I am looking for a device to read e-books while sitting on the couch or in bed.

so I was really planning on getting the Sony reader, it looked perfect and then for $50, what a deal. This was until I went to check it out at Borders in Penn Plaza here in NYC. At first with the books that come already on the device, they looked decent, I am not sure that they were exact to paper but pretty close.

Now I had no intention to buy any licensed books via any retailer, I have resources where I can get almost any e-book for free from work. So I got a few of my favorite programming book titles, put them on my cameras Memory stick and took it down to Borders. I loaded up some of my books, one called "Agile Web development with Rails". The quality of the text was really bad, it really was not text, just little worm shaped lines. So I then used the size button and zoomed in, while this was a little better, it wasn't that much better. I just could not see myself buying this product even for the $50. sorry, but i will have to pass for my needs.

I am am still on the look out for a good device, any help would be appreciated.

The reason I need a great device is well, I cant sit very long do to sciatica.

Were you looking at a PDF? The Sony Reader is horrible at PDFs; that's the greatest weakness. The only ebook device for PDFs is the Iriver Iliad. Unfortunately, it costs $700+.

If it wasn't a PDF, then before you give up on the Sony Reader, have a look at the conversion tools one of our members created. They take a variety of file types, and output a LRF file for the Reader. The converters are all very solidly functional.

There is also a way to convert PDFs for the Sony Reader. I haven't used it yet so I can't give any details.

Were you looking at a PDF? The Sony Reader is horrible at PDFs; that's the greatest weakness. The only ebook device for PDFs is the Iriver Iliad. Unfortunately, it costs $700+.

If it wasn't a PDF, then before you give up on the Sony Reader, have a look at the conversion tools one of our members created. They take a variety of file types, and output a LRF file for the Reader. The converters are all very solidly functional.

There is also a way to convert PDFs for the Sony Reader. I haven't used it yet so I can't give any details.


well all I want is PDF's, would a PDA be better for me. like the Palm tx.

To be honest if you want to only read PDF, then a laptop would be your best bet. None of the portable readers are all that great at PDF. The solution is to convert your PDF to HTML or DOC and use Book Designer to format it for the Sony Reader. Othwise it's going to look like crap no matter what device you get. The iRex iLiad is better then the Sony, but the price is $750 for it. Now if that's ok, go for it. But overall, PDF is a format for printing, not reading. If you are making ebooks in PDF, then you are doing it WRONG. PDF is not a good format to read. I don't even like to read PDF on my 1600x1200x32 LCD computer screen.

I differ with the above members in that even on the iLiad the letter and A4 sized PDF files are not great, a little better than the Sony but not anywhere twice as good. If a PDA could read them you would either have very small print (squiggles for lines) or you would be panning the screen for each line.

To be honest if you want to only read PDF, then a laptop would be your best bet. None of the portable readers are all that great at PDF. The solution is to convert your PDF to HTML or DOC and use Book Designer to format it for the Sony Reader. Othwise it's going to look like crap no matter what device you get. The iRex iLiad is better then the Sony, but the price is $750 for it. Now if that's ok, go for it. But overall, PDF is a format for printing, not reading. If you are making ebooks in PDF, then you are doing it WRONG. PDF is not a good format to read. I don't even like to read PDF on my 1600x1200x32 LCD computer screen.


I don't make em, i get them like that. I don't really have a choice.

I have an iLiad (my second one in fact, due to a sad theft story), and I love it. It's excellent for PDF's I make myself and now has what may be an even better format in Mobipocket .PRC files. Either PRC or iLiad-optimized PDF files can be obtained from mobileread.com.

It works reasonably well for reading "standard-sized" PDF's, but it's not ideal for doing that. I do like to use it for reading much talked about reports: Supreme Court decisions, IPCC (Global Warming) reports, and other documents you wouldn't want to kill 100 pages worth of trees for. But in my experience, the most pleasant reading experience comes from PRC files or the PDFs I print myself (or obtain from Mobile Read). When printing myself, I use a defined page size of 5.5 x 6.68"; this is a lot nicer than reading a file printed for a standard 8.5 x 11" page.

Actually I use BookDesigner to convert my books from pdf to the lrf file format.
The problem with BookDesigner is that you need to have msword installed to open html, and since I use it through wine under linux, I have no wish to waste HD space to install msword.

I don't how good is a book when opening under html as opposed to pdf. I hope it isn't that different.

That said, you can always download one of the many books already formatted for the reader you can find here. That should give you a fair idea of the quality.

I don't make em, i get them like that. I don't really have a choice.
If the PDF are not full of graphics, there are a lot of choices for converting to text so you can create proper books.

A small laptop, perhaps even the upcoming Asus Eee, would certainly be one option. Another is the Pepper Pad 3, which is great for PDFs and e-books (only limited by 7" 800x480 screen), see this recent pepper forum thread (http://www.pepper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1149) (which started out on performance and ended up on e-books and PDF). If an even smaller screen is ok, then the Everun (4.8" screen and Windows XP) might be an option - although it is more expensive than the already pricey Pepper Pad. Finally, a low cost LCD-based option with a slightly larger screen is the DT 375 tablet, which has been well covered at teleread see for example this post (http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6747). Find more posts by searching for DT375 at the teleread main page.

If the PDF are not full of graphics, there are a lot of choices for converting to text so you can create proper books.

how would I go about converting, if I can convert, I will go back to Borders and give it a try.

A small laptop, perhaps even the upcoming Asus Eee, would certainly be one option. Another is the Pepper Pad 3, which is great for PDFs and e-books (only limited by 7" 800x480 screen), see this recent pepper forum thread (http://www.pepper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1149) (which started out on performance and ended up on e-books and PDF). If an even smaller screen is ok, then the Everun (4.8" screen and Windows XP) might be an option - although it is more expensive than the already pricey Pepper Pad. Finally, a low cost LCD-based option with a slightly larger screen is the DT 375 tablet, which has been well covered at teleread see for example this post (http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6747). Find more posts by searching for DT375 at the teleread main page.


those look nice, but just to expensive.

how would I go about converting, if I can convert, I will go back to Borders and give it a try.
There is a free program called pdftohtml you could use to convert your PDF into HTML and then use Book Designer to format from there.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdftohtml/

how would I go about converting, if I can convert, I will go back to Borders and give it a try.There are a number of tools available, here's a partial list (http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Sony_Portable_Reader#Content_Formatting_Best_Known _Methods_.28BKMs.29) to start you off.

There are a number of tools available, here's a partial list (http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Sony_Portable_Reader#Content_Formatting_Best_Known _Methods_.28BKMs.29) to start you off.
But, what about PDF conversion tools? I know pdftohtml works, but if there are headers and footers, you have to edit them ALL out. I'm looking for a nice free solution that works well.

I'm not real well versed on the PDF tools, JSWolf -- I avoid PDFs like the plague, you see. :grin:

I'm not real well versed on the PDF tools, JSWolf -- I avoid PDFs like the plague, you see. :grin:
Since the OP has his books in PDF, he'd be the one needing to convert PDF to something else and hopefully be able to keep the attributes as well.

True, but I thought he had some things in other formats ... but looking back, I'm not sure where I got that notion. :sad:

But, what about PDF conversion tools? I know pdftohtml works, but if there are headers and footers, you have to edit them ALL out. I'm looking for a nice free solution that works well.

Actually there are cases where BookDesigner will automagically erase footers and headers by itself when loading the file. I discovered that yesterday through pure dumb luck.

Of course, it isn't a sure bet as I had another case where all the footers were kept.