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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Ebook Reader. Download Ebook Reader and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. eBooks.com's Ebook Reader lets you read your favourite books on the go. Another choice as to best eBook Reader Mac 2018 is Calibre. Covering many types of files like MOBI and ePub, Calibre is a powerful e-book management tool full of functions like editing cover images or author names.
Next time you are traveling somewhere or commuting your way to work, look around you. It’s evident that the number of book lovers who have taken to reading on a digital format has risen significantly over the years. In 2011 and 2012, Amazon said it sold 105 books for its Kindle e-reader for every 100 hardcover and paperback books, excluding free eBooks.
Though it has become apparent in recent years that there is a slight fall in the growth of eBook sales (particularly so in 2013), eBooks are still far too compelling to die out, and today we tend to use more than one medium to consume the same thing. So next time you’re hesitating to pull out your Kindle or iPad mini on the bus or train due to the watchful eyes of a “book snob,” just remember that it’s not possible to please everyone, and that there are still thousands of benefits to the electronic book format.
The iPad has arguably become one of the leading eBook reading platforms, and the App Store is overflowing with apps that all promise a great reading experience. In 2011, to the disappointment of book lovers far and wide, beloved ebook reader Stanza met its demise, leaving a huge gaping hole in the market for the next best thing. What did Stanza have that set the standard for most reading apps today? First off, it had many features that the competition lacked, including a wide range of supported formats, excellent formatting options, and a swipe-to-dim feature that makes reading on a screen much easier on the eyes.
We explore, in this article, some free eBook readers that are available for the Mac. IBooks iBooks is Apple’s stock eBook reader app, and it is exactly what an eBook reader for a laptop should be.
In 2008, Stanza won 148Apps Best Free or Ad Supported App Award in the Best App Ever contest. PCMag gave the iPhone version of Stanza a 4/5 stating, “Stanza is the most capable iPhone e-book reader available, with the easiest way to acquire the widest selection of books for your handheld perusal and the greatest number of text-formatting options”.
Likewise, zdnet.com said of Stanza in an article; “Stanza is by far the most sophisticated e-Reader application for iPad… If you have lots of content that you’ve collected over the years, Stanza is definitely a must-have app. There’s absolutely no downside, it’s free to use and does more than any e-book reader app…”
Even book community Goodreads had a whole host of positive reviews. What could possibly give users the same freedom of customization, flexibility and performance that Stanza did? We ran some hands-on testing (see our chart, below) and compared the latest e-reading apps on the market today to determine which iOS e-reader you should definitely be downloading.
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THE WINNER – MARVIN
Prettier than iBooks, cleverer than Kindle, and a reading experience reminiscent of the largely missed reigning predecessor that was Stanza, Marvin is the perfect e-book reader for iOS.
Marvin has a ton of formatting options that give total control over how the app looks and feels. Changing the text size and font is a given, but there’s also the option to set margin widths to your preferred reading style, along with the ability to change the line-spacing and paragraph spacing. There’s so many customizable options that the app beats any of its competition on these features alone.
It may come as no surprise that Kindle, iBooks, and most reputable e-book reading apps have night reading themes which basically switches the iPad to a darker scheme to save your eyes from any glare when reading in the dark. Marvin stands above all of these, with the option of a third standalone theme, and the look is fully customizable. If you fancy going all out with a red background and yellow text, you certainly can. Likewise, you can also change the style of the day and night modes to fit your own needs. And that’s not all; Marvin will literally remember each setting for the next time you load up the app, including whether you’ve changed the layout completely to suit the style format you prefer.
AppAdvice speaks highly of Marvin’s customisable features and assets; “…in case you’re wondering about the app’s customization options for fonts, margins, brightness, and whatnot, suffice it to say that Marvin has lots and lots of them.”
Though most of today’s well known e-book reading apps allow the user to change the brightness as they see fit, Marvin goes one step further. Swiping vertically on the screen with two fingers allows you to change the “warmth,” making it easier to read in a variety of different lighting conditions. Alongside this you can change the directions the pages will turn, and a whole array of fine gestures that allow for the most pleasurable reading experience possible.
Marvin is also the student’s perfect companion when it comes to studying. It goes without saying that apps like Kindle and iBooks also allow for text lookups, highlights, annotations, and dictionary use, but none other performs in the way Marvin does. It allows you to view all your bookmarks and highlights on a separate page, which makes for far easier viewing. There’s also the ability to email your highlights and so forth, which is highly useful for those revising for exams or writing a paper. You can build summaries, tack on notes, reviews or articles to your book and even share your research between friends.
Another great asset that Marvin does well is the “Deep View” feature that scans the book you’re reading and finds related information about the names, characters, and places, and other interesting material. This also does so without exiting the app, which allows for a seamless return straight back to what you were previously doing.
shelfless.org considers Marvin the only iOS ebook reader you will need, saying,
“Marvin is the most interesting and accomplished iOS ebook reader in a long time. Its text formatting features are second to none, putting it way ahead of anything else available. The Deep View AI engine is handy, probably more so to students. Highlighting and note taking, whilst not covered in this review, are all on a par or better than the offerings from Amazon and Apple. There are other hidden gems here too, such as the ability to save definitions of every word you look up, thus creating your own personal dictionary that you can later export.”
Something that Kindle nor iBooks yet give access to, and one of the greatest features by far, has to be Marvin’s built-in timer, that allows you to set a period for how long you wish to read or study. Upon exiting the app, Marvin also tells you how long you’ve been reading.
Marvin comes with a bundle of free ebooks, available to download after launching the app for the first time. These include several classic novels, which is great for those who love reading classic literature. Not to your taste? No problem. Marvin makes adding more ebooks to your library easy, giving you the choice of three different methods in which to do so. One includes iTunes file sharing to transfer any ePubs from your computer straight to Marvin. The second involves using Marvin to open attachments in your iPad Mail app. That, or you can simply connect Marvin to Dropbox, where you can download any of the ebooks you have stored. Bear in mind that Marvin does not support DRM-protected ebooks, and the only formats you can open and read are ePubs and PDFs.
Just when you thought Marvin couldn’t get better, there’s always a new update or feature in the works. The latest update adds a new star rating system, 6 new smart collections to filter by star rating, bulk actions to rate, the ability to delete bookmarks and highlights, keywords in the library search bar, note attachment and more.
It also supports Calibre, the industry-standard e-book library manager. With Calibre, you can sync your books to other e-book readers, convert e-books, manage your library, and more. Since the demise of Stanza, there hasn’t really been an app that has really worked well alongside Calibre, but Marvin brings back the freedom to communicate directly with the manager app.
Of course, Cult of Mac also reviewed Marvin in December 2012, and it scored high as a don’t-miss app. Back then, Marvin was of course new on the scene; it’s been greatly improved in a whole number of ways since then.
With scores of positive reviews across-the-board, iOS users in particular have given this app a collective five-star rating overall. User Han00 says, “This app is the reason I love my iPad. It’s incredibly easy to use and so helpful. It makes it possible for me to have a library like the one in Beauty and the Beast right at my fingertips, no ladders needed! I love that you can edit metadata in the app itself, I love the interface, the fonts and colors, the simple commands and shortcuts you can assign to menu buttons. I would say this app has it all, except for the fact that just when I think it can’t get any better, Marvin is updated and proves me wrong.”
Reading and book sharing site Goodreads has nothing but appreciation for Marvin, with a host of five-star ratings praising the app.
Is Marvin perfect? Almost. Nothing’s perfect, as there will always be someone who turns their nose up at something, but in all honesty, the only major downside to Marvin has to be the fact you have to pay for the full version. One other slight critique that should be taken into account before purchasing is that due to its lack of DRM support, those who buy their eBooks from Amazon, iBooks, other DRM book stores cannot integrate their purchases with Marvin. Though there are ways around this, one being using Calibre to strip DRM and convert files to other formats, this isn’t something Cult of Mac personally advises. Depending on one’s country, removing DRM is very much a legal gray area, especially due to ambiguous and conflicting laws. It can be argued that if you own the book then technically it’s not “breaking any laws,” but it still remains uncertain on where this falls in terms of copyright violations.
Aside from the aforementioned, with all the above features and at the inexpensive cost of $2.99, you can hardly go wrong. There is also a “lite” version that lets you try Marvin out, but you only get access to one book at a time and the other features are limited too. Also, casual readers may find a bit of a learning curve, but there’s no reason that Marvin has to be used in all it’s complexity. The options are certainly there to tinker around with, but Marvin is also great in its original downloaded state.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
KINDLE
Yes, Kindle has a cluttered interface, and frustratingly offers less flexibility than Marvin, but as an alternative, it definitely holds its own. Amazon’s Kindle Store, for example, still has the largest array of ebook content online, with over 1.5 million books available to browse, download, or purchase. For Kindle users, it’s highly beneficial since all of your books, notes, and reading progress are synchronized via WhisperSync between any of your Kindle devices and the accounts registered to them.
Unfortunately, the Kindle app does have its drawbacks. It doesn’t allow you to import anything other than .MOBI format or PDF files, and it only works with titles purchased from the Kindle Store. You can’t adjust the margins, and there’s only a handful of fonts for you to choose from should you wish to change it. It also doesn’t offer much in the way of customization when it comes to themes, allowing you to only switch between black, white or sepia. Similar to Marvin, you can perform a text search, or look up specific words or terms with Google or Wikipedia. Book navigation is pretty swift too, and turning pages is as easy as swiping or tapping the screen.
Though Kindle owners will find the app to their advantage, it pales in comparison compared to the smarter, seamless experience that Marvin offers. Unfortunately though, Marvin only supports .ePub files, so those who regularly access the Kindle Store will sadly have to sit this one out.
BLUEFIRE READER
Though it’s not as greatly known as Amazon’s Kindle app, or Apple’s iBooks, Bluefire Reader is great for reading both ePubs encrypted with Adobe’s DRM, as well as unencrypted ePubs and PDF files. You can then simply authorize the app with your Adobe ID, and download books from either Dropbox or iTunes to add them to your library. It’s also an alternative to OverDrive for library book downloads, if that’s your kind of thing.
Although Bluefire is indeed a great all-around app, its main complaint is how sluggish it is at loading eBooks compared to the faster, more acclaimed reading apps. This is mainly due to its sophisticated typeface more than anything else though, which automatically inserts ligatures that make text far easier to read. That aside, it’s not really noticeable within a wall of text, but your eyes certainly will be thankful for the comfort.
Bluefire Reader also offers many other options including orientation lock, different typefaces, themes, and the ability to use it for highlighting and annotation. Unfortunately, Bluefire is hindered slightly by its lack of an offline dictionary and the inability to look-up words and terms on Wikipedia. Another missing feature is the two-column support in landscape mode, which can be a huge setback for some readers. That’s a glaring reason why Marvin remains our number one choice for reading, but Bluefire does have its charm and qualities, and is still a much more appealing option than Apple’s iBooks.
ROUND UP
- Marvin: Best customizable reading app, packed with special features, integration and synchronisation with Calibre, ePub and PDF only, custom commands, costs $2.99.
- Kindle: Access to the largest library of ebooks online, WhisperSync between all of your Kindle devices, fewer customizable options, only supports .mobi and PDF.
- Bluefire Reader: Great for reading DRM protected ePubs, alternative to OverDrive, comfortable ebook reading app, lacks two-column support and an offline dictionary.
ALTERNATIVE SERVICES
Apple’s iBooks
Features: Cloud Sync, Themes, multi-column mode, highlight, annotation and Dictionary, Wikipedia lookup, in-app book store.
Supported Formats: ePub and PDF
Price: Free
Features: Cloud Sync, Themes, multi-column mode, highlight, annotation and Dictionary, Wikipedia lookup, in-app book store.
Supported Formats: ePub and PDF
Price: Free
ebookMobi
Features:Adjustable text size, brightness, font style, backgrounds and provides the option to import dictionary of choice. Methods to import books include iTunes, the app’s built-in connection to its free accessible book sites, Dropbox or Google Search, lacks DRM support.
Supported Formats: ePub, .Mobi, fb2, pdb, PDF, RTF, HTML, CBR, CHM and .txt files.
Price: $1.99
Features:Adjustable text size, brightness, font style, backgrounds and provides the option to import dictionary of choice. Methods to import books include iTunes, the app’s built-in connection to its free accessible book sites, Dropbox or Google Search, lacks DRM support.
Supported Formats: ePub, .Mobi, fb2, pdb, PDF, RTF, HTML, CBR, CHM and .txt files.
Price: $1.99
Read books on your Mac. Sure, tablets and e-ink devices are better ways to read than your computer – and even your phone is nicer than a laptop if you’re on the couch. But sometimes you need to open a book on your Mac.
Maybe you’re using a text as a reference for a project, or maybe you just want to read a few chapters of a novel at your desk. Whatever the reason, choosing which app to open your books for depends on a few factors. Books you buy from a particular service (iBooks, Kindle and so on) can only be opened with their software, for example, while free EPUB files you find at Project Gutenberg can be read with a variety of free software.
There might not be a single program for reading all your books, so it’s good to know your options. Whatever your situation, here are the best options for reading ebooks on your Mac.
If You Love Apple Defaults: iBooks
Mavericks, the latest version of OS X, brought Apple’s iBooks service to the desktop. Long offered on iPads and iPhones, iBooks allows you to read the books you’ve purchased from Apple’s bookstore on your desktop – and also offers support for EPUB files. Your current reading list and bookmarks will sync between your various devices, so if you’re an Apple fan with multiple devices this might be ideal for you.
EPUB files you add on your Mac won’t sync wirelessly to your mobile devices.
The interface is minimalistic and focused on reading – even the toolbar fades away if you’re not using it, leaving you with just your book. You can take notes, tag and highlight information, but you won’t find a lot of customization options (so I hope you like the default font).
iBooks is a solid reader if you like the idea of a book library and mostly want to focus on reading. It’s probably perfect for most users, but only works if you’re using the latest version of OS X. Mavericks is free; here’s how to get itOS X Mavericks is Free: Here's How To Get It & Why You Want ItOS X Mavericks is Free: Here's How To Get It & Why You Want ItApple really outdid itself this time. The words 'software sells hardware' never rung more true, and now that OS X Mavericks is free to all, isn't it about time you got on-board?Read More.
If You Own An E-Reader: Kindle, Kobo Or Nook
If you have a dedicated reading device – a Kindle, Kobo or Nook – you’ve likely purchased books for it. If that’s the case, you’re probably best off using the Mac reading software offered by the company that made your device.
Download Kindle For Mac, Kobo for Mac or Nook for Mac to sync your existing collection right now. None of these services offer the ability to import EPUB books found outside their ecosystem, so you may want to check out another alternative. But if all you want is to read your current books on your Mac, these apps are your best bet.
If You Want A Store-Free Alternative: Kitabu
If you’re not using Mavericks, or would rather avoid software tied to a specific online bookstore, Kitabu is worth looking into. This open source reader sports a minimalist interface, with columns, and allows you to customize the fonts.
Reading itself couldn’t be easier: use the arrow keys to turn the page, or scroll sideways if you prefer to use the touchpad.
There is a library feature; you can choose whether books are moved or copied to it in the preferences. This might be annoying for users who would like to simply open an EPUB without adding it to a library, but others will surely see it as a feature.
Notably missing features include bookmarks and notes, but on the plus side you do have full control of the reading font. You can download Kitabu from the Mac App Store, or from SourceForge if you prefer.
If You Borrow From The Library: Adobe Digital Editions
This is not the best reading software on this list. It doesn’t support columns, so you need to either resize the window or adjust to massively wide paragraphs. It doesn’t offer a lot of customization at all – there isn’t even a Preferences screen.
And yet, you might want to install it. Why? For one thing, many public libraries offer books protected by Adobe’s software, meaning you’re going to need Digital Editions if you want to borrow books from them. The software can also transfer such books to your (non-Kindle) ereader, and is required for offline reading of books purchased from Google and a variety of other online bookstores.
So it’s not the best, but you might be stuck with it sometimes. Go ahead and download Adobe Digital Editions for Mac
If You’re Hardcore/Awesome: Calibre
If you collect a lot of ebooks, and want to convert them from one format to another so you can read them on various devices, Calibre is your program. This ebook managment software can do anything, from converting MOBI files to EPUB to transferring files to a tablet or ereader. It can even download blogs or newspapers for offline readingDownload Entire Newspapers or Blogs To Your eBook Reader With CalibreDownload Entire Newspapers or Blogs To Your eBook Reader With CalibreRead More, which is great before a long trip.
There are some down sides. The app isn’t that great for actually reading files, and its interface feels like a relic. But while Calibre might not be the best reading experience for Mac, it’s a must-have tool for power users looking to organize, convert and transfer their colleciton.
Learn more by reading our Calibre manual, or go ahead and download Calibre.
If You Still Want More Choices
Best Ebook Reader For Mac
The above options should meet just about anyone’s needs, but more choices are always good, right? Here are a few.
- Firefox users: you can install the EPUBReader for Firefox and open EPUB files in your browser. It’s perfect if you just want to quickly open a file to check something.
- Clearview ($6.99) [No longer available] has gotten positive reviews for its tabbed reading interface. You might like it.
- Murasaki ($7.99, free older version) is worth a look if you prefer scrolling up and down to “turning pages”, and don’t want a library for your books.
Ebook Reader Free Download
Did I miss your favourite ebook reader for Mac? Fill me, and your fellow reader, in using the comments below.
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- This article fails to mention that iBooks will only sync books you have purchased from Apple. Anything outside of this and your screwed,
- It's syncing DRM-free .EPUB and .PDF files between my MacBook Pro running OS X El Capitan and my iPad 2 running iOS 9. Once a book is added on one device, I go to the other and make sure 'Show iCloud Books' is enabled to get them to show up so I can download them.
- Also, bookmarks and highlights are stored in iCloud and automatically synced with all devices.
- Thank you for the review. I still have a question: what types of e-book readers are the best for textbooks with *figures*. When reading textbooks, you often need to look at a figure to understand the text, but with e-books, they are always on different pages and its difficult to go back-and-forth between reading and picture, reading and picture... 'wait.. what page was I on?' I currently use Kindle, and I'm about done with it.Which e-book readers make pictures and figures easy to see?
- Murasaki for me is one of the best. It has a lot of nice features I've never seen in any other reader.
A bit pricey, perhaps, but worth every penny. IMHO. - An update as well as some personal opinions here: be careful, vigilant and scrupulous what you load into iBooks as they will permanently remain; you cannot remove or delete them once loaded.Also, Nook for Mac has pretty much been abandoned. Besides that it's pretty much worthless and prone to repeatedly crash. And if you've already got Calibre installed on your Mac add 'no reason to even have it in your Applications' folder to Nook for Mac.
- Although your are technically correct that EPUB items will not synch wirelessly with other devices with iBooks, when an EPUB item is added to iBooks, they will be automatically synched into iTunes, where they can be readily synched with other Apple devices.