FBReader for Linux
In December 2021, after years of development suspension, we released FBReader 2.0 for Linux. Although the app includes most iOS and Android reader features, this is not a port of the mobile version. It is designed especially for desktop/laptop computers.
FBReader 2.0 is free of charge but not open-source. Currently, it is available in two formats:
Packages for other popular distros might come shortly.
Current version: 2.0.1, published 2nd May 2023
The table shows the status of the most significant features in the latest version.
| Supported formats | ePub, fb2, fb2.zip, mobi, rtf, MS doc, plain text, cbz |
| Not supported formats | cbr, cb7, pdf, djvu, docx |
| Book reading, styles, hyperlinks, hyphenations | Fully implemented |
| Page header and footer | Fully implemented, is customisable |
| Page turning/text scrolling | Spacebar and right arrow keys turn the page forward; the left arrow key turns back. Mouse-click on the right/left margins turns ahead/back. The mouse wheel, as well as up and down arrows, scroll line-by-line |
| Multi-book (multi-window) mode | Fully implemented |
| Two-column mode | Fully implemented. The text switches to two-column mode automatically. You can tune the logic in the “Columns & Margins” preferences section |
| Text selection | Implemented, excluding automatic text scrolling when user selects end of the page |
| Table of contents | Fully implemented |
| Bookmarks | Implemented: adding, removing, style selection, navigation over the bookmarks list; adding/editing/removing styles; to be implemented: text editing |
| Language selection | Automatic language/encoding detection only; there is no way to fix a detection error manually |
| Advanced text navigation | Click on the page footer navigates over the text; undo/redo buttons allow to jump back. The position stack persists between runs |
| Dark theme | Fully implemented; on Linux, you have to switch it manually in the window menu (three dots in the upper top corner) |
| All titles list | Fully implemented |
| Lists of recently added/opened books | Fully implemented |
| Books by author | Fully implemented |
| Books by series | Fully implemented |
| Books by tags | Not implemented yet |
| Custom shelves | Not implemented yet |
| Book download | Fully implemented |
| Book meta info dialogue | Fully implemented |
| Book deletion | Fully implemented |
| Multiple book selection, group operations | Not implemented yet |
| Browsing | Implemented, some OPDS features are still under development |
| Book downloading | Fully implemented |
| Navigation history | Implemented, not persists between runs |
| Bookmarks | Fully implemented |
| Search | Implemented, needs some improvements in multi-catalogue search |
| Built-in catalogues | Project Gutenberg and Smashwords Online Catalogue |
| Adding of custom OPDS catalogues | Fully implemented |
| Network authorisation | Implemented for some catalogues |
| Titles list from server | Fully implemented |
| Uploading new books to the server | Fully implemented |
| Deleting books | Fully implemented |
| A way to force upload a recently deleted book | Not implemented yet |
| Positions | Fully implemented |
| Bookmarks | Fully implemented |
| Custom shelves | Not implemented yet |
| Network catalogues list, library bookmarks | Not implemented yet |
| Preferences dialogue | Implemented; some minor pages and options are still missing |
| Settings export/import | Fully implemented |
