Foliate, the best epub reader for Linux
Have you ever struggled trying to read an ebook file on Linux?
Finally, after looking for a long time I discovered a decent epub reader for Linux distributions.
Personally, the more critical features I want in an epub reader are:
- Respect the epub3 standards and typography without overriding it by some weird default configurations.
- Bookmark and highlighting
- An inline dictionary to research some vocabulary when needed
- A responsive interface
Previous research: Thorium
After a few years trying different alternatives, I discovered a really good project called Thorium Reader.
Thorium is great fit if you want a reader that respect all the ePub3 specifications. In addition, it includes a voice narrator for those users that have a visual disability.
Written in JavaScript, Thorium Project is available for all desktop platforms: Mac, Windows and Linux and there is a side project SDK to develop mobile clients.
You can check out and download Thorium clicking here
Although it's a really good project and works really well, Thorium doesn't have text highlighting and annotations features at the moment. Because of that, I continued looking for another alternative.
Foliate
Finally, my research gave results and I discovered Foliate. You can check all the features Foliate includes in its official site visiting this link
I really loved this project because:
- It's compliant with epub specs.
- Has a really nice UI
- Has highlighting and annotations with export and import support 🤟
- Has an inline dictionary available
- You can read footnotes with popovers without changing the page you're reading.
- It can be installed via Snap or Flatpack easily in all major distributions.
If you read IT-Books or you love to take notes, I really recommend you to try Foliate.
In conclusion
After giving a try to several ePub reader alternatives including Calibre, Okular, fbReader, Easy Book Reader and others, I strongly recommend you to give a try with Foliate. You will love it.