Classic PDF on nook wifi vs. kindle 3

[charonme]

how good is the alternative pdf reader for nook compared to the native support of pdf on kindle 3?

[Shades]

I have not seen how they look on kindles, but pdf's look fine on the nook. I like epub's though for books, so if I have a pdf book, I convert it to an epub via calibre.

If you have a rooted nook though, you can get a pdf viewer that allows you to view a pdf in landscape mode. I have not played with that yet though.

[charonme]

I'm deciding between these two and I'd like to know if there is enough to gain with regards to PDF if I bought and rooted the nook instead of kindle 3

[Shades]

I know that if you want to view pdf documents (not novels), eink ereaders might not be the way to go.

[charonme]

I know, but since I already need a small cheap eink reader, I might as well pick the one that will additionally allow me to read pdfs in the best way currently possible on eink.

[ypocaramel]

You think about the Sonys too? The new versions are said to have better PDF viewing (on the PRS-700, it is meagerly possible if it is mostly text, but mostly it's just painful). But honestly I wouldn't go halfway, if I need PDF even a 1/4 of the time I would do it right... hence the NOOKcolor.

[tbeltrans]

I have the nook classic, the Kindle 3, and the Kindle DXG (second generation), and can provide some comparison for you since PDFs are an interest of mine too.

First, the nook. The nook's PDF reader provides "reflow" capability which means that you can change the font size on PDFs that are not scanned images of pages. The Kindles do not provide this capability. But the nook does not provide landscape mode, zoom, or pan. Especially on such a small display, I think these features are important if you are trying to view graphics of any kind.

The nook with softroot - I did this to mine for a while and then went back to the original firmware (and then the update to v1.5). The aPDFViewer app in the softroot package provides landscape and pan/zoom, but not reflow. The pan in this PDF viewer is rough in that it jumps from one zoomed area to another without the capability of smooth scrolling. There was an experimental version that provided smooth(er) scrolling, but it was very, very slow, which is quite annoying when trying to read a document and keep the contextual flow in mind while waiting for the next screen to display.

The Kindle 3 and the Kindle DXG have somewhat different PDF capabilities. Both provide zoom/pan, and scrolling capability in very small increments. Neither provides "reflow", so you can't change the font size in a PDF. The Kindle 3 also provides the ability to control contrast (i.e. the darkness/lightness of the print itself). This can be VERY important if the PDF displays very light, making it hard to see without darkening the print.

One thing about the Kindles overall is that they are FAST compared to the nook. With the new v1.5 firmware for the nook, page turns are faster, but nothing has changed for the PDF reader.

Personally, I have grown to much prefer the reading experience on the Kindles over the nook, especially for PDFs. My interest in getting one of these things (an ereader of any kind) in the first place was for reading sheet music. The screen on both the nook and the Kindle 3 is just too small to do this well (or any PDF that has graphics in it such as charts and that sort of thing. The Kindle DXG is very nice for this sort of thing, since it is much larger.

There are other features that some people want for their PDF reader that none of these three devices provide, but for my use, the Kindle DXG is best for reading PDFs that contain graphics and that sort of thing. I think the reflow capability of the nook is more than offset by the Kindle 3's abilities to do zoom/pan/contrast/landscape, and therefore prefer it to the nook for reading even text-only PDFs.

I hope that helps,

Tony

[tbeltrans]

I should mention that I have not seen the nook color yet, but even if it does a fantastic job with PDFs (definitely possible), I think a larger screen is an important part of dealing with PDFs properly. The Kindle DX or the iPad would make more sense for that for this reason.

Tony

[charonme]

thanks Tony. I was under the impression that kindle 3 doesn't scroll thru pdfs in small steps, on youtube vids I only saw the kind of big jumps you describe the aPDFViewer has...

[tbeltrans]

Yes, both the Kindle 3 and the DX can scroll in very small steps. It is a combination keypress SHIFT+ one of the 4 direction buttons on the 5 way (or joystick on the DXG). I just took a piece of sheet music that shows perfectly on my Kindle 3, but a bit too small to read easily on the small screen and increased it with 150% zoom. With SHIFT+right button on the 5 way, it took 4 button presses to get across the page, where just the right button itself jumped to the next view without the overlap.

I have not seen any YouTube video on the Kindles, so I don't know what they are telling you, but I know there is incremental scroll. It is a bit awkward having to press SHIFT while moving the joystick (DXG) or pressing the appropriate part of the 5 way button set, but it works well.

Tony

[charonme]

cool thanks, you've just sold me the kindle

The problem with reviews and videos is that they don't show the most interesting details and important stuff, just general info that everybody already knows, so it's hard to get an informed opinion about a product. Sometimes they don't even know the most basic things, so it may sometimes look like some feature is not there.

[tbeltrans]

The nook and kindle both have their plusses and minuses. The nook is a more open device in that it reads epub format and you can buy/find books for it at multiple sites, as well as borrow books from the library. By comparison, the kindle is a more "closed" device because it does not support the epub format. To some people, this will matter. To others, it won't. I have found that Amazon has more of the kinds of books I am buying, so that is not particularly an issue for me.

However, it is only after owning an ereader for a while that you begin to REALLY know what features are important to you. You might think that a particular feature of one ereader is valuable, but then you find after owning it a while that this feature really doesn't matter in your day to day use. That is pretty much what I found with the nook, but that is not a reflection on the nook - only one person's usage pattern of these devices.

For PDF, I think the kindle is better all around, so you should probably try it first. Also, there is a 30 day return policy on the kindle, where the nook only has 14 days. So for that reason, getting the kindle and learning your way around ereaders before making a final decision might be a good idea. You can certainly try both in stores (i.e. Best Buy for nook and kindle, Target for kindle, and Barnes and Noble for nook).

Best of luck...

Tony

[charonme]

thanks, unfortunately I will not be able to utilize most of your suggestions.

Btw I too thought the nook is "more open", but I found out there is so much hacking needed that I will probably read epubs on the kindle with less effort (with fbkindle)

[RedNara]

Lol... So Kindle is better for PDF viewing. Thanks so much!

Btw is the Kindle 3g worth that extra $50? Can you surf the web on that as well? For me PDF is a pretty important thing (everything in college is handed out that way). Also, is there a way to easily convert PDF to like epub or w/e format kindle handles? So that it will actually be a more pleasant experience? Also the PDF I'm talking about are like charts and stuff.

Plus is there an easy way to convert epub to the kindle format? And also when converting these stuff, does it somehow actually mess up the file in anyways?

Also the Pearl display is better than the one on the Nook right? And Kindle has faster scrolling as well? If this is all true why would someone want the Nook over the Kindle? Other than the fact it supports epub? Also can't you just convert epub to the kindle format easily?

[Bic]

Originally Posted by RedNara

Lol... So Kindle is better for PDF viewing. Thanks so much!

Btw is the Kindle 3g worth that extra $50? Can you surf the web on that as well? For me PDF is a pretty important thing (everything in college is handed out that way). Also, is there a way to easily convert PDF to like epub or w/e format kindle handles? So that it will actually be a more pleasant experience? Also the PDF I'm talking about are like charts and stuff.

Plus is there an easy way to convert epub to the kindle format? And also when converting these stuff, does it somehow actually mess up the file in anyways?

Also the Pearl display is better than the one on the Nook right? And Kindle has faster scrolling as well? If this is all true why would someone want the Nook over the Kindle? Other than the fact it supports epub? Also can't you just convert epub to the kindle format easily?

Pearl display on K3 is much better than the older e-ink on Nook. WiFi tends to be faster than 3G, assuming you have either a WiFi router at home or go to places that have free WiFi (Starbucks, hotel lobbies, etc). You can browse internet with WiFi, but Kindle and Nook are not really ideal for browsing web pages. Check Calibre for information about converting documents to different formats and ereaders, but Kindle does not natively read epubs.
http://calibre-ebook.com/about