YACReader
[feature] support grid view alternative to page flow
The current implementation of the page flow feature is clever in many respects, but an alternative mode that permits flat, concurrent viewing of all the pages in a grid arrangement is useful in many contexts. Perhaps this support can be added to the feature set.
While we too like the page flow it sadly still is based on an ancient version of OpenGL and as such is in need of some serious refactoring (or a rewrite). At the moment that means that we're not investing any dev resources in adding features to it. It already is possible to choose a flat style, but not a grid. It might be possible to adapt the grid view from the library (which is based on QtQuick), but that is somewhat out of my scope of skills.
I understand.
For reference, if the logic and interface surrounding this feature eventually gets modernized, then it might be useful to the user to be able to toggle dynamically between the grid and flow views, as the choice may depend more on particular use than on prescribed preferences.
One more comment.
The graphical effects are surely appealing, but are secondary importance to usability. In the present design, it is possible to see a thumbnail of the current page and at most a few surrounding ones at one time. The ability to scan through a thumbnail representation of the entire book would be an invaluable addition, much more valuable than all the effects.
The page flow is more capable than you think. Click on the gear symbol in YACReader or YACReaderLibrary, select page flow. Make sure hardware acceleration is enabled. Use the second preset (stripes), set the acceleration to highest or just below and enable Quick Navigation mode.
Then retry the flow. Not all thumbnails will be visible, but as you navigate they will be loaded quickly and you can browse all thumbnails.
I understand completely.
The purpose of the comment was to express the difference between the separate, orthogonal concerns of graphic effects and design layout, and to suggest that the former is valuable only once the latter is optimally resolved.
In my view, certain changes to the design would be immediately beneficial even without the animation.