Legimi: Download & Read eBooks And Sync Library With Web [Android]
It’s been long since we last caught hold of a noteworthy eBook/ ePub reader on the Android Market. But thanks to Legimi – a more than capable eBook, newspaper and blog reader that was initially available to iOS users only – Android users can now gain access to hundreds of (free and paid) publications that are available on the Legimi website. Legimi, unlike other eBook readers, adds a couple of handy options such as automatic content sync in the background, real-time text preview, sharing of selected text to Facebook, multiple language support and more to make your reading experience easy and convenient.
In order to access and download content from Legimi’s library, you need to sign up with the service (for new users) and log in with a valid account. You can easily register for a new (free) account from within the app. When launched for the first time, the app welcomes users with a brief how-to guide about using the app. When you’ve got a grip over using the app’s various features, you may head over to its homescreen that contains buttons for Shelves, Catalogue, Synchronize, Books, Papers, and Notebook along with displaying a quick access list at the bottom for all content/publications.
Tap on Shelves to create/manage your bookshelves and view all publications categorized according to various shelves named To read, Top rated, Recently downloaded and Trash (contains deleted publications). To create a new shelf, tap Menu > Create a new shelf, provide a title and tap OK.
Tapping the Catalogues button provides access to the catalogue on Legimi website from where you can check various free and paid publications. You may download free previews of your favorite publications or purchase their full version. To synchronize all the publications that you’ve purchased from the website, simply tap the Synchronize button. The Books button, as its name suggests, lists out your entire collection of books. Long press on a book title to open, rate, shelve or remove it.
While in reading mode, you can swipe left/right on the screen to switch between pages. Tapping anywhere on the page launches an overlay menu with the Home and Contents buttons but more importantly, a slider that can be swiped left/right to switch between pages. You can press Menu to increase/decrease text size, head over to the View options screen or launch the Notebook that contains all your selected quotes (text), notes and bookmarks. You can also long press on your screen to bookmark the current page or to pick an interesting quote from within it. Selected quote(s) can easily be saved and published to your Facebook account.
On the customization front, you can tap Menu > Settings (while on the app’s homescreen) and pick a setting to modify from General, Catalogues and View options. From the General settings screen, you can change your password, deactivate your account (removes all personal/downloaded data), tweak synchronization options for publishing selective content to Facebook, auto-update content (upon starting the app or when finished with reading) and select various content (from publications, shelves, notepad data as well as read time duration) that you wish to synchronize. Catalogues settings allow you to select the preferred language for the app.
From the View options settings screen, you can modify various text settings for your readings and see immediate effects through under the Text preview menu. The app lets you adjust settings such as the font size/type, text alignments, line spacing and toggle between day/night mode. Various display settings that can also be modified from the screen include screen timeout, orientations and brightness etc.; all to ensure that you have a nice and comfortable reading experience on your device.
