Author | Lightnews

Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · 17h

Q1 2026 we'll mostly focus on public, academic and school libraries.

We'll provide a built-in list of libraries that users can browse, search and borrow ebooks/audiobooks from.

Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · 17h

For the rest of the year, we're focusing on providing a great reading and listening experience.

Among other things, this means adding support for synchronized text and audio (either pre-recorded audio with Media Overlays or TTS).

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · 17h

What's already available:
* Homepage
* Bookshelf
* Search in bookshelf
* Ability to import EPUB and PDF files, including LCP protected ones
* Reader mode for EPUB and PDF
* Visual adjustments for EPUB
* Table of contents
* Jump to position
* Early player mode for EPUB (using Text-to-Speech)

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · 17h

Three weeks ago, we sent the first invites for the private beta of Thorium Mobile on iOS to an initial batch of fifty testers.

We're still months away from a 1.0 release but we're very happy with the feedback so far.

If you're interested to test it as well, we'll invite more people in January.

Homepage of Thorium Mobile. It shows the main navigation along with books currently being read and the ones that haven't been started yet.

A long tap or a left click on a cover shows a list of actions available. This screenshot shows the following ones: Read, Listen, Marks as Not Started, Mark as Finished, Contributors, Share and Remove.

Reader view for a reflowable EPUB in landscape mode with two columns displayed side by side.

Table of contents where the user can expand/collapse items and search as well.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Sep 17

Sure, we can continue over DM or email

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Sep 16

Do you have something in your database that identifies whether these comics are paginated or meant to be displayed in a continuous scroll?

EPUB already supports paginated comics but we're discussing the addition of continuous scrolled comics these days.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Sep 16

Based on the screenshots that I've seen, I think you probably have all the info that you need to generate an EPUB that would compile multiple webcomics together. This could help with archiving (some national libraries could be into that) and/or offline access for readers.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Sep 12

Export to EPUB, PDF or CBZ as well? I'm the co-chair of the Digital Comics Task Force for the next revision of EPUB (3.4) and I'd love to figure out what we can do to better serve the Webcomic community.

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Reposted by Hadrien Gardeur

The Verge @theverge.com · Sep 5

Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion to authors in landmark AI settlement

Lawyers said it’s believed to be the largest-ever settlement in a US copyright case, paying about $3,000 per book.

buff.ly

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Aug 20

We should! github.com/readium/guid...

guided-navigation/examples/Pepper & Carrot at main · readium/guided-navigation

🪧 Guiding readers through a publication using a JSON based document - readium/guided-navigation

github.com

Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Aug 20

Yay for accessibility, which means descriptions and text for everything.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Aug 14

Mouse Work seems to be the real potential killer app for mouse controls on Switch 2 (as long as you have friends to play with): www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXKV...

Mouse Work - Trailer 2

YouTube video by Nitrome

www.youtube.com

Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 8

The homepage is very power-user friendly right now and allows user to reorder and show/hide what they want.

But sidebar navigation could be accessed across the different sections of the app, which would be even more useful.

Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 8

When expanded into a sidebar, navigation could for example offer direct access to ebooks/audiobooks in your bookshelf or books that you haven't started reading yet.

This native component also allows users to show/hide whatever they want or move the most important features for them in the top bar.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 8

The streamlined navigation is pretty good but on an iPad it could benefit from a few tweaks:
- search should be an icon instead of text (like on the AppStore)
- the tab bar could allow be expanded into a sidebar with more options (bookshelf and catalog)

cf developer.apple.com/design/human...

Screenshot of Apple Music showing a top navigation bar that also supports a sidebar

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 5

Based on experience, swiping between chapter when scrolling confuses a most users.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 5

This is useful for read aloud as well in a post-EAA world where the feature should be available on every ebook.

Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 5

Continuous vertical scrolling or per resource/chapter?

Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 4

Ce n'est pas en s'appuyant sur des réponses générées par des LLMs qu'on va inverser la tendance en tout cas.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 4

J'avais couvert le sujet aux Assises du livre numérique : youtu.be/YZVRi3lmREU?...

Hadrien Gardeur - Distribution numérique : l’accessibilité, facteur d’innovation #ALN2023

YouTube video by Syndicat national de l'édition - SNE

youtu.be

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 2

En sachant que nous sommes aussi en discussion avec plusieurs fabricants de liseuses pour que cette liste de bibliothèques soit embarquées dans leurs appareils, pour permettre aux usagers de facilement emprunter sans devoir passer par un ordinateur.

On a déjà eu plusieurs marques fortes d'intérêt.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 2

Vu que Thorium Reader (quelle que soit la plateforme) ne supporte que LCP, ça serait intéressant de savoir ce qu'il en est bibliothèque par bibliothèque pour savoir si on pourra les intégrer dans une telle liste.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 2

La question est partiellement intéressée mais pour la bonne cause.

En plus de Thorium Reader sur Windows/macOS/Linux, nous travaillons sur une version iOS qui sera aussi déclinée sur Android en 2026.

Pour faciliter le prêt en bibliothèque, nous souhaitons embarquer une liste de bibliothèques.

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 2

Toujours aussi utile comme carte !

Est-ce que tu as déjà pensé à l'annoter afin d'identifier les bibliothèques qui proposent des téléchargement via LCP ?

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Hadrien Gardeur @hadriengardeur.bsky.social · Jul 1

With the recent announcement of Bookshop.org working on the ability to download DRM protected publication using LCP, we'll also have access to comics from publishers who do not want to sell DRM-free content.

Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.

An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community.

Bookshop.org

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