Sony PRS-300 - Hebrew Support

LevAizik · 10-30-2009, 03:37 AM

Hi, I just bought sony PRS-300 on ebay, but I have second thoughts. I don't know if it can show Hebrew text. It is very important for me because I live in Israel and I am going to use PRS for my studies. I am going to upload a few files in Hebrew. Can anyone, please, upload them on their sony device and tell me if it display them correctly?

I am going to use two formats: DOC and PDF.

300com · 10-30-2009, 06:13 AM

Of course the PDF works because it is a scan, but it is too small to read.
You'll need hebrew fonts to do reflow, but I'm not sure if its supported
or how far the 300 has been hacked.

porkupan · 10-30-2009, 05:53 PM

Text PDFs do seem to work well. You will only be able to read PDF though. You will have to convert DOCs or any other format into PDFs, and you need to use special page size.

Here are some screenshots from PRS-600 (the gray background is actually white on the reader):

300com · 10-30-2009, 07:31 PM

porkupan, You cannot magnify on the 300, he ordered the 300 model.

LevAizik · 10-31-2009, 02:08 AM

Thank you!!!

kenmark · 10-31-2009, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porkupan

Here are some screenshots from PRS-600 (the gray background is actually white on the reader):

How did you get those screen shots?

Are they scanned?

Very useful for explaining how things look on a device. Easier than taking a photo using a camera.

Thanks.

mumoo · 10-31-2009, 11:02 AM

I guess Porkupan has upgraded a Ruassian HACK firmware. Screenshot function is added in the system.

HarryT · 11-01-2009, 04:43 AM

As a matter of interest, why the Arabic numbers in the first two pictures above? Hebrew has its own number symbols, doesn't it?

igorsk · 11-01-2009, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

As a matter of interest, why the Arabic numbers in the first two pictures above? Hebrew has its own number symbols, doesn't it?

Wikipedia says:

Quote:

In Israel today, the decimal system of Hindu-Arabic numerals (ex. 0, 1, 2, 3, etc...) is used in almost all cases (money, age, date on the civil calendar). The Hebrew numerals are used only in special cases, like when using the Hebrew calendar, or numbering a list (similar to a, b, c, d, etc...).

I guess it's the same story as with Japanese and Chinese: Arabic numerals are just much more convenient and easy to use.

quillaja · 11-02-2009, 01:19 AM

While I haven't tested Hebrew, I have tired making some books display Japanese text with reflow (using ePub). I found that the only problem was that the sony reader (prs-600 in my case) doesn't have built-in fonts for Japanese text. I got around this problem my embedding the font into the file myself. You could try that method if you have the ability to alter your files (and they are ePub).

I've seen stuff about people hacking their reader to use alternative fonts, and you might explore that method to substitute Hebrew fonts, but I'd be cautious about hacking it.

PDFs can work because (1) the pdf has embedded fonts or (2) they are scans. For your DOC files, you'll have to convert them to RTF for the reader to display them (that's what the sony software does when you import DOC files). Of course, DOC files support embedded fonts, but I don't know if RTF does. That said, I only used RTF once on my reader, and it seemed to use the same font as in the original Word DOC (Calibri). Because I doubt that the sony reader has Calibri font on it, I can only assume that the RTF somehow had Calibri embedded into it. However, I haven't tested that assumption at all.

Those are just some observations I've had about non-western fonts on the sony reader.

porkupan · 11-02-2009, 10:56 AM

What may be true for Japanese is not necessarily true for Hebrew. The only format that currently supports Right-To-Left and mixed character direction in the Sony Reader is PDF. Well, unless you are making an "image-sequence" LRF or EPUB. Embedding or replacing native fonts in the firmware is not sufficient to make Hebrew work in the non-PDF text-based formats in the Reader. We tried.

As hard as it may be to believe, the East Asian languages are in this one sense closer to English than the alphabet-based Hebrew and Arabic.

carmelra · 02-07-2010, 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porkupan

What may be true for Japanese is not necessarily true for Hebrew. The only format that currently supports Right-To-Left and mixed character direction in the Sony Reader is PDF. Well, unless you are making an "image-sequence" LRF or EPUB. Embedding or replacing native fonts in the firmware is not sufficient to make Hebrew work in the non-PDF text-based formats in the Reader. We tried.

As hard as it may be to believe, the East Asian languages are in this one sense closer to English than the alphabet-based Hebrew and Arabic.

This is really strange. When I'm using Hebrew ePub with embedded fonts, the text is displayed in the wrong direction. It seems like the only problem is supporting the RTL tag or style. While Calibre, AZARDI, FBReader, Bookworm, Stanza support it properly, how hard should it be to fix this issue?

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10-30-2009, 06:13 AM	#2
300com Zealot Posts: 130 Karma: 1041448 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: PRS-300	Of course the PDF works because it is a scan, but it is too small to read. You'll need hebrew fonts to do reflow, but I'm not sure if its supported or how far the 300 has been hacked.

10-30-2009, 05:53 PM	#3
porkupan Fanatic Posts: 556 Karma: 1057213 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Eastern U.S. Device: Sony Reader	Text PDFs do seem to work well. You will only be able to read PDF though. You will have to convert DOCs or any other format into PDFs, and you need to use special page size. Here are some screenshots from PRS-600 (the gray background is actually white on the reader):

10-30-2009, 07:31 PM	#4
300com Zealot Posts: 130 Karma: 1041448 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: PRS-300	porkupan, You cannot magnify on the 300, he ordered the 300 model.

10-31-2009, 02:08 AM	#5
LevAizik Member Posts: 20 Karma: 54 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: none	Thank you!!!

10-31-2009, 11:02 AM	#7
mumoo Member Posts: 12 Karma: 19 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: prs600	I guess Porkupan has upgraded a Ruassian HACK firmware. Screenshot function is added in the system.

11-01-2009, 04:43 AM	#8
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	As a matter of interest, why the Arabic numbers in the first two pictures above? Hebrew has its own number symbols, doesn't it?

11-02-2009, 01:19 AM	#10
quillaja Connoisseur Posts: 79 Karma: 42 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: sony reader touch (prs-600)	While I haven't tested Hebrew, I have tired making some books display Japanese text with reflow (using ePub). I found that the only problem was that the sony reader (prs-600 in my case) doesn't have built-in fonts for Japanese text. I got around this problem my embedding the font into the file myself. You could try that method if you have the ability to alter your files (and they are ePub). I've seen stuff about people hacking their reader to use alternative fonts, and you might explore that method to substitute Hebrew fonts, but I'd be cautious about hacking it. PDFs can work because (1) the pdf has embedded fonts or (2) they are scans. For your DOC files, you'll have to convert them to RTF for the reader to display them (that's what the sony software does when you import DOC files). Of course, DOC files support embedded fonts, but I don't know if RTF does. That said, I only used RTF once on my reader, and it seemed to use the same font as in the original Word DOC (Calibri). Because I doubt that the sony reader has Calibri font on it, I can only assume that the RTF somehow had Calibri embedded into it. However, I haven't tested that assumption at all. Those are just some observations I've had about non-western fonts on the sony reader.

11-02-2009, 10:56 AM	#11
porkupan Fanatic Posts: 556 Karma: 1057213 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Eastern U.S. Device: Sony Reader	What may be true for Japanese is not necessarily true for Hebrew. The only format that currently supports Right-To-Left and mixed character direction in the Sony Reader is PDF. Well, unless you are making an "image-sequence" LRF or EPUB. Embedding or replacing native fonts in the firmware is not sufficient to make Hebrew work in the non-PDF text-based formats in the Reader. We tried. As hard as it may be to believe, the East Asian languages are in this one sense closer to English than the alphabet-based Hebrew and Arabic.