An eclectic selection of technology with some cookery
Having established my requirements, what Software and Hardware is out there for reading books & news? In this post I’m looking at apps to go on Smart Phones & Tablets Along with dedicated e-ink hardware.
For the purposes of this post I’m taking iOS to cover iPadOS as well.
This App allows you to buy books, The only negative point is no font colour setting I can find. I’d suggest this is possibly the best App I tested. Tested on Windows & iOS.
An app to buy print books and Audio Books. No Open Dyslexic but has San Francisco which is just about passable. No line spacing control but it’s not bad by default and the Black back ground works quite nicely. After a lot of searching I did find a justification setting; (MacOS: Books -> Preferences…, iOS: Settings App -> Books in iOS), the justification can be set to left or fully. Tested on iOS and MacOS
An App to buy print books, Verdana Font at best, no double line spacing and left justified by default. Only tested in iOS
Library book borrowing software, I failed to check if you can change the font colour otherwise covers everything. Only tested on iOS
Another Library book borrowing app. No Line spacing adjustment, No justification settings and the menus seem to be broken if your device is in iOS Dark mode. Only tested on iOS
The list of articles is Dark if you have Dark mode turned on. If you then read an article is goes to what ever the article is. I can’t find any settings for font or text formatting although the default font tends not to be too horrendous.
I’ve not extensively searched the themes but I can’t find a setting to make the text grey on black instead of white on black, It still has a very good readability. The premium subscription does a reasonable job of parsing pages and offers three different parsers if you’re having a problem with one. The MacOS app seems a bit pricey so I’ve not tested it. Annoyingly I’ve not found an ability to read an article that does not come from an RSS / Atom feed so I could use it as an alternative to Instapaper.
More for reading articles than news as such but could be used in combination with feed Apps. Uses Dislexie Font which does not seem to work for me when compared to Open Dyslexic. Otherwise has all the settings even Gray on black text.
The basic Kindle is available in white but at only 167DPI which I don’t think would work for me especially given the nature of E-Ink screens being irregular shapes. I’m sure the paperwhite is more than capable at 300DPI but not available in white sadly. I’m assuming the settings in the Kindle are like the App which the listing photos suggests but I could not find conformation.
The other draw back with Kindles is not having played with one in recent years I don’t know if they can do any form of news or offline article reading. I believe Library books are possible if you live in an OverDrive library area. I’ve seen reports this is just the USA and other suggest the UK is included.
I can find the Libra H20 in white for sale which has 300PPI so sounds good hardware wise. Although their app lacked, their website claims the devices do offer Open Dyslexic, Double line spacing, Justification settings and White on Black. They are also able to support library books from OverDrive (USA & UK) and I believe RB digital via Adobe Digital Editions. Again no idea regards news or offline articles.
I started this research in order to see if I wanted to buy an e-reader, I’m still not sure as I’d like to see one up close first. I have a feeling I will get on better with sticking to LCD type screens of a high PPI. This then defines who I start buying my books from. If I stay with LCD screens then Kindle, if I buy an e-Reader then Kobo. Given I have no idea if any e-Reader can do news or off line articles I suspect I’ll stick to LCD. In which case I’d recommend the following apps:
Keywords: APPLICATION SOFTWARE, DYSLEXIATAGS: DYSLEXIA, IRLEN