We’ve long thought Apple would add EPUB reading capabilities to Preview or Safari in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, or port iBooks to the Mac, but it hasn’t yet happened. While we have no plans to switch away from PDF as the primary format for our Take Control ebooks, it’s clear that the EPUB format is the future of ebooks. Unfortunately, we haven’t been happy with the best-known EPUB readers for the Mac, such as Calibre, which is cross-platform ugly beyond belief; Stanza, the Mac version of which strips all formatting and graphics and is now obsolete; and EPUBReader, which requires Firefox and isn’t Mac-like.
So rather than write an editorial about how Apple was slighting Mac users, I drafted a spec for a straightforward EPUB reader for the Mac. That, of course, was the easy part. Luckily, I was able to recruit Peter Lewis of Stairways Software to do the real work of programming an EPUB reader. Peter’s primary program these days is the wonderful macro utility Keyboard Maestro, but he’s best known for creating the file transfer program Interarchy (previously Anarchie) back in the early days of the Internet.
Here I guide you top 5 free ebook readers for Mac, the best apps to read ebooks on your Mac computer. A lot of our purchased books from a particular store (iBooks, Kobo, Nook, Kindle) can only be opened with their dedicated reading app, while some books we find at open libraries can be read with a variety of free reading apps. Mac Os X Version 10.7 Update Download Free Terraria 1.4 Free Download Mac Most major publishers use Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to proof-read their books. Palm Reader for Macintosh takes today's top-ranked eBook reader to Macintosh desktop and notebook computers and gives you the greatest flexibility to read your eBooks anywhere anytime for free.
Enter Bookle — a straightforward, elegant EPUB reader for Mac OS X that maintains your library of EPUBs, available now from the Mac App Store for $9.99. Bookle 1.0 is intentionally simple, since Peter and I wanted to get something out quickly and then react to requests from users, but it has all the core features needed to read DRM-free EPUBs. (This unfortunately excludes titles purchased from protectionist publishers and resellers, including DRM-shackled titles from Apple’s iBookstore. We don’t apply digital rights management encryption to our Take Control titles on the iBookstore, but not all publishers respect their readers.)
Reading an EPUB with Bookle is as simple as dropping it on the app’s icon in the Dock, or choosing File > Open. The clickable table of contents appears in the sidebar, with the EPUB itself in the main window. You can navigate within chapters using the keyboard or mouse, or use the standard two-fingered trackpad gesture. Jumping between chapters is similarly easy: you can use keyboard shortcuts, two-fingered left/right swipe gestures, or the toolbar buttons.
Text formatting, background colors, and graphics all appear as you’d expect, and all links are live, both within an EPUB and out to Web resources. In short, Bookle just works the way you’d assume, and you can even customize the font, size, and background color in most EPUBs. Honestly, that’s about it for now, because we wanted to get Bookle to you quickly, and because book-reading software should be as obvious and easy-to-use as possible.
Nevertheless, Bookle does come with full documentation: the software includes “Take Control of Bookle,” a free 32-page ebook that covers everything you can do in Bookle, along with advice on where to find tens of thousands of ebooks in EPUB format — many of them free — as well as suggestions for programs that you can use to create your own EPUBs for cross-platform reading. With the included copy of “Take Control of Bookle,” you can start reading an EPUB right away.
Of course, we have ideas for additional features in Bookle, and we’re also interested in learning what you want to see in a refined, effective, Mac-focused ebook-reading program — just check in at the Bookle UserVoice forum to see (and vote for) what others have suggested and to offer your own ideas.
Bookle costs only $9.99, and it’s available from the Mac App Store to make it easy for you to get and us to manage. Bookle runs on any Intel-based Mac in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or 10.6 Snow Leopard.
(If you’ve purchased ebooks from the Take Control cart and want to download the EPUB versions for reading in Bookle, just log in to your Take Control account and click the green EPUB icon next to the book you want to download. Alternatively, you can click the Check for Updates button on the cover of any of our ebooks to go to the book’s Ebook Extras page, where you can find a link to the EPUB in the Downloads tab. Note that we don’t have EPUB versions of some of our oldest titles.)
• Filed to: Mac Tutorials
'Is there a reliable PDF reader for Mac (macOS 10.15 Catalina)?'
Mac users have a number of PDF reader programs to choose from, including Adobe Reader for Mac and Preview. But if you want a better PDF reading experience, you might want to use a more robust and powerful PDF program. In this article, we’ve compiled the top 5 PDF reader for Mac tools, including PDFelement Pro, which offers more features than a simple PDF reader.
Part 1: Top 5 Best PDF Reader for Mac
1. PDFelement Pro - The Best Alternative Free PDF Reader Pro for Mac to Adobe Acrobat.
As high-quality as Adobe Reader is due to its constant updates and improvements, you can also look into alternative programs to perform many of the same tasks. PDFelement Pro for Mac, as the best alternative PDF Reader to Adobe Acrobat for Mac, acts as both a PDF editor and reader that provides you full functions for PDF editing and a better experience reading PDF on Mac. This tool lets you add text, images, bookmarks, and more to your PDF. In addition, a user can also highlight text, underline, use strike-through features on the text, and crop PDF pages on Mac. Watermarks can also be used to protect your PDF files on Mac. You can even edit and convert scanned PDF files with PDFelement Pro.
Key Features of this PDF Reader for Mac:
- Add, delete or edit text, images, graphics, links, watermarks, and more.
- Convert PDF to Word and other formats, or create PDFs from Webpages, images, and text files.
- Quickly mark up and annotate PDFs with various annotation tools.
- Combine or split PDFs, organize pages, and easily fill out PDF forms.
- Edit and convert scanned or image-based PDFs using the OCR feature.
- Easily add watermarks, passwords, and signatures to PDF documents.
2. Skim - A Popular and Well-developed MacBook PDF reader
Skim is a popular PDF Reader on Mac that is tailored towards scientific purposes, although it can also be used to view other types of documents as well. This free PDF reader software is designed to be customizable for individual use and is handy for notes and previews. Skim is one of the most popular options because it includes easy-to-use and visually impressive reading modes.
Key Features:
- Single swipe highlight mode for easy use
- AppleScript support
- Ability to preview internal links
3. Adobe Reader for Mac - A Widely Used Free Mac os PDF reader
Adobe Reader for Mac is considered the industry standard. You can download a PDF reader for mac-Adobe Reader for free and set it as your default PDF reader. Adobe is still a very well-respected product on the market, as they are constantly making improvements and upgrades to the program. Still, there are other options that offer many of the same features at a lower price and without complicated licensing agreements.
Key Features:
- Fast and easy to use
- Established platform worldwide
- Considered industry standard
- Well developed and supported
4. Haihaisoft Reader for Mac - A Small Size Free PDF Reader for macOS
A prominent feature of Haihaisoft Reader for Mac is its small size at only 3MB; this compact PDF Reader for Mac takes up much less space than other programs like Adobe Reader (see below). The package covers a wide range of languages and is designed for ease of use, while it is also well supported and has been developed for use on a number of platforms. Interesting features include:
Key Features:
- Instant launch time
- No background net connection for added security
- Opens all PDF documents
- Protection with DRM-X
Ebook Reader Mac
5. PDFSam - A New Free PDF Reader for Macbook Pro or other Macs
PDFSam is a relatively new release that has been met with mixed reviews. This free PDF reader for Mac is designed for splitting and merging documents. Hence, it is called 'SAM.', Some users report problems while using the application, though generally, it is reported to be user-friendly and quick for the average user.
Key Features:
- Split and Merge - (SAM)
- Extract sections as separate PDFs
- Reorder pages when needed
- Compose documents by dragging and dropping
Part 2: Troubleshooting on Opening and Reading PDFs in macOS
Many people experience problems when trying to open or read PDFs on Mac. This is due to a variety of reasons, but luckily this problem is usually quite an easy one to solve in just a matter of minutes. Here are the three main reasons why you may have a problem reading a PDF on Mac and what you can do to solve the problem.
Question 1. Your Web Browser needs Updating
Solution: This is one of the most common problems that can prevent you from being able to read a PDF. Not all browsers update automatically, and it could be that yours needs a manual update. You can usually run a regular software update, but other times you may be required to update manually through the menu. An outdated browser may be the issue, in which case you may need to update your browser to resolve the issue. You can then make annotations and markups within your document.
Question 2. Your Browser is not Compatible
Solution: This issue depends on your operating system. If you are running OS 10.5 x, as many are, you will find that the later versions of Safari, for example, are non-compatible with your operating system. This will lead to you being unable to open PDFs and a number of other problems. It is recommended that users with this operating system try using Firefox instead to solve the problem.
Question 3. Check the Adobe Reader Plug-in
Solution: This problem also affects many users. If you are opening your PDF with Adobe Reader, the Adobe Reader Plug-in can be problematic, especially if it is an automatic launch when you enter your browser. The trick is to delete the plug-in (just the plug-in, not Adobe Reader itself). Try using Adobe Reader as a stand-alone program rather than having it run within your browser, and the problem should be solved. You can also re-install the plug-in if necessary.
Part 3: Best Recommendation
Ebook App For Mac
With so many options of PDF reader for Mac, sometimes it is hard to make a choice. But taking all the possible troubles into consideration, PDFelement can be regarded as the best PDF reader for Mac because it can provide you with a cozy reading experience without those troubles. Besides, do you think PDFelement is only a PDF reader? The answer is no; it is a PDF editor and PDF converter as well