Cool Reader for PocketBook
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Cool Reader is software from the Russian developer Vadim Lopatin. It is based on the coolreader engine project.
It is capable for reading the following e-book formats:
- ePub (non-DRM), DOC, PDB, FB2, TXT, RTF, HTML, CHM, TCR
- some users confirm, that the software is capable of reading also the PCR/MOBI format (thus this is not mentioned on the website)
- it also can read HTMLZ files (zip-compressed HTML) that you can create with e.g. the Calibre eBook management program. But this seams to be experimental, you will see no images, and it is slow for big documents. Formatting of tables, source code and other HTML tags however is excellent.
For the actual feature list and availability for a wide variety of operating systems have a look at the website of CoolReader.
[edit] Cool Reader for PocketBook
Coolreader (PB 912)
Settings
Currently Cool Reader 3 integrates quite well into Pocketbook devices, however the installation is - at time of writing - a little bit complicated.
What will not work like expected is:
- Pocketbook 6xx / 9xx
- Text to speech
- "Graphical" notes taking with the stylus, however there is a tool to take notes
- Screen rotation via quickmenu (9xx)
Most important informations about the CoolReader Software for Pocketbook devices is located in this forum thread at MobileRead - which made this page possible.
On the Russian the-ebook.org forum (google translate) there is another interesting thread going on.
[edit] Download and install
You mainly need 5 things to install Cool Reader on the PocketBook:
- The appropriate CoolReader version
- Skin package
- Proper and translated Quickmenu image
- Keymaps.ini for proper functional hardware keys
- Extensions.cfg - for association of filetypes with CoolReader
[edit] Connect your PocketBook device
Connect your PocketBook device with USB to be able to unzip the files to your device. Everything will be placed in the /system-directory of the readers memory (not on the SD-Card). You might also prepare everything in a separate directory on your PC first, download, unzip and assemble things there and then upload the Coolreader files altogether to your device.
Because of the variety of devices, translations and configurations of your device it is not possible to make a corresponding zip file until now, sorry.
I created and manage a project named Coolreader (mainly a ftp account at that time) on the mobileread developer hub which collects all contributions of the forum thread. Feel free too ask me for getting upload access to the project directly[2] (you have to create a trac account first).
[edit] Get Coolreader
The most recent versions of Coolreader for the Pocketbook go here: translation from Russian site and then select the entry you want.
Unzip it to /system -directory of your device.
The result will look like this:
system ├── bin/ │ └── cr3-pb.app ├── config/ │ └── cr3/ └── share/ └── cr3/ ├── dict/ ├── hyph/ ├── i18n/ ├── keymaps/ ├── manual/ └── skin/
[edit] Install skins for Pocketbook
The skins package you also can download at the Russian site or at our project dir. The most recent one however is more likely to find on the developers website, but I'll do my best.
Unzip the file, it looks like this:
cr3-pb-skin ├── arrow-left-disabled.png ├── arrow-left-enabled.png ├── arrow-right-disabled.png [...]
Now copy the content of cr3-pb-skin to replace all files in
system
└── share/
└── cr3/
└── skin/
[edit]
Please help translate this into more languages:
Currently available translations and versions exist for the following Pocketbook models.
- 9xx Pro series (912, 903) (English, German, Dutch, Italian)
- 6xx Pro series (602) (English, German, Dutch, Italian)
I'll keep an updated version of the cr3_pb_quickmenu_intl.zip file at the coolreader project directory (ftp).
Unzip cr3_pb_quickmenu_intl.zip or open it with an archiver program and replace the appropriate cr3_pb_quickmenu.png in the skins directory:
system
└── share/
└── cr3/
└── skin/
└── cr3_pb_quickmenu.png
[edit] Alter keymaps.ini
All available keymaps.ini-files I uploaded here.
Get the one for your system (there already might not be the correct one for you already). Copy an appropriate keymaps.ini to the following folder (rename the old one to e.g. keymaps.ini.bak, so to keep a functional version!):
system
└── share/
└── cr3/
└── keymaps/
└──keymaps.ini
If you created a new one for a certain model, please contribute and upload it with a description what you changed and why. I then will upload it to the server ASAP.
[edit] Alter Extensions.cfg
Then change to the following directory on your Pocketbook:
system └── config
Alter the extensions.cfg or - if there is none - create a new one.
Create content or alter the one you have like this example:
epub:@EPUB_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_EPUB pdb:@PDB_file:1:cr3-pb.app:ICON_PDB txt:@Text_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_TXT fb2:@FB2_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_FB2 mht:@HTML_file:1:cr3-pb.app:ICON_HTM htm:@HTML_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_HTM html:@HTML_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_HTM htmlz:@HTML_file:1:cr3-pb.app:ICON_HTM chm:@Z_HTML_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_CHM rtf:@RTF_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_RTF tcr:@TCR_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_TXT mobi:@PRC_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_PRC prc:@PRC_file:1:fbreader.app,cr3-pb.app:ICON_PRC
I personally had some problems with the mobi/prc format reading some documents. Characters didn't show up correctly. Some other documents did well. The format is also not officially supported according to the homepage.
[edit] Restart device
Restart your device or kill the explorer application and you should have a new menu entry "Open with -> cr3-pb" in your menu.
Congratulations, you are done!
Don't forget to contribute to the thread mentioned above for new translations and please feel free to edit, correct and add contributions to this side. Thereby please try to keep everything clean and simple, discussions should be startet in the forum thread. Please also don't link to files in the thread, everything should be collected on the server mentioned above.
[edit]
Don't use the image above, it will not be updated. Instead use the newest version for your device and language from the cr3_pb_quickmenu_intl.zip file.
The zip-file contains a Gimp xcf-file alongside with the corresponding cr3_pb_quickmenu.png that replaces the original in the original skin.
File structure of the zip file (other languages will be added):
├── PB Pro 602 │ ├── cr3_pb_quickmenu.xcf - always the English one ! │ ├── de │ │ ├── cr3_pb_quickmenu.png │ │ └── cr3_pb_quickmenu.xcf │ ├── du │ │ ├── cr3_pb_quickmenu.png │ │ └── cr3_pb_quickmenu.xcf │ └── en │ │ └── cr3_pb_quickmenu.png │ └── [...] │ ├── PB Pro 9xx │ ├── cr3_pb_quickmenu.xcf - always the English one ! │ ├── de │ │ └── cr3_pb_quickmenu.png │ ├── du │ │ ├── cr3_pb_quickmenu.png │ │ └── cr3_pb_quickmenu.xcf │ └── en │ │ └── cr3_pb_quickmenu.png │ └── [...] │ └── README.TXT
[edit]
Get cr3_pb_quickmenu_intl.zip and edit the contained xcf-file with Gimp. Then upload the xcf-file to the thread.
Please see section "working with Gimp and textlayers" for a HowTo collection.
If you made a translation for another version of Coolreader or Pocketbook model, or if you see a bug, please add the xcf-file to the thread.
Please use Gimp[3]. If you are a professional designer, and own (!) Photoshop please only export to a ".psd" with RGB-encoding (! not CMYK)[4], so that we can import it in Gimp.
Be aware to leave the name of the layers in English, so it would be easier to fix errors for others[5]. I will (profile at mobileread forum) then correct errors, if necessary, convert it to png and add it to the cr3_pb_quickmenu_intl.zip).
[edit] Working with Gimp and textlayers
There are some Gimp video Howtos (here Gimp on Linux, but is principally be the same for every operating system) for working with the xcf file:
- Working with text layers in gimp - Part 1 (18 minutes)
- Part 2 - export to png (3 minutes)
- Part 3 - moving textlayers (2 minutes)
- Part 4 - aligning layers (10 minutes)
Short instruction:
- open gimp
- for each text layer
- choose text layer from layer docklet
- choose text tool from toolbox
- click on the corresponding text (dotted line)
- translate within the popup box
- alter the size of the text box to fit
- centre the text
- align everything with the "align tool" form toolbox
- save as xcf
- save as png (for Gimp version greater than 2.6, use "export")
- upload to the thread
Tip: "Select->nothing" (choosing the rectangle tool)
[edit] Compile Cool Reader with the SDK
TO DO - feel free to contribute
[edit] References
- ↑ Picture taken from CoolReader homepage: http://coolreader.org/e-index.htm
- ↑ Please only do this, if you are familiar with ftp upload and probably the trac system (at least the trac wikI) and you are willy to take the responsibility to take care of the stuff for a certain amount of time. But don't fear, it's not that hard using a ftp program for uploading files ;) You only need is to authorize correctly using your "trac account name", you "password", the name of the server is "dev.mobileread.com", and the directory "/dist/apos/coolreader" - every ftp program is able to use these parameters (but I had some problems using firefox FireFTP, did'nt work). Also consider, that you tell us, if you are not longer taking care of your contributions to the project any more and be sure to stay in contact with other, that upload to that directory, so things won't mess up. I will have an eye on that ;)
- ↑ We should assure, that everyone can contribute. We should not force people to use cracked software. I will not provide .psd-files in the upload however, because this will keep all those people out, that cannot afford
- ↑ I could convert from CMYK to RGB, but it's no fun and slows things down!
- ↑ Not everyone is able to read German or Chinese. It is a good tradition when working with graphical userinterfac design or programming to do keep the basic translations in English language.
