My question is basically the title. I’m making my own Puppy Linux remaster and it already has a .PDF reader for it that is very small. I think it’s called Evince? It has a native GTK UI and starts in a second, uses very little RAM and CPU. Now I need a .EPUB reader. I’ve seen a couple different .EPUB reader apps out there for different distros, and they all the .EPUB readers seem to fall into a couple categories:

  • humongous JS monstrosity that runs inside a web browser OR packages an entire chrome copy into it with a bloated dependency hell

  • something else that is humongous and has dependency hell but non secretly a massive web app inside a web browser under the hood.

So is there some third option that’s small and light and easy to install like the normal .PDF reader? I’m just asking because I honestly didn’t find one that fit the bill.

  • everett@lemmy.ml
    17·
    1 year ago

    You’re going to have a web browser installed, right? .epub files are just zips with HTML/images/CSS inside. Just find the HTML file with named “toc” and go from there.

  • beerclue@lemmy.world
    13·
    1 year ago

    As far as I know, MuPDF is not that heavy, and can view both PDFs and EPUBs (and others).

    I personally use zathura, which is a very, very light weight document viewer, has vi style key bindings, and has plugins for viewing PDF, EPUB, CB, and others. Works pretty well in a keyboard centric desktop environment (I use Hyprland).

  • ardent_abysm@lemm.ee
    91·
    1 year ago

    Assuming you have a Firefox derived browser installed, you could just add an EPUB extension to the browser.

    • greyOP
      5·
      1 year ago

      I didn’t realize MuPDF did both! That might be what I need. Thank you.

    • greyOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      Also, are you banned? I can only see your post in my inbox, but not on the thread.

      • Vilian@lemmy.ca
        7·
        1 year ago

        if he was banned you couldn’t see him anywhere, probably federation being funcky, or your app not updating both at the same time

        • bbbhltz@beehaw.orgEnglish
          6·
          1 year ago

          Just checked the modlog. I don’t appear to be banned. Funky Federation stuff.

      • bbbhltz@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I have no idea how I would be banned, I’m not super active. How can I find out if I’ve been banned?

  • Bob Smith@sopuli.xyz
    21·
    1 year ago

    One option is to convert to txt for any text-only epubs that you have. There are a ton of lightweight options if you’re willing to use format-shifted copies on your computer.

  • _cnt0@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    1 year ago

    FBreader package is <4mb. The android app is excellent (best ebook reader imho). I remember the PC version’s interface to be somewhat clunky. But it might fit your bill.