search.
Full-screen mode.
Screen rotation by 90, 180 and 270 degrees.


Currently FBReader works on
Linux desktop.
Windows XP/Vista computer.
FreeBSD computer.
Various linux-based mobile devices:
Sharp Zaurus with Qtopia-based ROMs, pdaXrom or OpenZaurus ROM.
Archos PMA430.
Siemens Simpad with Opensimpad 0.9.0/Opie ROM.
Nokia 770/N800/N810 Internet Tablets (maemo).
PepperPad 3 handheld web computer.
Motorola A1200 smartphone.
Motorola E680i/A780 smartphones. (This port is available from the third-party site.)
IRex iLiad. (This port is available from the third-party site.)

Extract: Uniextract exeand move share folder from $31 to main directory. 4.3Mb after compression

Writes settings to: None

Stealth [?]: Yes

Unicode support: Dont know

License: GNU GPL.


4/

Elib

Ebook library and document catalog

http://ebooklib.50webs.com/


eLib is a new FREE tool which helps you categorize, view, catalog ... your ebook collection. It runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Here is an overview of the features:
- performs a scan of your folders and files with pre-defined or choosen extensions
- you can create as many collections as you wish, and even create subcollections
- you can drag/drop your collections
- generates the thumbnails for PDF, and some MsOffice files (XLS, DOC, PPT) *
- you can manage several databases of your collections, create backups etc ...
- you can view PDF, XLS, DOC, TXT and some other files directly in the integrated viewer

900kb excluding libary.dat


Extract: Just unzip archieve to some folder and run exe

Writes settings to: None

Stealth [?]: Yes

Unicode support: Dont know

License: Freeware/opensource

5/

Myebooklibrary is an alternative. Can be found here but has no viewer. It just catalogs ebooks.

http://www.softpedia.com/developer/MyEb ... 24213.html

6/

To make ebooks for mobiles using Jar and Jad files use

http://ebookme.sourceforge.net/

Extract: Just unzip and run ebookme.exe. Needs Java on host machine to work.

Writes settings to: None

Stealth [?]: Yes

Unicode support: Dont know

License: opensource


App 3 is the most versatile re formats and app 4 is fantastic.

[ashghost]

1/ Rudenko Book reader http://www.rudenko.com/ebook.html

This one is portable. Also, books are "imported" and stored (as .delf files) in a subfolder of the application folder, so path portability is not an issue.

2/ Coolreader 2.00.66 and 3.00.15 http://coolreader.org/e-index.htm

CoolReader 3 is not portable (writes settings to %AppData%).
CoolReader 2 writes settings to the application directory. However, it does not support relative paths or any other form of path portability.

I appreciate the submissions, but the rest of the programs are not portable (see bottom), nor do they support path portability. If you don't mind, I'm going to try to help you help us:

Here's how I test portability:

1 - Sandboxie
http://www.sandboxie.com
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... f=4&t=4710
Not everything runs under Sandboxie, but the vast majority of apps do. Sandboxie shows you where apps save their files, and redirects those writes to a sandbox folder, so you can easily undo the changes that a program has attempted. Or, you can just as easily save those changes. You can also find out about .NET dependency by using Sandboxie - if the app writes to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\ (or to %AppData%GDIPFONTCACHEV1.DAT, but I'm not sure if this only happens with .NET programs).

By the way, .NET dependency is not a problem for everyone (I have several .NET apps on my USB drive). You're welcome to submit .NET apps (but please mention the dependency); however, .NET apps are not eligible for inclusion in the database,

2 - RegFromApp
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=1433
Run RegFromApp, then use it to launch the program you're testing. It shows you the changes that the program makes to the registry (but unlike Sandboxie, it doesn't redirect them).

For the (more or less) complete solution, combine the two:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 581#p12581
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... f=8&t=3662

Path portability means that the application does not depend on the absolute path (with a drive letter) to re-locate files you have used before. There are two ways (that I'm aware of) to handle this:

1 - relative paths (like "data\settings\" or "..\ParallelFolder\"
2 - paths based on the root of the drive without a drive letter: "F:\Apps\BR4" becomes "\Apps\BR4"

With these eBook readers, absolute paths means that if you move to a new machine, your library is "empty" and you have to re-add your files. Moreover, they're designed to save the last state of the file (the page you were at); if you have to re-add your files, you'll have to find where you left off on your own. Granted, this doesn't mean they're unusable - I like eTextReader http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=620 but I only discovered today that you can manually enter relative paths in the .ini files, even though you can't do it within the program's settings dialogs).

Path portability can usually only be tested by trial and error. Sometimes you can enter relative paths directly and test them immediately. Other times you have to run the app and store some paths then see if it can handle changed drive letters in those paths. Sometimes you can run the app, store some paths, then move the app's directory - if it can still find the files, it's not using relative paths.

Hope this helps

3/ FBReader http://www.fbreader.org/about.php

FBReader saves settings to the registry. Path portability is almost certainly another problem.

4/ Elib http://ebooklib.50webs.com/

eLIB saves settings to the registry and requires .NET.

5/ Myebooklibrary http://www.softpedia.com/developer/MyEb ... 24213.html

My Ebook Library saves settings to the registry and requires .NET. Path portability is almost certainly another problem.

[the accountant]

Hi ashghost,

Thanks for your feedback.

Unfortunately i was testing with Vista so .net is automatically installed.

I am confused about the points you made about cool reader 2

I have both my cr2.ini and cr2_hist.dat are sitting next to the exe in the cr2 folder. I edited the .ini to Last Open Path ..\My ebooks. However the last book i had open is still there stored in the history dat which i believe is the same as delf for rudenko. I also moved the folder between my d: and C partions and still opened the same book. Please let me know if I missed something.

Thanks for the tools you recommened. Reg from App is esay to use. However I notice that a lot of apps write on closing. I know that most apps are not stealth but which reg keys are considered serious no no's for portablity?

I used Sandboxie before and it is confusing. However i will continue playing with it.

For me portable apps means never having to reinstall, reliance on .spam (i mean net) and java or any apps that call home. Preference is given to stealth and apps that dont write to \user\apps and size. Exceptions are made for usabilty or rare one off applications.

PS i uninstalled net 3.5 and still get GDIPFONTCACHEV1.dat. Its part of visualstudio.net and used for using font data. Is this actually part .net framework or part of vista os?

Thanks

[ashghost]

You're right: Cool Reader 2 supports relative paths if you manually edit the .dat file (I only checked the .ini file ); a little annoying, but usable.

PS i uninstalled net 3.5 and still get GDIPFONTCACHEV1.dat. Its part of visualstudio.net and used for using font data. Is this actually part .net framework or part of vista os?

Yeah, I said I wasn't sure about it - it just seems to get modified by most .NET apps that I try under Sandboxie, and I didn't think I'd seen it get modified by anything that didn't use .NET. I probably shouldn't have mentioned it, or should have Googled it.

Cheers.

[webfork]

I tested CoolReader 3.0.54-27 Beta and as ashghost pointed out back in 2009, it still writes to appdata. I tried a few things to get around this without success.

[Ascend4nt]

Calibre should probably be added to this list, both as an e-reader and ebook library. The ereader can be used without needing to go into the inventory program itself - just launch 'ebook-viewer' which can be found here:

Code: Select all

Calibre Portable\Calibre\ebook-viewer.exe

The document types support is pretty varied, although it has trouble with djvu and pdf files (better suited for STDU Viewer and Foxit, respectfully). I currently have these document types assigned to 'View in Calibre' (using Open++):

Code: Select all

*.epub;*.lrf;*.htm;*.html;*.xhtm;*.xhtml;*.lit;*.mobi;*.pdb;*.prc;*.snb;*.cbz;*.cbr;*.cbc;*.odt;*.doc;*.docx;*.rtf