FBReader icon
FBReader icon

FBReader

E-reader application.

FBReader screenshot 1
FBReader screenshot 2

Cost / License

  • Freemium (Pay once)
  • Proprietary

Application type

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Android
  • iPhone
  • Android Tablet
  • iPad
FBReader alternatives  
222likes
125alternatives
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Comments and Reviews

   
Top Positive Comment
StoneCrow
1

It's absolutely amazing and completely portable. Easily one of my favorites. Plus, there's a TTS add-on and a paid option, but I've seen no need for thet.

Top Negative Comment
jbbarnes
3

This looked like a great option since it was cross platform. Then I saw the lack of development for desktop OSes. The last Windows release was 10 years ago (in 2010) with a beta promised five years ago.

Azazel
-1

Windows version is long discontinued. And for Android I found ReadEra to be more easily and better customizable, and "bookshelf" view is available in free version.

artem2048
Replying to @Azazel

Windows version is not discontinued. Just checked their website news. The versions for Mac/Windows/Linux were released in 2023, 2024 and 2025

Azazel

Yes, looks like my bad, not sure why I thought it hasn't been updated in forever. I remember checking for new windows versions every now and then and it seemed to be totally abandoned. Maybe the link here was pointing to a different (outdated) website.

tuva-hayabi
1

Extremely quick, very slim and easy to use. I’m only missing an option to choose a font from those installed on my computer. BUT: it behaves funny after a fresh install of GNU/Linux, distribution Xubuntu 20.04: there is a dash behind every word, which makes it unusable for me now.

Hoek Hoek
1

Easy, lightweight, multi platform and fast.

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Official Links

AppStores & Other Links

Download from Google Play Store
Download from iPhone App Store

Install from the command line

  • brew install --cask fbreader

Be careful what you paste into a terminal. Check what a command installs before running it.

What is FBReader?

FBReader is an e-book reader for various platforms.

Features:

Supported e-book formats are: ePub, an international e-publishing standard. fb2, a Russian e-books standard de facto. Non-DRM'd version of Mobipocket, a popular commercial e-book format (http://alternativeto.net/software/mobipocket-ebook-reader/). plain text is supported, however FBReader might not always correctly split text into paragraphs. some subsets of RTF and MS Word Doc.

Direct reading from tar, zip, gzip and bzip2 archives. (Multiple books in one archive are supported.) Automatic library building. Automatic language and character encoding detection is supported. Automatically generated contents table. Embedded images support. Footnotes/hyperlinks support. Position indicator. Keeps the last open book and the last read positions for all opened books between runs. List of last opened books. Automatic hyphenations. Liang's algorithm is used. The same algorithm is used in TeX, and TeX hyphenation patterns are used in FBReader. Patterns for Czech, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Ukrainian are included in the current version. Text search. Full-screen mode. Screen rotation by 90, 180 and 270 degrees.

Currently FBReader works on

Linux desktop. Windows XP/Vista computer. MacOS X (port of Stanislav Gobunov). FreeBSD computer. Various linux-based mobile devices: Sharp Zaurus with Qtopia-based ROMs, pdaXrom or OpenZaurus ROM. Archos PMA430. Siemens Simpad with Opensimpad 0.9.0/Opie ROM. Nokia 770/N800/N810 Internet Tablets (maemo). PepperPad 3 handheld web computer. Motorola A1200 smartphone. Motorola E680i/A780 smartphones. (This port is available from the third-party site.) IRex iLiad. (This port is available from the third-party site.)

FBReader information

  • Developed by

    RU flagGeometer Plus

  • Licensing

    Proprietary and Freemium product.

  • Pricing

    One time purchase (perpetual license) + free version with limited functionality.

  • Rating

    Average rating of 3.2

  • Alternatives

    125 alternatives listed

  • Badge

    Get an embeddable badge for FBReader

  • Supported Languages

    • English
    • Czech
    • French
    • German
    • Italian
    • Polish
    • Portuguese
    • Russian
    • Chinese
    • Spanish
    • Ukrainian

AlternativeTo Categories

News & Books, Office & Productivity

Apple AppStore

  •   Updated 
  •   3.69 avg rating
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Our users have written 5 comments and reviews about FBReader, and it has gotten 222 likes

FBReader was added to AlternativeTo by Valentin on and this page was last updated . FBReader is sometimes referred to as FBReaderJ.