02-02-2021, 10:34 PM
Hi Jim, I just installed Freda a few days ago, unaware that the PDF functionality was new or limited for the app. My current bookshelf is 80% PDFs and just so that you know - I find the current functionality with rendering the page as an image completely fine, and as many of my books has complex layout and many images and graphics, I am sure that it is also the most precise rendering with less effort.
A few things would be great to make the PDF functionality feel less as an add-on (I am on Windows UWP):
(1) Pagination, progress and display and use of page numbers seems to be working on/off - I am aware that it has to be implemented differently for this approach than your "real" ebooks
(2) Extract page 1 (at least after it has already been read and rendered first time) and use as cover on the bookshelf rather than the generic book icon
(3) make the page rendering the actual image view by default, so pinch to zoom etc would work right away. Currently I have to long-press to open the page (which is already an image) in the image viewer, then maximize the image view, and then zoom and move the page around as I read. Maybe the PDF could simply use a maximized image view as the default rendering (but then the swipe to turn pages would need some attention obviously)
(4) After Windows background or sleep, the app often cannot be found in the task view. Restarting will sometimes bring it to the page where I left, but will often throw me back to page one, from where navigation is a bit bothersome as pagination will not be in place and I will have to use the contents/"chapters" list to try and locate where I was.
Feel free to PM me if you need explanation to some of my suggestions. Out of curiosity: Is Freda built with C# and Xamarin?
But thank you - your app is working absolutely fine for me, and used more than my Kindle app now, even for PDFs - maybe because most of mine are more coffee-table layout and less formal text pages.
Thank you - Jesper
A few things would be great to make the PDF functionality feel less as an add-on (I am on Windows UWP):
(1) Pagination, progress and display and use of page numbers seems to be working on/off - I am aware that it has to be implemented differently for this approach than your "real" ebooks
(2) Extract page 1 (at least after it has already been read and rendered first time) and use as cover on the bookshelf rather than the generic book icon
(3) make the page rendering the actual image view by default, so pinch to zoom etc would work right away. Currently I have to long-press to open the page (which is already an image) in the image viewer, then maximize the image view, and then zoom and move the page around as I read. Maybe the PDF could simply use a maximized image view as the default rendering (but then the swipe to turn pages would need some attention obviously)
(4) After Windows background or sleep, the app often cannot be found in the task view. Restarting will sometimes bring it to the page where I left, but will often throw me back to page one, from where navigation is a bit bothersome as pagination will not be in place and I will have to use the contents/"chapters" list to try and locate where I was.
Feel free to PM me if you need explanation to some of my suggestions. Out of curiosity: Is Freda built with C# and Xamarin?
But thank you - your app is working absolutely fine for me, and used more than my Kindle app now, even for PDFs - maybe because most of mine are more coffee-table layout and less formal text pages.
Thank you - Jesper