The following tables compare general and technical features for a number of iOS e-book reader software. Each section corresponds to a major area of functionality in an e-book reader software. The comparisons are based on the latest released version.[when?]
Navigation features
| Product | Developer | Pagination | Rotation Lock | Auto-scroll | Progress indicator | Backward/forward | Table of Contents | Bookmarks | Resume | Cloud synchronisation | Go To | Full text search |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blio1 | K-NFB Reading Technology, Inc. | Yes | No | No | In-book only | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Bluefire Reader2 | Bluefire Productions | Yes | Yes | No | In-book only | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Books3 | Apple | Yes | No | Manual | In-book only | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kindle4 | AMZN Mobile LLC | Yes | Yes | No | In library and in-book | Yes | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kobo Reading App5 | Kobo Inc. | Yes | Yes | No | In-book only | Yes | Yes | Last place marker only | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Stanza6 | Lexcycle | Configurable | Yes | No | In library and in-book | Configurable | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Product | Developer | Pagination | Rotation Lock | Auto-scroll | Progress indicator | Backward/forward | Table of Contents | Bookmarks | Resume | Cloud synchronisation | Go To | Full text search |
Display features
| Product | Multi-column mode | Styles (bold/italic/etc.) | Page Turn Effects | Themes | Day/Night mode | Enable/Disable sleep mode | Brightness Control | Indent paragraph | Enable/Disable CSS | Enable/Disable hyphenation | Customize margins | Customize text alignment | Customize font | Customize spacing: line/paragraph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blio | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Justification only | Yes | No |
| Bluefire Reader | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Vertical swipe | No | Yes | No | Pre-set choices only | Justification only | Yes | Line only |
| Apple Books | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Kindle | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Pre-set choices only | Yes | Yes | Line; pre-set choices only |
| Kobo Reading App | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Vertical swipe | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Stanza | No | Yes | Configurable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Vertical swipe | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Product | Multi-column mode | Styles (bold/italic/etc.) | Page Turn Effects | Themes | Day/Night mode | Enable/Disable sleep mode | Brightness Control | Indent paragraph | Enable/Disable CSS | Enable/Disable hyphenation | Customize margins | Customize text alignment | Customize font | Customize spacing: line/paragraph |
Edit/tool features
| Product | Highlight | Annotate | Edit meta-data | Online dictionary | Offline dictionary | Lookup Wikipedia | Translate | Share | TTS support (read aloud) | DRM support | Export to iTunes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blio | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bluefire Reader | Yes | Yes | Author, Title, Publisher | Yes | No | No | No | Facebook, Twitter, eMail | No | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Books | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Facebook, Twitter, eMail, SMS | yes, via VoiceOver | Apple FairPlay | Yes |
| Kindle | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Facebook, Twitter | No | Yes | Yes |
| Kobo Reading App | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Facebook, Twitter | No | Yes | Yes |
| Stanza | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Facebook, Twitter, eMail | No | No | Yes |
| Product | Highlight | Annotate | Edit meta-data | Online dictionary | Offline dictionary | Lookup Wikipedia | Translate | Share | TTS support (read aloud) | DRM support | Export to iTunes |
Book source management features
| Product | Book store(s) | Book search | In-app Epub import | Import via in-app Browser | OPDS catalog | Other import via | Tag books | Sort books |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blio | No | No | Yes | No | No | eMail (MIME type) | No | No |
| Bluefire Reader | Free ebook libraries only | Yes | No | No | No | eMail (MIME type) iTunes File Sharing Built-in Web Server | No | Yes |
| Apple Books | Apple Books Store | Yes | No | No | No | eMail (MIME type) | No | Yes |
| Kindle | No | No | No | No | No | iTunes File Sharing | No | No |
| Kobo Reading App | No | No | No | No | No | eMail (MIME type) | No | No |
| Stanza | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Calibre (Bonjour) eMail (MIME type) iTunes File Sharing | Yes | Yes |
| Product | Book store(s) | Book search | In-app Epub import | Import via in-app Browser | OPDS catalog | Other import via | Tag books | Sort books |
Supported File Formats
See Comparison of e-book formats for details on the file formats.
| Product | total # of formats | .cbr/.cbz | .chm | .djvu | .epub | .fb2 | .html | .mobi | .pdb | .rtf | .txt | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blio | 2 | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Bluefire Reader | 2 | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Apple Books | 2 | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Kindle | 2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Kobo Reading App | 2 | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Stanza | 5+ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Product | total # of formats | .cbr/.cbz | .chm | .djvu | .epub | .fb2 | .html | .mobi | .pdb | .rtf | .txt |
License
| Product | Free | License |
|---|---|---|
| Blio | Partial (voices cost) | |
| Bluefire Reader | Partial (Cloudshelf edition is free) | Proprietary |
| Apple Books | Yes | Proprietary |
| Kindle | Yes | |
| Kobo Reading App | Yes | |
| Stanza | Yes | Proprietary |
Special features
| Product | Special features |
|---|---|
| Blio | Support for the visually impaired |
| Bluefire Reader | Optional PDF password protection Localized in English, French, German, Norwegian, Icelandic, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Danish Support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language epub3 format including Vertical writing mode and R2L page order Supports multiple concurrent Adobe user account activations, both Adobe ID and Vendor ID accounts Export notes and highlights to email Collections Feature for organizing user Library |
| Apple Books | Apple Books can read text aloud to the user. |
| Kindle | Ebooks can be emailed to an auto-generated Amazon email address |
| Kobo Reading App | Strictly enforces registration with Kobo Support for magazine subscriptions. Extensive social media support via Facebook. Reading statistics and achievements. |
| Stanza | Cover Flow7 Extensive options for library sorting Customizable background picture & transparency settings Has some stability problems on iOS >= 5.0 Stanza is not being updated any more |
| Product | Special features |
Discontinued software
- The Readmill app, introduced in February 2011, read numerous formats on Android and iOS devices but shut down on July 1, 2014.8
- Also the Blio,9 DL Reader10 and Stanza app are no longer available.
See also
- Comparison of Android e-reader software
- Comparison of e-book formats - includes both device and software formats
- Comparison of e-readers - includes hardware e-book readers
References
"Blio". KNFB Reading Technology, Inc. Retrieved 2011-10-25. http://www.blio.com/ ↩
"Bluefire Reader". Bluefire Productions, LLC. Retrieved 2011-10-20. http://www.bluefirereader.com/ ↩
"iBooks". Apple. Retrieved 2011-10-20. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?ls=1%2F ↩
"Kindle". AMZN Mobile LLC. Retrieved 2011-10-20. https://apps.apple.com/app/kindle/id302584613?mt=8%2F ↩
"Kobo eBooks". Kobo Inc. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716234726/http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/kobo-ebooks/id429710234?mt=8&ls=1 ↩
"Stanza". Lexcycle. Archived from the original on 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2011-10-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20111019171930/http://www.lexcycle.com/ ↩
Not on the iPad ↩
Bond, John-Michael (June 24, 2014). "Readmill is closing its doors on July 1, 2014". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. http://www.tuaw.com/2014/06/24/readmill-is-closing-its-doors-on-july-1-2014-needs-picture/?ncid=rss_truncated ↩
"Connecting to the iTunes Store". Apple. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved 2020-03-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20110723210246/http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blio/id409370678?mt=8 ↩
"Connecting to the iTunes Store". Apple. Archived from the original on November 19, 2011. Retrieved 2020-03-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20111119201036/http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dl-reader/id447700560?mt=8 ↩