Related
I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was missed. I am the type of user who likes to use the phone at full brightness, as it does not seem to have a huge negative impact on my battery life in day to day operations.
I was looking carefully at the browser on the Galaxy and wondered why the whites looked so dimmed in comparison to other parts of the operating system.
I had already done the following:
1. Turned the OS brightness all the way up.
2. Turned browser brightness all the way up.
3. Disabled the screen power saving mode.
I then downloaded a flashlight application and maxed it to 100% while switching to the browser with the Home key multitask, and going back and forward between the flashlight app and the browser app, it is very clear that the browser is not pushing max brightness. Even though the brightness settings on both the OS and the browser are maxed, it seems as though the browser is capped to 80% brightness or so.
My friend also verified this during his test run, as he has just bought the Samsung Vibrant and noticed the same thing. I understand many will just leave the auto-brightness setting on, but that's not really addressing the issue here.
Is there a way for an XDA developer to correct this issue through a patch or ROM?
thanks
I checked with the shell and when brightness is at 100% it has an absolute value of 255, the same when I'm at the browser set with full brightness, so it seems it's working as it should.
You can check it with this command
Code:
cat /sys/devices/platform/s3cfb/spi_gpio.3/spi3.0/blacklight/s5p_bl/actual_brightness
darksnarfer said:
I checked with the shell and when brightness is at 100% it has an absolute value of 255, the same when I'm at the browser set with full brightness, so it seems it's working as it should.
You can check it with this command
Code:
cat /sys/devices/platform/s3cfb/spi_gpio.3/spi3.0/blacklight/s5p_bl/actual_brightness
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know, I experience the same thing as the OP. Everything's bright, except when surfing the web.
Same issue here. I use Opera in bright daylight.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
If you go in to the brightness settings there is an option at the very bottom called "Power saving mode". I'm not sure if that is having any effect on the browser.
Thanks for the numbers, but I gotta say, just comparing the flashlight app and hitting the back arrow to toggle to the browser, it is beyond obvious that the browser is not as bright as the flashlight application. I used google with it's white background and zoomed in to an area that was just white to avoid other distractions.
This is the best way to test since there will be no transition in between the application toggle and you see the screen dim easily.
As indicated by my original post, I have also turned off the power saving feature so that is not a concern. Someone did say that the Behold 2 has the same cap for their browser and that this is a samsung specific setting that's probably there to save battery. I haven't been able to confirm it on that phone yet but just give the flashlight test a chance and you'll see.
oh one last thing i noticed is, when going from the browser back to the flashlight, sometimes the flashlight app is also dimmed at the same level brightness as the browser, but tapping the screen 'wakes' up the app into full brightness.
TGalaxy browser brightness
To me it's very obvious that the browser is dimmed down, I'd say more than to 80%... Having google as the default homepage couldn't make it more obvious when opening the browser! Samsung obviously thought that no one with a decent eyesight will buy their phone. Or anyone who feels capable of managing their phone's battery life themselves.
It's just one of those niggling things that had to be included, lessening the experience of an otherwise rather breathtaking phone. Another one is the compulsory vibration when charging is finished - makes me wonder when others, or the developers for that matter, charge their smartphones! I charge them overnight, and of course every night... or at least used to, as with the Galaxy S, I can no longer sleep.
I think I've been through every menu possible to change these couple of features, with no success... if anyone knows anything, please share.
It happens on the dim-side, too
I have the same problem, but on the dim side. The browser brightens the screen when it comes on if you have the brightness set to zero. I like it dimmed all the way at night if I'm reading in bed when the lights are out and my partner is asleep, but it keeps turning it up so it's pretty bright in the pitch dark. Arrgh. It's my phone, can't I set it the way I want? Grr.
I've read that there are limitations on how much the screen dims and brightens unless you have a rooted phone and you use an app that's not built into the OS.
I rooted mine and there are some configuration apps that will set it to 0, but I think the built-in operating system slider doesn't go all the way to zero and might not go all the way to 255 when you slide it to the very edges. Supposedly it only goes to 10 on the low side from the notes on some apps.
So, probably it's a similar limitation on the slider for the screen brightness in the browser. We're probably stuck with this problem until someone writes an app that lets you change this setting to any value between 0 and 255 since the default sliders don't allow the low side and I'm guessing not the high side either.
So . . . any android developers out there, it would be cool if you could make an app to change this setting if it's available programatically somewhere.
I tried the "Dimmer" and "Brightness!" apps from the market. But none of them 'Keep' the brightness at the minimum always.
Is this the Android thing or Samsung thing? I've used HTC before and found no such setting.
It is so annoying. Every time the browser is opened, the brightness is changed!
Why the hell do they have a brightness setting in browser????
Ive seen other people complain about the same thing, its really weird.
I believe its to do with the phone being in power saving mode.
Yes, if you open the browser and hit menu and go more then brightness setting. You only need to set it once though.
rob989_69 said:
Yes, if you open the browser and hit menu and go more then brightness setting. You only need to set it once though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But when you change your general screen brightness, your browser brightness is still the same.
There is just no point to have a separate setting there.
I agree. It's really obnoxious. Droid comic viewer does the same thing. I don't get what the advantage of having a separate brightness control could possibly be.
The browser has it's own settings for brightness, what's all the fuzz about, I personally think its useful.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
i find it useful, i keep my phone on min brightness, but i keep my browser at full lol
It's there because the Android browser is an all-white background by default, unlike the rest of the OS, and may be too bright for some people. Easy to change in the browser and not **** with your main brightness setting.
A stupid thing with absolutely no benefit to anyone.
I hope Android product managers read these forums. But I doubt it.
They should just implement a check box that would set it's brightness to the system. That way everyone would be happy.
I think it is a retarded PITA to have a separate brightness setting for the browser.
k2snowboards88 said:
they should just implement a check box that would set it's brightness to the system. That way everyone would be happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
9876543210
I find it useful, but really its personal preference. Just a note, it can quickly be overriden by using the slide to change brightness at the top of the screen.
Sent from the moon
AFAIK its a samsung thing, and an annoying bug in my opinion.
I don't use auto brightness or power saving in the phone settings.
If I have my phone set bright, I'm most likely in a bright environment. So if I need to open browser I'm going to want the same brightness. The same is true if I'm in a dark environment and have the phone set dim. The video player has the same problem. Samsung should really stick to hardware.
If you set the phone to auto brightness it disables that option, and puts the browser at the same level as the phone.
Sent from my Captivate running Continuum 5.5
It literally lakes 2 seconds to adjust it again from the notification bar if you have auto turned off. Not a big deal IMO.
It is *extremely* annoying for those of us who don't use Automatic Brightness. It's this kind of trashy little things that send people running for iPhones...
Is there an AOSP version of Browser.apk I can push (KB5 2.2) that doesn't have this? I don't care about losing the window previews or other touchwiz features of the browser, I'm just *sick and tired* of having to change my brightness settings a second time every time I want to browse the web. Third party browsers are too bloated and don't do it for me... I just want the stock Android Browser, but with the SYSTEM brightness setting only... Like every other Android phone.
Hey all,
I am considering picking up a NC, but my one concern is reading at night. I plan on rooting and all, but my primary concern is the screen brightness when dimmed down? Is it still really bright? are there any root apps that allow you to dim the screen below stock? Thanks for the help!
Dennis
I find that turning the brightness all the way down and using the Night mode for text its very enjoyable to read in the dark, It doesn't even bother my wife when I'm right next to her in bed.
I don't know of a app that will lower the brightness further, however it might be possible.
Attaching a Picture of Night Mode. (keep in mind that the Screenshot from the nook is at full brightness, in RL, the screen is much darker than the Screenshot.)
i find the built in nook night mode far too bright.
i know you said you don't plan on rooting but aldiko and fbreader both have far better night settings, aldiko has the best since you can recolor the text in night mode. this way you can have a black bg with red text. fbreader only has white as an option, but both let you adjust the brightness ever further than the lowest setting so you can make turn fbreader down to light grey on black.
downside is that aldiko doesn't remember the last page read but instead reloads the last chapter read. you can use bookmarks, but you have to remember place one.
*** WATCH VIDEO DEMO !!! ***
This is the easiest and coolest way to apply a screen shade to your phone screen !
Applies a shade that acts as a dimmer to ensure your eyes don't hurt, beyond lowest brightness settings. Great for low light gaming, web browsing, and eBook reading. Saves battery life for AMOLED displays!
Control the filter level with a customizable bar that can be accessed from any application you're in.
Allow to set individual settings for each application in part.
Set custom picture, tiles and more.
Available on Market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=alex.munteanu.tsf
Log changes:
19/10/2012 - Version 1.4
Added the option to move the filter bar up or down from the center position.
Minor bug fixes.
20/04/2012 - Version 1.3
New option to allow the Screen Filter value reach 100%. Use this option carefully !
26/02/2012 - Version 1.2
Added Tasker/Locale plugin !
28/01/2012 - Version 1.1
NEW FEATURE : Softkeys backlight control !
Turn off softkeys when screen filter value reach a configurable preset value
2 methods for turning off softkeys, if doesn't work on your device try the other one, and if both doesn't work please contact me.
Wow. I love the concept.
I didn't have a chance to check out the whole video (youtube was acting up), but does this have the ability to automatically dim the screen to a specified level based on what application I have open? For example, could I set it to automatically dim my screen to the lowest setting when I have my bank app open?
That would probably make this worthwhile.
mfitz8530 said:
Wow. I love the concept.
I didn't have a chance to check out the whole video (youtube was acting up), but does this have the ability to automatically dim the screen to a specified level based on what application I have open? For example, could I set it to automatically dim my screen to the lowest setting when I have my bank app open?
That would probably make this worthwhile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can set the level independently for each application, the color, the choice to show/hide the bar.
awesome thank you for advertisment of this app
Version 1.1 is out :
NEW FEATURE : Softkeys backlight control !
Turn off softkeys when screen filter value reach a configurable preset value
2 methods for turning off softkeys, if doesn't work on your device try the other one, and if both doesn't work please contact me.
muntos said:
*** WATCH VIDEO DEMO !!! ***
This is the easiest and coolest way to apply a screen shade to your phone screen !
Applies a shade that acts as a dimmer to ensure your eyes don't hurt, beyond lowest brightness settings. Great for low light gaming, web browsing, and eBook reading. Saves battery life for AMOLED displays!
Control the filter level with a customizable bar that can be accessed from any application you're in.
Allow to set individual settings for each application in part.
Set custom picture, tiles and more.
Available on Market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=alex.munteanu.tsf
Log changes:
28/01/2012 - Version 1.1
NEW FEATURE : Softkeys backlight control !
Turn off softkeys when screen filter value reach a configurable preset value
2 methods for turning off softkeys, if doesn't work on your device try the other one, and if both doesn't work please contact me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Purchased! Thanks..Just waiting for Goog to send it to my phone
Thank you also, if you like it please rate the application on the market.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
youtube.com said:
Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could you upload the vid with another soundtrack?
The trial version is expired. Could you update it?
Trial of what... ? Total Screen Filter doesn't have a trial version , only Total Screen Control
Sorry, I did mean Control, posted in a wrong thread.
crimper said:
Sorry, I did mean Control, posted in a wrong thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought so...
There is a Trial of Total Screen on the Market, you can try that one also
muntos said:
I thought so...
There is a Trial of Total Screen on the Market, you can try that one also
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked again and can't find it. There are only two other apps by you - Filter and Network Monitor. Unless it's not available for ICS devices.
crimper said:
I looked again and can't find it. There are only two other apps by you - Filter and Network Monitor. Unless it's not available for ICS devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The trial is published under a different account, just search in the market for "Total Screen Control" and you'll find also the trial version.
this is nice.,thanks ^_^ i will purchased this..
wow great idea, you are the best
Version 1.2 is out:
Added Tasker/Locale plugin !
thanks alot for posting, keep it up, you're doing great!
I just purchased the app. I like it, especially for the Tasker integration.
I was using the other 'Screen Filter' app for a while but it was
having full brightness flicker issues when I would have Tasker change
the filter % from one value to another. This was incredibly annoying.
I do have a MAJOR request though that I believe would help me truly
appreciate my purchase. The primary reason I use these filters is to
attempt to black out my AMOLED screen.....unfortunately, your Total
Screen Filter app maxes the filter at 94.12%. This is a huge problem
for me. Furthermore, your competitor (Screen Filter by haxor industry)
allows for dimming the screen even further then your app (they allow
for 2% filter....which is what you call 98% in your app....almost
pitch black).
I'm an optical engineer and work in extreme dark rooms alot. Sometimes NO VISIBLE LIGHT can be on in these rooms
while experiments are running...sometimes a very small amount is
acceptable.
So my DESPERATE plea for a feature request:
Allow for users to push the filter further beyond 94.12%....ideally a
full 100% black out. Because honestly, 94.12% is not enough at all for
my purposes. At least allow for a 98% filter so you can be equivalent
to your competitor's capabilities (which is a free app I might add).
I can understand your concerns with allowing this ability (people
unknowingly blacking out their screens). So maybe making it a
non-default ability would work perfectly. I use these filters with
Tasker and have it setup so I can easily remove the screen blackout
under particular conditions. Please help me out here. This ability
would really make me happy.
zhdenny said:
I just purchased the app. I like it, especially for the Tasker integration.
I was using the other 'Screen Filter' app for a while but it was
having full brightness flicker issues when I would have Tasker change
the filter % from one value to another. This was incredibly annoying.
I do have a MAJOR request though that I believe would help me truly
appreciate my purchase. The primary reason I use these filters is to
attempt to black out my AMOLED screen.....unfortunately, your Total
Screen Filter app maxes the filter at 94.12%. This is a huge problem
for me. Furthermore, your competitor (Screen Filter by haxor industry)
allows for dimming the screen even further then your app (they allow
for 2% filter....which is what you call 98% in your app....almost
pitch black).
I'm an optical engineer and work in extreme dark rooms alot. Sometimes NO VISIBLE LIGHT can be on in these rooms
while experiments are running...sometimes a very small amount is
acceptable.
So my DESPERATE plea for a feature request:
Allow for users to push the filter further beyond 94.12%....ideally a
full 100% black out. Because honestly, 94.12% is not enough at all for
my purposes. At least allow for a 98% filter so you can be equivalent
to your competitor's capabilities (which is a free app I might add).
I can understand your concerns with allowing this ability (people
unknowingly blacking out their screens). So maybe making it a
non-default ability would work perfectly. I use these filters with
Tasker and have it setup so I can easily remove the screen blackout
under particular conditions. Please help me out here. This ability
would really make me happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, it will be implemented in the next version
Regards,
Alex
[APP] [NST/G][2.1+] E-ink Optimized Ebookdroid - excellent PDF CBZ FB2 DJVU reader -- Great for reading comics!
Here I am posting an amazing app tweaked by @nivieru a few years ago specifically for the Nook Simple Touch which is by far the best PDF reader I have found for this device. I have not messed with using it for CBZ, FB2, or DJVU formats, but I would assume it would perform just as well on those. I primarily use this app to read comics in PDF format. And I have found it to be more than great. I have tried other many other apps for reading PDF; the two runners up being: EzPDF Reader and AVP PDF Viewer.
My criteria for calling this a good PDF reading:
1. Auto-Cropping Pages: This app will automatically crop dead space out of the pages. This is crucial when reading comics in PDF. It is best to read on the NST in landscape, and this auto-crop feature allows you to maximize the use of the screen while not having to fiddle so much with some kind of scroll-lock. I can load my comics and go.
2. Better Contrast: Nivieru really set this up nicely. I downloaded the last installable version of ebookdroid, and without Nivieru's tweaks I found it to have huge potential but to be wanting in this department. The app has the ability to change contrast, brightness, and exposure. After a few hours of fiddling with it and getting it as best as I could get it, my results were sub-par. For example, AVP Viewer showed small text better then ebookdroid without Nivieru's tweaks. Now, it is superior to AVP Viewer in sharpness, crispness, contrast, and vibrancy. The text and images just pop right off the e-ink screen! Blacks are very black. Whites are white. There is no loss in the gradient of grayscales possible with Nivieru's tweaks to this app.
3. Very customizable taps/button usage on the app: One thing I found superior to AVP Viewer and EzPDF Reader was that I had more options to turn the page with buttons than simply programming the side buttons to be android volume buttons. I use the Right and Left Tap programming in Nook Simple Touch Mod Manager to turn pages on my epub reading app (@Renate NST's Temblast Reader--the best and simplest epub reader I've found).
With this app, you can program the pages to turn using these very same buttons by: 1. tapping the menu key 2. More-->Settings-->Configure taps. At this menu, simply tap the desired page button, tap the dropdown for Single Tap, then choose Scroll Forward and Scroll Back for the right and left button you wish to program for each respective action.
4. The Ability to Determine the scroll height for taps or button presses:
Access this by: 1. tapping the menu key 2. More-->Settings...-->All Settings-->Taps, swipes, and keys
You can determine how far that a tap (or button press) to scroll up or down will move the viewing area. I find this extremely useful when I want to use @nmyshkin's newly created IROff app which allows you to turn off the IR to save battery. I find that this combination of being able to effectively scroll up and down without touching the screen having the IR sensors turned off has significantly lowered the battery drain while reading PDF documents because the IR array isn't repetitively reading finger swipes to scroll the viewing region up or down.
This option is much more useful than the two other runner up PDF apps. APV PDF Viewer jumps an entire screen when you scroll with the buttons (this is very difficult to read comics without touching the screen). EzPDF Reader Jumps the viewing area a shorter distance, and is more easy to read with buttons only, however, in EzPDF Reader, there is no way to get rid of the task bar at the top of the screen which takes up valuable reading real-estate.
With this option in ebookdroid, you can easily read PDF documents with the IR turned completely off. Thanks again @nmyshkin.
@nivieru made the defaults of the app better than the original version of ebookdroid, which makes it more install and go rather than install, tweak for a few hours, and go. This app runs pdfs quickly and smoothly, and also it does not leave ghosting on the screen while reading comics.
All in all, I am extremely happy with this app, and am happy to share nivieru's app with the community here. I hope it is just as useful to you as I have found it to be.
Here are some pictures I took with my cellphone comparing the rendering of the same document to other PDF readers. I will say that I have NOT enhanced the photos in any way. If you notice there is a noticeable difference in contrast and clarity from the other three examples.
Un-tweaked "stock" ebookdroid app:
APV PDF Viewer:
EzPDF Reader:
And finally the featured app tweaked by @nivieru--notice the difference in contrast!:
Well done on all counts. May this app be used by all who wish to read comics on the Nook Simple Touch.
I've attached the apk file on this app as well as @nmyshkin's app to turn off the IR sensors for a super efficient PDF reader. This app disengages the touch screen but the touch screen will automatically re-engage when the Nook goes into deep sleep after being asleep for 10 seconds; if for some reason your nook can't go into deep sleep, do a hard reset by holding the power button for 15 seconds and turning back on.
For IRoff to function, you need to have these files that nmyshkin has provided (attached) in their proper locations:
/system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
Set permissions for both files to rw-r--r-- and reboot. Without these files resident, the IRoff app will not function. They are attached.
Note: You do not need those files in place to run nivieru's ebookdroid.
Here is nivieru's github page that has the apk for download with the source code: https://github.com/nivieru/ebookdroid/releases
Thank you to the xda community and all who made the NST such a wonderful, affordable, efficient, and functional e-ink reader. I will not buy another one, maybe ever. Thanks so much.
Peace
Time for a second look
I'm going to take another look at this app. Maybe the first time around I just installed whatever Ebookdroid I could find that would work. I ended up settling on AVP (after ditching Orion Viewer) because I liked that in scrolling the image would stay in the screen frame instead of slopping around. I get that good behavior with Ebookdroid on my Nook Tablet, but it wasn't my experience on the NST. But maybe I missed a setting. I have used AVP to read PDF newspapers mostly. For comics (which I haven't looked at in awhile) I have used Perfect Viewer, but that was for CBR or CBZ files.
Anyway, I need to revisit Ebookdroid in this version and see how it behaves. Thanks for the info.
My pleasure. Thanks for all you have done as well.
You're absolutely right about the display with EBookDroid. It's much clearer and with excellent contrast compared to AVP. Unfortunately neither is very good at handling a large PDF file like a newspaper. I'm finding myself arriving at blank pages and waiting until something shows up. Maybe about the same for both there, and it might be that some of the more esoteric settings like "pages in memory" or similar will help. Have to experiment more. Tap zooming with EBD often gives no result until the page is moved a bit, or goes to a black screen--again perhaps a sign that the system is overloaded with a large file.
Do you know:
1. if there is a way to set the zoom %? On more current versions of EBD you can select the zoom % that occurs with a tap. I can't seem to locate that on this version.
2. what the [0%, 90% - 100%, 100%] and similar options are for on the Tap Configuration menu? There isn't anything like those on the current EBD
Edit: OK, so I have sort of answered my own questions when I installed the current market version on my KitKat device. On that version you can actually see the selections in the tap configuration screen. The default for the funny numerical thing was [0%, 0%, -100%, 100%] so I decided this was good enough for me and set the NST the same way.
As for the zoom settings, still nowhere to be seen, but much experimentation has led me to conclude that the only tap-zoom setting that works reliably and reasonably well is the "zoom to column"--at least for a newspaper or magazine for which it almost seems designed. The other options like "zoom" (does nothing but show the inoperative zoom toast at the bottom of the screen) and "quick zoom" (does nothing until the page is moved slightly and doesn't release after tapping until the page is moved a little again) result in either no effect or much delay.
Edit:Edit: Oh, LOL! Who would have suspected that the "zoom" toast at the bottom of the screen functioned with a swipe from right to left!!! So the "1.00x" at the left end is actually the setting at the far right, and as you swipe toward the left the zoom increases! Now this bears looking at further
nmyshkin said:
You're absolutely right about the display with EBookDroid. It's much clearer and with excellent contrast compared to AVP. Unfortunately neither is very good at handling a large PDF file like a newspaper. I'm finding myself arriving at blank pages and waiting until something shows up. Maybe about the same for both there, and it might be that some of the more esoteric settings like "pages in memory" or similar will help. Have to experiment more. Tap zooming with EBD often gives no result until the page is moved a bit, or goes to a black screen--again perhaps a sign that the system is overloaded with a large file.
Do you know:
1. if there is a way to set the zoom %? On more current versions of EBD you can select the zoom % that occurs with a tap. I can't seem to locate that on this version.
2. what the [0%, 90% - 100%, 100%] and similar options are for on the Tap Configuration menu? There isn't anything like those on the current EBD
Edit: OK, so I have sort of answered my own questions when I installed the current market version on my KitKat device. On that version you can actually see the selections in the tap configuration screen. The default for the funny numerical thing was [0%, 0%, -100%, 100%] so I decided this was good enough for me and set the NST the same way.
As for the zoom settings, still nowhere to be seen, but much experimentation has led me to conclude that the only tap-zoom setting that works reliably and reasonably well is the "zoom to column"--at least for a newspaper or magazine for which it almost seems designed. The other options like "zoom" (does nothing but show the inoperative zoom toast at the bottom of the screen) and "quick zoom" (does nothing until the page is moved slightly and doesn't release after tapping until the page is moved a little again) result in either no effect or much delay.
Edit:Edit: Oh, LOL! Who would have suspected that the "zoom" toast at the bottom of the screen functioned with a swipe from right to left!!! So the "1.00x" at the left end is actually the setting at the far right, and as you swipe toward the left the zoom increases! Now this bears looking at further
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad you figured it out. Sorry I didn't notice that you had commented on this. It's definitely THE clearest comic reading app I have found. It also autocrops nicely. No need to re-zoom every time a file is opened.
ALinkToTao said:
[APP] [NST/G][2.1+] E-ink Optimized Ebookdroid - excellent PDF CBZ FB2 DJVU reader -- Great for reading comics!
Here I am posting an amazing app tweaked by @nivieru a few years ago specifically for the Nook Simple Touch which is by far the best PDF reader I have found for this device. I have not messed with using it for CBZ, FB2, or DJVU formats, but I would assume it would perform just as well on those. I primarily use this app to read comics in PDF format. And I have found it to be more than great. I have tried other many other apps for reading PDF; the two runners up being: EzPDF Reader and AVP PDF Viewer.
My criteria for calling this a good PDF reading:
1. Auto-Cropping Pages: This app will automatically crop dead space out of the pages. This is crucial when reading comics in PDF. It is best to read on the NST in landscape, and this auto-crop feature allows you to maximize the use of the screen while not having to fiddle so much with some kind of scroll-lock. I can load my comics and go.
2. Better Contrast: Nivieru really set this up nicely. I downloaded the last installable version of ebookdroid, and without Nivieru's tweaks I found it to have huge potential but to be wanting in this department. The app has the ability to change contrast, brightness, and exposure. After a few hours of fiddling with it and getting it as best as I could get it, my results were sub-par. For example, AVP Viewer showed small text better then ebookdroid without Nivieru's tweaks. Now, it is superior to AVP Viewer in sharpness, crispness, contrast, and vibrancy. The text and images just pop right off the e-ink screen! Blacks are very black. Whites are white. There is no loss in the gradient of grayscales possible with Nivieru's tweaks to this app.
3. Very customizable taps/button usage on the app: One thing I found superior to AVP Viewer and EzPDF Reader was that I had more options to turn the page with buttons than simply programming the side buttons to be android volume buttons. I use the Right and Left Tap programming in Nook Simple Touch Mod Manager to turn pages on my epub reading app (@Renate NST's Temblast Reader--the best and simplest epub reader I've found).
With this app, you can program the pages to turn using these very same buttons by: 1. tapping the menu key 2. More-->Settings-->Configure taps. At this menu, simply tap the desired page button, tap the dropdown for Single Tap, then choose Scroll Forward and Scroll Back for the right and left button you wish to program for each respective action.
4. The Ability to Determine the scroll height for taps or button presses:
Access this by: 1. tapping the menu key 2. More-->Settings...-->All Settings-->Taps, swipes, and keys
You can determine how far that a tap (or button press) to scroll up or down will move the viewing area. I find this extremely useful when I want to use @nmyshkin's newly created IROff app which allows you to turn off the IR to save battery. I find that this combination of being able to effectively scroll up and down without touching the screen having the IR sensors turned off has significantly lowered the battery drain while reading PDF documents because the IR array isn't repetitively reading finger swipes to scroll the viewing region up or down.
This option is much more useful than the two other runner up PDF apps. APV PDF Viewer jumps an entire screen when you scroll with the buttons (this is very difficult to read comics without touching the screen). EzPDF Reader Jumps the viewing area a shorter distance, and is more easy to read with buttons only, however, in EzPDF Reader, there is no way to get rid of the task bar at the top of the screen which takes up valuable reading real-estate.
With this option in ebookdroid, you can easily read PDF documents with the IR turned completely off. Thanks again @nmyshkin.
@nivieru made the defaults of the app better than the original version of ebookdroid, which makes it more install and go rather than install, tweak for a few hours, and go. This app runs pdfs quickly and smoothly, and also it does not leave ghosting on the screen while reading comics.
All in all, I am extremely happy with this app, and am happy to share nivieru's app with the community here. I hope it is just as useful to you as I have found it to be.
Here are some pictures I took with my cellphone comparing the rendering of the same document to other PDF readers. I will say that I have NOT enhanced the photos in any way. If you notice there is a noticeable difference in contrast and clarity from the other three examples.
Un-tweaked "stock" ebookdroid app:
APV PDF Viewer:
EzPDF Reader:
And finally the featured app tweaked by @nivieru--notice the difference in contrast!:
Well done on all counts. May this app be used by all who wish to read comics on the Nook Simple Touch.
I've attached the apk file on this app as well as @nmyshkin's app to turn off the IR sensors for a super efficient PDF reader. This app disengages the touch screen but the touch screen will automatically re-engage when the Nook goes into deep sleep after being asleep for 10 seconds; if for some reason your nook can't go into deep sleep, do a hard reset by holding the power button for 15 seconds and turning back on.
For IRoff to function, you need to have these files that nmyshkin has provided (attached) in their proper locations:
/system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
Set permissions for both files to rw-r--r-- and reboot. Without these files resident, the IRoff app will not function. They are attached.
Note: You do not need those files in place to run nivieru's ebookdroid.
Here is nivieru's github page that has the apk for download with the source code: https://github.com/nivieru/ebookdroid/releases
Thank you to the xda community and all who made the NST such a wonderful, affordable, efficient, and functional e-ink reader. I will not buy another one, maybe ever. Thanks so much.
Peace
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Bumping this thread up, as it deserves to be noticed. Thank you for bringing this to our attention and for the files you attached (thanks to @nmyshkin for his contributions.) I have found eBookDroid the few days I have been using it to be a superb PDF and DJVU reader. I tested CBZ (comic) files too and it seems equally good. This is now my app of choice to read PDF and DJVU books. I use FBReader for EPUB and MOBI books.
I was hoping to have FBReader's PDF and DJVU plugins work on the Nook Simple Touch, but I was getting a Parse Error when trying to install, so I suppose they are not compatible with Android 2.1. However, eBookDroid more than makes up for that problem. A great reader!
My pleasure. I'm glad you are enjoying it.