ePUB Reader for Windows

EPUB Reader is one of the original eBook readers for Windows and has support for Windows 10.

EPUB Reader is developed by HANSoft, Inc., and was among the original eBook readers available for Windows. In fact, it was introduced in 2007 and even supports Windows 3.1x. Although the program has not undergone any major revisions over the years, the developers have continued to patch it for new Windows versions in addition to upgrading the user interface aesthetics to some degree. The program is not free but instead available in a trial edition that you can upgrade to paid if you decide you like it.

This program was at one time very useful and quite popular, but times have changed. Digital reading is no longer restricted to sitting at a workstation. Most of us now have tablets and read digital books and whatnot lying on the couch, sitting on airplanes, passing time in waiting rooms and so forth. There is still a demand for research-oriented readers on workstations, but that was never a focus of EPUB Reader, and the developers never shifted gears. What we are left with is somewhat of a dinosaur.

Nevertheless, EPUB Reader has been updated to support Windows 10. It has also received additional language support over the years, and in addition to English, you can read in French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and more. Something EPUB Reader has always done quite well is display text, and this has to do with the developer’s adherence to the standard. This also means you may be limited by the original text. If an EPUB is constructed poorly, it may not look right. If, on the other hand, it is, the text looks like an actual book, and you have great control over how the text flows and other aspects.

The user interface is quite basic. There are two main panes. The left pane contains the structure of the document, and it serves as a navigational menu as well. This menu organizes the text into chapters, which are numbered and named. If no title is present, a page number serves as the name. This menu is locked to the right side. You can not move it to the right or elsewhere. You also cannot collapse the menu, which is a product of the times it was created but a feature that should have been added by now. The central and larger pane contains the text and features a smooth-scrolling scrollbar on the side.

The experience delivered has both good and bad elements. The program loads EPUB files and even other text files very fast, and this is true even when opening up large volumes. Pick a file and the text simply snaps in, and you can jump to chapters, scroll the page, zoom in and zoom out with no noticeable lag, and this is true even on old computers many years past their prime. However, our expectations when it comes to digital reading has evolved quite a bit over the years, and this program has some notable omissions, such as no bookmark, highlighting or inline search feature.

An ancillary feature it does have is a converter that converts EPUB to PDF. PDF is the portable document format developed by Adobe. It is unclear who this feature is for. Perhaps there are some particular usage scenarios where this is convenient, but most PDF readers can open EPUB anyway. Nevertheless, we tested the converter, and while fast, it results in PDF documents that are frankly a mess. You would be better off opening the EPUB in a PDF editor and configuring the output the way you want it.

Another feature it has that we did enjoy is the ability to search for EPUB files. It was not clear offhand where it was actually searching, but we had little trouble find books that are in the public domain. We also found a wide range of publications made available by companies and other organizations. Searching was simple, and the books we selected downloaded and loaded into the reader in the blink of an eye.

As mentioned in the opener, EPUB Reader is not freeware—although it feels as it should be. This is a trial version. You can use the program for a full seven days without paying. After that period, the program will prompt you to purchase a license and not allow you access to the app until you do. Prices are subject to change, but at the time of this writing, we were quite surprised by the high price tag.

In closing, EPUB Reader is a solid eBook reader but outdated and its age shows. If it were freeware, it may be worth a look, but we have a hard time recommending it when there are better free options.