Tomes for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Tomes (formerly BookShelf) is an easy to use electronic book reader for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Available through the AppStore, Tomes installs easily on your mobile device.
It's easy to read your books on the go!
Tomes lets you read any text or HTML file, older Palm OS reader files, and ePub books. Many file types can be downloaded from websites directly to your iPhone. You can even download any web page and read it later without needing an Internet connection.
New in 2.3: Drop ePub, Palm, text, or HTML files in your DropBox.com account; and you can download them any place you have an Internet connection, no ShelfServer required.
For books on your Mac or PC computer, you can use the free ShelfServer application to automatically convert and transfer files via WiFi. ShelfServer allows Tomes to support many more formats by instantly converting files on-the-fly as you download.
Please see Tomes Supported Formats for a complete list of supported file types. Note that not all Tomes supported types can be downloaded via DropBox.
Tomes lets you read your way!
You can customize Tomes to read the way you want. Change fonts, size, and colors; set a background image or texture; landscape or portrait; manual or auto-scroll.
Several easy-on-the-eyes color themes are included in Tomes, and you can easily create your own color themes. Foreground, background, and link colors are customizeable. You can even pick an image from your iPhone's camera or from your photo library to use as a background. If you find a background texture you like on the web, save it to your image library in Safari (tap & hold the image), and you can use it in Tomes.
Tomes can rotate to any of the four directions. Once you have the screen the way you like, tap the "rotate lock" icon on the bottom toolbar, and Tomes will stay that way no matter how you turn your iPhone. Rotate lock makes reading in bed or lounging comfortable! No more craning your neck or twisting your arms just so to keep your screen from rotating. Note that on an iPad, Tomes uses iPad's hardware orientation lock switch instead.
Tap-to-scroll, drag your finger, or let Tomes do the scrolling for you. When you tap the top or bottom 1/3 of the screen, Tomes automatically advances one full page back or forward. When you get to the end of a section, a yellow "highlighter" shows you where the bottom of the screen was before you scrolled so you don't have to scan to find your place. Tap zones are configurable so you can tap the left or right side instead or tap the top of the screen to go foward if you prefer. You can also drag your finger to scroll or center the text however you like.
If you'd rather read hands free, Tomes supports auto-scroll which slowly and smoothly advances the text like rolling credits from a movie. You can configure the scrolling speed to your liking for leisurely or speed reading.
Access thousands of titles online any time
Tomes displays an easy to browse catalog of many online e-book sites including:
- Tens of thousands of public domain titles from Project Gutenberg
- SciFi books for sale from webscription.net
- Free SciFi & Fantasy from the Baen Free Library
- Thousands of free and open licensed books from Feedbooks.com
Not sure yet?
If you're still deciding if Tomes is right for you, read on for features and supported file formats. You might also want to take a look at the Demonstration Videos for a quick tour of the application.
For more screenshots and a walk through of the application, check out Using Tomes.
Features
Some of Tomes's other features include:
- Add named bookmarks to any document type.
- Access the Table of Contents in formats which support one (Plucker, Mobi, ePub).
- Download books from Atom-based catalog feeds
- Support for large files -- no upper limit on size, and files as large as 10MB open in seconds.
- Easy interface to download books from your desktop OR from online book stores
- Completely off-line usage. Once downloaded to the device, books can be read without an Internet connection, even in airplane mode.
Supported File Formats
Tomes currently supports many book formats with more on the way. For full information on formats, please see Tomes Supported Formats.
- Plain Text [.txt]
- HTML with images [.html]
- FictionBook2 with images [.fb2]
- ePub archives (see ePub notes)
- PalmDoc / AportisDoc [.pdb]
- MobiPocket with images (unencrypted, not HuffDict compression) [.pdb, .prc, .mobi]
- Plucker with images [.pdb]
- Compiled HTML with images [.chm]
- MIME HTML with images [.mht]
- Rich Text (currently with limited characterset support) [.rtf]
- Word DOC - only Word 97+, not DOCX, translated to plain-text (formatting is lost)
- ZIP Archives - internal folder structure is flattened, but supported files can be extracted
Please note that at this time, Tomes does not support PDB files which were created for the iSilo or eReader programs. Support for these formats is planned for a future release.
Start Here:
Quick Start Help
New in Tomes 2.0:
Download Books without using ShelfServer
Click to Install Tomes with iTunes or AppStore
Latest News
- Mar 1, 2011BookShelf is now Tomes - v3.0 Released![More...]
- Apr 3, 2010v2.3 Approved w/ native iPad supportBookShelf 2.3 is approved for sale. This version adds native iPad support, an improved download screen, and many small fixes and enhancements.[More...]
- Nov 3, 2009iPhone presentation @ Tech Valley Code CampIntroduction to iPhone Development at the free Tech Valley Code Camp, November 7, 2009 at SUNY Albany, NY[More...]
- Apr 29, 2009ePub Support addedShelfServer now supports the ePub format[More...]
- Apr 29, 20092.0.1738 submitted to AppleMinor bugfixes & iPhone 3.0 support[More...]
- Mar 24, 2009BookShelf 2.0 Released!FeedBooks.com support and cover art[More...]
- Feb 22, 2009BookShelf down southBookShelf goes to college in New Zealand![More...]
- Nov 11, 2008Temporary Support Slow down [Click 'All News' for details]Developer is moving house.[More...]
- Nov 6, 2008Version 1.3 AvailableStability & Plucker fixes[More...]
- Oct 8, 2008Server issues nearly resolved[More...]
[All News]