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akoue/guides/reader

The reader

A book’s text lives in the same card as its narration. EPUB, FB2 and Markdown open in the built-in reader, PDF in a page reader of its own. Every edition keeps its own reading place, and it is not lost even when you change the font size.

The built-in reader opens epub — both as a file and as a package folder from a Mac — fb2 and md. pdf has a reader of its own: there the file itself draws the page. txt, rtf, doc and docx are shown by the iOS system viewer, the same one as in Files; it does not remember your place.

The reader is entirely free. With Pro sync your reading place travels between iPhone and iPad just like the audio position; the text size, font and page theme are kept per device.

01/07

Open the text

The card’s main button knows where you stopped. A book with text only has one such button, a book with a narration has two: listen and read.

  1. Open the book card and tap “Read”. On a started book the button carries the page — “Read · p. 12 of 300”, on a finished one it says “Read again”.
  2. On a book with audio and text, a hint under the two buttons says where you are in the audio and which page you are on in the text.
  3. With several text editions the button continues the one you opened last. Another one opens with a tap on its row in the “Editions” section.
  4. The text opens full screen. The arrow in the top left corner takes you out.

A text book offloaded to iCloud comes back with the “Download and read” button: the book downloads in full and opens at once. Bringing it back from the cloud stays free even after a subscription ends.

02/07

Page by screen

By default a page is a screen: the text is laid out to be turned sideways, as in Apple Books, without scrolling.

  1. Turn pages with a sideways swipe or a tap on the right or left third of the page.
  2. At the bottom is the progress bar: tap a spot or drag, and the book opens there. On either side of the caption are arrows for a page back and a page forward.
  3. In the middle of the footer: “p. N of M” and the per cent read. While a large book is being laid out it says “Laying out pages…”, but you can start reading at once.
  4. Every chapter starts on a new screen. The header at the top is the title of the current chapter.

In this mode page numbers depend on the text size and the font: a larger font means more screens. Your reading place does not move because of it.

03/07

“Scrolling” and fixed pages

The second mode is for those who prefer one continuous strip. A page here is a fixed measure, and its number does not change with the font size.

  1. Tap “Aa” in the top right corner and “Themes & Settings” opens.
  2. Under “Pages” choose “Scrolling”. The mode is remembered for this book: another book can have its own.
  3. A page is now 1,800 characters, like a paper book of average format. A long page scrolls down; the next one opens with a tap on the edge or a sideways swipe.
  4. In this mode the plain text of FB2 and Markdown can be selected and copied.

“p. 40 of 300” on the card is counted in this fixed measure, so the number jumps neither with the font nor with the device.

04/07

Text size, font and page theme

Everything that changes how the text looks sits on one panel at the bottom, over the page: you see each change at once.

  1. Tap “Aa” at the top right and “Themes & Settings” opens.
  2. “A | A” makes the text smaller or larger: from 14 to 28 points, 18 by default.
  3. “Aa | Aa” switches between a sans-serif and a serif font. Serif is the default.
  4. Below are six themes as tiles: “App theme”, “White”, “Sepia”, “Cream”, “Dusk”, “Night”.
  5. Close the panel with the cross.

The size, font and theme are remembered for all books at once, while the page mode is kept per book.

05/07

The page theme

A page theme is the background and the text colour together. You choose it for the light around you, not to match the app’s theme.

  1. “App theme” takes the colours of the app’s appearance — that is the default.
  2. “White”, “Sepia” and “Cream” are light pages for the daytime; “Dusk” and “Night” are dark, for reading in bed.
  3. The reader’s panels and the status bar change colour to follow the page.
  4. Colours set inside an EPUB book are not carried over: the theme sets the text colour, so the page always stays readable.

The contrast between text and background in each of the six themes is at least 7:1, with room to spare for reading in dim light.

06/07

Contents and the book’s own layout

Chapters come from the book itself, not from the names of the files inside it, and an EPUB is shown with the layout its publisher intended.

  1. Tap the list icon at the top right and “Contents” opens. To the right of each chapter is the page it starts on.
  2. Tap a chapter to jump to its start. With fewer than two chapters the button is inactive.
  3. In EPUB the chapters follow the book’s table of contents, in FB2 its sections, in Markdown the lines that start with #.
  4. EPUB keeps the alignment, bold and italics, margins, first-line indents and pictures. FB2 and Markdown are shown as plain text, in paragraphs.

Complex layout — text wrapping, columns, tables — is simplified to a flow of paragraphs: a page stays a page, and the text size keeps working.

07/07

Read a PDF

In a PDF the file itself draws the page, so it has a reader of its own: no themes or fonts, but the file’s own table of contents and a place that is remembered.

  1. Tap “Read” and the PDF opens on the page where you stopped. At the top: the book’s title and “p. N of M”.
  2. Touch the page to hide the panels and read without them; another touch brings them back.
  3. The “Pages” menu switches between “By screen” — one page per screen, turned sideways — and “Scrolling” as one continuous strip.
  4. “Contents” shows the file’s own table of contents with page numbers. If the file has none, the button is dimmed.
  5. “Open in another app” hands the file over to an app where it can be signed or marked up.

The app learns a PDF’s page count the first time it is opened: until then the card shows no progress for it. A damaged or password-protected file will not open in the reader, which offers to open it in another app instead.

What the reader does not have

  • Bookmarks, notes and highlighted quotes: bookmarks are for audio only.
  • Search within the book’s text — neither in the built-in reader nor in PDF.
  • Reading the text aloud: listening in Akoue means listening to a narrator’s recording.
  • A shared place between audio and text: the app does not know which page the sixth hour of listening matches.
  • Footnotes and links inside EPUB; pictures and type styles in FB2 and Markdown.
  • Settings for margins, line spacing or the typeface: only the size and serif or sans.
  • A reading place for txt, rtf, doc and docx: the system viewer does not remember it.
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