My email regarding new features for the Thorium Reader, an advanced eReader. Read more about it here: https://www.edrlab.org/software/thorium-reader
Kindle Direct Publishing is pretty steadfast in its refusal to allow video to come anywhere near reflowable text in the ebooks they process. So when I viewed my multimedia novel with the Thorium Reader, I was really happy to see how much it can handle of my project. Videos set to autoplay will display in Thorium with the associated sound files also playing. Scripts creating a snowfall or pixie dust on a page actually work. I've been using Sigil to create my mNovels (?) and all of the features of the epub3 format that I'm using are supported in the Preview display in Sigil (with the exception of audio autoplay). I think Thorium is a first. I don't think I've seen my videos or scripts play in any other eReader I've tried.
The Thorium Reader is focused on displaying text-only books, and it does render text beautifully. All of the quirky parts of my body-text formatting display correctly. There are some simple things, though, that Thorium doesn't do and I'm hoping the following features will be implemented soon.
Text background transparency. The text on a page seems to have an opaque background that is separate from the <body> background. I've positioned a lot of graphical elements behind the text in my book in order to enhance the reading experience, and those elements aren't visible. An important element of my book design is having the reader continue reading as a light-colored video plays behind the text. The effect of reading while a video plays behind the text is quite engaging, and occasionally magical, for the reader, and I would like to retain that effect. I don't use the effect often, less than once per chapter for 20 seconds or so, but it really does enhance the reading experience.
Positioning of elements behind text. With the autoplay videos in my book, the text background obscures the video except for a slice of it to the side of the page, which allows me to see that the video is playing correctly. I can also see that the formatting for the video is ignored. I use a <div> set to overflow:hidden to crop the part of the video that extends beyond the page and that isn't how the video is displayed. I also position still images behind the text, which aren't visible. When I have a full-page image behind the text, a slice of it can be seen at the right edge of the page, and that slice continues over to the left edge of the next page. I know some readers like a two-page spread when reading an ebook, but I would like to have the option to constrain graphical elements to one page.
Bleeds to viewport edges. All of the pages appear to have a margin outside the CSS page margins. The pages should reach all the way to the edges of the glass on the device. Bleed images should bleed off the viewport edge.
Interactive scripts. When a JavaScript script is designed to autoplay, it does. I have simple scripts that control playback with small inline play/pause buttons and a few scripts that create simple puzzles to allow the reader to access a hidden portion of a chapter. Clicking on those graphics has no effect.
Displaying full-page images. My title page and several map pages have full-page images with no text on the page, and those images are not displayed.
Displaying the full cover. The cover is cropped at the bottom. I expect there is an ideal size for cover images and using those dimensions would solve that problem. Also, a blank page appears before the cover.
Drop-cap. The drop-cap formatting is ignored.
Audio stop on page turn. When the page turn goes to a new file, the audio playback stops. When the page turn is within a file, the audio plays to the end. I would prefer each page turn to abort audio playback.
No outline. When a page is turned, a thin-line box outlines an element for a second on the incoming page. It can be a paragraph or an image or an italicized word or some other element. It doesn't seem to be pointing out an error. I think readers find it annoying.
Header formatting. The H2 chapter numbers at the top of the page are smaller than I set them. It's like part of the default header formatting overrode my formatting. I would like to override all the header defaults.
Display control. With a multimedia novel, the designer-author would like the reader to relinquish some control over how the page is displayed. In the same way a movie viewer allows the director to handle the costuming and set design, the designer-author would like the reader to allow him to determine background colors and font sizes and details like that. The multimedia novel is a different, separate form from the traditional novel, and the reader should allow the designer-author to provide him with an enhanced reading experience.
Thanks very much for reading.
