Blio

A lot of people say that books in electronic format are not as comfortable as the real things, but they obviously haven't heard of modern e-book readers. The best example in this case is Blio. To say that it is an e-book reader with advanced functions would be an understatement. The application's clever and elegant design makes book reading a pleasant and comfortable experience, on computers or on mobile devices. It allows you to manage your personal library, buy new books over the Internet, annotate or share paragraphs and much more.

Blio is available for Windows PCs and laptops, Android devices, as well as iOS platforms, like the Apple iPhone or iPad. The setup file for the Windows version is 122 MB, which may take some time to download, with a slower Internet connection, but the installation process is fast and straightforward. The application itself is free, but you have to purchase books if you wish to read them.

The user interface is designed with ease of use in mind and its controls can be used with a keyboard and mouse or on a touchscreen device. You can sort your library on a home screen, by author, title or other criteria and view your recently opened books. You can also visit an online books store, on the same window, but on a different tab. You can view a book's description and comments and see if certain features, like adjustable text or text to speech, are available for that particular item. Once purchased, eBooks will appear in your local library automatically.

One of Blio's main advantages is the fact that it presents books in their original layout. When you open a book, the application will display its pages on the entire interface. You can find a wide range of useful options, placed around the pages, which can be hidden or revealed with a single click. You can select a single, double or automatic page display, zoom in and out, have a narrator read the book aloud and more. Flipping through pages is quite easy and comfortable, regardless if you decide to use a keyboard and mouse or use the application on a touchscreen device.

Besides zooming in and out, you may activate the guided zoom feature, which eliminates the need to drag the page in order to focus on a specific text fragment. While the guided zoom is active, you can jump from one paragraph to another, with a single click or tap. Additionally, Blio places a series of smart annotation features at your disposal. If you select a word or text fragment, a few options will fade in, which can be used to highlight the selection, associate it with a personal note, copy the fragment to the clipboard or look it up on the Internet. You can search for words and phrases in an online dictionary, on Wikipedia, Google or in other sources. You can also favorite individual pages, by clicking their lower right corners.

The current book's table of contents, favorite pages, notes and highlighted fragments can be found on a panel, which you can bring up on the left side of the interface. You can edit your notes, jump to their corresponding pages or to your favorite pages and share highlighted fragments on Facebook or Twitter.