Many people assumed that Apple would add EPUB reading capabilities to Preview or Safari in Mac OS X Lion, or perhaps port iBooks from the iPad to the Mac. But that hasn’t happened; to fill the void, TidBITS Publishing and Stairways
Software have collaborated to create Bookle, an EPUB reading app for Mac OS X.
Available in the Mac App Store for US$9.99 (visit http://tid.bl.it/bookle-app), Bookle 1.0 provides the core features needed for reading DRM-free EPUBs. Bookle stores all opened EPUBs in an internal library, enabling readers to switch among EPUBs instantly.
Mouse, trackpad, and keyboard navigation controls are provided for moving around within an EPUB. Text formatting, background colors, and graphics all appear, and links both within an EPUB and out to Web resources are live. Readers can customize the font, size, and background color in most EPUBs on a per-title basis, and Bookle can even read EPUBs out loud.
“Bookle 1.0 is intentionally simple, both because an EPUB reader should be as easy to use as possible and because Peter and I wanted to get something out for Mac users to use right away,” says Adam Engst, publisher of the Take Control series of ebooks, which areavailable in EPUB format. “We’re taking suggestions for feature additions at the
Bookle UserVoice forum.”
Full documentation is provided in the form of “Take Control of Bookle,” a free Take Control ebook that is loaded into Bookle by default. Along with explaining all of Bookle’s features, “Take Control of Bookle” includes a chapter that helps users find EPUB-based books and learn about which programs can be used to create EPUBs for cross-platform reading.
“Take Control of Bookle” is also available at no cost from the Take Control Web site for those who want to see what Bookle can do before purchasing, since the Mac App Store doesn’t allow demos. You can download the free book at
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/bookle .
Bookle requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. The current version is 1.0.2, and future updates will be free.
