Questions of a newbie

[Voyager-Reader]

Hey there,

I wish there was a color e-ink display, but let us get back to reality!

Besides normal paper books I use a Ben Q 24inch LED backlit TFT and a Tablet PC with Wacom pen. Since I am a student I have to read a lot of stuff, but I have problems concentrating on LCD screens! I could read "easy" and unimportant stuff for hours, but as soon I have to concentrate, I loose interest in staring at my monitor., somehow it feels "not natural" to me(!), also the whole "thing" using a computer distracts me from focussing..I tried to change the backlight power, but it does not help. So that also rules the Ipad out for reading!

Today I saw a e-reader for the first time (Sony), and I thought it was shut off at first!!!
Yes, it was the first time I could experience e-ink, and I was amazed. But that sony reader was wayyyy to small for me and turning pages was crazy, there was always this crazy flash!

Kindle DX G seems to be the biggest reader on the market, so it would be my first choice.
But what about turning pages? Is there again a "crazy" flash when turning pages? How much data space does the kindle have? My pdf's can be quite huge!


Since e-readers are devices for reading only it should fulfil the need of a student who wants some device to have his literature with him all the time.

Thank you!

[zetareticuli]

The "flash" turning pages is inherent to the current implementation of eInk screens. You will not find a device without the "flash" turning pages right now. The Kindle DXG is fast and while it still has the "flash", it is not as bad as other devices. I would say the DXG is probably your best shot, especially if you read PDFs. Storage is limited, however, with about 3,000 MB available for user content. No slots/ports for physical add-on storage.

[Voyager-Reader]

Thanks!

Yes, most of the things I want to read are pdf's. And 3000MB are enough for that! (Even if not, I would not have to have my whole library with me all the time!)

That Flash of the small Sony reader was annoying, but if the dx turns pages fast, that could outweigh the negative side of looking into a light bulb all the time (LCD)!

PS:
Am I right? Or am I just manipulated by those people who say LCD's cause eye strain, e-readers do not more than paper books??? I mean, for some books color is really a must, and no e-reader can provide basic colors, at least. Still, I have many black and white pdf books, I have not read, because ink is so expensive to print out, and reading several hundred pages on a LCD...just not as "relaxed" as pure paper.

[fjtorres]

The black flash is, on some readers, optional. What it does is ensure that the screen is 100.00% wiped before rendering the next page. Some readers let you turn it off completely or have it happen only ever nth page that you choose.

My reader allows this but affer experimenting with it I went back to a full flash after every page turn because: 1) my reader is fast enough it makes no big difference and 2) I'm used to the full page flash and the fade-in of a new page without it is jarring to me.

Basically, the black flash is something most of us get used to after a few dozen pages of reading a good book; once you're immersed in the story you no more notice the black flash than you notice the page turn press. It quickly drops out of your perception unless you stop to think about it. (The brain is a very interesting computer.)

That said, if you're looking for pdf reading your choices range from decent (Kindle DX) to tolerable or worse (everything else).

One more time:
PDFs really only look good on a printout or a good-sized PC screen.
Also, PDFs are *not* ebooks. They are digital microfiche. Pretend paper. Electronic documents. Call them what you will. Just not ebooks.

If you *must* do PDF on eink, Kindle DX is probably good enough; just don't expect Nirvana.

[Voyager-Reader]

Hi there, ok, the Kindle is best, if I want the biggest screen and minimal flash!

About my pdf's:
I don't unterstand!
I have pdf's of my own books, that I have scanned with a book scanner and photoshoped and OCR'ed in Acrobat. So why are they no ebooks, or at least files with the whole content of a certain book?
Are they not "compatible" with e-ink for best quality?

Maybe then I should invest in a color printer with minimalistic ink costs??? (I mean, if pdf do not look good on a kindle dx! As I said, pdf will be my main source for the e-reader!).

I have a one room appartment, so I will never buy a cancer creating and smelling as hell laser printer! I think printing out would be as expensive or more than the actual book! Again, books need space, are heavy items...etc.

Actually, my pdf's look gorgeous on my 24 inch lcd, but it is not the device I would like to read my stuff on? ;-)

[Logseman]

PDF is not a format thought for ebooks, but for printing. You keep the document in the exact way it would be printed, but you can't change anything of it: neither font size, nor styling, nor anything else...

[fjtorres]

PDFs are reproductions of a printed page; much as a microfiche, just in digital form.
Consider the most common way to generate a PDF: you install a printer driver and "print" a reflowable document (HTML, rtf, Doc, whatever) into PDF to freeze the formatting ad render it uneditable.

A proper ebook adjusts its content dynamically to fit the display medium and does not require scrolling, panning, zooming; a Proper ebook lets the render application define pagination, margins, fonts.

If you ocr'ed the books and stilll have the pre-pdf source, you could turn the files into proper ebooks and then read them on anything from a cellphone to a PC screen. Screen size (whether 3", 5", 6" or whatever) would have no impact on readability whereas trying to read a typical pdf on 5-6in reader is an exercise in trying to trying out zoom factors, panning, zooming, etc.

PDFs (unless "printed" to a small virtual page) tend to require screens approximating A4/8.5x11in.

Consider that your choice of PDF format limits you essentially to a KindleDX as your reading device to accomdate the page you're trying to replicate, whereas ebooks can be read in portrait, landscape, single-page or dual page layouts; you have a choice of font face and/or font size, your choice of margins, line spacing, hyphenation on or off, justification on or off, etc.

Basically PDFs are a *static* representation of information whereas ebooks are a dynamic medium; you have to work *hard* to force a static display onto an ebook and even then it can be overridden with a good reader app.

Which isn't to say there aren't good uses for PDF.
But ebooks isn't one of them.

[Voyager-Reader]

Got your point!

Unfortunately, I do not have the original scans any longer of most of my pdf's!
I tried Mobipocket Creator, to create a mobipocket file of one of my pdf's, but the result was aweful! It could not convert the mathematical symbols correctly...

Maybe I should use Acrobat to save the pdf pages as tiff's, and convert them?

Or it is just too late...

Anyways, I am really thinking of getting a Kindle DX Graphite, in the near future...it should be big enough to read pdf's, at least in landscape mode.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Voyager-Reader

Got your point!

Unfortunately, I do not have the original scans any longer of most of my pdf's!
I tried Mobipocket Creator, to create a mobipocket file of one of my pdf's, but the result was aweful! It could not convert the mathematical symbols correctly...

Maybe I should use Acrobat to save the pdf pages as tiff's, and convert them?

Or it is just too late...

Anyways, I am really thinking of getting a Kindle DX Graphite, in the near future...it should be big enough to read pdf's, at least in landscape mode.

Abby FineReader is best for OCR'ing technical documents. It has the ability to "print" PDFs into RAM and OCR the virtual image on-the-fly.

Tech documents is one of the areas where PDF documents make some sense but you need to remember there is a big difference between a 300dpi A4 page and even a Kindle DX's eink screen. As I said above: don't expect Nirvana.

[neilmarr]

Good to have your company, Voyager. Have you considered an iPad? That device handles PDFs well. Best wishes. Neil

[GeoffC]

Welcome Voyager to mobileread ....

After a while you forget the 'flash' ....

Whether you have a problem reading on LCD or eink can be a personal issue that only you can decide ....

[Voyager-Reader]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Good to have your company, Voyager. Have you considered an iPad? That device handles PDFs well. Best wishes. Neil

I am not sure about the Ipad! It is again a LCD screen, so what is the difference to a laptop? I mean, light is emitting from the screen again.

PS: Thanks for the nice welcome! :-)

[neilmarr]

LCD, Voyager. But -- to all accounts -- a comfortable one-handed hold, no heavier than a standard harback and great with PDFs. I prefer small-screen eink, so I'm not pushing the iPad idea at all. Just seems to meet 90% of your needs. Best wishes. Neil

[Voyager-Reader]

Hey there,

I have the Kindle DX graphite for some weeks now, and I am quite satisfied! Turning pages does not bother me (flash).

Is there any tutorial out there about how to create kindle ebooks myself? Sources should be picture files or pdf files.

Is there a site where I can see all the kindle dx screensaver pictures? I like a particular picture where a man is in his office studying...I find that very inspiring.

What I dislike, is that it cannot read out pdf files or change the font size, but that is ok, also that I do not have color.
I wish I could at least use wikipedia in other languages, right now wiki english is the only site that I can use, but that is ok.

I wish there was a simple "note taking" app, I mean, I have this cool qwerty keyboard, and I cannot take simple notes in general...

My PDFs in landscape mode look quite good and satisfying btw, in portrait the fonts are sometimes too small.

I wish the kindle dx had access to wireless lan.

But in the end, I am surprised, how much better eink is than lcd for reading! I really feel the difference, it is like real paper, no light emitting directly into my eyes!

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Voyager-Reader

I wish there was a simple "note taking" app, I mean, I have this cool qwerty keyboard, and I cannot take simple notes in general...

One workaround for the notes is to create for a file — something like "MyNotes.azw" with a few lines of text inside to anchor your notes upon— and then use it as a notepad.

Unfortunately, the newer firmware updates seem to have changed how the Kindle stores notes, so that the old MBPReader script to extract them no longer works.

However, if you copy over both MyNotes.azw and the associated .mbp file to Kindle for PC/Mac's My Kindle Content folder, then the next time you load it up, it should show your "notepad" with all the notes.

But there's currently no way to export them, and Amazon doesn't back them up.

On second thought, just "buy" one of those free public domain books, and use it as your "notepad".

Then you get the benefit of plenty of text to hang notes off of, Amazon backs up and syncs them between devices, and you can export them from the kindle.amazon.com mini-site where all your notes and such are saved and readable online.