Products · Product
EPUB
Raised as a usability problem by 19 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 17 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Reflowing layout breaks instructional books needing fixed layoutsUnreviewed
20102026- Reflowing EPUB layout makes instructional books with fixed layouts infuriating to read2024-11-05
- EPUB reflows slowly and layout breaks with tables and graphics2024-01-26
- EPUB books look wrong with messy formatting, off fonts, and bad margins that are hard to fix2019-05-18
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 18 complaints
- EPUB readers force a library-collector interface, so the user converts files to PDF instead2026-06-15
- Publisher-imposed print-style fonts and margins are hard to read on screens and must be disabled2024-11-05
- Reflowing EPUB layout makes instructional books with fixed layouts infuriating to read2024-11-05
- Diagrams are placed far from their text, forcing back-and-forth and losing context2024-10-13
- Can't quickly grep-search a folder of EPUBs for a word because contents are zipped2024-01-26
- EPUB reflows slowly and layout breaks with tables and graphics2024-01-26
- Layout changes inconsistently when zooming or changing formatting settings, which is frustrating2023-03-23
- Text fills full screen width on large displays with no visible boundary2020-09-24
- Scrolling past chapter end forces page breaks, not continuous scrolling2020-08-10
- Changes are buried under layers of clicks and scrolling, hard to follow for non-specialists2019-10-09
- EPUB books look wrong with messy formatting, off fonts, and bad margins that are hard to fix2019-05-18
- Couldn't find an EPUB reader that supports the book's linking, so jumping to stories means flipping pages2017-02-21
- Endnotes force readers to jump back and forth between text and notes constantly2017-02-06
- Readers opened at title page, forcing flipping through long contents2016-04-18
- Hand-building an EPUB requires confusing meta files that seem pointless2016-02-14
- Image separated from its explanation on the next page; code lacks syntax highlighting2014-11-04
- Russian text in epub on Kindle has jagged margins because words never hyphenate2012-06-29
- Can't find ePub reader that renders text attractively; scanned PDF pages look bad2010-06-18