Ebook reader for complex unscanned PDFs

[Ubertrout]

Hello all,

I'm contemplating getting an ebook reader, especially apropos of the recent price drops. I'm interested in reading ePub books, and also law review articles off of SSRN. By way of explanation, these are in PDF format but are not scanned - they're generally PDF-ed by the law review as part of the production process. There are also extensive footnotes, and unfortunately, I believe that the PDF does not contain link between the note marker and note text.

I'm leaning towards the wifi-only Nook. I'm not so interested in buying books, and I find the integration with Google Books very attractive, along with the ePub support and expandable memory. I'm wondering if this intuition is sensible, and if there is any other sub-$200 reader I should consider for my purposes?

[frabjous]

Do you know the dimensions of the text blocks of the SSRN articles, roughly?

The Nook's screen is probably a bit small to read these comfortably, and it sounds like conversion likely won't work too well. Still, there are steps you can take to make this kind of PDF more readable. I list a number of options in this blog post: reading PDFs on portables – soPDF and BRISS are probably especially important.

Ones that are big enough to read such PDFs comfortably without tools such as these are more money, obviously.

[AnemicOak]

You might want to look at a Kindle (Amazon gives you a 30 day return policy). The new Zoom/Pan setup might be a useful feature. Some of us have posted screen caps here...
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88498

No ePub support or expandable memory, but most non-DRM'd epubs can be converted to mobi format in a few seconds.

[Ubertrout]

Originally Posted by frabjous

Do you know the dimensions of the text blocks of the SSRN articles, roughly?

A law review article is generally 4.5" by 7.75", roughly, per page. However, they're formatted as 8.5" by 11" with large margins.

[frabjous]

Originally Posted by Ubertrout

A law review article is generally 4.5" by 7.75", roughly, per page. However, they're formatted as 8.5" by 11" with large margins.

If you remove the margins and split the page in half – which is what soPDF does – this will give you two 4.5" × 3.875" regions.

The 6" readers like the Nook, Kindle, Sony PRS505/600 have a 9cm × 12cm screen, which is 3.54 × 4.72". So if you don't mind holding it sideways, you'll be able to read the articles at about 91% zoom. should be do-able unless you've got bad vision.

This does require some work on your end, since you need to process these PDFs beforehand. (And they can't have DRM.)

The pan/zoom feature of recent Kindles and some others do sound nice, but I personally can't stand the mobi format: it's much much more limited than ePub. (No embedded fonts, no wrapped-around images, no non-flat CSS, etc. Sure, a text-only novel will convert from ePub to mobi just fine, but others won't.)

[vxf]

I have already posted this in similar threads and I don't want to sound like a cheerleader... but I would recommend the SONY PRS900.

I am a PhD student in Finance. I read a lot of PDFs similar to yours from SSRN and JSTOR.

The PRS900 works well for those - including taking and exporting annotations.

At times, I use Briss to remove margins as well, but most of the time it isn't necessary.

[Ubertrout]

That is somewhat interesting vxf, thanks for the input. However, that's significantly more than I'd like to pay...I only really became interested when prices dropped below the $200 mark.

I've kinda settled on the wi-fi only Nook. I like the low price and compatibility.

[BenLee]

Originally Posted by Ubertrout

That is somewhat interesting vxf, thanks for the input. However, that's significantly more than I'd like to pay...I only really became interested when prices dropped below the $200 mark.

I've kinda settled on the wi-fi only Nook. I like the low price and compatibility.

Good choice. The low price has been sealing the deal for many users here. And a lot of the readers who frequent libraries like the Nook's support for that and epubs in general.

[gloomygod]

Originally Posted by vxf

I have already posted this in similar threads and I don't want to sound like a cheerleader... but I would recommend the SONY PRS900.

I am a PhD student in Finance. I read a lot of PDFs similar to yours from SSRN and JSTOR.

The PRS900 works well for those - including taking and exporting annotations.

At times, I use Briss to remove margins as well, but most of the time it isn't necessary.

vfx, then, if I understood right, you're able so confortable read an A4 formatted PDF in the PRS900 screen? In portrait mode or landscape?

I am a developer, and I am desperately looking for an ebook reader, which I can use to read pdf technical books (i.e, no reflow) in a good way.

Thanks for the help.

[abeaty]

Originally Posted by gloomygod

vfx, then, if I understood right, you're able so confortable read an A4 formatted PDF in the PRS900 screen? In portrait mode or landscape?

I am a developer, and I am desperately looking for an ebook reader, which I can use to read pdf technical books (i.e, no reflow) in a good way.

Thanks for the help.

Gloomy,

You and I are in the same boat. I am more or less resigned to waiting on the PocketBook 901/902.

The PocketBooks seems to have the best native PDF support of all eReaders and the 90x series will be the first offering with a larger screen. It is scheduled for release sometime late Q3 or early Q4.

They are indicating a price of $350 or so for the 901. I imagine with the reduction of the DX's price, they may need to release for even less, but know knows.

[vxf]

Originally Posted by gloomygod

vfx, then, if I understood right, you're able so confortable read an A4 formatted PDF in the PRS900 screen? In portrait mode or landscape?

I am a developer, and I am desperately looking for an ebook reader, which I can use to read pdf technical books (i.e, no reflow) in a good way.

Thanks for the help.

I read A4 PDFs in landscape mode. So a third of a page is displayed at the time. And yes, I find it comfortable - although, for some PDFs with particularly small font, I do remove the margins first using Briss.

I like it because I can take handwritten notes on the page and export the whole thing to RTF - or just view the annotated documents on my pc via SONY's software.

Now, my luck is that I do Finance - a lot of text, some tables, few graphs. So If your technical books involve lots of graphs that you want to see full-page, then I wouldn't recommend it. You can see full page in portrait, but, while doable, I would not call that comfortable.

[gloomygod]

abeaty: I'll pay the 350$ hands down if this reader allows me to do what I need.

I am really exhausted of reading in the laptop screen.
I have been analyzing every reader out there and any of them would allow me to read non-reflowable pdf books in portrait mode confortable.
I really do not care about the 3G or touchscreen. If it has wifi is OK. If it has not I will connect the usb cable!!! no problemo!! I just want to read my pdf ebooks.

I was going to buy the kindle DX, but I think it is:

1.- tooooo propietary/closed/whatever you want to call it
2.- The pdf support seems not to be the best one

So we'll have to wait until they release the pocketbook then

vfx: crystal clear. Thanks for the clarification.

[oncdoc]

Originally Posted by gloomygod

abeaty: I'll pay the 350$ hands down if this reader allows me to do what I need.

I am really exhausted of reading in the laptop screen.
I have been analyzing every reader out there and any of them would allow me to read non-reflowable pdf books in portrait mode confortable.
I really do not care about the 3G or touchscreen. If it has wifi is OK. If it has not I will connect the usb cable!!! no problemo!! I just want to read my pdf ebooks.

I was going to buy the kindle DX, but I think it is:

1.- tooooo propietary/closed/whatever you want to call it
2.- The pdf support seems not to be the best one

So we'll have to wait until they release the pocketbook then

vfx: crystal clear. Thanks for the clarification.

so why not the new dx > ?

[gloomygod]

well for a lot of reasons really:

1.- Too propiertary. There are books which support a lot more formats.

2.- The pdf support is not the best. No links, no table of contenst. I have read it is quite slow.

3.- I do not really care about the touchscreen in a ereader as I said , but hey, if it is there, I am not going to tear it apart. Let's say it is secondary for me. But I do not like at all the kindle keyboard.

4.- No memory expansion. 2Gb is really little storage these days.

5.- I am right now in the UK. So with taxes and everything, the DX starts to be a little expensive. Other readers, however, I can have someone to buy in os a physical store in the States, and bring it here.

That's a humble opinion of course.

Anyway, can someone confirm that a 9.7 inches screen is enough to read a non-reflowable technical pdf book in portrait mode confortably?

Thanks