Introduction To Helicon Reader:
When you can read almost any book on your device be it a smartphone or PC, you have knowledge everywhere. This was the idea which made publishers think about a new format for saving and making books. The idea was to have readers read these books on any device. In years to come to this idea gave rise to PDFs, Docs, and other text formats. You can read these two files almost on any device. Even PC or Mac systems have the programs to skim PDF files. Of course, the idea was getting a shape, although not entirely. Therefore, other types of eBooks came to the online market.
One of the major ebook formats were ePub, which user can read on most of the devices. In addition to that, you have apps and devices which support the reading of these books and enhancing of them. Helicon reader app for Android and iOS is one of the most critical reading applications which exists.
Helicon reader is familiar amongst avid eBook readers, especially in Android system. Most of the eBook reading users, use this app to read ePub and ePub3 format books within the smart devices they have. The reader in this scenario is highly useful in smartphones and tablets as well. We say this because the app has multiple features which make it a reading pleasure on different screens as well. For Android users, the application is available on Android systems through Google Play store. Of course, you can read almost all types of eBooks in this app. Even MathML, Epub2, and DRM PDFs are supported within Helicon reader app. The founders of the app, Israeli ebook production house Helicon Books, claim that the eBook reader app is the first to support EPUB3 behind only Apple books or Google books.
Features Of Helicon Reader:
As with most eBook reading apps available for Android systems, Helicon can read almost anything. You just have to install the app on your device and get it to scan your eBooks. These eBooks can be anywhere on your device, either internal storage or SD card. Helicon books are not an entirely different entity. They are almost similar to every other eBook reader compatible books. You can quickly open the eBooks that you usually use for other readers, with this one. You will face no problems doing so with this app. The below are some features which make Helicon Reader app for Android:
Direct Connect For Helicon Books:
- Most users look to browse through books from within the app and load them up. The users will not want to go out of the app and visit multiple websites before getting the books.
- To reduce this browse around time, Helicon has provided with its library of eBooks across genres or categories. Naturally, you can find any book that you want within these libraries.
- Helicon reader does so by allowing users to access multiple eBook libraries. You have this option through OPDS system within the application. OPDS is The Open Publication Distribution System which developers can use to give their app permissions for accessing websites.
- You can use the library feature not only to scan within the device but also outside. You get your eBooks from your SD card and also get a chance to browse through the books online.
- Also, not only buying you may also buy any book you like on the online portals within a few clicks, from within the application. What’s more, the app even tells you which books would go well with your present interests.
- You may only face a slight problem when you end up getting Mobi files into your device. Presently, you cannot use Helicon reading app to read books which are available in Mobi. From the latest version, the app supports all types of ePub files.
Interactive SVG Within Helicon Reader:
- Have you come across eBooks which have multi-layer depth graphics. But why do eBooks need graphics where simple text would do. The idea behind this is simple.
- A user has a better understanding of a material when he sees graphics come with it. These graphics may include successive images, animation content, and so forth.
- Whatever you have on the book you still need an eBook app which supports everything you have on the compound book. This is where Helicon Reader shines. You have interactive SVG features which make reading enhanced ebooks within the app more fruitful.
- The full form of SVG is Scalable Vector Graphics, which in turns allow you to include multimedia contents in the book. You can also allow the reading app to adjust the graphics as per the screen sizes and displays.
- By this, we mean that the book reading experience should not change when you turn the device to face horizontally. Also, the content should remain the same when are viewing different screen sizes. Thus, SVG is useful for both smartphones and tablets.
- As a user, you can go ahead and load up any eBook within the app. You don’t have to install separate plugins for reading multiple formats. Helicon reader has got you all the benefits.
Language Supports For The Application:
These days with new technology that we have, language have slowly become a minor obstacle. You can have programs and apps written in Chinese and still get to use them in an entirely separate language, say English. The apps are becoming more compatible than ever. You don’t have to worry about any new languages and scripts while you are reading an eBook. That’s the beauty of it. With enhanced eBooks, you can always buy eBooks which are made in two or more languages in the same package. You can switch from reading one language to another. This goes on to tell you the ease of use you have while reading an eBook. Helicon reader app provides this facility too. Hence, you get support for Hebrew/English in the user interface. But, don’t worry, you can still read the books which you have in many languages.
Right To Left Analysis:
When we look at middle eastern scripts, most of them are in the right to left form. It means that if you are trying to read these books, you will have to start your stance from the right and proceed to the left. Usually, we read from left to right, in the same way that we write the passages. However, there may be some scripts which are written in left to right.
Most eBook readers in the early days failed to address this issue. In addition to that, they did not have the required codecs to read these books from left to right. Apparently, the scene changed when you got your instant updates to the reading apps over the years. Now, almost all the eBook readers have no lag in reading such scripts without any codecs. Helicon reading app is no different. So, go ahead and load up your cultural and historical journals into the app and happily read them out.
Cloud Service Support For Helicon On iOS and Android:
How many times have you wanted to get eBooks from other sources than SD Card of your device? And we are talking about using your cloud storage to get books into your device. More importantly, you will need to have the apps support the books and the drives. You don’t have to worry now, as you have multiple eBook reading apps which allow you to load up books from cloud services like Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox, etc. More known eBook apps which do this are – Aldiko, Blio, Mantano, or Moon+ readers. You can attach your drive details to these apps, and sit back and enjoy.
This facility is also available for Helicon reader as well. You just have to start the app, visit the settings and enter your drive details. You may have to visit your cloud storage and allow some permissions there. Once you have everything in place, you may have to restart the app, to take effect. In moments you will see that the books which exist on your drive, will appear in your app as well. However, before you begin reading them, you may have to download them beforehand. You can adjust the settings from within the app itself and ensure that the books are always there when you need them. Also, it is important to know that you can connect multiple cloud drives to this application.
Helicon Books Arrangement Methods:
- As with every other eBook reader app for iOS and Android, Helicon also has bookshelf feature in it. You have your books automatically grouped into separate categories. The separation depends on many factors such as Tags, Authors, Year of Release, Genre, etc. Also, you can have Audiobooks arranged in a separate group altogether.
- Of course, you can go ahead and separate them manually. As we have in audio player apps for Android, you can create your playlists here as well. You can also group them basing on the estimated reading time you may have for each book. This is a nice little feature which allows you to pick up a book depending on the free time you have to spend.
- Apart from the above characteristic, you also get many other features to tweak your books in the way you want them to be. As the App supports Javascript inputs, you can drag and drop books from one category to another at any time.
- You can arrange your bookshelf to reflect in the same fashion in any device that you have under the same account. Of course, most of the readers, owing to Kindle readers, have got their versions of multiple device support.
- If you are using one device which has all of your library of books in it, what happens when you have to shift your reading to another instrument.
- Also, what if you left the eBook you were reading in the middle and had to pick up some other appliance. With the latest readers, you don’t have to worry about such situations anymore.
Reading Habits Within Helicon Reader:
With the new eBook reader giving as much flexibility to the users as possible, reading has become super fun. You can do whatever you want with the text you have in front of you. Also, You can read any eBook in the way you like. With the app, You can have different display trends within the app. Usually, these are divided into three variants – Sepia, Night Mode, Daylight mode. You can open an eBook within any of the modes you have within the app.
Night mode gives your eyes rest while reading the eBook by reducing the glare. It makes the background into blacker shades and keeps the font in white so that the stress is not much while reading. The scenario is reversed when you select the Daylight setting (which is the default setting in the app). Between these two themes, you have your Sepia theme which is easier to read the eBooks in one form or other.
The app in addition to giving you an easy to use bookshelf feature also provides you with arrangements for a table of contents. You can see what the book is all about by hovering above the title and tapping it. Immediately, you’ll see the table of contents of the book. With this given, you are ready to pick up the book or leave it for some other time. You don’t have to get a book which you don’t like depending on what you see. Also, this feature is most useful when you are about to buy a book from the bookstore. Though the app suggests you which books you may be interested in, it also tells you which one to pick up.
Other Features Of The Application:
- Helicon reader gives many options to make your reading experience as easy and fun as possible. You can select from a load of fonts and read your books in that font. However, The fonts you choose will come to apply for all the books. The later updates may be able to solve this problem. At present, you can choose the fonts which are most comfortable with your screen size and display to match your needs.
- One feature that this app has as an inbuilt feature is support for MathML. MathML is the mathematical equations which are usually written for eBooks which deal with scientific theories and explanations. You may have seen that most of the theorems and declarations in research papers are hand written in the form of MathML equation. Most eBook readers fail to see this as an equation. They just see this as another text and align them in order, making them unreadable. Helicon reader ensures that they are shown separately.
- Epub Reflowable content support is also there in the app. You can obviously see this feature in most leading eBook readers out in the market. What this means is that the text is arranged and marked to make sense according to the page layout and screen size. The idea is that the user reading the eBook should not lose out on the eBooks various alignments and designs just because he is reading on a small size. Compatibility is the key here. You will have to read the book in the same way both on the small size and bigger display. Apparently, The screen sizes should not matter. That would defeat the purpose of reading the eBook.
- Fixed layout support here will ensure that the material is always the same even when you change the devices. You can read the book in any different device and still see the book in a similar way. The book has different multimedia content, appears the same when you look at PC, or Mobile platform. Helicon reader for iOS and Android supports both reflowable content and fixed layout as well.
- Helicon reader app also allows you to go beyond the usual and customize the backgrounds of the eBooks while reading them. Of course, as with many other eBook reading apps, you have the option to edit the metadata details of the eBooks which you have loaded up in the app. As we can see from above discussion, you can get your books from SD cards, or Bluetooth or Cloud devices easily into the app. Once the app scans the books, it starts arranging the books into groups. As it were, the grouping may not be correct every time. You can ensure that you have the groups and books in the proper way, you may have to edit the metadata then. You can do that when you long press on the title and tap on details. Here, you can click on the pencil icon to edit the metadata. This allows you to group the eBooks into categories which you think are the best fit.
- Also, one other feature which makes Helicon reader a good bet is a way it never loads up. You can install the app in under five minutes because of its small size and installation package. Of course, this is a major factor for someone using a smartphone which runs on limited storage. The app does not take much size and can easily be loaded in. You now have all the great reasons to go ahead and try the Helicon reading app for Android and iOS.
Conclusion For Helicon Reader App:
With middle eastern publishers taking a stride into digital platforms, we will see multiple apps coming out to support the literature of the region. With these apps on your device, you no longer have to look for alternatives to reading works written in languages like Hebrew, Urdu, Egyptian, and Arabic. You can swipe open an app and load books on them quickly. However, when you look at the other end of the game, at the publishers behind it, you will see a gap in production. Most traditional publishers are coming from middle eastern cities and communities have failed to pick up on the digital trends. They have yet to try the eBooks version of it.
With recent global digital trends being imprints (releasing physical books and digital books at the same time), you have to get on the wagon as soon as possible. To do this, as a traditional publisher you may have to partner with Professional eBook conversion services company. We are a company which specializes in these kinds of requirements, extending our services to the biggest players in the industry. Drop us a mail, and we will make your work appear digitally to the world, in a way it never has previously.