Reading books in the digital age has become incredibly easy. Any smartphone is capable of accommodating a small library that the user will carry in his pocket.
But programs are needed to open various formats of electronic publications, popular and not so popular. Each of them has its own functionality and offers a specific set of capabilities. We will talk about the most popular of them below.
FBReader
The simplest and very old reader, which is being updated to this day. Accepts almost all known formats and displays them without encoding or formatting errors. Supported formats:
- ePub.
- FB2.
- Mobi (aka Kindle or azw3).
- DOC and its variations – RTF, TXT and HTML.
There is also support for heavy formats, such as PDF and DJVU, but only with the help of special plugins that are installed separately.
The library is available both from the storage on the phone and from the cloud. In the second case, it will be available on all devices that are linked by a common account. There are also several online catalogs, in which thousands of e-books of different authors and genres are available for full reading, review and purchase right in the application.
An open file looks like this:
Of the controls, there are only the page scroll bar and the night mode switch at the top right. The menu at the top left gives access to chapter navigation.
Download QR-Code FBReader Developer: FBReader.ORG Limited Price: Free to content
PDF Reader
Simple application for viewing documents saved in PDF-format or printed on a virtual printer. Opens documents quickly, pages immediately occupy the entire screen of the application, to zoom (increase, decrease), just a gesture with two fingers on the screen.
The program will open heavy files at different speeds, depending on how powerful the processor is installed in the phone.
Key features:
- View the history of opening documents.
- Sort the supported formats by tabs.
- Bookmarks.
- Navigate the document using Quick Actions.
- Change screen orientation while reading.
An open document and navigation menu looks like this:
Using this menu, you can add a document to your favorites, switch viewing modes, navigate to a specific page and share the document via social networks or instant messengers.
Download QR-Code PDF Reader – Word Office, Office Document, Docx Developer: PFR Inc – PDF Reader, Document viewer Price: Free to content
Cool Reader
An interestingly designed reader, the pages of which look like an old book, faded from long-term use. It has many settings and modes, an advanced document navigation system and supports almost all formats of electronic works.
Among the most interesting features:
- Night mode – the letters become yellowish, and the page – burgundy. Helps to read easier when the lights are off in the room in the evening.
- Search by percentages, pages, words and phrases.
- Auto-flipping pages with a customizable time interval.
- Quickly switch between the last two books, just like in multitasking mode Android.
Advertising is completely absent here, which can be called one of the strongest aspects of the program. In addition, the smoothness and speed of work, even when referring to heavy books with illustrations, amazes even owners of not the most powerful phones.
An open book and menu bar looks like this:
Almost all the functionality of the program fits on one screen, which is beneficial to the convenience of its use. The user is not distracted by navigating through dozens of menus and submenus, which means he saves his time.
Download QR-Code Cool Reader Developer: Vadim Lopatin Price: Free back to content
AnDoc – DJVU reader
This app handles both PDF and DJVU documents equally well. It opens them quickly and without delays, has many interesting features and does not distract too much with ad impressions.
The initial window is a standard file manager, the reader does not perform any library scans, and therefore you need to navigate the system yourself. This is one of the few negative points.
After opening the document, you can call the context menu with the button in the upper right.
Here you have access to the program settings, which are not too detailed, the ability to manage bookmarks, go to the table of contents and controlled page scaling. There is an orientation switch function. There is also no moving through the pages by dragging the slider on the progress bar, only to a specific number.
Download QR-Code AnDoc – PDF and DjVu Reader Developer: OpenView Mobile Price: Free to Content
Eboox – epub reader
An omnivorous reader capable of opening many formats, but tailored specifically for EPUB. Supports the display of covers, illustrations and other unique design elements, which greatly brings the reading experience with its help to familiarity with the paper edition.
It has a good and minimalistic interface that does not overload the user with information and is so structured that it is almost impossible to get confused in it.
This is what an open book looks like with a navigation bar:
From here, the user gains access to several important features. By clicking on the button with the gear image, it enters the text display settings menu. There are several presets of shades of pages and the text itself, options for filling the page with text, its size and font.
The Control tab provides access to swipe animations and auto-rotate and orientation options. There is also the ability to turn pages with the volume buttons. The main screen has the ability to create and manage bookmarks.
Download QR-Code eBoox: Book Reader fb2 epub Developer: READING APPS Price: Free back to content
CHM Reader
Not quite a standard reader, focused more on opening weighty electronic manuals created in the CHM format. In fact, these are files in which each page is created using HTML tags and is practically a web page. Navigation through such documents occurs both from the reading mode and through specific chapters.
Main advantages:
- Open very large files almost instantly.
- Convenient navigation through documents with CHM-markup.
- The file manager can view almost any file.
- There is support for HTML and MHT documents.
- Fast page scrolling without jams.
The program supports PDF files, but somewhat limited, they must have certain formatting and a clear tree structure of the content.
An open file in the reader looks like this:
All book chapters are mostly displayed as one long HTML page, which may be handy for some users. When scaling, however, the text does not try to fit completely in the window; the reader has to move his finger not only from top to bottom, but also from right to left. The size of the font and its display are not configurable in any way.
I recommend using this app on tablets to read e-books in portrait orientation.
Download QR-Code Chm Reader X Developer: jianwu Price: Free back to content
Aldiko Book Reader
Application with its own bookshelf. Its main window is decorated just like that – in the form of a wooden cabinet with several shelves and books that stand on them. There are several trial copies, some are downloaded separately and are excerpts from books, but there is also a full version of Jack London's work – 'White Fang'.
Here it is possible to sort books by various parameters – authors, tags, topics. You can also create your own collections, and then call them any names.
A large number of formats are supported, including PDF. There is an option to sign in to an Adobe DRM account, which gives you access to all available works purchased or added to that account.
This is how a document opened in the reader looks like:
All controls are located at the bottom of the page. There is support for night mode and changing font sizes. You can set up a talker and make the application read books aloud.
Download QR-Code Aldiko Developer: De Marque Price: Free back to content
Lithium: EPUB Reader
A minimalistic and nice looking reader. Quite omnivorous and accepts most formats. At startup, it asks for permission to access the phone's file system and immediately loads all files found on it with supported extensions.
The application lacks some too advanced functions, but it is possible to change the display of the text as the user wants. These parameters are available for quick access – just press the button with the letter 'A' and a gear at the top of the screen with an open book.
There is a convenient search by several parameters and rather detailed settings of the application itself. As for the rest, this is the most undemanding representative of readers to phone resources, it is not unloaded from memory almost never and always remembers the place where the reader stopped. Must have on your phone.
Download QR-Code Lithium: EPUB Reader Developer: FaultException Price: Free back to content
Readers with voice guidance
Of the applications that are considered in this article, two are worth noting: Aldiko book reader and Cool Reader. Both have very good voice modules that speak text.
The settings are very similar, when reading the text, you can change the following parameters:
- Narrator's voice.
- Its gender.
- Play speed.
- The length of the pauses between words.
Both readers cope with this task normally – this is not the level of an audiobook, but the listener will be able to get a general idea of the contents of the book. There are some misses in accents and intonations, but mostly the words are pronounced clearly and without mistakes. There are also problems with slang expressions or expressions not contained in the dictionary, but they are not too critical – you can still understand the spoken fragment.