Application: FBReader
Category: Office
License: GNU GPL
Language: Multilingual
Description: FBReader Portable is the popular FBReader packaged with a PortableApps.com Launcher & has all the same great features including support for ePub & fb2 formats, direct reading from archives, automatic library building, embedded images support, position indicator, text search & full-screen mode.
Download FBReader Portable 0.12.10 Dev Test 4 [4MB download / 13MB installed]
(MD5: 18c759a5a68dd9a463efef345cb82d77)
Release Notes:
0.12.10 Dev Test 4 (2013-01-18):
- Upgraded to PAL 2.2 & current spec.
- Support for custom fonts & path portability removed. See notes.
0.12.10 Dev Test 3 (2011-01-30):
- Fixed first run messagebox.
- Removed a lot of redundant code in launcher.
- Fixed search/replace error in CheckRunning
- EDIT 2011-02-11: File is back on SourceForge.
0.12.10 Dev Test 2 (2010-12-09):
- Launcher now supports font customization.
- Location of .FBReader folder now correctly set.
- Default folders set on first-run.
- Improved drive switching.
- Thanks Mark.
0.12.10 Dev Test 1 (2010-04-28):
- FBReader updated to 0.12.10.
- Updated installer language support.
- Disabled 'Open External Links in Default Browser' in 'Options/Web' (clean install only).
- Added SecondaryLaunch/cleanup check.
- Removed app directory, program executable & settings directory INI options.
0.12.2 Dev Test 1 (2010-02-02):
- FBReader updated to 0.12.2.
0.10.7 Dev Test 3 (2009-09-01):
- Added missing languages to installer.
- Fixed "Publisher" in "appinfo.ini".
- Fixed "CreateDirectory $SETTINGSDIRECTORY".
0.10.7 Dev Test 2 (2009-08-27):
- Minor tweak to language switching code.
0.10.7 Dev Test 1 (2009-08-22): Initial release
Notes:
As the path to the books is contained in an SQL database I've only been able to update the drive letter by the normal method & not the full path (which results in a corrupt database). I know Firefox Portable does this but I haven't been able to adapt it yet so FBReader Portable is "drive", but not "path", portable & DirectoryMoveOK is set to "warn". Any help would be appreciated :-)
It seems that as soon as FBReader encounters a font not present it resets all font customizations. I haven't found a solution so Options/CSS/Always Use My Own Fonts is deselected on every run.
Still a nice lightweight alternative to calibre though :-)
No UPX.
Tested with:
XP Home SP3 (Admin)
See release notes for changes.
portable version looks good, but FBReader crashes here (Win XP SP3) after a few minutes:
Oh, you could include more languages in the installer, cause FBReader has more. And I think the publisher-line in appinfo.ini is wrong. It should be something like "The FBReader Team and PortableApps.com". You're member of PortableApps.com
OK, I fixed the installer languages and the appinfo but I can't make it crash. Had it running for the last hour or so without a problem. Anything in particular I can do to try and reproduce it?
it crashes with to above mentioned error, but I think that isn't a portable bug.
I have a portable bug for you, though. Line 156-161 should be:
If you don't create the settingsdirectory and it doesn't exist, the files won't be copied. You could test that by deleting the Data subfolder. After a restart FBReader hasn't the default settings.
Fixed that one too. Thanks
:-)
)Under "Preferences", how can I set up a relative book path to the epub files stored on my USB drive?
It doesn't have to be relative. Just set it as normal and the launcher will update the drive letter if it changes. As long as your books are on the same drive as the program, there shouldn't be a problem.
Can someone make a new launcher, please.
Tanks in advance,
José Pinto
Portable update is ready to go but there seems to be a problem with the app in that the only way to close it is to kill it in Task Manager. Not good. Can anyone else confirm?
Can you please check if the problems remain?
Yes, it works properly now Thanks for the nudge.
See release notes for changes.
I am not able to see any images displayed in the reader.
Either in my own books created with Sigil, or project guttenburg or Google books.
Is there a display image setting hidden somewhere in the settings?
I have also found the page moving arrows, usually either are grey out or only let me access the first few pages?
Other wise nice and clear, easy to read on my laptop
regards
norm (aka imageo)
I'm not having a problem with images, I just quickly downloaded a book from Gutenberg and they're showing fine. I can't see any settings for images in particular.
The navigation buttons seem to work more like a browser's back/forward rather than moving through the pages which, I agree, is a bit strange!
I notice FBReader gets updated quite regularly. I'll see if I can get a new version of this up in the next couple of days and maybe you can give it a go.
EDIT: Just updated to 0.12.10 here and had a look at your page turning issue.
As a 'page' is defined by your own styles and margin settings, set these up and size the window to your liking then count how many lines are displayed. Go into 'Options/Scrolling' and set 'Lines to Scroll per Line Scrolling' to this number. Now your keyboard up & down arrows will turn the pages. It works very nicely
Hope that helps. I'll upload the portable version later today. I don't spend much time with ebooks to be honest but I much prefer this to calibre, which seems so 'heavy' in comparison.
EDIT2: To turn pages with the mouse, just click on the top half to move back and the bottom half to move forward. This works regardless of the scroll settings. LOL, I should really use these things more!
See release notes for changes.
I done some testing on FBReader Portable, and although all seems pretty ok, I came across a couple of points:
anyway I'll add FBReader Portable to the 'Development Releases Status' list and keep an eye on it, thanx
Regards
Formerly Gringoloco
Windows XP Pro sp3 x32
I couldn't leave this app to rest, and finally found the .FBReader folder on my system. It is because on my OS I do not have the 'My Documents' folder on the Windows drive (C:) as a sub folder of %USERPROFILE% (or $PROFILE), but I've got it as a folder on my D: drive. Somehow FBreader doesn't use the value of %USERPROFILE% to determine where the .FBReader folder should be, but uses the parent of the 'My Documents' folder. I've tested this (just to make sure) by relocating my documents folder to a sub-folder down and yes, FBreader created the .FBreader folder in the parent folder.
By finding this folder and getting more familiar with FBReader Portable, I realize there is some stuff not right with the drive-letter updating. In FBReaderPortable.reg I came around the following registry key(please do not ask me how I got it created, for now I can not reproduce it):
Where $092 is the value for '\'
So line 190 in FBReader(P)ortable.nsi:
could better be:
or
Aswell .FBreader\books.db should be updated to keep the MRU's working well after switching computer. Personally I do not have experience with updating SQLite format 3 drive-letters, maybe it's possible with the NewTextReplace plug-in, but I also know that SongBirdPortable has a good way of dealing with the issue.
Besides the issues, I personally think this app has potential to make it official, and it would be a good addition to the official portable apps list
edit: Final thing , You forgot a 'Goto End' just before 'LaunchAndExit:', so atm in a registry back-up case the launcher restarts FBReader.exe on exit.
Formerly Gringoloco
Windows XP Pro sp3 x32
Thanks for giving that such a good work out. I think (hope) I've fixed all the issues. The code for the fonts is fairly crude I admit but it seems to work fine (and I couldn't think of another way to do it).
Re: the crashing. Yes, it's been reported before and I've experienced it too. I'm guessing that it's to do with the drive not being updated in the database file because, since I've corrected that (which newtextreplace seems to handle fine, good job otherwise I'm stuck!), the app has been solid. I also tried to update the path but that seems to corrupt the file & FBReader instantly crashes.
Thanks again for all the help.
See release notes for changes.
Just been trying out FBReader Portable 0.12.10 DT 2 on WinXP+SP3.
How comes I start it, I apparently get one window all the time, but when closing there suddenly is another window that also needs to be closed? Anyone else have this?
EDIT: Just did some more testing: Apparently this happens only if you are in the library view and have read a book before. Just opening FBReader (which will show the last book read) and closing it again seems to always work.
Looking forward to testing this further, just installed for the very first time.
At first run, I got a box up -
"FBReader Portable | PortableApps.com"
"?"
"The path to FBReader Portable has changed since it was last run.
Last Directory: PATH
Current Directory: PortableApps\FBReaderPortable
Some features may not work. Would you like to continue?"
This may be per design, just wanted to mention it.
This app seems to run excellent. System: Win7 x64 ult., admin account but neiter PA.c nor FBRp run as admin.
With a few more testruns and the tests normally done on portable apps here, I'd say it seems pretty ready for release, and IMHO a bookreader has been missing from the apps list here for a long time. Great work.
Looks like I forgot to test from a clean install. That shouldn't happen on a first run so thanks for catching that, I'll fix it soon (today).
Could you please considewr COOl Reader as an alternative to FbReader.
The experimental version reads epub and has more eye candy than Fbreader, especially with the Droid Fonts.
Homepage:
http://coolreader.org/e-index.htm
Last experimental version, based on Qt 4.6:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/crengine/
Supported formats: FB2, TXT, RTF, TCR, HTML, EPUB, CHM.
Thanks for the good work on Fbreader.
The last test version mantains the library when changing drives on my computers at work and at home.
José Pinto
See release notes for changes.
See release notes for changes.