Fablum
Best public OPDS catalogs for a reading app
An OPDS catalog is a book list an app can browse and download from. Three of these are feeds you add yourself; the last one is built into Fablum, which we make.
An OPDS catalog is a book list an app can read. Point a reader at the address of a feed and you get shelves you can browse, a search box and a download button, without a browser and without an account. What OPDS is covers the format itself; this page is about catalogs worth pointing an app at.
Three public ones are below, then the one built into Fablum, which we make. The first three are feeds you add yourself, in an app that lets you add feeds. Each line about them was read on the operator’s own site on the date beside it.
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Standard Ebooks
A small, carefully made collection of out-of-copyright books.
- The catalog is published as OPDS feeds, and the site has a page on how to add one to a reading app. Standard Ebooks' feed page
- Volunteers typeset and proof every book, and the finished file is dedicated to the public domain, cover art included. Standard Ebooks' about page
- The full feed is a benefit of joining their Patrons Circle or producing a book for them; only the new releases feed is open to everyone. Standard Ebooks' feed page
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ManyBooks
A large free library with a newsletter attached.
- More than 50,000 free ebooks, arranged by genre. ManyBooks' home page
- Its OPDS feed opens into four shelves: new titles, authors, titles and genres. ManyBooks' OPDS feed
- The front page mixes the free books with discounted paid ones, so what you are looking at is not always free. ManyBooks' home page
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Wolne Lektury
A free library of Polish literature.
- The feed sorts the library four ways: by author, by kind, by genre and by literary epoch, and it carries its own search description. Wolne Lektury's OPDS feed
- The catalog is in Polish, section names included, so it is a shelf for Polish readers rather than a general library. Wolne Lektury's OPDS feed
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The catalog built into Fablum
Our app ships with one public catalog of books whose copyright has run out in the USA. There is nothing to set up and no address to type.
- Tap + in the library and the catalog is one of the ways in, next to "Download from URL" and "From Files".
- Filter it by language, 36 of them, or by type, then stream an audiobook or download it. A downloaded book opens with no connection.
- Search takes a title or an author, and the editions of one work come back as a single card with a language badge.
- It is the only catalog in the app. The three above cannot be added to Fablum, and neither can any other feed.
Adding a feed to a reader
A feed is only useful in an app that takes one. Of the readers we have looked at, KyBook carries a list of well-known catalogs and accepts your own, FBReader browses network sources and custom catalogs, and Moon+ Reader reads OPDS catalogs and other online libraries. Each of those three states it on its own page, linked from the comparison.
Fablum is not one of them. Its catalog is built in and closed: you can read it, search it and download from it, and you cannot point the app at Standard Ebooks or anything else. If adding feeds is the thing you want, one of the three readers above is the better answer, and we would rather say so here than have you find out after installing.
How these entries were checked
Each line was read on the page it links to, on the date printed beside it. If one of those dates passes 180 days, our test suite fails and somebody has to open the page again. Dates move after a re-read, never on their own.