E-Reader App Compatibility Chart

These charts compare the compatibility that various popular eBook apps have with my ePub version of Elementary Counterpoint. My chart only deals with the most critical elements for this e-book, the ones most likely to pose a challenge to an ebook app, which are navigation links and embedded audio. I have tested all of them on the only two devices I have, which are an iPad Air and a Samsung Galaxy s4 smartphone. If you have feedback about other devices that would be pertinent here, please let me know.

Device Tested: iPad Air; iOS 8
App Name Cost Navigation Links Audio Players Previous Location Respects Styling Notes
Bluefire Free Yes No Yes Mostly Images are left-aligned
iBooks Free Yes Yes Yes Yes Applies full justification unless you change this option in app preferences.
Kobo Free Yes Yes Yes Yes links function as popups, like footnotes, but you have the option to click through to the actual location in the book
KyBooks Free No No No Yes Navigation links work as popups, can’t click through to the location in the book
Marvin $3.99 Yes Yes Yes Yes Awesome! Besides working so well with my book, it has many excellent general features, worth the money. Huge Accessibility feature is inclusion of the OpenDyslexic font.
NeoSaur Free Unreliable Yes Yes No Image styling is ignored, so the meter-sign images are rendered badly
Nook Free No No No No Images rendered small
Overdrive Free Yes Yes Yes Mostly Audio players and headings are left-aligned. It takes a long time to do “Indexing” but then the book works pretty well. You have to long-press the links and the audio player buttons, or else it pages backwards instead.
Play Books (Google) Free Yes No No Yes

Device Tested: Samsung Galaxy S4; Android 4.4.4
App Name Cost Navigation Links Audio Players Previous Location Respects Styling Notes
Aldiko Free No No No Yes have to choose “publisher default” styling. The images are too small and aligned to the left
Bluefire Free Unreliable No No No Images are left-aligned and much too small. The meter-sign images are so small they can't even be read. Everything is too small, can't seem to make font size any bigger. Not a good app on android. Much better on the iPad.
Cool Reader Free No No No Mostly
Ebook Reader Free Unreliable Yes Yes Yes The audio examples work, although as soon as you play one it flips book back to the previous page. There’s a very nice navigation history feature. Instead of just offering to let you go back to the previous spot, you can see a list of several previous locations and choose the one you want.
Epub Reader for Android Free No No No Yes Navigation links are removed entirely, audio players render but do not play
FBreader[†] Free Yes No Yes Mostly Previous location is device “back” button. I wish this would play the examples because otherwise it’s my favorite e-book app on android. It has amazing speed when turning pages and handy integration with Project Gutenberg.
Kobo Free Unreliable Yes Yes Yes In settings you have to uncheck the box that says “use Kobo styling.” The example links work well, paragraph links were sometimes inaccurate. The table of contents also had a bunch of extra weird stuff in it. The audio players did not appear immediately upon opening the book, but did appear eventually.
Moon+ Pro Reader $$ Yes Unreliable Yes No Plays the wrong musical examples. This is a pity because the Moon reader has excellent highlighting and note-taking features, including easy export of notes to email or text file.
NeoSaur Free Unreliable Yes No Yes Crashy with squirrelly navigation. Image styling is ignored, so the meter-sign images are rendered badly
Nook Free Unreliable No No Yes Images rendered small and left-aligned; navigation not accurate
Overdrive Free Yes No No Yes Links have to be long pressed, but otherwise work okay. The audio players render but do not play audio
Play Books (Google) Free Yes No Yes Yes Previous location is device “back” button

Dedicated Ebook Readers
Device Navigation Links Audio Players Previous Location Respects Styling Notes
Kindle Paperwhite Yes No Yes Yes azw3 format does not support audio, but otherwise it’s excellent, my favorite reading experience.
Nook Color Unreliable No Yes Mostly Same problems that the Nook apps have.
Indicates that the app is released under a FOSS license.

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