Read ePub books in the Firefox Web Browser
Have you ever wanted to just click on an .epub file and immediately start reading with none of that downloading or “open with… ” nonsense, just quick and easy ePub reading right there in your web browser? Well, perhaps there is now an option for those who do.
EPUBReader is one of the more recent software ePub readers, released just two months ago by Michael Volz, and with the addition of some recent upgrades has grown into a very stable, nice looking ePub reader. The reader is actually an Add-on for the very popular Firefox web browser – for those still using Internet Exploer (IE) this is yet another good reason to change over to Firefox.
Once installed all you need to do is go to a website with some ePub files (why not try Some Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens) then click on the file download button. The book will open right in the reader (browser) for immediate enjoyment.
The software is still in heavy development so expect lots of improvements and often.
Reading from a computer monitor is not for everyone but for those who don’t mind, this could be a nice alternate to those bulky alternatives.
For more information visit the official website (www.epubread.com) or to install now go to the EPUBReader Add-on page at Mozilla.
Please note: this reader is only for non-DRM ePub books.
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December 20th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
>Reading from a computer monitor is not for everyone
>but for those who don’t mind, this could be a nice
>alternate to those bulky alternatives.
Because this ePub reader is running as an Add-on to Firefox, the “computer monitor” does not just mean desktops. It also means laptops and the newer netbooks with screens down to 10 inches. In other words, wherever Firefox runs at this time: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
They’re also working on a mobile version of FF codenamed Fennec that will be a serious threat to app stores and should make it easier for developers, who won’t have to write apps for different proprietary devices. Just target the browser.
While other ePub readers don’t yet support MathML in ePub, including Adobe Digital Editions, and some are even struggling with basic CSS support, the EPUBReader takes advantage of the strengths of Firefox. Why re-invent the wheel?
MathML support in ePub? Just add the STIX fonts to Firefox. CSS support? Well, that’s a given in Firefox.
If you have simple, text-only ePubs, most readers do a decent job in rendering. But if you do anything more complex, you find out all the limitations of the readers, especially the lack of good CSS support and font scaling. Even ADE offers only limited font scaling, and vertical scrolling is clunky at times.
The EPUBReader just works.