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- Hacker News
- Interesting. I generally hate proprietary software, but I've actually been really satisfied with the kindle UI. I don't use the store at all, simply email epubs to it directly. (I usually only move 1-5 books max at a given time, so this process feels really simple to me). The only adjustments I need are the text size and front light, battery life is amazing. I'm guessing this would be really useful if I had advanced needs, but for just reading epubs, kindle is a really good UI.by haritha-j
- You must have a newer kindle. Koreader was basically my best bet once mine (2012 vintage) stopped being supported by Amazon. Native epub support plus other goodies. I’m sure you’re aware that emailing an epub to your kindle converts it to mobi before sending, potentially mucking up the formatting.
- I have this on my Amazon Kindle and I freaking LOVE it!
Paired with BookOrbit [0] and using plugins like BookShelf, BookEnds, and KOAssistant I have the best reading setup ever.
The speed of this on my Kindle is _insane_ compared to the stock software. I'm not talking about page turning, that was fine on both, but navigating menus is way faster.
It was a little finicky to configure but once I got a feel for it I didn't have a problem and 15 books read later since I installed it a few months ago and I never touch the settings.
My favorite plugins:
BookShelf: Best UI for viewing my books by author/series/etc IMHO. Much better than the Kindle default UI and much snappier
BookEnds: Configure the header and footer of each page to show what info you care about most. There are community configs you can test out easily and download right on your kindle if you like them
KOAssistant: highlight some text and throw it at an LLM with a provided prompt or your custom one. This was invaluable when reading the Hornblower series which used a lot of older english words/phrasing as well as nautical terms (which I'm completely unfamiliar with). I enjoyed the books way more since I could figure it out inside my kindle instead of constantly having to pick up my phone to look up a phrase.
BookOrbit: It provides a plugin for KOReader that syncs your progress, annotations, etc.
KOReader is table stakes for any e-reader I might consider. If my Kindle died tomorrow I'd have a Kobo or similar on it's way to me within hours. I won't use any reader that doesn't support KOReader after using it for these last few months.
by joshstrange - I am using koreader on my ereader and KOreader has a native support for https://wallabag.org/. They are both fantastic opensource projects, whenever I like to read a blog post I am sending them to my wallabag and therefore I can easily have them on my ereader too.
Also the fact that you can install different plugin on KOreader and customize it in a way you like is fantastic. for example just check:
- https://github.com/doctorhetfield-cmd/simpleui.koplugin - https://github.com/AndyHazz/bookshelf.koplugin
Or with Lua you can develop your own plugin for that. to people who wanted to jailbreak their Kindle I can recommend these two links:
- https://kindlemodding.org/ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtk7ERwlIAk
All in all I am supper happy with KOreader and can't imagine to use anything else
by pesarkhobeee - Lots of nice features but the UX and UI are so painful that it's not worth jumping from the stock kobo reader for me.
It's nice to have another option though and if the UX improves one day maybe I'll use it as my main reader.
by fumeux_fume - Being able to read magazines was a big upgrade for me v the native kobo readerby yuppiepuppie
- Came to the same conclusion too – I appreciate that it exists, but the UI felt really complicated and disorganized.by gejose
- I got to the same conclusion. Installation was also painful; understandable, these platforms are clumsy.
The software itself is magic, kudos to all the developers and community.
by kmarc - I don't like the UX but the extra controls on ebook rendering was worth the pain for me, since almost all of my time is just reading the ebook anyways.by Salgat
- If you use a Kindle, you have to jailbreak it first before installing it. There's definitely been some improvements with user experience at least with apps since I first jailbroke it. There's like an appstore with games and KOReader that I use.
This is the guide I used and it's up to date.
by Cider9986 - I knew I kept this tab open a week for a reason :) thank you!by troyvit
- My wish is to see ebooks become first class citizens on all digital devices. Apple has a native ebook reader built in to their devices. It's cumbersome and bloated, but it's there. No web browser except Yandex has built in ebook support, even though it would be the easiest thing in the world. Android, Linux and Windows have no built-in ebook reader, as far as I know.
Murasaki [1] is the most performant and sleek ebook reader you can get for MacOS currently. It's magnificent, but the creator has regionally limited who can get it, unfortunately.
by carlosjobim - It doesn’t seem like it’s a huge ask imo, and I’m also pretty surprised that they have such limited support, a mostly text format like epub really should be simple to add functionality for.
Less surprising but still annoying is how many hoops you need to jump through to get a good reading experience for manga, particularly on macOS. I had to try many options that were either too buggy, too difficult to install correctly, various aggressive paywalls, or straight up don’t function with high quality scans.
Eventually I landed on one(will edit the name in when I have access to my laptop) that functions well but has some memory issues in importing books, possibly a memory leak.
Maybe I’ve just become shit at finding apps in the modern unsearchable age, but it really feels like reading of all types has diminished enough that we are an unserviceable market.
by Lord-Jobo - To be fair, desktop linux doesn't really have built-in anything (except what's appropriate for a kernel, like filesystems and a TCP stack...). Many linux distributions package epub readers (calibre, okular, fbreader, bookworm), and they tend to be really easy to install.
- I really appreciate you mentioning Murasaki - thank you. I've been looking for something like this for a long time, because every single EPUB "reader" out there does so much more than just read EPUBs. This one does just that, I love it.by overflowy
- The old Microsoft Edge had epub support, and even a nascent ebook shop and a nifty note-taking/annotation mechanism (there was even a restitution payment made for folks who had taken notes), but Microsoft gave up on it when they shifted to a rebadged Chrome.by WillAdams
- KOReader is my jam! With its reflow for PDFs, I've used it on my Kindle Oasis 2 to read everything for my undergrad and graduate degree. Some years ago now, I wrote a script that converts the annotations to Obsidian [0], and then another little script to automatically keep my "Articles" folders in sync between the Kindle and my laptop.
Very grateful for this software!
by simonklitj - It's a shame the out of the box UI/UX is so bad, it really feels like the GIMP of e-reader software at times.
I think the Zen UI plugin is mandatory to have a good time with it.
by videah - That's very helpful, thanks! The KOreader UI is... Rough.
Love all the options, especially the ability to use folders on the device storage as the primary way to organize my books, but trying to figure out where a setting is and change it has been frustrating from the first day I installed it.
Will give the Zen UI plugin a go. Does it still support the on-device folders as the main way to navigate through your books?
- You can use the regular Kindle viewer once you jailbroke your kindle, but KOReader has native epub and pdf support so you don't have to use a converter when uploading your books.
I did find it hard to get the bezels to be even and it still doesn't always format well depending on the book. I still kind of prefer the default viewer.
I use this plugin in KOReader which lets you download books from Z-Library within KOReader.
https://github.com/ZlibraryKO/zlibrary.koplugin
Another cool thing is you can use custom fonts and dictionaries. I use the OED short version and the Wikipedia one. There's built in ones that it can download but pirated ones like OED you have to upload yourself.
Unfortunately on MacOS it seems you have to use Amazon's app to access the filesystem.
Edit:
They changed it on the newer Kindle which I have.
There's open source alternatives to the send to kindle app.
by Cider9986 - Thanks for mentioning my plugin!by ZlibraryKO
- same experience here, jailbroken Kindle, installed KOReader, tried it and returned back to default viewer, don't exactly remember the reason, maybe overcomplicated? (especially since it's device for my kids, it doesnt have internet access, I just put there books offline)by Markoff
- Where do you download the OED dictionary? I've never found a source for it, and assumed it was not available publicly.by WhyNotHugo
- Another cool thing is you can use custom fonts and dictionaries.
To be fair, it is now possible to load your favorite fonts onto baseline Kindle.
by CWuestefeld - > Unfortunately on MacOS it seems you have to use Amazon's app to access the filesystem.
Hmmm not really my experience, unless it's a new thing. I am still able to access it via finder. Although I need to exit KoReader first and go back to the stock UI.
by nonninz - >Unfortunately on MacOS it seems you have to use Amazon's app to access the filesystem.
I can recommend using a Filebrowser plugin for KOReader, that way you can access the file system over a web interface and upload that way. No cables needed or anything, quite convenient.
by occz - > Unfortunately on MacOS it seems you have to use Amazon's app to access the filesystem.
KOReader comes with SSH, so you can just SSH into it.
by simonklitj - I'm immensely thankful for koreader - it improves the reading experience so fundamentally that it literally drives my purchasing decisions. I got a remarkable 2 precisely because it was known to run it well. When I got a new kindle, I went for a refurbished one hoping it'd be one FW version behind (it was! lucky me) so I could jailbreak it immediately, and run koreader.
Which reminds me:
- I'm still a primitive user. Sync reading state, reflow, calibre link, yes, but I'm at maybe 10% of the features, might even be an overestimate. I may finally have to cave in and go through its manual
- I literally endure calibre because that's how I feed koreader. Any alternatives?
- Is there really no practical way to mark a book as read other than give it a star rating or a custom tag?
- Does anyone know of anything coming close to this experience on an iPad?
- I've never given them a cent or contributed a line of code or even filed a bug report. That changes now.
by gruturo - > practical way to mark a book as read
I open the book and go to the last page :)
by soco - > “ I literally endure calibre because that's how I feed koreader. Any alternatives?”
- Syncthing plugin for Koreader (for syncing your ebooks with a computer / phone / tablet)
- RSS feeds for newsfeeds
by DavideNL