Bible Reader for E-Ink

Lightweight Android Bible reader optimized for e-ink devices (ONYX BOOX Darwin 3 and similar).

Zero dependencies. Pure Android SDK. Instant launch.

Features

• Continuous reading — chapters flow seamlessly into each other, no page boundaries
• Volume key navigation — Volume Up/Down for instant page turns (2/3 screen jump, no animation)
• Inline translation switching — tap translation name, pick from list, stays on same book/chapter
• Book & chapter grid — tap reference to pick book (6-col grid) then chapter (adaptive grid)
• Prev/Next navigation — arrow buttons for quick chapter browsing (crosses book boundaries)
• Infinite scroll — lazy loading forward and backward, from Genesis to Revelation
• 2800+ downloadable Bibles in 900+ languages via MyBible module repository
• State persistence — remembers module, book, chapter, and scroll position across launches
• Ultra-fast — ~43MB APK, direct SQLite access, no frameworks

E-Ink Optimization (BOOX)

The app uses ONYX BOOX EpdController API via reflection for flicker-free rendering:

• Global GU mode — partial screen updates (similar to SNOW Field) enabled at app startup via setSystemUpdateModeAndScheme(GU, QUEUE_AND_MERGE). Eliminates full black-to-white screen refresh.
• GU_FAST for page turns — even faster partial update mode activated during volume key page jumps
• No animations — all window animations disabled, dialog dimming removed
• Inline UI — translation picker, book/chapter grids render inside the same view (no new windows = no extra screen refresh)
• Instant jumps — setSelectionFromTop() instead of smoothScrollBy() for single-frame page turns

Falls back gracefully on non-BOOX devices (reflection failures are silently ignored).

Bundled Translations

Module	Translation	Language
UBIO'88	Біблія в пер. Івана Огієнка, 1988	Українська
CUV'23	БІБЛІЯ Сучасний переклад (УБТ, 2020-2023)	Українська
KJV+	King James Version with Strong's numbers	English
BDC'24	Biblia Dumitru Cornilescu (ediția centenară, 2024)	Română

Architecture

ReaderActivity (LAUNCHER)
  ├── Continuous reader   — ListView with mixed item types (headers + verses)
  │     ├── Chapter headers  — "Book Chapter" between sections
  │     ├── Verses           — superscript numbers + cleaned HTML text
  │     └── Lazy loading     — forward + backward, auto-loads on scroll
  ├── Translation picker  — inline ListView (replaces verses)
  ├── Book picker         — inline 6-column GridView
  ├── Chapter picker      — inline adaptive GridView (5-10 cols)
  └── Prev/Next + Volume  — chapter navigation + page-turn scrolling

DownloadLanguagesActivity → DownloadModulesActivity  — browse & download modules

DatabaseHelper     — SQLite access (MyBible format)
RegistryManager    — download/cache module catalog from 5 mirrors
ModuleDownloader   — download & extract .zip modules
TextCleaner        — strip MyBible HTML markup (<S>, <f>, <pb/>)
EinkHelper         — BOOX EpdController via reflection (graceful fallback)

Data Format

Uses MyBible SQLite3 modules:

Table	Columns	Purpose
books	book_number, short_name, long_name	Book metadata
verses	book_number, chapter, verse, text	Scripture text (HTML)
info	name, value	Module metadata (language, description)

Build

Requirements: Android SDK, JDK 17+

export JAVA_HOME="C:/Program Files/Android/Android Studio/jbr"
./gradlew assembleDebug
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

Tech Stack

• Language: Java 8
• Min SDK: 17 (Android 4.2)
• Target SDK: 34
• Build: Gradle 8.9 + AGP 8.5.2
• UI: native ListView, GridView, Activity
• DB: android.database.sqlite
• Dependencies: none (zero external libraries)