The Readium project originally started in 2012 and was originally billed to be an open source EPUB 3 engine. It is basically a set of reading tools for the development of iOS, Android and Chrome e-Reading apps. There are major players involved in the development of mobile and web-friendly SDK tools, such as Adobe, will be contributing a full-featured EPUB 3 rendering engine optimized for native apps on tablets and other mobile devices.
The IDPF owned Readium Project has released an upgrade for Chrome today, that dramatically enhances the UI. There is new settings that will allow you to change background to such options as “Vancouver Mist.” The scrolling feature to turn the pages have been suspended and now you have to use the left and right arrow keys to flip a page.
One of the big benefits about this reading app is that you can import ePub books from your local computer, from a zip file or from a link in the web. This is very useful for people who have Chromebooks and want to import books into the reader via Google Drive.
This reading app is quasi-ok with no big compelling features. It should only be used if you basically pirate books from the internet or are in development of ePub 3 books. The Kindle Cloud Reader, Kobo Cloud Reader and Overdrive Read are light years better than this app, which is sad, because its developed by the standardization body that is in charge of the evolution of ePub.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.