fbless3 - Modern Python 3 FB2 Console Reader

A modernized Python 3 rewrite of the original fbless FB2 console reader.

About

fbless3 is a terminal-based reader for FB2 (FictionBook2) e-book files. This is a complete rewrite of the original fbless in modern Python 3, featuring improved Unicode support, better terminal integration, and enhanced usability.

Features

• 📖 Read FB2 files in your terminal
• 🗜️ Support for compressed files (zip, gzip, bzip2)
• 📏 Dynamic text wrapping (uses full terminal width)
• 🔍 Search functionality with regex support
• 📚 Automatic bookmarks (remembers reading position)
• ⚡ Auto-scroll mode
• 🔧 Configurable via JSON config file
• 🖥️ Responsive to terminal resize

Install/Uninstall and Requirements

Install:

# Just copy the file and make it executable
cp fbless3 ~/.local/bin/fbless3
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/fbless3
# Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Uninstall:

rm ~/.local/bin/fbless3

Requirements:

• Python 3.6 or newer
• Python curses library (usually pre-installed on Linux/Mac)

Usage

Read a book: fbless3 book.fb2

Read compressed book: fbless3 book.fb2.zip

Start with autoscroll: fbless3 -a book.fb2

Go to 50% of book: fbless3 -g 50 book.fb2

View Bookmarks fbless3 -l

Show help: fbless3 -h

Controls

Configuration

Configuration file: ~/.config/fbless3/config.json

Configuration Options

• left_indent/right_indent: Text margins
• bold: Use bold text
• save_file: Bookmark file location
• max_bookmarks: number of records

Example: (do not forget set ","! This is JSON)

{
 "left_indent": 2,
 "right_indent": 2,
 "bold": false,
 "max_bookmarks": 100
}

Differences from Original fbless

• Modern Python 3 - Type hints, dataclasses, pathlib
• Better Unicode support - Full UTF-8 throughout
• Dynamic text wrapping - Uses full terminal width
• Improved error handling - Better user feedback
• Responsive design - Handles terminal resize
• Enhanced bookmarks - JSON-based bookmark storage

Credits

This project is a modernized rewrite of the original fbless by Artem Shinkarov:

• Original author: Con Radchenko
• Original maintainer: Ivan Burbakov

fbless3 rewrite by Neuromagus - maintaining the spirit of the original while modernizing for Python 3.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

This is a derivative work of the original fbless, which is also GPL licensed.