Here is a list of e-book reading software, on several platforms, that are of interest to me personally.
The list arose because I had been using the Amazon Kindle app on a small Android, for which I had even purchased books, but a recent upgrade to the app has rendered it useless on the Android. (It became an extreme resource hog.) So I looked for alternatives.
I'm mostly interested in free/open-source software, and open data formats. The ePub format seems very reasonable to me, and has been catching on because it is very easy to implement. So I tried some ePub books on each app (that I could get running).
The bare minimum is to properly display the text in the book, along with images. A convenient table of contents, a nice cover image, and a way to enlarge and navigate images on small devices are also important.
In modern smartphone systems, good HTML/CVS compliance makes a big difference. The quality and extent of compliance varies widely among the apps.
Android testing done on a Cubot KingKong Mini 2 with Android 10.
| vers | developer | alt. OS | URL | license | pkg | links | cover | PNG | text | ePub | problems | |
| Linux | ||||||||||||
| Calibre | 4.99.4 | Kovid Goyal & al. | calibre-ebook | GPL | deb | good | good | beautiful; torturously slow | ||||
| FBReader | 2.0 | FBReader.ORG | Android | FBReader.ORG | ? | ? | - | ? | ? | Successor to previously open-source software. Now has proprietary 'snap' installation. I declined. | ||
| Android open-source | ||||||||||||
| KOReader | v2022.11 | FBReader.ORG | koreader.org | GPL | Fdroid | yes | OK2 | good | OK | good | very usable | |
| Lbrera FD | 8.8.5 | foobnix | Fdroid | yes | good | OK | good | ads. very usable | ||||
| Cool | 3.1.2 | Vadim Lopatim | Linux | crengine | GPL2 | FDroid | fails | good2 | nice | good | good | very usable. Configurable...to a fault |
| Book Reader | 1.15.3 | code repo | GPL3 | FDroid | ||||||||
| Booky McBookface | 0.4.3 | Tom Kliethermes | code repo | GPL3 | FDroid | |||||||
| Android freeware | ||||||||||||
| FBReader | 3.1 | FBReader.ORG | Linux | FBReader.ORG | prop. | Play | yes | OK2 | good | OK | good | very usable |
| Lithium | 0.24.1 | FaultException | Apache | Play | yes | good | OK | good | very usable | |||
| PocketBook | 5.35.259 | com.obreey | Play | ads. | ||||||||
| Ebook Reader | 8.8.8 | Librera | Play | ads. | ||||||||
| Android adware | ||||||||||||
| Moon+ | 7.9.1 | moondownload | prop. | Play | poor | poor36 | nice | poor | good7 | ads, even on startup. | ||
| Bluefire | iOS | prop. | Play | all reviews are bad.incompatible with my devices | ||||||||
| Bookari | 4.2.4 | Mantano | prop. | Play | wants permission to Device IDs and call info. Didn't install. | |||||||
| Android bookstore apps (no access to local files). | ||||||||||||
| Play Books | 2022.12.12 | prop. | Play | good | OK7 | |||||||
| Kindle | 8.70.1 | Amazon | Kindle | prop. | Play | none | spybloatware | |||||
| Kobo | 9.3.2 | Kobo | prop. | Play | ||||||||
| Ebook Reader | 5.1.7 | ebooks.com | prop. | Play | runs only on arm64_v8. collects email address, user IDs | |||||||
1. No image scaling/navigation
On small devices, it is often necessary to scale images, and navigate them.
2. No SVG image
PNG image support is minimal-- prefer also JPEG and SVG images.
3. Cover image scaled badly
Cover image should be recognizable in thumbnails.
Best to also offer a full view of image.
4. No ePub Table of Contents support
Crucial for proper reading of ePub documents.
5. Table of Contents titles missing
Some apps lose the titles of chapters in the TOC.
6. Puts cover image in Table of Contents
Some apps try to put the cover image in the TOC, even when it
is explicitly excluded in the ePub <spine>.
7. CSS styling ignored
Author's ePub styling is ignored: typically a bad idea.