Kotobee

Kotobee is the brand name for a suite of eBook tools. Some are free and some you have to buy. They are focused on ePub 3 functionality. Information on this page taken directly from their web site with small modifications.

Platforms

They support Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone, Desktop, Chromebook, HTML5, LMS, MacOS X on selected apps. Their web site is available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

Custom branding is supported.

Reader

Kotobee Reader is your tool of choice when it comes to reading EPUB (standard-compliant) ebooks with dynamic layout. Kotobee Reader is based upon state-of-the-art HTML5 technology, and designed with user-experience at top priority. Your book content is reflowable and may extend as you like. This allows your users to set their own font sizing, having the content neatly wrap to fit the screen, and easily scrollable. Enough zooming in and out! It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android. The application is free.

Kotobee authors can embed their eBook in Kotobee reader for a one app solution.

Features

• Note-taking: Add notes to words and paragraphs, and access them later
• Highlighting: Mark important sentences with color highlights
• Bookmarking: Bookmark multiple pages
• Aggregate annotations: Aggregate your notes, highlights, and bookmarks, into a PDF
• Search: Search inside the chapter or the entire book
• Multiple languages: Use one of more than 16 different languages
• Copy to clipboard: Copy any text to your clipboard, to use in external programs
• Text-to-speech: Let the reader speak out any text you choose
• Google lookup: Search definitions and explanations directly with a click
• EPUB 2 and ePub 3 supported as well as their internal KPUB2 and HTML5
• adapts to different screen sizes and orientations.
• Read interactive ebooks offline
• Access Kotobee's shared library
• Utilize different reading tools
• supports Kotobee Cloud

iPad Review

This product works ok if you only use one book at a time but working with multiple books is problematic. This review was performed on an iPad Air 2. There is no help on this app. I will mention some techniques as needed below.

1. It does support ePub 2 style TOC in the current version as well as ePub 3.
2. If you actually exit the book back to the online library it will not keep track of where you were.
3. There is a recently read section that remembers books being read with the Open ePub feature but not the Library browser.
4. The recently read section shows the cover of the book if present.
5. If you kill the reader program it will forget the book completely.
6. You can set a bookmark to get back to the place you were but the bookmark and notes commands are not book specific so if you open another book the you will see the bookmark of the first book. There is no way to distinguish one bookmark from another. Use the Notes icon at the bottom to reach the notes, bookmark, highlight view.
7. The reader scrolls through the pages like a web browser.
8. If it detects multiple entries from the TOC or there are multiple files files in the eBook you can move from side to side to change chapters or files.
9. Using a two finger zoom will actually bring up the font size command and change the font size for the base font. Other font sizes will scale automatically. Hit the back button at the upper left to return to reading the book. There is also a settings button that can be used to set the font size.
10. There are two ways to select a book. Open ePub and use the shared library. They work differently.
11. Open ePub requires another app to contain the file. This is either a cloud server or the Readdle app called Documents. Only the Documents app can be used as a source if you are offline.
12. use the shared library to find files directly downloadable from Kotobee. These can be downloaded for use offline but are subject to the same limitations as above for multiple files.
13. If you wish to zoom an image you will need to use the media icon on the bottom and find the image you want to look at. It will open in a smaller window that allows viewing and zooming. It will not automatically look at the one on the page you are reading.
14. they also have an app called reader manual which is a sample of a fixed layout ePub 3 file embedded in the reader. It tries to be a self learning book. If you move the frogs to the center the text will pop up on top and I could not get rid of the text even when I went to the next page. I had to kill the app to fix this. The icon commands on that embedded app are different from the ones on this app so it will not help you learn this app. The page can be zoomed but it is hard to get it back to the right size to allow a page change. Use the skim icon to force the zoom to the correct size.

Windows Review

This section outlines difference in the Windows vs. the iPad operation. The reader has the same look and feel on the PC as it does on the iPad. I suspect it looks similar on the Windows phone, Mac and Android versions. This review of the Windows version describes what is different from the iPad version. Note that the Windows app performs better than the Apple version.

1. The windows version of this app does support ePub 2 TOC.
2. The windows version does keep track of where you were in recent read section. Recently read only applies to the Open ePub option but not to the shared library area.
3. The recently read section supports the cover image if present but leaves a blank area if there is no cover. The book title is listed under the image.
4. Recently read section survives ending the app.
5. nothing from the shared library section is remembered once you leave the book except book marks and notes etc.
6. the open ePub option uses the standard windows open dialog so it can be used to open any ePub from your file system or from the cloud (Dropbox or iCloud, or OneDrive).
7. entries into the notes, bookmark, etc. document include a TOC reference for location purposes but not the book name.

Author

Kotobee Author is an ebook creator and ePub 3 editor, allowing you to add interactive content that can be opened not only through Kotobee Reader, but any compliant EPUB 3 reader. It will open an ePub 2 document and convert it to ePub 3. It will also convert your PDF or DOCX document to ePub 3, customize the look and feel of your eBook apps, and emulate the result on different platforms and devices. It can export your eBook to one of many formats, to have it running on external eBook readers, inside a web browser, as a desktop application, or natively on mobile devices. You may as well integrate the interactive eBook with your current LMS system. Kotobee Author lies at the core of the Kotobee suite, gluing many of the other components together. The authoring tools are offered in a variety of purchase variations and are available for Windows32, Windows64, and Mac OS X.

The authoring tool supports, ePub compliant formats and has specialized support for iBooks and Kobo, nook, Amazon Kindle, PDF and DOCX (Word). More than 16 different languages are supported. Fixed layout ePub as well as standard reflowable content are features of this product. Other features include:

• Apps for Android, iOS, Windows phone, Windows, Mac OS X, and Chromebook can be created if desired.
• KPUB2 is an internal format and is supported for specific LMS features using apps and the Kotobee Reader.
• While the Authoring software is a full WYSIWYG editor the file can be exported to Word (DOCX) for additional capabilities (any interactive elements will be lost).
• The editor can also display and allow editing raw HTML5 formatting.
• The eBook can be exported to PDF format (any interactive elements will be lost).
• Previewing of output on various reading platforms including the ability to rotate the emulated device is supported.
• Kotobee offers DRM and Encryption support using KPUB. (Only supported as an app or for the Kotobee Reader.)

Publisher

Kotobee Publisher is an older desktop authoring software that lets you create and design visual interactive eBooks, which run on smart devices, web, and desktop. It supports multi-platform interactive children storybooks and magazines. Video and audio as well as interactive pages are supported as well as 3D objects. This is supported for its ease of use but does not have the advanced features of the Author product. It is not being updated any longer.

Cloud

Make your books and libraries instantly accessible online. Take control over your users and provide them with great cloud services. Kotobee Cloud offers different services, essential to speed up your development workflow, while maintaining the business side of your eBook or library. Manage your user subscriptions and guarantee protection of your content. As a rule of thumb, Kotobee Cloud requires an Internet connection to work.

Additional information

• They also have a helpful blog. https://www.kotobee.com/blog/
• The software is written by http://www.vijua.com/ Vijua