Web Browser

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A Web Browser provides access to the Internet. This page is devoted to the use of a Web Browser to read eBooks. It automatically provides a GUI interface for the user. See BookBrowser for a tool that will let your browser look at local eBooks.

Many browser can be made more powerful with specialized extensions that are added to the browser itself. These can help with reading eBooks or creating eBooks from a web site.

Contents

[edit] Browser eBook features

A browser tends to treat each page individually and scrolls through the page. As an eBook reader it lacks some features such as bookmarking your location and the ability to read books in eBook formats other than direct HTML. There are some browsers addons to fix these problems and others. Browsers can also read eBook files coded in wiki formats because the wiki server converts pages on the fly. Many of these would now be classed as Progressive Web Apps.

[edit] Character set

Browsers also need to be told which character set the file is using. This is normally done in the header section with a line like:

  • <meta content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/>
  • <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
  • <meta content="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>

To avoid confusing the browser only one such line should appear. Some browsers have settings that can override this entry.

[edit] EBook Devices

Dedicated eBook Devices typically do not have a full browser capability however some do provide browsers. These usually have E Ink screens.

[edit] Mobile Devices

Smartphones generally require a browser for data plans. They will typically include one but it may be a stripped down version. Here are a list of replacements.

Another popular mobile device is the Web Tablet. It too will have a built-in browser but will usually use an eBook app for reading eBooks.

[edit] For more information

Downloads for all sorts of Web browsers - Includes reviews.

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