The Fb2 format was created as a universal way to store books. It has many useful properties, and one of them is the ease of converting to a number of other formats. However, not every user has a program to read fb2 on a computer. This is what slowed down the development of the format. But if you have a special utility, you can enjoy convenient reading of books.
Free FB2 Readers
Universal "reader". It supports most formats for storing books, works with any amount of information and the number of sheets. To use it, you do not need to install anything, just run the executable file. It is really convenient and fast.
It would seem that such a simple program should have little functionality, but this is not true. In fact, Cool Reader meets all modern requirements. In addition to reading the fb2 format, this program will provide work with any documents, including those on the network! There is convenient access to online libraries for this.
The utility interface is very convenient and simple. It is divided into several parts, one of which shows recent files, the second - a directory of documents, and the third - settings. This approach allows you to use it regardless of the localization language. According to many users, this is the best program.
A bit old-fashioned, but very functional program for Windows. It allows you to work with absolutely any text format, and can also connect to archives! Now you do not need to extract books from RAR, ZIP or other packages, just specify the path to them.
In addition, a huge variety of settings should be noted. In the program, you can fine-tune almost everything from a catalog to a font. It should be noted that the cataloging system is incredibly extensive and convenient. In it you can divide books into categories, genres, your own wishes, the number of bookmarks and even corrections. By the way, they allow you to remove typos from the text.
ICE Book Reader Professional helps you maintain vision. To do this, there are a number of different viewing modes that are suitable for different conditions. 
No wonder it’s called that. This program works with all formats that a user can only find on the Internet. Docx, abw, and even chm books can be read in Alreader. This is the main advantage of the utility. It does not differ in some outstanding interface design, however, it does not irritate the eye, even after a very long reading.
Alreader will help you tune in, focus on the process. To do this, you can choose the most convenient font, color and illumination of the background, and even the smoothing mode. This approach to customization allows the user to enjoy reading. The program has the usual modes of "day" and "night", as well as a lot of unique settings.
It is important to note that the background for reading can be as authentic as possible - in the form of paper of varying degrees of safety. Background images are made very high quality, which will help to get aesthetic pleasure. 
At this stage, the program is still being finalized, so it has several drawbacks. For example, table formats and CSS styles are not fully supported. However, this practically does not limit the reader. Problems will be extremely rare, on single copies.
In FB2 Reader, you can create a whole library, catalog information according to one of a dozen different parameters. This program can be downloaded for free and used without any restrictions. 
STDU Viewer - It can hardly be called a classic reader. It is designed to work with any documents, including electronic books. Many free programs specialize in readability. This is very important, but not in all cases. The same program is more aimed at maximum functionality. In it you can watch any format of documents. It's hard to even come up with a book that STDU Viewer cannot open.
The program interface is concise, but very convenient. Small symbolic icons can be understood intuitively, especially since everything is translated into Russian. Despite the huge number of different features, they neatly fit in several panels, allowing the user to concentrate on the text.
Of the unique features, it is worth noting the format converter, the ability to work with images. Also, STDU Viewer allows you to print documents. 
Despite the fact that the epub and mobi formats are gaining more and more popularity on mobile devices, it’s too early to bury fb2 (FictionBook). Today, we will examine under our microscope the best fb2 reading programs that provide maximum comfort for the eyes and without extra frills. These applications should not only open e-books, but also be highly customizable.
The list of mobile fb2 readers for Android includes the following free applications:
All applications are available for download on Google Play, links to them are available next to the description of each fb2 reader. So, we begin testing.
FBReader - a cute fb2 reader for Android
How to open a file? FBReader - the first thing that comes to mindPerhaps no review is complete without mention. If you do not know how to open the fb2 file, then this is the application that first comes to mind, regardless of platform. The fact is that FBReader is available everywhere:
- for desktop OS (Windows / Mac OS / Linux)
- mobile phones and tablets (Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry 10)
Only iOS is missing from this list - but, of course, there are many “native” reader applications for reading in this mobile OS.
In addition to fb2, the FBreader application for Android successfully opens the following document formats: ePub, azw3, Word-documents, HTML, simple text documents, PDF and (through the module). True, the last of these are available after installing the plugins, which are available for free download on the application website.
Let's see why the FBReader project was developed, what are the main features of the reader and why should it be used to read books on Android? We list the three main reader chips (highlighted in bold).
Sync books on your phone through a network library. FBReader provides a cloud service for storing books. You can (via the link - a list of electronic libraries), safely upload documents and books in fb2 format (they can be compressed into a zip archive) into the cloud, and then access and read them on any devices. The position (where you are in the document) will be saved. By the way, synchronization is configured in a couple of clicks, by default it is disabled.
How to open fb2 using FBReader?
In addition to its own library, you can connect additional network directories and bookstores. As for me, I don’t use the network functions of the FBReader reader at all, I just download books from popular online libraries to my Android in fb2 format. This is a standard way to download books that works with a bang.
Setting display fb2 books. In addition to the fact that FBReader has a pleasant user interface, it pleases the ability to fine-tune the display of text in the book. In this regard, it should be noted color schemes, night and day reading mode, screen brightness, changing the background of the substrate, text color, font size and headset. You can download your favorite fonts in Android in TrueType or OpenType format and specify them in the reader settings.
Finally, the third feature of this program for reading fb2 for Android will appeal to those who read books in foreign languages \u200b\u200b- namely, the easy connection of dictionaries for translating words in the text of books. Take the same Kindle: there you can connect the English-Russian dictionary and quickly recognize the translation of a word when highlighting it. On Android readers, this feature is often not available, but FBReader is a pleasant exception. Add ColorDict, Fora Dictionary, FreeDictionary.org dictionaries to your phone, indicate FBReader "y, where to get words from - and you can read FictionBook books and.
AlReader - an old fb2 reader with good functionality
AlReader is a rather old reader for fb2, which appeared at the dawn of the heyday of mobile phones. When you open the application, there is even a feeling of nostalgia: too AlReader resembles its earlier versions. That is, the interface has not changed much since then. This can be treated in two ways: on the one hand, if you have already opened books in FB Reader and similar readers, then the interface of the AlReader application, most likely, you will not like. On the other hand, we advise you to evaluate the other aspects of this mobile application.
The AlReader application boasts support not only for the Fb2 format, but also for reading books in epub, mobi, doc, including from archives. You can use the local or network library to navigate the document. Actually, inside the book you can also navigate through sections (one of the fb2 features, by the way), create bookmarks and notes as you read. The application recognizes many gestures, which makes sense. First of all, to adjust the brightness, navigation.
The appearance and display style of the book on the phone screen is conveniently customizable: indentation, background and font color, headset size, page turning effects - in general, everything that can be found in any developed program for reading electronic books on Android.
In short, we would advise you to pay attention to the AlReader mobile reader already because it is a proven reader among users of not only Android, but also other mobile platforms. And the plain shell is partly offset by skins and excellent functionality.
Moon + Reader - "moon" fb2 reader for night owls
Reading fb2 with Moon Reader"Moon Reader" is not much inferior to the same FBReader, it can just as well be used to read books in FB2 format not only. The list of supported book formats includes the popular mobile formats epub, txt, html, pdf, mobi, fb2 and others. Books can be packaged in rar and zip archives and opened without problems on Android through Moon + Reader.
Like FBReader, Moon Reader has the ability to connect online libraries with books. You can also download e-books in the above formats to an sd card or internal memory, and then open them in the application.
Ease of reading at altitude: setting font sizes, colors, background, indentation, shadow, transparency and other beauty that somehow affect the perception of color. Returning to the name of the application - Moon Reader - yes, reading at night in this reader is quite convenient, with dozens of themes, as well as night and day reading modes.
When reading, it is worth noting the following features: autoscrolling, smooth scrolling of text, adjusting the screen brightness during a slide, optimization during long reading, page turning effects, adjusting text alignment, hyphenation, display modes for both tablet and small screens of Android devices.
If we talk about the unique features of the fb2 program, then this is an unusually wide support for gestures. You can customize literally any command by assigning a specific gesture for its execution. And if Kindle or another e-ink reader bypasses the screen for reading pleasure, then in terms of Android gestures ahead of the rest. You can configure actions on tapas, volume control buttons, search, camera button and others. At your disposal 24 operations on which you can hang these gestures.
Good news for lovers of foreign literature and for attentive readers who like to write in the margins: it’s very convenient to highlight fragments of text in Moon Reader, you can connect dictionaries for translating text, popular dictionaries-translators ColorDict, Fora, ABBYY Lingvo and others are supported. In this aspect, Moon Reader even bypasses the authoritative reader FBReader.
Prestigio Reader - a solid phone reader for book formats
Prestigio Reader can open many book formats, but primarily focus on mobile: these are FB2, ePub, DjVU, etc. If you prefer to listen to audio books, the reader will satisfy these needs without any problems.
Prestigio Reader is a truly prestigious fb2 book reader
Prestigio Reader is, frankly, a very pleasant discovery for us. At the first steps, when working with the reader, everything is intuitive. The guide first illustrates where and what elements to use in the application.
Fb2 books are added to the library automatically, through intelligent search. Which is incredibly convenient, because You don’t need to search for files on your phone yourself, although for these purposes the file manager is stored in Prestigio Reader. In addition, more than 5 thousand books are available for download in the online library.
The interface of the Prestigio Reader application is very pleasant and fresh. By default, everything seems to be fine, but in any case, you can customize the design of the fb2 book for yourself. In quick settings - font sizes, indents, headset. Going into the advanced settings, you will see the settings for styles, colors, panels, animations - even more than what the user needs when reading files in fb2 format.
PocketBook - FB2 and PDF reader for Android
The PocketBook program is intended for reading fb2 books on a mobile device on the Android platform. It is hardly worth listing the book formats this reader works with - it covers all popular extensions, essentially duplicating both Moon Reader and FBReader.
Hand on heart, it is worth recognizing that among fb2 readers for Android there are not so many pleasant programs in which a) the interface looks modern b) it is pleasant to read books. Unfortunately, on Google Play there are pdf and fb2 readers with a frankly miserable shell. You open them and think: well, all hope that the pages in the book will look normal, even if the program doesn’t let you down. But no, and fonts fit the interface.
As for the PocketBook application for Android, the opposite is true: this is one of the most successful applications for reading books in the FictionBook format. The developers achieved this through convenient navigation through the library and the implementation of a circular menu.
At first, such a device of the main menu in PocketBook requires getting used to, which is understandable: it is rare to find such a know-how in a mobile fb2 reader. But then it becomes clear that through this menu you can carry out almost all the necessary actions: change the font size, adjust the brightness, go to the menu and more. In the main menu of the application, a standard basis of parameters is available for adjusting the display of text in the book: indents, colors, themes.
In a word, the developers of the PocketBook application have tried and released a quality product for reading on Android. It is curious that this same team is developing electronic books on e ink ink and related accessories.
EBookDroid - a program for reading FB2 and PDF
The EBookDroid reader focuses on two book formats - PDF and Deja Vu, but fb2 books with it can also be read with the same convenience on a phone or tablet. However, what about this very convenience?
After a quick test, EBookDroid feels twofold. On the one hand, all the basic reading functions are in place. You can open books, navigate pages and sections, leave bookmarks and comment in various ways, customize the display of fonts and even add your own headsets.
However, as for the shell itself, it is not very pleasant for the eyes. Although the EBookDroid app is updated regularly enough, these innovations relate to a small degree to the visual shell. The FictionBook reader app looks like it's not 2006, but 2006.
We hope that soon we will be able to download the fb2 program in material design execution. And this is not flavoring, but a simple requirement from most Android OS users.
Cool Reader - an old-fashioned reader for Android
The free old-school fb2 reader for Android called Cool Reader supports almost all popular e-book formats (PDF, MOBI, RTF, actually FictionBook, etc.), although, for example, DOC and AZW3 are not in the list.
Old school - because the interface, as in the previous case, is a bit outdated. This creates certain inconveniences: firstly, the bookshelf is not as effective as in the case with PocketBook (it could just be replaced with an easy list); secondly, you immediately have to rebuild everything "for yourself": background, color, font size and alignment.
If you close your eyes to the user shell, then, as the developer notes on the program’s description page, Cool Reader at the same time has similarities with FBReader, Aldiko, AlReader, Moon reader and other representatives of fb2-readers for Android. Therefore, the list of functions is similar to all of the above.
Summary. We mentioned, in our opinion, the best fb2 readers for Android. As you can see, there is always something to open both fb2 and pdf, epub, mobi. The following reviews will look at these mobile formats for storing books on the phone. Good luck
Which can be read on almost every computer are doc, txt or pdf. However, when reading fiction and technical literature, one often encounters other popular extensions. Trying to read such books for the first time, users are wondering what is fb2, what is the format, what program does it open. After all, using ordinary office applications, as well as built-in resources of Windows and other operating systems, this is impossible. And the automatic search for programs that can open books with the fb2 extension does not always yield positive results.
Format Benefits
The fb2 (Fiction Book) standard, created back in the 1990s, is designed to create electronic versions of documents and books in which each element has its own tag (informative label). And among the features in which it differs from other formats, it is worth noting:
- ease of creating an electronic document;
- a wide range of programs for reading literature in this format on a computer and on a mobile phone;
- structural markup with information about the book and attachments in the form of quotes, illustrations and book covers.
Another advantage that should be addressed when answering the question, fb2 - what kind of format and how to open it, is the lack of a specific appearance of the document. The file will be displayed as specified by the program settings for viewing it. This means that the user can customize the design of the electronic book to his taste (for example, make a large font, a yellow background and blue letters - this combination allows you to get tired of your eyes less) without changing the document itself.
Programs for working with fb2 on a Windows PC
One of the first programs to answer the question, fb2 - what kind of format was the free Cool Reader application. It is noteworthy that it first appeared for the Android platform, but then gained popularity on the PC. Differences of the “reader” from the rest are a simplified design and a significant number of supported formats of electronic documents.
Another simple and free reader is FBReader. Almost completely missing interface, consisting of several buttons, is combined with the ability to open most of the popular book formats. In addition, with this application books can be read directly from the archive.
Allows you to answer the question, fb2 - what is the format and how to open it on the computer, and the STDU Viewer application. Among the advantages of its use:
- the ability to easily select and copy text to save interesting points;
- bookmark system that does not change the document itself, but can be imported to another PC with the STDU Viewer program installed;
- the presence of a Portable version of the application, which allows not to install it on a computer for reading books.
How to open the format on other OS?
Users of devices using other operating systems can also open the fb2 format. For computers with MAC OS, this option is provided by the Caliber program, with the help of which e-books open with almost any popular extension. Moreover, using the application, you can directly connect to online libraries such as Amazon.
If the user has a question: fb2 - what is the format and what to open on the Android phone, you should use the same Cool Reader program, which is easy to find in the Play Market store. If the application’s functionality is not enough, you can download another “reader” for “Android” - Ecі Reader. With its help, you can change the display of information, save bookmarks and read almost all popular formats of electronic books.
For smartphones with IOS, the answer to the question: fb2 - what kind of format and how to open it, allows the Total Reader application, which has about the same functionality as Cool Reader. And owners of mobile phones running on Windows Mobile OS should pay attention to the Faction Book Reader program.
Reading fb2 online
Having learned fb2 - what kind of format, which programs should be used to read books stored in it, you can view files on the Web. At the same time, there is no need to download and install any applications, but you will need a constant connection to the Internet. Among the services that allow reading directly in the browser, it is worth noting the sites Magazon, ChitaiKnigi and BooksGid. Moreover, the latter option suggests not only reading books in fb2 format, but also connecting to a free library.
Reading occupies an important place in the life of many people, but the place for a regular paper book is not always found next to a person. Paper books are, of course, good, but electronic ones are much more convenient. However, without reading software * .fb2, the computer cannot recognize this format.
These programs will allow you to open books in * .fb2 format, read them and even change them. Some of them have several more functions than just reading and editing, and some were not intended to be read * .fb2 at all, but were included in this list because they can open such files.
FBReader is the simplest example of readers that can ever be. There is nothing superfluous in it, and there is something that complements it - network libraries. With the help of them you can download books directly in the program. This program for reading books in fb2 format is almost completely subject to change, however, the settings in it are smaller than in Caliber.
Alreader
This program for reading fb2 is more complicated than the previous one and does not require installation, which is without a doubt a plus. But this is not all that distinguishes it from FBReader, it also has a translator, bookmarks and even changing the format of the book. In addition, it has more extensive settings.
Caliber
Caliber is not an easy reader, but a real library with many functions. In it you can create and share your libraries as you like. Allow other users to access your libraries or connect to others via the network. In addition to the reader’s function, it combines several other useful features, such as downloading news from around the world, downloading and editing books.
ICE Book Reader
A simple library, auto-scrolling, searching, saving and editing are all that are in this program. Simple, low-functional and understandable for everyone, and, at the same time, very useful.
Balabolka
This program on this list is a unique exhibit. If Caliber was not a simple reader, but a library, then Balabolka is a program that can pronounce any printed text aloud. It has already turned out that the program has the ability to read files with the * .fb2 format, and therefore it was in this list. The chatterbox has a ton of other functions, for example, it can convert subtitles into sound or compare two text files.
STDU Viewer
This program was also not designed for reading electronic books, but it has this function, especially since the developers added this format to the program for a reason. The program can edit files and convert them to plain text.
Winjjview
WinDjView is designed to read files in the DjVu format, but it also has the ability to open files with the fb2 format. A simple and convenient program can be an excellent substitute for an e-book reader. True, it has very little functionality, especially when compared with the Balabolka or Caliber.
In this article, we examined the most convenient and well-known programs that can open books in * .fb2 format. Not all of the above programs are designed specifically for this, and therefore their functionality is different. All these programs are different from each other, and what program to open fb2 is on your PC?
