OpenBerg Lector 5 2007.07.28

Publisher's description of OpenBerg Lector 5

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OpenBerg Lector 5 is a modern, open-source, e-book reader, currently under development by the OpenBerg Project. In its purpose, OpenBerg Lector 5 is comparable to Acrobat Reader, Microsoft eBook Reader or MobiReader. By opposition to each of these readers, however, Lector is an extension for Firefox and gives you access to all the browser tools you're accustomed to, including bookmarks, history, tab-reading and other extensions.

More importantly, OpenBerg Lector 5 is fully open-source, which means that you can check how it works; you can improve it yourself or get someone to improve it for you (us or someone else); you'll still be able to read your Lector books in 10 years, on a different machine. Version 2007.07.28 includes unspecified updates.

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Editor's review of OpenBerg Lector 5

Short on features, this free Firefox add-on allows the browser to open select e-books. Sporting no interface of its own, OpenBerg Lector operates inside Firefox using mouse scrolling and arrow navigation. The program could use a short help manual or simple instructions. There is no mention of what formats Lector reads or how files are opened,

The e-book reader is as bare-bones as any we've seen. Selecting a book is easily accomplished through Firefox's Open File browse menu, although the dialog doesn't limit file types. That makes finding files slightly more difficult, since you must scroll through all files instead of seeing only the e-book formats accessible through Lector. The lack of documentation makes finding the supported formats a trial-and-error discovery process. Our testers successfully opened CBR, CBZ, EPUB, LIT, OPF, and OBZ formatted e-books. Hyperlinks embedded in the files worked to open Web sites. Scrolling is either mouse driven or by using the arrow keys. The process is not smooth, and the utility opens only a few pages as needed.

Ostensibly, printing is available through Firefox, but we found it troublesome to print more than a page or two at a time. Infrequent e-book readers might appreciate OpenBerg Lector's Firefox integration and simple controls, but this clunky reader won't appeal to those wanting an extensive feature set.

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