
Show HN: Hyphen – A beautiful, powerful, and robust eBook Reader for iOS - mattcurtis
http://hyphenreader.com/
======
dombili
This looks really good. I'm not reading anything epub length on my phone but
if I were, I'd give this a shot. Big thumbs up for a great product page as
well. So many people screw this up. Two problems I noticed with the website:

\- No way to see the price of the app without clicking on the App Store
button. Maybe this was intentional?

\- "Personalize your reading experience" part has three different screenshots
showing three different styles. White on black and black on white styles show
the same part of the book while white on blue (is that the name of that
color?) shows a different part. No one will probably notice that, but I
figured it wouldn't hurt to point out.

Any plans to make a Mac version?

~~~
mattcurtis
Hello dombili!

Thanks for the feedback. :)

\- App price not on site: Not quite intentional, no. I plan on changing that.

\- Screenshot inconsistency: Hmm. Oh - actually, that is the same part of the
book, roughly, I believe the paragraph margins changed, however. Something to
fix.

\- Mac version: Yes, actually. Right now I'm stabilizing Hyphen, but once I've
done that and implemented Syncing, there will likely be a Mac version.

~~~
dombili
My pleasure! Great to hear that Mac version is a possibility. Is following you
on twitter the best way to get notified about that?

Good luck with the app, I hope it does well.

~~~
mattcurtis
Yes, @HyphenReader
([http://twitter.com/hyphenreader](http://twitter.com/hyphenreader)) is the
best way to stay updated.

------
sirn
I tried the full version and like how the app looks and works so far. The app
seems to support ePub3 also (Marvin only supported ePub2 and Gerty is too
social to my taste.)

I have few feedbacks:

\- I wish the page doesn't fade when switching chapters. It interrupted the
reading flow more than quite a bit.

\- Would be amazing if the app could support CJK's vertical layout and page
orientation. (I have never seen ePub reader app that did this right.)

~~~
mattcurtis
Hello sim,

\- I'm in the process of making more page turn modes available:
[https://github.com/hyphen-reader/hyphen/issues/4](https://github.com/hyphen-
reader/hyphen/issues/4)

\- I'll look into CJK support. If you could offer examples of where you see it
handled well, etc., that'd be great.

Thanks for the feedback.

~~~
sirn
About CJK, at first I think there need to be a proper support for vertical
writing layout and support for turning pages from right-to-left[1].

Hyphen currently seems to be handling vertical writing quite fine (but it is
using default sans-serif font, which is less than ideal.) However page turning
currently seems to be strictly left-to-right.

One of few apps I've seen to be doing well is Kindle (but unfortunately not
ePub) and Bookwalker (has their own file format, although also has partial
support for reading ePub file). My current solution for reading Japanese ePub
books is to throw them into Bookwalker… which is kinda like second-class
citizen in the app.

There are few public domain Japanese novels available in ePub3 format if you
wish to have some sample ([http://aozora.wook.jp/](http://aozora.wook.jp/)
click on "ePUBダウンロード".)

~~~
mattcurtis
This is perfect, thanks! I've added it to the issue tracker:
[https://github.com/hyphen-reader/hyphen/issues/9](https://github.com/hyphen-
reader/hyphen/issues/9)

------
_ph_
Is it me or is it odd, that a reader called "Hyphen" doesn't seem to offer
hyphenation? Especially as the screenshot shown on the page shows rather large
spacing used for block setting the text.

~~~
sirn
There seems to be Hyphenation support but not on by default. (I downloaded and
tried.)

~~~
mattcurtis
There is absolutely hyphenation support - you can toggle it on or off in
settings, but it is off by default.

~~~
lobster_johnson
It's odd that your first and most prominent screenshot has such bad
typography:

    
    
      regulation       the       circulation.
    

Bad typography is my main quibble with the Kindle app. It's been awful for
years.

Have you looked into a better flow algorithm, such as the Knuth/Plass [1]
algorithm from TeX?

[1]
[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spe.4380111102/ab...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spe.4380111102/abstract)

~~~
mattcurtis
That screenshot has justified text, you can use left, right, and center
alignments as well.

~~~
lobster_johnson
That's not really a solution. That will create an awkwardly ragged right
margin. Justified text is more readable and makes text look less messy.

~~~
mattcurtis
I like the Knuth/Plass technique as well, it creates much more uniform and
visually appeasing line margins. The reason something like it would be so
difficult to implement is that it requires heavy geometric processing every
time the content reflows, which would impact Hyphen's performance a lot.
Another issue I see is that it would pollute an ePub's DOM more than I'd care
for.

------
st3fan
I really don't like how this app uses its own typography for the UI. Including
wobbling bouncy menus. It just doesn't do it for me. I prefer consistency with
other apps that I use.

~~~
mattcurtis
Hi st3fan,

Sorry to hear that. What consistencies are you referring to?

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deft
Wow. I've been wondering why an ereader like this didn't already exist. Gets
rid of all the flashiness and chrome and colour. I hate ereader apps because
they have so much going on, finally one figures it out.

Well done.

~~~
mattcurtis
Thank you, I'm glad you think so. :)

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JohnnyDouglas
Very nice. A few dollars well spent. Great experience on my 6S+.

~~~
mattcurtis
Thanks Johnny!

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kgarten
Looks cool (just downloaded the free version and am playing with it). A tip
for the free version specify what the limitations are more clearly in the
description.

~~~
mattcurtis
Will do!

------
eps
Matt, a bug report - [http://imgur.com/QMDeGvr](http://imgur.com/QMDeGvr)

Note where the charge indicator is at.

~~~
mattcurtis
Yikes. Is that an iPad Pro? If you could share more details that would be
great. There's also the issue tracker you may be interested in:
[https://github.com/hyphen-reader/hyphen/issues](https://github.com/hyphen-
reader/hyphen/issues)

~~~
eps
iPad mini, iOS 8.3

~~~
mattcurtis
Hello! Quick question: what triggered this bug for you?

------
wodenokoto
The only thing I miss in books is the ability to sync page turns in e-pub
acquired outside of the app-store.

How does this one do in that regard?

~~~
mattcurtis
Syncing is not supported yet, but will be soon. Follow Hyphen on twitter for
updates: [http://twitter.com/hyphenreader](http://twitter.com/hyphenreader)

------
walterbell
How does this compare to Marvin, which was a decent successor to Stanza?

~~~
mattcurtis
I think Marvin is great. However, imo, Hyphen differs quite a bit, and offers
a more - deeper customization options, Goodreads integration, ADE pages,
metadata lookup, emphasis on speed and ease, and so on.

Take the free version for a spin and let me know what you think.

------
LoSboccacc
How does one define 'robustness' in this case?

~~~
mattcurtis
I'm aiming for _" strong and effective in all or most situations and
conditions"_ :)

------
JSnake
Is there a way to import my iBooks library into Hyphen?

~~~
mattcurtis
There is, sort of, but iBooks makes this difficult to all but the most stout-
hearted.

If you visit
`~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/`
on your Mac, you'll find extracted versions of your `.epubs`, if you've
downloaded them into your iBooks Library. The problem is, that in order to be
valid ePubs they'd need to be archived again (as a .zip renamed to .epub,
which is all ePubs are).

Also, iBooks uses DRM on paid(?) books downloaded from the store, making this
more complicated even then.

So, yeah. I've plans for a desktop client that _might_ make importing from
iBooks possible/easier, but I'm a little afraid to go barking up that tree.

