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For the last few decades, reading printed books has been on the decline year to year. Some part of the change can perhaps be attributed to the rise in other forms of entertainment (e.g. Netflix and iTunes), but mostly it’s just been all of us collectively deciding to switch to a variety of book reading apps.
In 2011, Amazon announced that they were selling more electronic books than physical ones through their Kindle platform, which was available on all Kindle devices, as well as smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. Apple with the iBooks ePub reader for Mac, iPad, and iPhone was not too far behind. The rest of the apps for reading books were generally created by smaller third-party startups.
While reading on dedicated devices, such as Kindle, Nook, or Kobo, now takes the top spot, with smartphones and tablets coming in second, reading books on Mac also has its own benefits, which have long been overlooked. Let’s see how and why you should read more on your Mac.
What Are The Best Book Apps For Mac
Reading on your Mac has a few advantages over specialized readers or your smartphone. First of all, you have enough screen real estate to easily process a book of any kind, especially if it involves illustrations and graphs, which you can enlarge and modify as needed.
Second, reading on Mac doesn’t lock you into a specific format, such as .mobi, .epub, or PDF. If you’ve been wondering how to read book online, it’s practically only possible on Mac.
Third, as you read on your Mac, taking notes and annotation becomes so much easier. Reading could be a truly educational experience, which in turn could elevate the quality of your reading material.
Luckily, all the best book apps are available on Mac for less than the price of a single magazine. Most popular app examples include Kindle, iBooks, and MarginNote.
Is Kindle reader for Mac a good choice?
The most widely used reader for Mac is the Kindle app from Amazon. Undoubtedly, its best feature is the access to millions of Kindle-compatible books in the .mobi format. Besides, Kindle for Mac boasts an adjustable interface, where you can change your preferences as to fonts, line-spacing, and background colors.
The drawbacks of using a Kindle reader for Mac is mostly being restricted to .mobi format, available only on Amazon. Plus, the Kindle app doesn’t make it easy to upload your own books that you got somewhere else. For years, the Kindle reader for Mac has been avoiding the idea of bringing hyphenation to the platform, which makes text lines more uniform and easier to read. Although the platform supports hyphenation now, most of its books still don’t.
You can try and download Kindle for Mac on the official Amazon website or in the App Store. Kindle’s main competitor as of now is Apple’s iBooks app. Let’s see how they differ.
Why use iBooks for Mac?
Without a doubt, the iBooks app (now called Apple Books) is convenient simply because it already comes pre-installed with your Mac. You can use it to buy any book in the Apple Book Store, which carries nearly all the popular titles.
Unlike Kindle, Apple Books is the best ePub reader available on the market, although it also does support other formats, most notably PDF. You also have more adjustment options, particularly, hyphenation works much better in the iBooks app than it does on Kindle.
The latest updates to iBooks also included the support for audiobooks, which has expanded a straightforward book reader app into a full entertainment and education experience available at any time, whether you’re driving or relaxing at home.
How to read with MarginNote
The third popular book reader app is MarginNote. While it supports ePub and PDF just like iBooks, its unique features lie in advanced annotations, mind-mapping, and flashcards that allow you to better absorb all the reading material.
Annotations let you highlight text and make quick notes on the margins, whether to explain certain concepts or to save ideas for later use.
To make an annotation with MarginNote:
- Simply highlight the text by clicking and dragging your cursor
- Choose one of the available options: either make a note, add a tag, highlight with a certain color, or look up the sentence online
- If you’ve selected to make a note, use all the tools in the pop-up window and click on the icon in the top right when you’re done
To use the app to include an excerpt of text in a mind map:
- Choose one of the available excerpt tools from the top bar
- Highlight the part of the text you’re interested in
- Click Add to MindMap
To make a flashcard in MarginNote:
- Highlight the text as before
- Click on the share icon in the top bar
- Select Add to Card Deck
Finally, you can export all your notes into Evernote, Anki flashcards, iThoughts mind-mapping, or print.
MarginNote is an indispensable ePub reader for Mac if you’re a student, professional researcher, lawyer, or just like to read challenging books that need some breaking down for better retention.
Make reading experience more focused
In the end, no matter which app you choose for reading, you should hope for a good, distraction-free reading experience, where you can focus on one thing at a time.
HazeOver is a lightweight Mac utility that allows you to automatically dim everything on your screen but the currently active app. It lives in the background but is always available in your menu bar in case you need to adjust some preferences, such as the level of dimming.
So when thinking about the best book reader app for your Mac, lean towards Kindle only if you already have a large library of .mobi books. Otherwise, choose the iBooks app for lighter reading materials and MarginNote when you really need to dive into something worth contemplating. Accompany all of these apps with HazeOver to improve your reading experience and minimize any distractions.
Best of all, you can try MarginNote and HazeOver for free via Setapp, a platform of more than 150 Mac utilities that bring solutions to any app-related problems. What’s next on your bookshelf?
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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Great apps for your Mac. Right there on your Mac.
The Mac App Store makes it easy to find and download Mac apps as well as widgets and extensions — like editing extensions for the new Photos app. You can browse Mac apps by category, such as games, productivity, music and more. Or do a quick search for something specific. Read descriptions and customer reviews. Flip through screenshots. When you find an app you like, click to buy it. The Mac App Store has apps for just about everything and everyone. Here are a few of our favourites.
Pages
Create beautiful documents, letters, flyers, invitations and more.
View in Mac App Store
Numbers
Free Apps For Mac
Make eye-catching spreadsheets and charts in just a few clicks.
View in Mac App Store
Keynote
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Put together a presentation with captivating graphics and transitions.
View in Mac App Store
iBooks Author
Create stunning Multi-Touch books for iPad and Mac.
View in Mac App Store
Final Cut Pro X
Bring your film to life using revolutionary video editing software.
View in Mac App Store
Logic Pro X
Turn your Mac into a complete professional recording studio.
View in Mac App Store
Wunderlist
Manage and share your to‑do lists across all your devices. View in Mac App Store
Evernote
Take notes, save web pages, create lists, attach images and PDFs, and more. View in Mac App Store
Cobook Contacts
Find, organise and keep your contacts up to date in even easier ways. View in Mac App Store
Things
Keep track of to-dos, deadlines and projects with this task manager app. View in Mac App Store
Notability
Annotate documents, record lectures and take notes with this all-in-one app. View in Mac App Store
Autodesk SketchBook
Take your ideas further with a complete set of digital drawing tools.View in Mac App Store
Day One
Keep a journal that sends reminders and looks great in day or month view. View in Mac App Store
See something you like? Save interesting articles, videos and web pages for later. View in Mac App Store
The Photo Cookbook
Follow over 240 easy‑to‑prepare recipes picture by picture. View in Mac App Store
Kuvva Wallpapers
Choose specially curated wallpapers from a new artist each week. View in Mac App Store
Tonality
Create inspiring black-and-white images on your Mac.View in Mac App Store
swackett
Get visual weather reports that turn complex data into fun infographics. View in Mac App Store
Sky Gamblers Cold War
Rule the action-packed skies in over a dozen different aeroplanes. View in Mac App Store
Sparkle 2
This easy-to-play but enthralling game makes the most of the Retina display. View in Mac App Store
Bike Baron
Beat hundreds of challenges as you master over 100 different bike tracks. View in Mac App Store
Civilization V: Campaign Edition
Build and defend the most powerful empire the world has ever known. View in Mac App Store
Galaxy On Fire 2™ Full HD
Battle your way through a 3D war-torn galaxy against an alien armada. View in Mac App Store
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
Build a city from the ground up and manage your metropolis in every way. View in Mac App Store
Money
Set a budget, schedule payments and track investments — all in one app. View in Mac App Store
MoneyWiz – Personal Finance
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View all your accounts, transactions, budgets and bills in one secure place. View in Mac App Store
iBank
Manage your money with this fully featured, intuitive personal finance app. View in Mac App Store
Next - Track your expenses and finances
See your expenses by year, month or day, and take control of your finances. View in Mac App Store
Investoscope
Monitor your portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more. View in Mac App Store
StockTouch
Keep track of the market in a whole new way. View in Mac App Store
Pulse Booking App For Mac
djay
Mix songs from your iTunes library and spin live on a digital turntable. View in Mac App Store
Sound Studio
Record, edit and produce digital audio. Create your own mixes and add effects. View in Mac App Store
Shazam
Like what you hear? Identify a song at a moment’s notice. Then share it or buy it. View in Mac App Store
Tabular
Read and write tablature notation for guitar, bass, drums and more. View in Mac App Store
AmpKit
Turn your Mac into a powerful guitar amp and effects studio. View in Mac App Store
Sound Forge 2
Record, edit, process and render high-resolution audio files. View in Mac App Store
Install any app with ease.
The Mac App Store revolutionises the way apps are installed on a computer — it happens in one step. Enter the same iTunes password you use to buy apps and music on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or iPod touch. Within seconds, your new app flies to Launchpad, ready to go. So you can spend more time enjoying new apps and less time installing them.
Keep your apps up to date.
Since developers are constantly improving their apps, the Mac App Store keeps track of your apps and tells you when an update is available — including OS X software updates. Update one app at a time or all of them at once, for free. You can even have your apps and OS X update automatically, so you’ll always have the latest version of every app you own.
The app you need. When you need it.
Can’t open a file you’ve downloaded or received in an email? OS X can search the Mac App Store to find the app that can open the file. Buy what you need instantly and get back to business.
Buy, download and even re-download.
You can install apps on every Mac authorised for your personal use, and even download them again. This is especially convenient when you buy a new Mac and want to load it with apps you already own.