Thorium provides visual reading and audio playback.
In order to ensure that you can find your way around the
the publication, Thorium also offers many navigation options as well as
the possibility to add bookmarks or to search within the publication.
Learn how to move with agility thru a book. Fast forward and backward to next or previous chapter, page or content. Navigate thru table of content, landmarks and reference pages.
Since 2.3, Thorium has an image zoom feature (epub only).
To zoom on an image you can select the image (a magenta focus outline will appear around it) and activate zoom by clicking with the mouse or tapping it with the finger. Access to image zoom via keyboard is currently not possible.
If the image is also a link or if the book your read is in a fixed layout format, you will need to hit the Shift key in order to enter the image zoom feature.
You can use Ctrl + F keys to access the search field. Enter your search term. By clicking on the Search button, you get Back and Next buttons to navigate between occurences. The number of matches found is a link that will open a List of results in the right panel. Each match displayed is a link you can Activate to go to the place of the book where the expression you are looking for was found.
Add a bookmark The bookmark button allows you to add a custom bookmark. A bookmark can be a fixed point or a text selection. Only one fixed point bookmark is possible per page (book pages or calculated pages in case there is not page reference in the book). But you can place as many texte selection bookmark as you want.
When you add a Bookmark a notification appears to inform you that the Bookmark was Added or Deleted.
In the reading interface use the Preferences button (): the options are revealed.
Reading settings can be saved or reset by using buttons Save and Reset located in the menu Settings, submenu Configuration of the Reading window. Major settings are available for EPUB Reflowable, Fixed Layout EPUBs and PDF formats just don’t allow personalisation of appearance. Most Fixed Layout EPUBs will allow to open Image view for zooming on a page.
Since 2.3 Thorium Reader supports mathematical formulas in MathML natively thanks to Chromium. MathJax module is incorporated and may be of use for interoperability and accessibility needs.
If you make use of the MathJax module you might be interested by MathJax documentation.
Previous versions rely on the MathJax module. This last one requires memory resources so it is not automatically activated when you open Thorium. To activate it when reading a book, go to the menu Reading settings, at the bottom of the Display tab you will find a checkbox MathJax.
Text-to-speech functionalities are available only with EPUB and Daisy formats. Text-to-speech is launched using the speaker button in the middle of the toolbar, or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + 2.
Play and pause can be controlled with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + 2.
The playback position can be moved with Ctrl + 1 and Ctrl + 3 for previous and next respectively.
A speed control is available when read aloud is selected, with a range from x0.
1 - Moving around in a book
Learn how to move with agility thru a book. Fast forward and backward to next or previous chapter, page or content. Navigate thru table of content, landmarks and reference pages.
The navigation options can be very different from one book to another.
Thorium allows the following.
The navigation options can be very different from one book to another. Thorium allows:
Move forward and backward in the reading
use table of contents, reference points and pagination (which must be included by the book’s producing organization)
go to previous and next navigation points
move backward and forward in the history of navigation actions
history navigation: jump back & forward to reading points (new in Thorium 2.2. EPUB only)
While reading, user has the power to navigate from one point to another using Navigation panel or following a link into the publication. This activates jump back (Ctrl + backspace) and jump forward (Ctrl + Shift + backspace) buttons on the bottom left of the reading window. Use this buttons to find a precedent place and return to the last place.
History Navigation takes into account user interactions, including clicks on bottom timeline, TOC, bookmarks, landmarks, where am I headings, go to page. It does not takes into account search previous and next and list links.
Move forward and backward
To navigate forward and backward in the content of the book you can
use the arrows on your keyboard or click on the navigation arrows
located at the bottom right of the reading interface
().
It is possible to move between chapters using
Ctrl + Previous page (Page Up) (previous chapter) and
Ctrl + Next page (Page Down) (next chapter)
or Ctrl + Shift + ALT
(except on MacOS) + ←
(previous chapter)
and Ctrl + Shift + ALT
(except on MacOS) + →
(next chapter).
Attention!
There are two different shortcuts to go to the next or previous chapter.
Depending on your configuration and whether or not you use a screen reader,
it is possible that only one of these two combinations works.
The table of contents
The table of contents represents the architecture of the book as defined by
the book’s producing organization.
The first level titles are indicated without margin, those with
subtitles (or second level title) are presented with a lightgray background.
The sub-headings are shifted from the margin to the left and a
vertical line makes it easy to know
to which level of title they belong.
With NVDA
You can use the title level navigation functions
(NVDA + H)
to explore and move through the table of contents.
Landmarks
Good-quality digital books have markers that allow you to
identify and quickly reach the main parts of a book.
Information
Each EPUB publication should include a guide to all major
landmarks. The titles of the landmarks are at the discretion of the publisher
choice, but the nature of each landmark must be identified according to a
semantic vocabulary. The main ones are:
PDF bookmarks used to compensate for the lack of a table of contents
in this format are not interpreted by Thorium.
Unlike Landmarks, Bookmarks are made for users who want to place a mark into a book.
The reference pages
Digital books can have a reference pagination allowing
correspondence to the pagination of the printed book.
There is a navigation option to go to the page.
When you access it, this option shows the current page.
There is also a keyboard shortcut for this function. Press the
Ctrl + Shift + P,
then enter the page number in the edit box by typing it or
changing the value using the Go to page box.
Attention !
Adapted books sometimes use the reference pagination to offer a regular
book breakdown to readers without reproducing the pagination of the
original pagination. In this case the reference pagination cannot be used
to refer to the printed book.
2 - Where am I?
Know where you are in a book.
The keyboard shortcuts Shift + Ctrl + k
allows to get a quick mention of the reading position in the document.
This information will be displayed in the notification area at the bottom left
of the interface and will be read by a screen reader.
Screen reader’s page location is approximative
Because of inherent limitation in current screen reader technology, Thorium has to estimates the reading location. Consequently the page number anounced by Thorium is not reflecting the place where the screen reader’s is actually reading, the error might be of some sentences.
However NVDA will announce the page break as a separator if it has a title attribute (exemple: <span epub:type="pagebreak" role="doc-pagebreak" id="page_2" class="page" title="2"/> will cause NVDA to anounce “Two, separator”).
The keyboard shortcut Shift + Ctrl + n will open the table of content Navigation menu centered and focused to the detected heading closest to the reading location.
When you look at the Navigation menu, Thorium shows the current chapter
in the table of contents and the current page in the Go to page menu.
Access more informations
Use the Information function (Ctrl + Shift + I)
to open a panel that displays the title structure and page number.
In addition to the book information, this sign shows at the subheading Progression:
the chapter number out of the total number of chapters;
the title of the current chapter;
the percentage read of the current chapter;
the current page;
the title structure (h1 is a level 1 title, h2 is a level 2 title, etc.)
Press the Escape key to close the Information panel
and return to the text.
Use Where am I with NVDA
Press the NVDA + F7 keys, and then the
tab key until you get the header view.
This shows you where you are in the title structure.
Press the NVDA + Enter keys to save the current position.
Then Ctrl + Shift + I to place the
cursor in the Progress section of the dialog box containing information about the
information dialog box. The number of the current HTML document in relation to the
the total number of documents, the percentage, the current page and the corresponding
section are displayed, with the option of displaying links to
scroll backwards and forwards. After closing the dialog, for example by
for example by pressing Escape key, it is possible to return to the point
through the screen reader link (marked with a double underline) in the main
underline) in the main content frame (which can be navigated to with the
with the Tab key or with the letter M in navigation mode).
3 - Zooming on images
Since 2.3, Thorium has an image zoom feature (epub only).
To zoom on an image you can select the image (a magenta focus outline will appear around it) and activate zoom by clicking with the mouse or tapping it with the finger. Access to image zoom via keyboard is currently not possible.
If the image is also a link or if the book your read is in a fixed layout format, you will need to hit the Shift key in order to enter the image zoom feature.
To zoom in or out, tab to the + or - buttons and hit enter, use mouse wheel, scroll up and down or pinch and stretch trackpad or onscreen touch gestures.
Once the image is zoomed you can move vertically and horizontally with ←, →, ↑ and ↓, by moving mouse while maintaining clic, with usual trackpad gestures or with finger moves on tactile screens.
To close the image zoom view and to return to the reading view, press ESC key, or the X button.
Some restrictions due to ebook design may apply, for example when images are inserted as style (CSS), it is not possible to open the image view for zooming.
4 - Search in a book
You can use Ctrl + F keys to access the
search field. Enter your search term. By clicking on the
Search button, you get Back and Next buttons to navigate between occurences.
The number of matches found is a link that will open a List of results
in the right panel.
Each match displayed is a link you can Activate to go to the place
of the book where the expression you are looking for was found.
Remember that performing a search and navigating thru the results
will make you loose the reading point you where at.
Just place a Bookmark to make sure you find your way back.
5 - Mark a page or a passage
Add a bookmark
The bookmark button allows you to add a custom bookmark.
A bookmark can be a fixed point or a text selection.
Only one fixed point bookmark is possible per page
(book pages or calculated pages in case there is not page reference in the book).
But you can place as many texte selection bookmark as you want.
When you add a Bookmark a notification appears to inform you that
the Bookmark was Added or Deleted.
The number just after indicates the total number of Bookmarks in the Book
after this action.
Select the text you want to mark.
Press the bookmark button
()
or the key combination Ctrl + B.
If no text is selected so the full page will be marked.
Reviewing and navigating the Bookmarks
Press the Navigation button (Ctrl + N), then
the Bookmarks button. You can change the name of each bookmark, delete
bookmarks and move between bookmarks by pressing Enter.
Access the list of bookmarks in the navigation area. Select the bookmark
you wish to access and press the Enter key. If you have
renamed the bookmark, it will be easy to go to several places in the book.
Advice
If you select a portion of text and then activate the Bookmark button,
the bookmark created will have the selected line as its title.
If you have bookmarked a line without selecting a portion of text, try copying
the line you are on in the clipboard.
Then go to the navigation options with Ctrl + N,
then scroll down to the Bookmark section, where they are listed.
Press the b key to move to the edit button to
rename the bookmark. Paste the line from the clipboard and press
Enter. This renames the bookmark with the line of text that you have
copied. When you have several bookmarks, this renaming of the bookmarks allows
you to use them easily.
Using bookmarks with NVDA
Windows screen readers use a virtual buffer
for reading. To place a bookmark where you are currently reading
press the key combination NVDA + Enter,
and NVDA will say “activate “. This
synchronizes the virtual buffer with the current real location so Thorium
can deduce the object
on which the cursor is located. Then use
Ctrl + B to place a bookmark.
A sound notification will inform you of the number of bookmarks
in the current publication.
6 - Reading settings
In the reading interface use the Preferences button (): the options are revealed.
Reading settings can be saved or reset by using buttons Save and Reset located in the menu Settings, submenu Configuration of the Reading window.
Major settings are available for EPUB Reflowable, Fixed Layout EPUBs and PDF formats just don’t allow personalisation of appearance. Most Fixed Layout EPUBs will allow to open Image view for zooming on a page. PDFs can be enlarged using the Zoom sub-menu in the Preferences panel.
Theme
The color of the background and foreground can be changed using one of the three
available themes - Neutral, Sepia and Night.
Text
The font size can be increased or decreased using the slider.
The font can also be changed. The available options are as follows
Default, Old style, Modern, Sans, Humanist, Readable (Dyslexia),
Dualspace and Monospace.
By selecting the ... you can enter the name of the font you want to use.
To do this, the font must be present on your
operating system and you must know its exact name as it is set for
the operating system.
Example 1: Setting Verdana as the reading font
In the reading interface go to the Preference menu and then Text.
In the drop-down list select ....
Write the word Verdana in the empty field that appears next to the drop-down list.
In the reading interface go to the Preference menu and then Text.
In the drop-down list select ....
Write the word Luciole in the empty field that appears next to the drop-down list.
Confirm with Enter.
Display
You can choose between a page layout with scrolling or pagination,
automatic or justified alignment and automatic or
on 1 or 2 columns. Here also, MathJax can be activated, for the display of
mathematical expressions.
Spacing
Margins, word spacing, letter spacing, paragraph spacing and line spacing
can be adjusted.
Readaloud
Provides options for an uncluttered clean view and the ability to skip
secondary content (skippability) which may include
footnotes or sidebars according to the semantics
indicated during the production of the digital book.
Split TTS will split the content by sentence for more precise highlighting.
Thorium uses the voices from the computer’s operating system, in combination with the language information provided by the book. If you experience problems please check the related FAQ entry I can’t select the adequate voice for read aloud function (TTS).
7 - Read mathematics
Since 2.3 Thorium Reader supports mathematical formulas in MathML natively thanks to Chromium.
MathJax module is incorporated and may be of use for interoperability and accessibility needs.
If you make use of the MathJax module you might be interested by MathJax documentation.
Previous versions rely on the MathJax module. This last one requires memory resources
so it is not automatically activated when you open Thorium.
To activate it when reading a book, go to the
menu Reading settings, at the bottom of the Display tab you will find
a checkbox MathJax.
Once MathJax is activated, you can use the contextual menu (right click)
on a mathematical formula inserted in MathML format and use the many
options proposed such as reading aloud (speech), viewing the semantic marking
or copy the formula with its semantic attributes to use it in a
compatible editor.
Read mathematics with NVDA
You can read mathematical expressions tagged with MathML using
different NVDA approaches. Although NVDA is already equipped with this feature by applying Math Player, some functions still needed to be improved, especially in Math Player some language support is not provided. You may want to use an addon like MathCAT or Access8Math.
In case of instabilities, we recommend to disable MathJax accessibility features thru context menu.
Using Access8Math:
To install the add-on, navigate to Access8Math webpage and click on “Stable” link to download the add-on.
When reading a EPUB with Math content, Down Arrow to the line containing the equation and place your focus on the equation.
Press Enter to activate “Access8Math.
This will open a small window containing interaction window” which contains “interactive” and “copy” buttons.
Interaction: This will allow Interaction within the math content. In order to navigate and browse, you can use the Down Arrow to partially explore the subparts in the expression and move or zoom the content between the subparts by using Right and Left Arrows.
Copy: Use the Copy mode to Copy MathML object source code.
Navigation mode commands:
Down Arrow: Zoom in on a smaller subpart of the math content.
Up Arrow: Zoom out to a larger sub-part of the math content.
Left Arrow: Move to the previous math content.
Right Arrow: Move to the next math content.
Home: Move back to the top of the Entire math content.
Ctrl + c: Copy object MathML source code
Numpad 1 to 9: Reading the math content into serialized text using NVDA Review Text.
Escape: Exit the navigation mode.
Ctrl + Alt + m: Switch the provider between Access8Math and Math Player.
Attention !
These features can only be activated if the book has been designed by
inserting mathematical formulas in the MathML format. For reasons of
ease of production the mathematical formulas are often included as images and it is then the alternative text that must allow the
understanding of the formula via a precise description.
Books that include mathematics in MathML form should
indicate this in their accessibility information.
If this is not indicated, then they are certainly described images.
8 - Text to Speech (TTS)
Text-to-speech functionalities are available only with EPUB and Daisy formats.
Text-to-speech is launched using the speaker button in the middle of the toolbar,
or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + 2.
Play and pause can be controlled with the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl + 2.
The playback position can be moved with Ctrl + 1
and Ctrl + 3 for previous and next respectively.
A speed control is available when read aloud
is selected, with a range from x0.5 to x2.
The current sentence is highlighted in light yellow, and each word spoken is
underlined in orange.
Options for TTS
Three options are available in the Settings / Readaloud menu:
Simplified view auto scrolls text with focus by paragraphe.
Skippability does not display auxiliary contents authored as footnotes, endnotes, pagebreaks and asides.
Split text focuses phrase by phrase
Thorium uses the voices from the computer’s operating system, in combination with the language information provided by the book. If you experience problems please check the related FAQ entry I can’t select the adequate voice for read aloud function (TTS).
Thorium 2.3 TTS reads page numbers by default which might result in a too verbose earing experience. The skipability option in readaloud parameter does not affect TTS reading as expected. This is fixed in 2.4 alpha continuous test build and will be shipped in 2.4 release.
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or the key combination Ctrl + B.
): the options are revealed.
