It's too big a question to answer here, consult a dedicated guide on the topic. To get better at reading specifically, getting lots of practice with reading real books usually yields better results than studying individual kanji or textbook examples. MaruReader is meant to make this practice more efficient by putting a high quality learning dictionary system at your fingertips while reading, and automating the process of creating flashcards with the Anki integration.
These are the recommended dictionaries. You will get them automatically from the App Store:
- Jitendex Japanese-English Dictionary by Stephen Kraus
- BCCWJ Frequency Dictionary by National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
- Wadoku Pitch Accent Dictionary by Wadoku Jiten
- Kanji alive Audio by Harumi Hibino Lory and Arno Bosse
A good add-on dictionary is JMnedict, which provides proper nouns such as readings for Japanese names. Otherwise, the best dictionaries to use depend on your needs, which is why custom dictionaries are supported. Search the web for Yomitan dictionaries that align with your learning goals.
You're more likely to stick with stuff that you're actually interested in reading. There are many guides, databases, and listicles online with books and manga organized by level.
No, but most non-DRM ebook formats can be converted to epub with Calibre. For aozora specifically, AozoraEpub3 can generate EPUBs from the .txt files available from book card pages.
No, but it usually works to convert to ZIP with Calibre and import to MaruReader as manga.
Text recognition can always produce errors. MaruReader uses on-device text recognition to provide convenience, privacy, and pretty good accuracy, but it won't be as accurate as cloud services.
All is not lost, however. If you know how to type the correct character, you can use the pen icon at the bottom of the dictionary sheet to edit the context before looking up the word again or creating an Anki note.
For the web browser specifically, accuracy can sometimes be improved by zooming in on the text you are trying to read. This will not help with the manga reader since the text recognition system always uses the full-resolution image for local manga.
It might be a fixed-layout EPUB. Certain books, mostly older ones or PDF conversions, lack adjustable layout and might even contain pictures of each page instead of text. These are not supported since text is not available for dictionary lookups. If a newer digital edition of the same book is available, it might work better in MaruReader.
Yes.
- Some dictionaries use characters like the Unicode arrow
→for purposes like indicating links, and on iOS some of these symbols are displayed as color emoji instead of the shape and color the dictionary's creator had in mind. This can be fixed in some cases by modifying the dictionary's stylesheet, but the better solution is for the dictionary to use images instead of Unicode characters for symbols that need to look the same on all platforms. - MaruReader supports the
styles.cssat the dictionary root, but there's no equivalent to Yomitan's custom popup CSS settings. If you use custom styles on desktop, that could be the difference. A workaround is to add your custom styles to the dictionary'sstyles.cssand re-import the dictionary. - Otherwise, it may be a bug in MaruReader. Please open a discussion, specifying the dictionary and an entry with the problem, so it can be investigated.
The Anki integrations are designed to support mining, which is the process of reading and creating flashcards for unfamiliar words. See the Anki guide for full details.
MaruReader can work with many of the same mining setups as Yomitan, the main limitation being that MaruReader cannot use custom handlebars, only a set of values that roughly corresponds to Yomitan's default handlebars. If your workflow requires custom handlebars or some other feature that is missing, open a discussion thread so we can look at whether it can be supported.
Make sure you are using the latest version of Anki, as older versions have issues with styled content. Otherwise, see the Anki guide for more troubleshooting steps.
Maru is the name of the correct answer mark in Japanese, and you'll see more of those if you add immersion to your studies. It's also the name of the round owl in the icon.
Please open a discussion thread. For problems, include as many specifics as possible: the dictionary/book/website, a screenshot of the problem, steps to make it happen, etc.