
Ask HN: What's your cross-platform PDF / ePub reading workflow? - dot1x
Has anyone figured out a cross-platform setup for reading PDFs &#x2F; ePubs with the ability to synchronize highlights &#x2F; bookmarks among iPad &#x2F; iOS &#x2F; Android &#x2F; PC &#x2F; Linux etc?<p>What do people use today?
======
wronghorse
My setup right now is to upload my ePubs to Google Play Books. Once your
document/book is uploaded you can access it from the app on Android/iOS or
directly from the web-reader on any browser.

Play Books automatically syncs your reading progress, notes, bookmarks etc and
there's no additional overhead on your part.

~~~
xalava
Interesting solution,thanks ! However, upload seem to only be available from
the desktop and annotations are quite primitive (especially on phone/ipad). So
it works perfectly for books, not so much for storing and annotating all
documents

~~~
wronghorse
You can also upload from iOS by using the "Copy to Play Books" option in the
Share menu.

------
jagraff
I use a remarkable tablet[0] in order to mark/highlight/read stuff, and the
send to remarkable extension[1] to print pages and pdfs to the tablet.

[0] [https://remarkable.com/](https://remarkable.com/)

[1] [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to-
remarkable...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to-
remarkable/mcfkooagiaelmfpkgegmbobdcpcbdbgh)

~~~
HuShifang
I'm intrigued by the remarkable, and may well buy the color e-ink version when
it arrives (I gather it's expected late this year).

One question, if I may: is there any way to import screenshots (ideally .png
files) into otherwise handwritten remarkable notes? I use this functionality
fairly often on my Chromebook (doing screengrabs with the stylus, then
embedding them into otherwise handwritten Squid [0] notes, sometimes
annotating them, then exporting the entire note as a PDF).

[0] [https://www.squidnotes.com/](https://www.squidnotes.com/)

~~~
jonahbenton
I dont see a widget for that on mine. Most of the needed functionality is
there, tho- you can eg trace around a section of writing and move it around on
a page, and the notebook pages have the notion of layers.

~~~
HuShifang
Interesting, thanks. Sounds like it's something that could eventually get
done... (On ChromeOS I often split-pane Squid and Xodo, or a video player --
not that I would ever expect that to work on e-Ink! -- and just embed
complicated diagrams, long code blocks, or video stills in my handwritten
notes.)

------
ivarv
I've been playing with Polar (
[https://getpolarized.io](https://getpolarized.io) ) as a cross platform PDF
"consuming" app. By "consuming" I mean reading but also note taking /
flashcard making. So far it's been pretty good, and in addition to the note
taking functionality, it doesn't have the creepy surveillance of Kindle or
whathaveyou.

~~~
ramblerman
doesn't support epub

~~~
jgraeupner
epub support will be implemented in Q1 '20 finally

~~~
ramblerman
Nice, that would be a big one for me to switch over for language learning as
well

------
skovorodkin
Reading PDFs on Kindle Paperwhite is much more comfortable with KOReader.
Thanks to [https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/](https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/)
it can crop pages and reflow text unlike the native reader. It's not the best
experience with some types of documents, but generally it works very well.

I don't have a solution for synchronization at this point. My current workflow
is quite involved: import a document into Calibre, upload it to Kindle via
Calibre wireless connection (KOReader supports it), read and highlight, get
the modified doc back to Calibre, extract highlights with
[https://github.com/0xabu/pdfannots](https://github.com/0xabu/pdfannots). It'd
be more convenient to send new highlights from Kindle somewhere immediately
without transferring the document itself. I haven't looked into it, but I
believe it should be possible with a KOReader plugin.

~~~
JeremyNT
Koreader is a great program! It works on touchscreen Linux devices as well.

You might be interested in replacing your paperwhite with a "boox" or
"likebook" ereader device. Both of these run Android, so in addition to
koreader you can install e.g. syncthing and have a shared directory copied
between all of your devices and your own PC.

------
JeromyGride
I use zotero ([https://www.zotero.org/](https://www.zotero.org/)) for all of
these functions of reading, note taking and managing references.

Also bonus - support latex and bibtex. You can highlight in the pdf, and
zotero will extract those highlights and add them to the entry as notes. Very
handy.

~~~
pixelHD
Adding to this, it has webddav support, so you can use gdrive/onedrive or even
next cloud. I use my self hosted next cloud instance as the storage and sync.

And for mobile, i use this seemingly now-abandoned app called papership
[ios][0]. It lets you signin to zotero and your webdav provider, so you have a
sync of books/papers, along with your highlights, notes and whatnot.
Thankfully, it seems like zotero are hiring ios devs, so a first party app
might be on the horizon.

[0]: [https://www.papershipapp.com/](https://www.papershipapp.com/)

edit: seems like papership recently started getting updates again, so its not
abandoned anymore.

------
mellosouls
It's no use for technical books but for all normal text I use (the real)
Kindle for reading most of it, with Pocket for web pages synced over to it via
p2k and non mobi books converted via either Amazon through email or Calibre or
online equivalent for epubs.

------
hkt
Honestly, I'm a little bit ashamed of this, but I print things out and attach
them together with brass tack thingies.

~~~
brudgers
Physical reality is a useful abstraction.

~~~
BlueTemplar
Makes sense, since pdfs are designed to be printed, not read on a screen...

~~~
hkt
Yeah. The agony of PDFs on mobile phone screens is just awful. Please, world,
let there be portable documents that can reflow text so as to render at a size
that doesn't make my eyes bleed.

~~~
BlueTemplar
If only someone could invent ePub/HTML !

------
HuShifang
I have a jury-rigged system, as I use my 2-in-1 stylus-equipped Chromebook for
most of my reading and annotating. It's not very elegant, or FOSSy, but it
works reasonably well.

I basically use Dropbox as a back-end, using Autosync for Dropbox (fka
Dropsync) [0] on Android and ChromeOS (and the vanilla Dropbox Linux desktop
client on Kubuntu) to keep the files synchronized (storing them on SD cards on
my phone and Chromebook). I have it automatically sync frequently, and the app
automatically uploads local changes to the cloud.

For PDFs, syncing the highlights is of course trivial; as a reader, I use
Okular on Linux and Xodo [1] on Android/ChromeOS. Xodo has more features -- I
like using my Chromebook's stylus to scribble notes in the margins -- and
everything ports well to Okular, and vice versa.

For EPUBs, I use Calibre on Linux and Moon+ Reader Pro [2] on Android /
ChromeOS. In practice, though, I use the latter almost exclusively; it has a
built-in Dropbox sync functionality [3], though I'm not sure the highlights
etc. are accessible by other apps.

[0] [https://metactrl.com/](https://metactrl.com/)

[1] [https://www.xodo.com/](https://www.xodo.com/)

[2]
[https://moondownload.com/download.html](https://moondownload.com/download.html)

[3] [https://raymondlamsk.blogspot.com/2018/03/moon-reader-how-
to...](https://raymondlamsk.blogspot.com/2018/03/moon-reader-how-to-sync-
bookmark-bet-devices.html?m=1).

~~~
skillachie
Your setup sounds ideal for BookFusion. Would love to get your feedback.

BookFusion currently allows you to easily upload,organize and sync your eBooks
across Android, iOS and Desktop(via Web). All your highlights, bookmarks,
notes and reading progress will always be synced.

More at:
[https://www.bookfusion.com/reading](https://www.bookfusion.com/reading)

Calibre plugin:
[https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre](https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre)

There are some gaps and features that are missing but they all will be filled
with our new release in Q3 2020.

~~~
Brave-Steak
This looks interesting. Is stylus-support (iOS and Android) planned? Free-form
marking and writing notes directly on an ebook (in whatever format) would be
awesome.

------
superasn
I have to rename my epubs to png and then I can send them to kindle via the
share button (send to kindle doesn't support epubs directly for some reason)

After that it's available everywhere including my mobile phone and kindle
reader which makes it quite easy to remain in sync (bookmarks, highlights,
last page, etc)

~~~
tobydownton
Do they format correctly that way? I use Calibre to convert EPUBs to MOBI and
then email them to my Kindle account.

~~~
superasn
Yes I've never had issues doing that. Just an extra step to rename epub to png
that's all.

------
liampronan
I'm always looking to better my flow for PDF reading so really appreciate this
question.

I have settled with Notability due to its nice iPad app where I use my Apple
Pencil to annotate - the annotated PDF syncs to iCloud so it's available on
Apple products (don't think it supports Android/Linux so maybe not cross-
platform but something I'd recommend checking out if you can live with that
limitation). If it's a book I'm using to learn something (usually tech), I
then transfer notes to Bear in outline format (using the Notability mac app to
read notes) and sometimes Anki for flashcards. One downside is that Notability
doesn't support ePub so I either convert those or read on Kindle.

I tried OneNote recently but the iPad app seems unable to handle larger PDFs
like textbooks which is a major bummer and surprising to me.

------
rodolphoarruda
All my non-technical reads are done in Kindle, so it takes care of
synchronizing bookmarks, highlights and notes. When work permits I can read
non-technical stuff in my computer (Ubuntu), I use Kindle Read on the browser.

For everything else, I use Calibre and the standard PDF reader that comes out
of the box with Ubuntu. I keep notes, highlights and bookmark indications in
separate Google Keep notes, one note per title or, sometimes, one note per
"subject", which would include various books and articles I'm reading. The
method sounds like extra work, and it is, but it's rewarding because Keep is
very flexible and easy, its tagging feature and "searchability" work fine.

------
captn3m0
I suffer from the same issue. I use KOReader, which does do sync, but uses its
own zsync protocol, which basically nothing else supports.

I use Kybook 2 on my iPad. I think Calibre supports syncing with Kybook 3, so
you could try that.

If you really want highlight syncing etc, it might be worth migrating to a
Kindle-first workflow? But PDFs aren't there.

Why is this so hard :( Why can't everything use a standard progress sync
protocol? (KOReader's is at [https://github.com/koreader/koreader-sync-
server](https://github.com/koreader/koreader-sync-server))

~~~
skillachie
Could you take BookFusion for a spin and let me know what you think?

BookFusion allows you to upload and manage your eBook collection across
Android, iOS and Desktops. All your eBooks, bookmarks, highlights, notes and
reading progress are always synced across all devices.

More at
[https://www.bookfusion.com/reading](https://www.bookfusion.com/reading)

Calibre Plugin -
[https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre](https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre)

Send to Kindle - [https://blog.bookfusion.com/how-to-quickly-easily-
transfer-e...](https://blog.bookfusion.com/how-to-quickly-easily-transfer-
ebooks-to-your-kindle/)

There are a few gaps but a brand new and refreshed platform is being launched
in Q3 2020

~~~
captn3m0
Looks interesting, will try it out thanks.

Right now, I support sharing via my own Ubooquity/elibsrv servers which run
OPDS as well. OPDS works well with Kybook, which is what I run currently on
iOS.

Unless this supports an OPDS server, I don't see myself using this long term,
though. OPDS on Kindle (with KOReader) makes my life so much simpler (I can
browse my entire collection on the Kindle).

------
tasubotadas
I used to run a pet-project that was basically pdf.js that would save your
last scrolled position in the database so you could continue from where you
left.

Also, you could upload your PDFs and you would have a simple online library.

------
kaffeemitsahne
I use SumatraPDF on linux with wine. If you just want a good reader nothing
comes close, sadly.

~~~
O1111OOO
> I use SumatraPDF on linux with wine.

I just discovered Foliate[0,1], which is a very small reader (252kb, deb) for
.epub, .mobi, .azw, and .azw3 files. It's based Epub.js[2]. I was looking for
a standalone epub reader (wanted to avoid the document management stuff) and
stumbled across this gem.

It's performed very well on the epubs I've tossed at it.

[0]
[https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate](https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate)

[1]
[https://johnfactotum.github.io/foliate/](https://johnfactotum.github.io/foliate/)

[2]
[https://github.com/futurepress/epub.js/](https://github.com/futurepress/epub.js/)

------
skillachie
Hey There,

BookFusion is exactly what you are looking for. BookFusion allows you to
upload, organize, manage and sync your eBooks(PDF,EPUB, MOBI and several other
formats) across iOS, Android and Desktop(via Web). All your bookmarks, reading
progress, highlights and notes are always synced across all devices.

More details at
[https://www.bookfusion.com/reading](https://www.bookfusion.com/reading)

Calibre Plugin -
[https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre](https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre)

Native iOS and Android apps. We will be releasing our native cross platform
app in 2020.

PS: Founder at BookFusion. Will be happy to hook the HN crew up. Let me know
if you have any feedback. Tons of improvements and new features coming in
2020.

------
namelosw
I just use Dropbox. It's straightforward, on Mac/PC it's just use system
reader. On iOS you can just open it with Dropbox itself.

There are a lot of publications like Manning also have Dropbox integration,
and automatically deliver new copy every time when new versions are available.

~~~
dot1x
Dropbox doesn't allow any kind of annotation or bookmarking. It just allows
you to view books.

------
selfishgene
Emacs + org-mode is cross-platform. Anyone using it for their PDF workflow? If
so, what works or doesn't work well and what is recommended setup? And is
there any way to map digital ink annotation into something more emacs friendly
(i.e. text-based representation)?

~~~
elviejo
I'm using it with org-noter. That wsy my annotations are saved in an org file,
and they are linked to the PDF.

Then, since it's org mode I can organize and edit the notes.

~~~
selfishgene
Org-noter looks useful ... only minor issue so far is apparent lack of support
for djvu format.

------
m4rtink
Calibre on PC & clients on mobile devices that can sync against Calibre ?

~~~
pure_simplicity
would you be able to specify the clients/

------
martin-adams
I do all my reading now in LiquidText on the iPad. I absolutely love the app
and it's ease of extracting and cross referencing information onto your own
notes section. Sadly, not cross platform.

------
danielfrg
After being all in the Apple ecosystem for the next 5-10 years but wanting to
use a Kindle I decided to use Kindle + Kindle App in iOS (iPhone and iPad),
after reading I export the highlights and add them to a Notion DB of my
read/reading list where I can easily review the highlights when needed.

At one point I think i will give up on Kindle as a book reading and go all in
for the iPad and I will switch to Apple Books but I think i will still export
the highlights to somewhere.

------
russdpale
I use Mendeley, I go through books and then export and print the highlighted
version.. I might give zotero another go though.. Polar kind of ran like crap
last I tried it.

------
interfixus
I have my Calibre library - and lots of other stuff - autosynced to the much
maligned but actually superb MEGA service where some small fee gets me 8 TB to
play with. So stuff is instantly retrievable on various phones and secondary
PC's.

If I really need sync of progress, I either rely on something called memory,
or work from Calibre's built-in webserver.

------
a-saleh
I bought Onyx Boox, that runs Android 6, and that means I can read pdf, login
to Kindle, Play Books, e.t.c.

For pdf's I usually just use SyncThing (but I don't have bookmarks there), for
the rest I use the various apps. I am considering trying out Mendeley again,
that is geared more towards researchers, but works cross-platform :-)

------
veddox
Zotero on Linux for my scientific library, syncs to my iPad using Zotfile and
a personal Nextcloud server.

------
sillysaurusx
iBooks. [https://imgur.com/a/TzZjbwz](https://imgur.com/a/TzZjbwz)

Works great. Has all the research papers I read. Dunno about synchronizing
highlights, but airdrop makes it simple to get PDFs on and off my phone.

------
jwr
For PDFs, I've been using Readdle PDF Expert or Readdle Documents for years
now. It syncs with Dropbox (both ways), and I have huge collections of PDFs
that I mostly read on the iPad. A subset is also available on my iPhone.

Highly recommended.

------
Robinxd
I mostly have pdf docs and syncing my changes across platforms is very Well
managed by syncthing's incremental syncing. Irrespective of the application i
use to read, if syncthing is installed, i can access and sync any file.

------
xdavidliu
evince on my desktops / laptops (all of which run Debian), and Adobe Reader on
ipad. I upload to my ipad through google drive, then access in safari on ipad,
download the pdf, and export to Acrobat. The reason I don't use ipad's builtin
Preview app is because it doesn't support continuous reading (so need to
manually zoom in a bit every time I turn a page), and also because it doesn't
support inversion of colors (I'm aware you can invert colors for _everything_
in ipad, but that comes at the expense of disabling night-shift, and I want
both night-shift _and_ inverted pdf colors).

------
anigbrowl
Wonderful thread with many interesting ideas. Along the same lines, does
anyone know a shared solution to this? Ideally FOSS. I have huge numbers of
PDFs that it'd be nice to be able to share and annotate in a small group.

------
whorleater
Zotero with Zotfile to extract highlights, highlights get sent to Devonthink

------
ScottFree
Does anybody know of an application I can use as both a PDF/ePub reader and a
manually sortable reading list? It seems so simple, but I haven't found any
program that does both.

~~~
VitalyAnkh
MarginNote 3. It is more than reading. MarginNote combines reading,
annotating, mindmapping etc. so it's a great tool to read and arrange your
hard-to-reading books.

------
ilmare
On Android pocketbook reader (imho most practical ux experience for reader),
Macos - preview and ibooks. I'm still looking for epub/pdf reader with good ux
on Windows.

------
djhworld
I thought iBooks would be my answer to this, but for PDFs it just opens OSX
Preview so you don't get the page syncing feature.

------
tcbasche
I haven't really overthought it and just use Kindle. But then again it's just
ebooks bought from Amazon - no pdfs.

------
vkaku
I use the Kindle App, Mobi files instead of EPUB and use Calibre. Apart from
that, it's just PDFs all the way.

------
tfolbrecht
Send my ebooks to my kindle over whispernet. Takes notes, highlights and
bookmarks with an external notepad.

------
pskiba
I read all my pdf's using the Emac's library pdf-tools and epub's with the
library Nov.el

Works pretty great

------
oldgun
I upload them to Google Play books.

------
nravic
Zotero is my go-to

------
tekcyb-org
I still buy physical books and print stuff out

------
elvyscruz
I use [https://hypothes.is](https://hypothes.is) to annotate pdfs, webpages,
etc.

------
juskrey
iBooks, no?

~~~
melling
I use it for ePubs. Really don’t like reading PDFs with it. Might be a
limitation of PDFs but no Night Mode, for example. Reading pdf’s doesn’t count
towards reading goal either. And can’t highlight notes.

Wish some form of ePubs would replace pdf’s.

~~~
BlueTemplar
It's called "HTML". ;) (Pdfs are for printed documents, you really shouldn't
use them on screens...)

~~~
melling
I think you missed the point. I don’t want to read on the web. I want to
replace books.

I want books published in a better format. Too many books are pdf only:

[https://www.freetechbooks.com/](https://www.freetechbooks.com/)

ePub is an HTML format. It’s just not sufficient

