Best approch for creating ePub reader similar to iBook or Stanza application

iOS Develover picture iOS Develover · Nov 17, 2010 · Viewed 16k times · Source

I am planning to develop a ePub reader for iOS devices. I don't want to use webView for this. In this application, I want features like iBook or stanza app. I want to know, which approch is used in developing Stanza app.

Answer

PeyloW picture PeyloW · Nov 17, 2010

Books in ePub format are HTML with some meta-data. Different generators create differently formatted HTML. The work needed to implement a parser capable of displaying all ePub is a mammoth task! If you do not want to use a web view then your project is doomed from the start.

Stanza, Apple's iBooks, my own ePub reader for iPad, and any other ePub reader I know of all use a standard Web view as the basis. On top of that you need allot of CSS and Javascript to tweak all mutations of ePubs there is.