[Nook Touch Themes and Apps] nmyshkin:
3-8-24: I've made a tiny change in the app to allow for a side-door into the bookshelf display even though the app is configured to open the current file when starting. This is for a project I'm working on. The download link is to the newer version but the behavior is identical without additional software.

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.

View attachment 5883737

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.

View attachment 5883741

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.

View attachment 5883743

4. I resized the Quick Setup and Adjust Color windows so they display properly on the NSTG.

View attachment 5883745

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