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The following tables compare general and technical features for a number of iOS e-book reader software. Each section corresponds to a major area of functionality in an e-book reader software. The comparisons are based on the latest released version.[when?]

Navigation features

Product Developer Pagination Rotation Lock Auto-scroll Progress indicator Backward/forward Table of Contents Bookmarks Resume Cloud synchronisation Go To Full text search
Blio[1] K-NFB Reading Technology, Inc. Yes No No In-book only Yes Yes Unlimited Yes No Yes Yes
Bluefire Reader[2] Bluefire Productions Yes Yes No In-book only Yes Yes Unlimited Yes Yes Yes Yes
Apple Books[3] Apple Yes No Manual In-book only Yes Yes Unlimited Yes Yes Yes Yes
Kindle[4] AMZN Mobile LLC Yes Yes No In library and in-book Yes Yes Unlimited Yes Yes Yes Yes
Kobo Reading App[5] Kobo Inc. Yes Yes No In-book only Yes Yes Last place marker only Yes Yes Yes No
Stanza[6] Lexcycle Configurable Yes No In library and in-book Configurable Yes Unlimited Yes No Yes Yes
Product Developer Pagination Rotation Lock Auto-scroll Progress indicator Backward/forward Table of Contents Bookmarks Resume Cloud synchronisation Go To Full text search


Display features

Product Multi-column mode Styles (bold/italic/etc.) Page Turn Effects Themes Day/Night mode Enable/Disable sleep mode Brightness Control Indent paragraph Enable/Disable CSS Enable/Disable hyphenation Customize margins Customize text alignment Customize font Customize spacing: line/paragraph
Blio Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No Justification only Yes No
Bluefire Reader No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Vertical swipe No Yes No Pre-set choices only Justification only Yes Line only
Apple Books Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes No
Kindle Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No Pre-set choices only Yes Yes Line; pre-set choices only
Kobo Reading App No Yes Yes No Yes No Vertical swipe No Yes No No Yes Yes No
Stanza No Yes Configurable Yes Yes Yes Vertical swipe Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Product Multi-column mode Styles (bold/italic/etc.) Page Turn Effects Themes Day/Night mode Enable/Disable sleep mode Brightness Control Indent paragraph Enable/Disable CSS Enable/Disable hyphenation Customize margins Customize text alignment Customize font Customize spacing: line/paragraph

Edit/tool features

Product Highlight Annotate Edit meta-data Online dictionary Offline dictionary Lookup Wikipedia Translate Share TTS support (read aloud) DRM support Export to iTunes
Blio Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes
Bluefire Reader Yes Yes Author, Title, Publisher Yes No No No Facebook, Twitter, eMail No Yes Yes
Apple Books Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Facebook, Twitter, eMail, SMS yes, via VoiceOver Apple FairPlay Yes
Kindle Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Facebook, Twitter No Yes Yes
Kobo Reading App Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Facebook, Twitter No Yes Yes
Stanza No Yes Yes No Yes No No Facebook, Twitter, eMail No No Yes
Product Highlight Annotate Edit meta-data Online dictionary Offline dictionary Lookup Wikipedia Translate Share TTS support (read aloud) DRM support Export to iTunes


Book source management features

Product Book store(s) Book search In-app Epub import Import via in-app Browser OPDS catalog Other import via Tag books Sort books
Blio No No Yes No No eMail (MIME type) No No
Bluefire Reader Free ebook libraries only Yes No No No eMail (MIME type)

iTunes File Sharing

Built-in Web Server

No Yes
Apple Books Apple Books Store Yes No No No eMail (MIME type) No Yes
Kindle No No No No No iTunes File Sharing No No
Kobo Reading App No No No No No eMail (MIME type) No No
Stanza No Yes Yes No Yes Calibre (Bonjour)

eMail (MIME type)

iTunes File Sharing

Yes Yes
Product Book store(s) Book search In-app Epub import Import via in-app Browser OPDS catalog Other import via Tag books Sort books


Supported File Formats

See Comparison of e-book formats for details on the file formats.

Product total # of formats .cbr/.cbz .chm .djvu .epub .fb2 .html .mobi .pdb .pdf .rtf .txt
Blio 2 No No No Yes No No No No Yes No No
Bluefire Reader 2 No No No Yes No No No No Yes No No
Apple Books 2 No No No Yes No No No No Yes No No
Kindle 2 No No No No No No Yes No Yes No No
Kobo Reading App 2 No No No Yes No No No No Yes No No
Stanza 5+ Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No No
Product total # of formats .cbr/.cbz .chm .djvu .epub .fb2 .html .mobi .pdb .pdf .rtf .txt


License

Product Free License
Blio Partial (voices cost)
Bluefire Reader Partial (Cloudshelf edition is free) Proprietary
Apple Books Yes Proprietary
Kindle Yes
Kobo Reading App Yes
Stanza Yes Proprietary

Special features

Product Special features
Blio Support for the visually impaired
Bluefire Reader Optional PDF password protection

Localized in English, French, German, Norwegian, Icelandic, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Danish

Support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language epub3 format including Vertical writing mode and R2L page order

Supports multiple concurrent Adobe user account activations, both Adobe ID and Vendor ID accounts

Export notes and highlights to email

Collections Feature for organizing user Library

Apple Books Apple Books can read text aloud to the user.
Kindle Ebooks can be emailed to an auto-generated Amazon email address
Kobo Reading App Strictly enforces registration with Kobo

Support for magazine subscriptions.

Extensive social media support via Facebook.

Reading statistics and achievements.

Stanza Cover Flow[f 1]

Extensive options for library sorting

Customizable background picture & transparency settings

Has some stability problems on iOS >= 5.0

Stanza is not being updated any more

Product Special features
  1. ^ Not on the iPad

Discontinued software

See also

References

  1. ^ "Blio". KNFB Reading Technology, Inc. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
  2. ^ "Bluefire Reader". Bluefire Productions, LLC. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  3. ^ "iBooks". Apple. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  4. ^ "Kindle". AMZN Mobile LLC. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  5. ^ "Kobo eBooks". Kobo Inc. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  6. ^ "Stanza". Lexcycle. Archived from the original on 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  7. ^ Bond, John-Michael (June 24, 2014). "Readmill is closing its doors on July 1, 2014". The Unofficial Apple Weblog.
  8. ^ "Connecting to the iTunes Store". Apple. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  9. ^ "Connecting to the iTunes Store". Apple. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
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