Three Open Source E-book Readers Worth a Look

by Lisa Hoover - Jul. 03, 2009Comments (7)

OSbooksmIf you're heading to the beach this summer, you might want to take along something good to read. Dead tree books are so last century and e-book readers are all the rage. While Kindles are cool, they're not the only game in town for reading the latest best seller. Try these open source options for mobile devices and netbooks instead.

FBReader - A free reader for Windows, Linux, and Linux-based mobile devices. It supports several formats, including plucker, ePub, and the non-DRM version of Mobipocket. It displays embedded images, supports hyperlinks and footnotes, remembers the last-read positions for multiple books, and more.

 

OSfbreader

 

Calibre - The grandaddy of open source ebook readers, this cross-platform reader includes format conversion and library management tools, and an integrated ebook viewer. It also converts news feeds into ebooks and syncs easily with e-reader devices, including the iPhone.

 OScalibreSM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flipbook - This is a beta version of a new ebook reader released by The Internet Archive that reads scanned books stored on Archive.org. It supports books written in right-to-left-languages and can even be embedded in blog posts or digital asset repository pages.

 OSia

 


Browse Blog

Craig Harris uses OStatic to support Open Source, ask and answer questions and stay informed. What about you?



7 Comments
 

thanks for bringing this to our attention. I didn't realize this technology existed. Where can I go to download?


0 Votes

What we do need are some good, CHEAP hardware e-book readers to go with the FOSS software! Kindle 2.0 is $359! I can buy a netbook for less than that!


0 Votes

I like the flipbook reader, it just look like I'm really read a book infront of physical book but not computer.


0 Votes

does anyone know of any similar FOSS apps that can have been customized for mobile devices like the blackberry or iphone?


0 Votes

Thank you for the article. One problem is that I can't find any open source readers that will read Microsoft's LIT format (even non-protected titles), which makes all of these readers unusable to me.


0 Votes

Check out my free, open source, large high contrast font, speaking reader for OS X:


https://sites.google.com/site/mikeybeesoftware/


0 Votes

These are great. However, I am looking for more open-source web-based (in-browser) versions that can read from my own database of e-book, vs. the openlibrary for example.


Any one know of a good option?


0 Votes
Share Your Comments

If you are a member, to have your comment attributed to you. If you are not yet a member, Join OStatic and help the Open Source community by sharing your thoughts, answering user questions and providing reviews and alternatives for projects.