I just wanted to post about PDFReader because I haven't seen this posted yet on the Kindle Group. Like alot of new kindle users(Mine is 3 days old), I was excited to read my pdf ebooks on my kindle but quickly became disappointed after using amazon pdf conversion service and mobireader publisher edition. It's so light and small that it is not legible. I quickly started searching for a solutions and found Rasterfarian and PDFreader1.8.2. I was not able to test out Rasterfarian since I can't find anywhere to download Rasterfarian 2.5. Luckily, I found PDFReader @ the conversion software group. After a lot of trial and error, I finally have something reasonably good conversion.

I have to Thank Nick Rapallo for writing the software. username: nrapallo.
I really appreciate it.

Here's my settings:
Iliad profile
Layout: Landscape -third
Unpaper: -v
Rotation: Right
Dilation DPI:250
Cropping%:2.0
Colorspace:Gray
Color:4
EdgeLevel: 5
Size: H=520 V=640
Optimize PNGs

-----------------
Please share your settings if you think it's better than above.
Thanks!

P.S. Anybody please let me know if you find a link to download the latest rasterfarian v3.0. Thanks. So I can try it out.

Thanks for putting this out. I've been looking for a good .pdf converting software.(maybe I havent been looking hard enough?) I plan on trying this software tonight.
I have tried it and I dont really like the landscape format, although I have messed around with the Software that much, so I cant say too much about it at this point.

Hello. I'd love to try the software out but I can't seem to find it online (or Rasterfarian either). It would be great if you could post the link or point me in the right direction. Thanks! Lauren

Guys,

Let's try to figure this out and find out what's the best PDF conversion program for Kindle so we can actually use our kindle. I'm ready to actually ebay mine.


Here's for Nick's PDFReader 1.8.2 (Edited sorry Nick - bad typo) =)
Btw, Thanks again for sharing your great work.
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=159387

Here's for Alex's Rasterfarian 2.5
http://hightech.afmag.net/rasterfarian-for-sony-reader-copyright-problems-download-the-patched-rasterfarian-version-here.html

Here's for Alex's Rasterfarian 2.5.2 Patch
http://kmfstudio.com/rasterfarian_252_patch.html

:oops2: Wait a minute, PDFRead is still at version 1.8.2!

Are you hinting for a new version... :rolleyes:

This is the one thing that is keeping my credit card in my pocket rather than using it to buy a Kindle. I have lots of work documents in PDF and if I can be assured that they would all read fine on the Kindle then I might bite.

Otherwise I'll wait to see if PDF is natively supported in the next version.

This is the one thing that is keeping my credit card in my pocket rather than using it to buy a Kindle. I have lots of work documents in PDF and if I can be assured that they would all read fine on the Kindle then I might bite.

Otherwise I'll wait to see if PDF is natively supported in the next version.

Ya know you have 30 days to try it in a real world test. If it doesn't work for you, send it back, get your money back. :)

I think PDFRead also has a Kindle profile [if not, it's easy to make one].

I think PDFRead also has a Kindle profile [if not, it's easy to make one].

Sure does, it's called 'prc-mobi' (for landscape mode) or 'prc-mobi-p' (for portrait mode) as these profiles are also useful for Cybook Gen3 users.

The iLiad has it's own profile because it's ebook dimensions and color (ok grayscale) resolution is greater.

Sure does, it's called 'prc-mobi' (for landscape mode) or 'prc-mobi-p' (for portrait mode)

This was a great tip for me. I had basically given up on reading any technical papers on my Kindle. The earlier versions of PDFReader did not have prc profiles - the latest version does. I converted a few technical papers in pdf files and the created prc versions read great. Thank you.

This was a great tip for me. I had basically given up on reading any technical papers on my Kindle. The earlier versions of PDFReader did not have prc profiles - the latest version does. I converted a few technical papers in pdf files and the created prc versions read great. Thank you.

You're welcome. When it works, it works! :2thumbsup

If you like PDFRead, then you'll love PDFRead with pi (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23048). Check out the sample (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=250704#post250704) technical .pdf I converted to .prc using both of these programs; pi first, then PDFRead.

Basically makes these small screened devices usable now for reading .pdf ebooks!

If you like PDFRead, then you'll love PDFRead with pi (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23048).

I am a novice -I will need an easy Windows executable program, preferably a program that integrates pi and PDFRead, to be able to use it (it is sooooo tempting because your sample document looks great).

I am a novice -I will need an easy Windows executable program, preferably a program that integrates pi and PDFRead, to be able to use it (it is sooooo tempting because your sample document looks great).

Soon.... :chinscratch: well, don't be holding your breathe now :eek:, (here 'soon' = 'in a while (short or long)' ). ;)

can anyone tell me what settings are best to use if you want to convert a PDF thats in portrait to the kindle? i've used this program to convert but the text is too small for me, any ideas on how to make it bigger or is that not possible? sorry, this i'm just trying to figure this all out and suprisingly i haven't seen anyone post all their settings in portrait format in this thread or anywhere on the forum.

You're welcome. When it works, it works! :2thumbsup

If you like PDFRead, then you'll love PDFRead with pi (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23048). Check out the sample (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=250704#post250704) technical .pdf I converted to .prc using both of these programs; pi first, then PDFRead.

Basically makes these small screened devices usable now for reading .pdf ebooks!

Any news/developments on integrating PDFRead with pi?

Another option on the Kindle is to just use a directory of images, one for each page. Instructions here:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=373150

I compared this with PDFRead (prc-mobi profile), and there are advantages and disadvantages to both. PDFRead isn't as good at turning one portrait-mode page into two landscape-mode pages- sometimes content gets cut off and split across two pages. With a directory of images you don't have to divide each page in two, because the Kindle reader supports panning. On the other hand, the page turns are faster with PDFRead, and I like the fact that it crops out the margins and generates a table of contents automatically.

Another factor is that running PDFRead is quite slow for large files.

You're welcome. When it works, it works! :2thumbsup

If you like PDFRead, then you'll love PDFRead with pi (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23048). Check out the sample (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=250704#post250704) technical .pdf I converted to .prc using both of these programs; pi first, then PDFRead.

Basically makes these small screened devices usable now for reading .pdf ebooks!

Nick, are you using the pi version 0.7, as posted by Ashkulz? Or, did you figure out a way to get pi 0.8 working (maybe with Linux live CD?)

Nick, are you using the pi version 0.7, as posted by Ashkulz? Or, did you figure out a way to get pi 0.8 working (maybe with Linux live CD?)

The sample was made the hard way, first with the windows pi version (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=240669#post240669) ashkulz was able to post (ver 0.6, I believe) and from it's output (directory of images) I created the ebook using PDFRead.

I never did get to try the Linux Live CD, since I was waiting for a windows version of 0.8 or to have it incorporated WITHIN PDFRead by ashkulz for PDFRead v2.0 (C++ based).

Are you able to use the pi program? v0.8?

Thanks for sharing your settings quantamix!
:thanks:

Are you able to use the pi program? v0.8?

No, not yet. I am about to embark on that quest (new Kindle 2 owner) and wanted to make sure I had the right info before reinventing the wheel!

I will post back as to success or failure after a few days (real busy at work!)

Hey have any luck with your Kindle 2 yet?:blink:

Thanks to the original poster for pointing out PDFRead 1.8.2

It's certainly a good solution for me trying to produce a .prc from a .pdf and it's very easy to use.

The only problem I'm having is that the text doesn't look too great. The program seems to make the text very dark and quite grainy when zoomed in. Is this to do with the settings that I've chosen when converting with PDFRead?

Thanks to the original poster for pointing out PDFRead 1.8.2

It's certainly a good solution for me trying to produce a .prc from a .pdf and it's very easy to use.

The only problem I'm having is that the text doesn't look too great. The program seems to make the text very dark and quite grainy when zoomed in. Is this to do with the settings that I've chosen when converting with PDFRead?

Yes, increase the dpi setting to double or even triple what you are using. You probably have a low-resolution .pdf and the dilution gets too pronounced.

Increasing the dpi or setting 'no dilution' will help.

Also, be sure to get the updated NRhtml2mobi.exe mod when creating .prc files. You can even use the Sony MinFilter5 mod as well to increase the resolution of the final output. It's all available at the bottom of post #1 (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=159387#post159387) in the PDFRead main thread.

Thanks Nick,

I've done all those things however and the text still looks poor...

I replaced that NRhtml2mobi.exe file in the 'bin' folder of PDFRead, and my settings for conversion are as follows:

profile - prc-mobi-p
unpaper - v
dilation DPI - 900
cropping percent - 2.0
colorspace -defaut
colors - 256
edge level -5
NO DILATION - TICKED
OPTIMIZE PNGs - TICKED

The file I have been left with is attached - as you can see, it doesn't look great when any level of zoom is set.

Thanks,

Sam

Thanks Nick,

I've done all those things however and the text still looks poor...

I replaced that NRhtml2mobi.exe file in the 'bin' folder of PDFRead, and my settings for conversion are as follows:

profile - prc-mobi-p
unpaper - v
dilation DPI - 900
cropping percent - 2.0
colorspace -defaut
colors - 256
edge level -5
NO DILATION - TICKED
OPTIMIZE PNGs - TICKED

The file I have been left with is attached - as you can see, it doesn't look great when any level of zoom is set.

Thanks,

Sam

OK, you're probably not going to like the answer, but due to those crop marks, the margins cannot be removed by PDFRead by itself. It can however, when using unpaper to strip them - see this post (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=371062#post371062) on how to do just that; needs experimentation, perhaps on a few pages at a time.

The idea for displaying pdf pages on small screen ebook devices is to somehow gain back those white margins (when using portrait-mode) OR use a landscape profile/mode (see attached screenshot). However, this will require two page turns for each pdf pages. (I told you wouldn't like the answer... ;) )

But there's no other way to increase the clarity/readiblity of the text unless the image can be "zoomed-in" on the ebook page via white margin removal or landscape mode.