Read books on your Mac. Sure, tablets and e-ink devices are better ways to read than your computer – and even your phone is nicer than a laptop if you’re on the couch. But sometimes you need to open a book on your Mac.
EPub has become a known standard among ebook lovers. This format is used in abundance to publish ebooks, online magazine, newspaper, research paper and whatnot. There are many popular ebook readers along with iPad, which supports the format. Today in this post, we will tell you some of the best ePub Readers which you can use on Windows, Mac and Android smartphones. Windows ePub Readers Adobe Digital Editions – Adobe Digital Editions is a great ePub reader which you can use on your Windows Operating System. We explore, in this article, some free eBook readers that are available for the Mac. IBooks is Apple’s stock eBook reader app, and it is exactly what an eBook reader for a laptop should be. It has a clean UI, even in windowed mode.
Maybe you’re using a text as a reference for a project, or maybe you just want to read a few chapters of a novel at your desk. Whatever the reason, choosing which app to open your books for depends on a few factors. Books you buy from a particular service (iBooks, Kindle and so on) can only be opened with their software, for example, while free EPUB files you find at Project Gutenberg can be read with a variety of free software.
There might not be a single program for reading all your books, so it’s good to know your options. Whatever your situation, here are the best options for reading ebooks on your Mac.
If You Love Apple Defaults: iBooks
Mavericks, the latest version of OS X, brought Apple’s iBooks service to the desktop. Long offered on iPads and iPhones, iBooks allows you to read the books you’ve purchased from Apple’s bookstore on your desktop – and also offers support for EPUB files. Your current reading list and bookmarks will sync between your various devices, so if you’re an Apple fan with multiple devices this might be ideal for you.
EPUB files you add on your Mac won’t sync wirelessly to your mobile devices.
The interface is minimalistic and focused on reading – even the toolbar fades away if you’re not using it, leaving you with just your book. You can take notes, tag and highlight information, but you won’t find a lot of customization options (so I hope you like the default font).
iBooks is a solid reader if you like the idea of a book library and mostly want to focus on reading. It’s probably perfect for most users, but only works if you’re using the latest version of OS X. Mavericks is free; here’s how to get itOS X Mavericks is Free: Here's How To Get It & Why You Want ItOS X Mavericks is Free: Here's How To Get It & Why You Want ItApple really outdid itself this time. The words 'software sells hardware' never rung more true, and now that OS X Mavericks is free to all, isn't it about time you got on-board?Read More.
If You Own An E-Reader: Kindle, Kobo Or Nook
If you have a dedicated reading device – a Kindle, Kobo or Nook – you’ve likely purchased books for it. If that’s the case, you’re probably best off using the Mac reading software offered by the company that made your device.
Download Kindle For Mac, Kobo for Mac or Nook for Mac to sync your existing collection right now. None of these services offer the ability to import EPUB books found outside their ecosystem, so you may want to check out another alternative. But if all you want is to read your current books on your Mac, these apps are your best bet.
If You Want A Store-Free Alternative: Kitabu
If you’re not using Mavericks, or would rather avoid software tied to a specific online bookstore, Kitabu is worth looking into. This open source reader sports a minimalist interface, with columns, and allows you to customize the fonts.
Reading itself couldn’t be easier: use the arrow keys to turn the page, or scroll sideways if you prefer to use the touchpad.
There is a library feature; you can choose whether books are moved or copied to it in the preferences. This might be annoying for users who would like to simply open an EPUB without adding it to a library, but others will surely see it as a feature.
Notably missing features include bookmarks and notes, but on the plus side you do have full control of the reading font. You can download Kitabu from the Mac App Store, or from SourceForge if you prefer.
If You Borrow From The Library: Adobe Digital Editions
This is not the best reading software on this list. It doesn’t support columns, so you need to either resize the window or adjust to massively wide paragraphs. It doesn’t offer a lot of customization at all – there isn’t even a Preferences screen.
And yet, you might want to install it. Why? For one thing, many public libraries offer books protected by Adobe’s software, meaning you’re going to need Digital Editions if you want to borrow books from them. The software can also transfer such books to your (non-Kindle) ereader, and is required for offline reading of books purchased from Google and a variety of other online bookstores.
So it’s not the best, but you might be stuck with it sometimes. Go ahead and download Adobe Digital Editions for Mac
If You’re Hardcore/Awesome: Calibre
If you collect a lot of ebooks, and want to convert them from one format to another so you can read them on various devices, Calibre is your program. This ebook managment software can do anything, from converting MOBI files to EPUB to transferring files to a tablet or ereader. It can even download blogs or newspapers for offline readingDownload Entire Newspapers or Blogs To Your eBook Reader With CalibreDownload Entire Newspapers or Blogs To Your eBook Reader With CalibreRead More, which is great before a long trip.
There are some down sides. The app isn’t that great for actually reading files, and its interface feels like a relic. But while Calibre might not be the best reading experience for Mac, it’s a must-have tool for power users looking to organize, convert and transfer their colleciton.
Learn more by reading our Calibre manual, or go ahead and download Calibre.
If You Still Want More Choices
The above options should meet just about anyone’s needs, but more choices are always good, right? Here are a few.
- Firefox users: you can install the EPUBReader for Firefox and open EPUB files in your browser. It’s perfect if you just want to quickly open a file to check something.
- Clearview ($6.99) [No longer available] has gotten positive reviews for its tabbed reading interface. You might like it.
- Murasaki ($7.99, free older version) is worth a look if you prefer scrolling up and down to “turning pages”, and don’t want a library for your books.
Did I miss your favourite ebook reader for Mac? Fill me, and your fellow reader, in using the comments below. Acrobat reader free download for mac.
Explore more about: Ebooks, eReader.
- This article fails to mention that iBooks will only sync books you have purchased from Apple. Anything outside of this and your screwed,
- It's syncing DRM-free .EPUB and .PDF files between my MacBook Pro running OS X El Capitan and my iPad 2 running iOS 9. Once a book is added on one device, I go to the other and make sure 'Show iCloud Books' is enabled to get them to show up so I can download them.
- Also, bookmarks and highlights are stored in iCloud and automatically synced with all devices.
- Thank you for the review. I still have a question: what types of e-book readers are the best for textbooks with *figures*. When reading textbooks, you often need to look at a figure to understand the text, but with e-books, they are always on different pages and its difficult to go back-and-forth between reading and picture, reading and picture.. 'wait. what page was I on?' I currently use Kindle, and I'm about done with it.Which e-book readers make pictures and figures easy to see?
- Murasaki for me is one of the best. It has a lot of nice features I've never seen in any other reader.
A bit pricey, perhaps, but worth every penny. IMHO. - An update as well as some personal opinions here: be careful, vigilant and scrupulous what you load into iBooks as they will permanently remain; you cannot remove or delete them once loaded.Also, Nook for Mac has pretty much been abandoned. Besides that it's pretty much worthless and prone to repeatedly crash. And if you've already got Calibre installed on your Mac add 'no reason to even have it in your Applications' folder to Nook for Mac.
- Although your are technically correct that EPUB items will not synch wirelessly with other devices with iBooks, when an EPUB item is added to iBooks, they will be automatically synched into iTunes, where they can be readily synched with other Apple devices.
ePub has become a known standard among ebook lovers. This format is used in abundance to publish ebooks, online magazine, newspaper, research paper and whatnot. There are many popular ebook readers along with iPad, which supports the format. Even, you can read them on your iOS, Android, Windows and Mac supported devices as well. The ax to grind behind this post is to provide a protracted collection of best ePub reader for Windows and Mac user.
Every now and then, we find many benevolent sellers giving away their eBooks for free on various platforms like Kindle or some other. In the past, we shared a trick to find out free eBooks from Amazon, which we often follow because we stumbled many great books that interests us. Nook, Kindle and iPad are some of the popular devices on which people often download ebooks and read at leisure. Such ebooks often come with ePub (electronic publication) extension. However, the problem emerges when the books are downloaded to the PC. A hunt for the best ePub reader begins after the successful download. There is a clever solution to convert PDF to Kindle format with tools like K2PDFOPT.
Pro tip: Search Google with
“social media” filetype:epub
phrase and you will find some interesting books on social media. Similarly, you can swap the keyword “social media” with your desired keyword. The above query will provide some relevant results in case if you are looking for some good ebooks.You can read them on your iPad, Nook and many other devices.
But is it possible to read them on Windows or Mac PC? If yes, what are the available options for the users? If no, are there any other service available to achieve so? We deciphered many puzzled face in the past, and provided them some subtle solutions.
Best ePub Readers
Without further ado, let’s show you the real gem. Following are some of the best ePub readers for both Windows and Mac users. We will cover a detailed post containing Android ePub readers very soon.
Table of Contents
ePub Reader for Windows
There are nimiety of quality ePub reader available on Windows platform. We have jotted down best of’em.
Adobe Digital Editions
A powerhouse from the great Adobe factory, Adobe Digital Editions is the right product for digital format lovers. Explore free eBooks library to start your journey after the installation of the software. Furthermore, it is also compatible with screen reading software like Window-Eyes, Voice-Over, JAWS, so you can take your reading one step further by integrating aforementioned software. Adobe Digital Editions is designed to support both Mac and Mac (sorry Linux users) operating system.
It supports full screen reading, borrowing of eBooks and many other. With impressive line-up of features it would not be wrong to call it as a best ePub reader.
Calibre
Calibre is a cross platform eBook reader with ample of features. First of all, it is available on Mac, Windows and Linux platforms. Essentially, it is a library management system that comes with a default reader. The conversion engine supports abundance of conversion formats. If you are looking for a comprehensive converter then look no further. Currently, ePub, CBZ, CBR, MOBI and many other formats are available which may entice ebook reader. Linux users can look at our previous post on comic readers. Calibre could be included in the list as well. Calibre is a well established software. There are many powerful features available like converting webpages into ebook, syncing them to e-book reader etc. An active community will help you out to find out some good resources over the net.
Sumatra PDF
Sumatra PDF has established itself as a great free alternative of Adobe PDF software for Windows users. It offers arrays of unparallel features for Windows users. It is a very light weight PDF and eBook reader which supports both ePub and Mobi format. Even, the developers pleased comic book lovers by integrating support for cbr and cbz extensions (comic book formats). In short, it is a rugged solution that you would always want to have on your disc.
If you have downloaded eBook in PDF format, then you might want to optimize your PDF for size and performance. Such tools will definitely help you to save space on your device, be it iPad, Kindle, Windows or Mac.
Sumatra PDF offers tons of quick keyboard shortcuts for better navigation between the document. As a side note, we suggest you to download full installer version which also consist of Firefox, Chrome and Opera extension. It will bring all the comfort to your browser.
ePub Reader for Mac
Not only Mac users are showered with top notch ePub reader, but also most of them are distributed for free. There are many of them available on various platforms. This is why we recommend Windows and Linux users to try them out.
FBReader
FBReader is a cross platform eBook reader that works almost any platform on the earth. Really!!!. It works on Android, Symbian, Meego, Windows, Mac OS, Linux and even BlackBerry 10. The new version for Blackberry user is expected to arrive soon. FBReader is suffused with unparallel features. By default it supports ePub and even fb2 format, a Russian e-books standard de facto. Needless to say, RTF, doc and plain formats are also supported. There is also a library with abounding free ebooks which are readily available for download. Even popular archives format like tar, zip, gzip, bzip2 are supported by it. This multilingual application also supports many of the popular languages. Overall, it is a power packed suit that conquest any other competitor. Also do check out some good Linux Comic book readers.
Okular
Abode reader for mac. Okular is based on KDE 4 environment. This universal document reader supports ePub, PDF, CHM, XPS, DjVu, Postscript, Tiff, Plucket, Mobipocket and many other formats. The endless list of supported format are increasing months after months. The new version integrates annotation feature. You can add annotation to your document or PDF files and easily send it to your colleagues or friends through email or any other medium. Due to its dependency on KDE 4 environment, it is possible to use it on Windows, Mac and BSD operating systems.
Ehon
Ehon is a slick and simple to use ebook management application for Mac users. Not only does it offer a great interface, but also supports plethora of formats. You can read your comic book, manga, ebooks and many more at your leisure. There is an import option which will let import as many book, magazines, documents you want. Ehon for Mac lets you read ePub, PDF, CBR, CBZ, Zip and Rar files. The downside is that DRM protected files are not supported yet.
Enhanced filters and tag cloud options will let you search the file quickly. It makes library search breezing fast. https://renewgifts933.weebly.com/reader-rabbit-ready-for-letters-mac.html. It works on Mac OS X 10.6.4 or later version. You can not ask anything more from this free ePub reader for Mac.
More Free + Paid ePub Readers
It would be perfidious doing if we skip other great applications available for both Mac and Windows users. Feel free to explore them if you are looking for more options.
Note: For paid app, we’ve mentioned the price at the end
Mac apps
Free Epub Reader For Mac
- Clearview Reader $6.99
- Kitabu
- Bookreader $9.99
- Alice $4.99
- Ibis Reader
- Bookle $9.99
- Murasaki $8.99
Windows Software
- Azardi (Windows, Mac, Linux)—ePub3 reader
- Fiction Book Reader (Windows 8)
- Cool Reader (Windows, Linux, Android, Symbian)
- KooBits
- Mobiepocker Reader
- Sigil (Windows- 32-bit, 64-bit, Mac)
- ComiXology (Windows 8 comic book reader)
Best Epub Reader Mac 2017
These are some of the best ePub readers for Windows and Mac users. Of course., even Linux, iOS and Android users may find some good resources for them. A long list of Android apps will be available soon.
Best Epub Reader For Mac
Have we missed your favorite epub reader? Or would you like us to include your app in the list? Shameless plug are also welcome.