PerfectViewer is a reader application for image-based files such as CBR and CBZ and, with the proper plugin, PDF. It works well on the NSTG (best in low-memory mode) but is plagued by a lot of invisible text in the Preferences screens and many dialog boxes. Also, the PDF plugin that is supposed to work with the version that runs best on the device always crashes.
I recently came by a slew of CBZ files that I wanted to look over and decided to dust off this old app and then I remembered all of the above. I decided to try and fix some of the issues. Along the way I discovered a version of the PDF plugin that actually does work with the app, further extending its capabilities.
What I did
1. Essentially I forced all text to black. This solved a lot of problems in itself, with only a few layout files requiring minor edits. One unanticipated side-effect was to make the window title text also black (it was white on a grey background). But this is the only artifact of this kind and I feel it is a small price to pay. The text (which you probably never look at anyway) is still quite readable, although it would look better white. Couldn't fix it. There are issues with the framework-res.apk. To decompile and compile the app without errors requires a KitKat framework. Obviously there are going to be issues when that app runs on an Eclair device. So I did the best I could.
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2. Next I tried to change all the white text on black backgrounds to the opposite. I succeeded in all but one case where the ListView used was impervious to my persuasions, that is in the setup for the quick bar menu. I could see the two ListViews in one smali file and could also see where text might be set but could not figure out how to force the text color to black.
3. Speaking of the quick bar, while using the app I kept squinting at the icons there. It seemed to me the background color was too dark for many of the icon options. So I lightened that.
4. I resized the Quick Setup and Adjust Color windows so they display properly on the NSTG.
5. I increased the maximum zoom to 100%. I sometimes found myself tapping the screen multiple times with the maximum setting of 20%. You can still set it to 5% or 15% or whatever, but the slider is just a bit more touchy with the larger range.
6. I removed Shelf Style #5 (the ugliest of an unattractive set, IMO), and created a new solid color shelf (now #1) and renumbered the rest. (looks best with dark grey or black text and no text effect)
A PDF reader?
So, what's the PDF plugin like? Well, PerfectViewer is a page-centered reader. That does not change with the PDF plugin. There is no re-flow option. A regular book in PDF format is really only readable in landscape mode. Otherwise the font is too small and/or you are panning all over an enlarged page. The landscape option is actually pretty normal for reading PDF text on the NST (unless you have really good eyes). What PerfectViewer lacks is the ability to smoothly scroll across pages like, for example, EBookDroid. Instead you move in chunks of the page (adjustable). Also, NoRefresh has issues with PerfectViewer in landscape mode. Not sure why. One good thing is that you can adjust the text contrast (gamma, under AdjustColor) to achieve something like the great contrast found in the @nivieru version of EBookDroid. And while EBookDroid renders pages rather slowly so that you sometimes scroll to a blank page and then wait, PerfectViewer renders much faster. So there are trade-offs.
Installation
Unfortunately if you are currently using PerfectViewer you will have to uninstall it since the MOD has a different signature. You can save your Preferences (Preferences Management, then tap the bottom blank "button") since uninstalling PerfectViewer does not delete the folder on the sdcard. Then you can read those Preferences back in once the MOD is installed. I have to say that I was less than impressed with this. It seemed to ignore quite a few settings I had made, so I'm just warning you. At least you'll be able to see what you're doing! There's no interface for the PDF plugin. It just makes the app work with PDF files.
Downloads
PerfectViewer_1.9.2.2MOD
PDF Plugin 1.2
Related
Ok so this was my contribution to the thread here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=442286
I figured I would post it to see what others get out of this. It works perfectly for me.
Thanks to mouki_9 for pointing out the Syscolor registry link.
I noticed that the green color's hex was 5A A2 00. Going off of that I took a gander in the Syscolor link (HKLM\system\GWE\syscolor) Note: you have to click on GWE then it is a registry link named Syscolor inside of it.
Edit it and look for the line with 5A A2 00, I switched it to 00 66 B3 which is a decent colored blue. After a soft reset, Viola!!
Note this does not change the highlight color of the large menu, I am still working on that. It does however change the highlight of everything else, including the landscape start menu highlight color.
Ok It is not an exact science yet, but I have the jist of what is happening.
This is for the Raphael by the way, incase its different (dont know still a newb).
Anyways. So far what I have figured out for the Enlarged Main menu, is that it does not go off of the reversed number of your hex code, which is what some of us thought. It seems like instead, it goes off the INVERTED COLOR.
I tested this by going into photoshop, going to the color pallete and putting in the color 0066B3 which is a very nice blue (not too dark not too light) imho.
I then filled the layer with that color then went to Image>Adjustments>invert. Or CTRL I. This turned it into a bright orange with the hex of FF994C. I tried that hex (the one for orange) in the phone... and guess what!!!
It turned BLUE. However it did NOT turn the same blue as 0066B3 is, instead it turned to a lighter blue.
All and all I am still tweaking with this to see if we can get this down to a science of finding what color we want precisely. For right now I am happy with a lighter blue then no blue at all..
WOOO.. Ok so, it takes a little bit of work but you can get almost your exact color (based off of how good your eyes are).
Step 1. Go to this website http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/hex-colors.html and find out what color you want your menu to be.
Step 2. Using PHM Registry Editor Navigate to HKLM\Software\HTC\EnlargeMenu.
Step 3. Scroll down to ManilaCustomHLDown and ManilaCustomHLUp Edit them with the color you want. Make sure you select Hexidecimal as the value. This will give you the opposite color.
Step 4. If you dont have it download My Mobiler for your phone. This is a great program that lets you view your phone on your computer!!! Linky: http://blownfuze.org/ (Thank you Doug you rock) Scroll down the page its under the Basic apps and Tweaks section.
Step 5. Go back to the hex-color website, with My Mobiler up and running close out of the registry editor if you havent allready. click on your start menu. Now the opposite color should be seen. (this is were good eyes come in) Try to match up the color of the menu, with the hex-color website as best as possible. Once your finished jot down that hex for the color.
Step 6. Go back into the Registry editor and put in this new Hex. The opposite color should come up... which... (depending again on your eyes) Should be damn close to the color you were looking for.
Another way to do this is to take a screen capture with My Mobiler, and use a image editing program with a color picker. I have photoshop, I believe GIMP has this feature. Hopefully others can chime in on free programs that have it. Pick the color and get the hex for it.
And yet another way, if a programer could make a color picker for windows mobile. I cant remember the name of it, but there is one floating around for regular windows that allows you to pick any color anywere, whether on a website or your desktop, if something like this could be made into a cab for WinMo getting the colors would be a cake walk.
Hope this helps somebody out!!
Merc.
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"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
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I've seen quite a few people loooking for something like this.
Good job!
funny because i have seen quite a few threads describing how to
do this.we did this on our diamonds six months ago lol.
I searched these forums left and right and the only thing i could find was the link i gave up top. So I started messing with the settings until i figured it out lol. Oh well
Happy Modding.
Merc.
Hi,
I'm quite new to Android so I don't know where to find all elements in the phone. Please have a look at this image and let me know if you know if the images are used or obsolete!
One additional element not in the photo is the scrollbar handle, that large thing that used to pop out from the scrollbar at times - is it gone?
I assume there is already info on how to theme the progressbar, I will search for this info later.
Thanks in advance.
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
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"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
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all of those are in framework-res.apk/res/drawable
the scrollbar is also in that same folder.
to edit the color of the progress bar you have to edit progress_horizontal.xml, here is a little guide i made in a thread about how to easily do hex edits for color in .xml's. the only one of those files that still applies is .xml above. 1.6 did away with 1.5's way of doing the progress circles.
Pretty sure he's asking where the elements are actually used on the phone. As in, what apps use them, etc.
All are used besides the battery charged, and the files are like david said in the "framework-res.apk/res/drawable"
There are some outdated images left over from older OS versions, I usually just tend to ignore these so I have less to edit. The scroll bar large mode icon appears in contact.apk if you still want to edit that, im not sure which other system app uses it. I think what happened was google did a little cleaning up and moved app specific resources inside the app's apk files instead of having them float around in frameworks. They do need a serious clean up of the folder though.
Thank you for the replies!
Yes, I am in fact asking where they are used on the phone. I have a HTC Dream that I'm testing with, and I have not found apps that use the elements that I've listed.
So the battery charge is not used - thanks!
What about the rest, do you know an app that uses them?
The reason I want to find them is so that I can change them and see how it turns out on the device. I'm doing this for a client and I've tracked down all of them except these last ones.
I'm not positive but I can say a lot of them ARE obselete:
Erase Button: I believe it used to come in handy during 1.0/1.1 OS, haven't seen a use for it on 1.5+ devices
Picker Box: Definitely obselete, have not seen these used in quiet a while..
Spinner: These might be date/time picker images, go into alarm clock app, set alarm or change time for any of them I believe they show up here, not sure about the arrows though.
Battery Charge: have NOT been used since android 1.0 initial release, rc29, which was taken out a long long time ago.
Progress bar graphics: These are xml changes, I believe. As someone pointed out earlier you can try changing them via xml changes.
Your best bet is just not edit them, they're in the system/frameworks folder for no reason at all, I say save yourself the work and avoid them.
Hope that's clearer.
prash said:
I'm not positive but I can say a lot of them ARE obselete:
Erase Button: I believe it used to come in handy during 1.0/1.1 OS, haven't seen a use for it on 1.5+ devices
Picker Box: Definitely obselete, have not seen these used in quiet a while..
Spinner: These might be date/time picker images, go into alarm clock app, set alarm or change time for any of them I believe they show up here, not sure about the arrows though.
Battery Charge: have NOT been used since android 1.0 initial release, rc29, which was taken out a long long time ago.
Progress bar graphics: These are xml changes, I believe. As someone pointed out earlier you can try changing them via xml changes.
Your best bet is just not edit them, they're in the system/frameworks folder for no reason at all, I say save yourself the work and avoid them.
Hope that's clearer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a bunch! This just saved me a headache
I have an NC, rooted with autonooter, and everything seems to be working ok, but on lots(most) app's dialogs, including the nook popup UI, I will get get white on white text.
Has anyone else seen this or have a fix? It makes several apps a guessing guessing game and checkboxes have no descriptions so I haven't been able to check any of them.
Thanks!
i have the same problem!
me too! * Hoping for a quick fix!*
So, if its not a unique issue, are there people who have working rooted nooks that don't have the issue? I'm assuming that stock/unrooted NC's don't have the issue so is this some setting that needs tweaking when we open up the rest of the android OS?
hypoxichypoxic said:
So, if its not a unique issue, are there people who have working rooted nooks that don't have the issue? I'm assuming that stock/unrooted NC's don't have the issue so is this some setting that needs tweaking when we open up the rest of the android OS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assumed it was an issue with the rooting process.
Im having the same problem with the long-press pop-up menu in xScope. I had to use trial and error to memorize the location of each option.
Sent from my Nooted friend...
What applications are you seeing this in? I haven't noticed white on white text.
I have noticed that Tasker's action tab has light blue on dark blue that's really hard to read. I think that's the only one I've seen
How do you add a bookmark in xscope? Thanks
I've had this problem with the pop-up windows in XScope and RedditIsFun, although I feel like it must have happened at other times as well. It's always in a pop-up window.
I find the ADW settings screen very hard to read. It's white text on almost white background & I first thought that they were grayed out. Very annoying!
Cheers,
kev
I had it too. I saw it first in an email widget I got off the Market - de.invalidobject.mailwidget or something like that. White on white text on a popup.
Yes. Same here. It is very annoying to see Table of Content with white fonts on white background with my ezPDF Reader. And many pop up screens too.
I feel like the reason for this is because the apps are using the sam sort of theme that the books settings page uses.
The apps are set to be white on black but the book is set to be black on white so they get mixed up.
Sorry if that doesn't make sense it is rather late here.
Sent from my NOOKcolor using the xda app
I found this to be the case in the game Alchemy if you try to get info on items you've created. The popup shows hyperlinks in blue but all other text is white on white and unreadable.
hypoxichypoxic said:
So, if its not a unique issue, are there people who have working rooted nooks that don't have the issue? I'm assuming that stock/unrooted NC's don't have the issue so is this some setting that needs tweaking when we open up the rest of the android OS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I seriously doubt this has anything to do with the nooting, vs just that the default text color is not appropriate for normal Android apps.
I suspect someone can find the way to fix it eventually.
it happens in lots of places
here are some screenshots of what i'm seeing, it seems to be system wide.
No text visible next to the checkbox for what I assume is something like 'set default'
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"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
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}
In file manager context menu
and here is an example where you can almost see the white text on a settings page
It makes things kind of a guessing game, with possible bad consequences if you choose the wrong option
So, is there a way (setting/app/etc) to change the theme or text color globally or such?
thx!
What I do is I highlight an option which changes the background color of the item but I don't release so I can read what it is, bad part is I have to do it for all menus until I get used to which blank spot I can click. Hopefully we can get this fixed
likearaptor said:
What I do is I highlight an option which changes the background color of the item but I don't release so I can read what it is, bad part is I have to do it for all menus until I get used to which blank spot I can click. Hopefully we can get this fixed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good workaround... I've been also having to use my phone as reference for apps that I use on both such as Tasker.
Such a pain in the arse, but I know help is around the corner. Someone out there with the knowhow is going to change the xml settings for font color soon and share with the rest of us.
likearaptor said:
What I do is I highlight an option which changes the background color of the item but I don't release so I can read what it is, bad part is I have to do it for all menus until I get used to which blank spot I can click. Hopefully we can get this fixed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's what i've been doing. i'm guessing there may be a png we can edit in the system
I am hoping eventually we will have all kinds of custom themes and then all the menus will be black background like in typical android.
I have almost decided to get a Nook Color for me seeing all the developer activity. However there is one thing I would like to confirm. Please check out this PDF book of 4 MB size.
http://www.multiupload.com/9CUURSQCJ9
It is a properly created ebook of a printed book, with text and images (not a page by page image scan). Now I tested this book on a friend's ebook reader which is Sony PRS-650 e-ink based reader with 6" display. It works well on the device. Only issue is that in it's default rendering of the complete page, the text is too small to read in portrait mode. As a result you need to enable text reflow and zoom. That works fine but upsets the page layout.
Now I was wondering. Since NC has a 7" display with higher resolution, will it be possible to read this PDF in it's original state without any pan and zoom? If any Nook Color owner could test the above PDF using ezPDF/RepliGo Reader/Adobe Reader and reply how good is the default rendering in portrait and landscape mode, it will be very helpful.
I gave it a glance with the Barnes and Noble Reader. I think you need to be rooted to use that app to view PDFs. I couldn't get it to do landscape mode, but everything looked fine to me, but I'm not sure how it's suppose to appear. Here's some shots of it with a couple different text sizes.
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}
Thanks for the help supersoulfly. It looks ok in the B&N reader. Only that "Hollywood Heat" box you see there is supposed to contain that paragraph that starts with "Carl Jung believed", in default layout.
I hope someone with a rooted Nook Color can help further.
I think you misunderstood. My Nook is rooted. I was stating the B&N app needs to be rooted to view PDFs. It normally will use Quickoffice to view PDFs if the Nook is not rooted.
I gave it a view with Adobe Reader. Anytime I changed the actual text size it threw the text out of the box like before.
If I left the text size how it was presented everything appeared as it should. But the text is too small to read in that format so you have to zoom in and pan around.
I can show you what it looks like with repligo reader, if that helps...
I only scrolled thru the first few pages, and it looks good to me.
Is there any specific page you'd like to see?
Thanks again supersoulfly. So it is unreadable in default view with Adobe Reader.
breebauer, the page supersoulfly showed will be great (page 29).
I take that back... it looks like some pictures (?) aren't showing, but the other pages are good.
These pages are ok, I'll post the others in a sec...
Hold on... for some reason it wont upload...
Sorry it took so long- all of a sudden I can't upload pics from my nook.
Page 29 in Repligo
Hope this helps...
IamJAX said:
Thanks again supersoulfly. So it is unreadable in default view with Adobe Reader.
breebauer, the page supersoulfly showed will be great (page 29).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its readable, just not comfortable. I wouldn't read a book with text that small.
Sent from my LU2300 using XDA App
Thanks breebauer. Could you please post the screenshot in the original size. Your images appear resized to a smaller resolution, compared to supersoulfly? I am not sure since I don't own the device.
And btw is the text readable to you from Nook Color in it's original resolution without zooming?
My NC is rooted and I use Adobe Reader. When AR first opens your screenwriting guide in portrait mode the text is a bit small--but my eyes are 40+ years old! However the rendering is good and i can read the file. A double tap in the center of the screen or pinch/zoom works well and i had no problems with the images resizing appropriately. If you shift the device to landscape mode it is much easier to read BUT you see only 1/2 of the page at a time (naturally). Further, I moved around the file extensively and the refresh rate was quite acceptable.
It looks the best to me using Repligo compared to the other pdf readers I have.
Except the images are blocked out in Repligo, and not in the other readers. You might be able to be fix that somehow? (I don't deal much with pdf )
Repligo resizes the text on the page nicely, though.
I took a few pics to show different zoom levels and how the resized text looks on the page.
See if these pics are better...
Pg 29, and pg 19 in different zoom levels
Yes from your screenshots Repligo's reflow indeed looks great. Thanks for the help mate. Btw does Repligo have the fancy page turning effect?
Now I hope someone with ezPDF can try out this PDF as well.
Someone with ezPDF please help
EBookDroid 1.5.7 (nivieru MOD) is a reader for PDFs, DjVU, CBZ, CBR and some other less common formats (not ebooks like epub or mobi--not in this older version anyway). As demonstrated by @ALinkToTao, it has one of the best text/background contrast ratios of the common PDF readers that work on the NST/G. It is particularly good for PDF texts in landscape mode where it can be set for continuous vertical scroll. In conjunction with NoRefresh mode this makes for a comfortable reading of books in PDF format without messy reflowing.
That said, page rendering is sometimes slow and you may arrive at a page to find a white screen until the device catches up with you. It's not as bad as it sounds for a PDF book, but it's not as fluid as something like PerfectViewer, for example. I hasten to add that there are many, many arcane rendering settings which I do not understand and which might actually improve performance significantly. I just use things more or less at default levels.
A quick comparison of version 1.5.7 on the developer's Google Code archive reveals that some theming adjustment was done by @nivieru along with the contrast adjustment. After using the app for some years I feel there are still too many visual distractions in the settings in the form of missing text and murky/muddy backgrounds behind black text. I've spent some time with the app trying to clean things up.
What I did
1. Changed the ancient app icon to the current EBookDroid icon.
2. Went through the various menus and dialog boxes to make sure all the text that is supposed to be there (and even functional icons) is actually visible.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
3. Went through various menu/settings options and forced all backgrounds to white and text to black.
4. Changed the colors in the overlay for tap setup to shades of grey. You can actually see now that there are 4 tap zones (two of which overlap). That may not sound like much, I guess, but you have three options with each zone (which you can now read) so I guess that's like 12 zones, assuming you can remember what is a single, double or two-finger tap...
Edit: I spoke too soon. See Spoiler below for more information on the tap zones.
Spoiler: More than you ever wanted to know about Tap Zones
I've discovered there is more to the tap zones than meets the eye AND that they are a pain to sort out.
1. First, although it seems you can delete a zone as one option when you have tapped on it to set it up, you actually can't. You are dumped back at the Bookshelf screen if you try. There is a way to delete tap zones, although maybe not the 4 default ones (my results have not been consistent). The only way I have found to do this is to edit the file /data/data/org.ebookdroid/shared_prefs/org.ebookdroid_preferences.xml
Copy the file to another location for editing. Find the field <string name="tapprofiles">. You can probably just parse out the format of the entries, but although it may be possible to edit at this level, I just prefer to wipe out the entire entry until you get to </string>. Then save the modified file and copy it back to where it came from, overwriting the existing file. If you do this all on the NST/G you won't have to worry about permissions. If you edit off the device and copy it back to the device, be sure the file permissions are rw-rw-
2. Second, the coordinate system used to describe the zones. The overlay screen is a 10x10 grid. The origin (0,0) is the upper left corner. So the default zone at the top of the screen is described as 0,0-100,10 (x1,y1-x2,y2). Just FYI.
3. Third, you can add tap zones, although you may be adding overlays if you can't delete the default four zones. However, they seem to work. To add a zone, place your finger on the zone overlay grid where you want the zone to start, and drag it to where you want it to stop. You should notice some highlighting. That's it! Unfortunately as disclosed in #1, removing the zone seems to be very difficult, unless you remove them all.
4. At least in my experience, setting the zones up seems very squirrely. My most consistent results were obtained making only one change at a time. Use the "Clear" option before selecting a new or different action (even if that action is "None"), then return to the document before making another change. You may find that you need to close the document and return to the bookshelf before setting another zone.
Installation
Unfortunately if you have a current EBookDroid installation you will need to remove it because the signature has changed. First do a backup of your configuration because the /sdcard/.org.ebookdroid folder is not removed during uninstall and that's where the backup file lives. Then you can read in your configuration after installing the MOD.
Modded apk file attached below.
@nmyshkin You the man!!
I'll be implementing this app ASAP. Thank you so much!