Show HN: Lota – An online ePub reader with VS Code style | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Lota – An online ePub reader with VS Code style

lotareader.com

88 pointspacexy34 comments

Previously when I wanted to learn languages by reading the original, I started looking for an EPUB reader.

I wanted it to be

1. browser-based, so I could use my browser extensions

2. cross-platform, so I could read on different devices

3. able to read multiple books at the same time, so I don't have to open multiple windows

Unfortunately, I didn't find it.

As a developer, I really like the flexible layout and power of VS Code, so I tried to combine its design concept with EPUB reader, and Lota was born.

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That looks quite a bit like the ePub (and PDF and ...) reader [1] I made for Nextcloud, many years ago. I have not maintained it for a few years due to a lack of time and interest (I made it so my daughter could read on the school-issued iPad on which she was not allowed to install apps, it lacked a good reader) so it doesn't work on current versions but it could be made to run with relative ease. It uses the Futurepress epub.js library to render ePub documents, it would not surprise me to see this product using that as well.

As to the question of needing an internet connection for reading a book the answer is that epub.js - or rather the browser engine in which it is executed - can lead external files so it can be used without an internet connection. I suspect this product can not be used in that was since it has 'cloud storage' as a 'premium' feature. Running locally would undermine the value of this 'premium' feature.

[1] https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/files_reader

[2] https://github.com/futurepress/epub.js

Your epub reader was one of the reasons I originally installed NextCloud. It would make me very happy if it were available again. For a while I was hand-patching the manifest to lie to NextCloud, but that stopped working.

I'll have a look at reviving the project now that Nextcloud seems to be stabilising a bit. While the official Mozilla PDF reader has gained the capacity for 2-page viewing like Reader had (I sent them a patch, maybe it helped?) there is no equivalent of the "near-native" look Reader has.

I gave Reader a good kick, shook out the debris from the tree and made it look a bit more like a "modern" (ha!) Nextcloud app and with that it should work again on current Nextcloud. Find it here:

https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/files_reader

...or here:

https://github.com/Yetangitu/files_reader

...or install it directly in NC. For those who give it a try let me know - through Github - if it work as intended.

I developed https://qwyre.com as a PWA offline app-based epub reader. You're welcome to give it a go. It even imports links to epubs direct and stores them in your browser. There is no central online storage, no tracking, and here's the privacy statement https://qwyre.com/privacy-rights

Search doesn't seem to search inside the work I'm reading. Am I missing something?

I haven't implemented search inside the work. Only for searching the library (it's ultimately meant to be a self-publishing app, but that's a work in progress). It uses https://github.com/futurepress/epub.js/ Eventually, I'll get all its API working, but there's not much of a how-to guide, so it's slow.

The background image on the page (https://qwyre.com/join-the-qwyre.png) is a tad large - 1MB in size.

It might be a good idea to compress it a bit. Check out https://squoosh.app/ as its easy to use.

I was just thinking this morning that I wish more of these ebook providers would finally add Text to Speech to books for a small monthly subscription so books that dont have any audio book variant can be listened to. I wonder if alternative eBook reader apps will fit that hole I have someday. I would love to just listen to books while I do things like mow the lawn and other tasks where I can listen to something but cannot read something. I would put up with some robotic voice if it was close to decent enough.

I use the accessibility features to do text to speech on iOS with the Kindle app and it works quite well.

Copyright is why. Printed rights, electronic, and audio rights are all sold separately. Amazon was sued when the kindle came out for just that reasin

Faster than Cool Reader but storing my books in the cloud? I'm sure it's what normal people do. I'll keep synching with Syncthing.

I produce online books in various versions. The hardest part is making a functional web-version. I've always wanted to just use our ePub version with a browser-based reader like this.

1. Is it possible to craft a link that will open your app and load (and open) a particular ePub file we are hosting? It seems like this would be a good way for you to get users, if ePub providers were promoting your app.

2. The mobile experience seemed pretty bad at first. No ability do anything except scroll through the pages once I opened a book. Couldn't access any sort of menus or navigation or TOC or search. I saw that by rotating my device, I could get some of those things, but then the reading area got cut off, and I couldn't scroll the reading area vertically. (I could still turn pages, though.)

3. Search doesn't work yet?

I like it. :)

1. This sounds great and the function is not difficult to achieve, I will add it to the plan.

2. Can you tell me what browser you used? It is only adapted for Chrome and Edge now.

3. Some books do not support search now, it will be fixed later.

1. Great! 2. Using the latest iOS (and thus, Safari). 3. I was just using your suggested demo book. You might want to replace it with one that works. It's interesting to me that the functionality would depend in some part on the book. Why is that? Are they not all the same sort of ePub?

Yes, because EPUB has different versions, every EPUB file may differ in structure.

Looks and feels great.

My instinct was to scroll my trackpad to go prev/next page, but scrolling seems to iterate pages as fast as the app can possibly load them.

Speaking of language learning, I was hoping to use macOS built-in dictionary when highlighting a word but I see that you've offered your own popover. I don't know if there's a solution that offers both built-in OS stuff and custom functions when you highlight content.

Just trying to think of feedback. The UX is really polished and fast. And I generally like the minimal VS Code style.

Do you mean that the macOS built-in dictionary will conflict with the popover?

Nevermind, I'm so used to reading in another language on my phone that, when I went to look up a word in your app on my laptop, I forgot I need to right-click, not just highlight the word...

It works fine.

I usually don't comment for this kind of thing, but I'm not so sure about the name... with a lowercase "L", it's easily confused with "iota/Iota" in many fonts.

Even if it's clear that it's an "L" and is "Lota," that just makes me think of a portable bidet and not ebooks. Whichever way you end up reading it, it seems kind of unfortunate and difficult to search for.

Looks really nice. Kudos. I've been looking for something like this.

Question:

1) Is it OSS?

2) Do you have a privacy statement?

I ask because - and I understand you're not Amazon, etc. - I don't like the idea of my reading habits being tracked. I would presume, you're not interested in that either. But seeing it in writing, and knowing the code is auditable isn't a bad thing either.

Again, well played.

I found a GitHub repo but no code in it.

https://github.com/pacexy/lota/

Yes, this empty repo is for feedback and discussion.

1. Sorry, it's not open source now.

2. Yes, we have a privacy policy, you can find it on the website footer.

Is there FOSS that provides the VSCode style out of the box ? I’ve noticed this UI skeleton being increasingly common

VSCode is open source. Its underlying editor is too, it's called Monaco: https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/

Pretty sure OP just made it look and feel the same.

Cloning an open source project just to gut it and use its look and UX seems like 100x more work than just copying it.

VSCode is based on a lot of open source code but many of the features are proprietary, such as remote file access and c# debugging. Also nothing other than the official, proprietary builds can use the add-on marketplace.

Regarding the add-on marketplace, the community has created their own marketplace for use in open-source builds. It's surprisingly complete and it's used by default in VSCodium. https://open-vsx.org/

I'm going a bit off track here but I have a question. Is there a package that you can adapt to your own needs and you endup with a vscode based project? Something like codesandbox has for example?

https://projects.codesandbox.io/

This is cool. Can you take notes simultaneously too?

Of course, but annotation is currently under development.

I don't want to need an internet connection for reading a book. Is there an option to run this locally?

Try installing the app, it should be able to run offline.

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9658361?hl=en&co=GE...

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