[Nook Touch Themes and Apps] ALinkToTao:
[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 [MENTION=5548765]nivieru[/MENTION] 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 [MENTION=5562185]nmyshkin[/MENTION]'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 [MENTION=5562185]nmyshkin[/MENTION].

[MENTION=5548765]nivieru[/MENTION] 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 [MENTION=5548765]nivieru[/MENTION]--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 [MENTION=5562185]nmyshkin[/MENTION]'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