Which one is the best to read PDFs?

[brunoalessi]

Folks,

I'm a newbie. That's my first post.
Like you, I like a lot to read and to read about a lot of things!

I've a clumsy, heavy notebook with a lot of eBooks in pdf format.
I have downloaded most of this eBooks from http://www.archive.org.
They are, on average, large files (tens of MB) with something like 'images
embedded on pdfs' (since one cannot copy and paste text from them).
I also have a lot of technical papers and few eBooks I acquired directly from the editors. All of them in pdf.

I would like to know what is the best option among the readers out there
to read eBooks like those I have. It is really not pratical to carry a heavy and clumsy notebook anywhere I go.

Thanks in advance!

Teria algum compatriota (Brasileiro) para me dizer como fazer para comprar um eBook com estas características?
Os melhores canais seriam o eBay? o Mercado Livre?

Obrigado!

[Gogolo]

Hi
Welcome on Mobileread!

I guess a lot of your pdfs are in letter size or A4 format? Then the best solution IMHO is the DR1000 from iRex. It handles also big pdfs quite well. Look in the relating section here on mobileread for further information.

You will like e-ink!

[HarryT]

The iRex DR1000S really is the only workable solution for A4/US Letter sized PDFs. There's nothing else on the market to compete.

[davidspitzer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The iRex DR1000S really is the only workable solution for A4/US Letter sized PDFs. There's nothing else on the market to compete.

I just got a kindle DX and it sems to work pretty well for a4 size pdf's and it is half the price. It does not have the PDF features of the IREX but i have used both and the Kindle DX seems more stable with PDFS (I had a lot of crashing with large pdf's and the IRex)

The Irex has really poor battery life

[HarryT]

I get about 12h usage from my DR1000S, which is FAR better than one would get from any Tablet PC, and that's the market sector that the DR1000 is competing in, not with dedicated book readers.

For the record, I have never experienced a crash with my DR1000 - not one. Its PDF facilities really are hugely superior to that of the Kindle DX, which is, moreover, a device not on sale to the overwhelming majority of people, since it's only sold in the US.

[davidspitzer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I get about 12h usage from my DR1000S, which is FAR better than one would get from any Tablet PC, and that's the market sector that the DR1000 is competing in, not with dedicated book readers.

For the record, I have never experienced a crash with my DR1000 - not one. Its PDF facilities really are hugely superior to that of the Kindle DX, which is, moreover, a device not on sale to the overwhelming majority of people, since it's only sold in the US.

You make a good point about the Kindle's availability outside the US. The Irex Device is definitely the size king, I only wish it was a little more resonably priced - almost $900 for an ereader is just a little too far over my pain threshhold for cost. I fear Irex might have priced themselves out of the market. If Astak and Plasticlogic come out with comparably sized devices for less IREX might be in trouble (the others should be available worldwide)

[HarryT]

You're right, of course, but do remember that the iRex devices are really not targetted at the personal eBook reader, but squarely at business - you only have to look at their adverts (men in business suits annotating business-type graphs on their DR1000's) to see that. For that market, the price really isn't prohibitive, but I agree that it is steep if you're just using it to read book on. For me, it was worth the money; for other people, it may of course not be.

[frabjous]

The Kindle DX and the iRex are definitely going to be your best bet, though I've gotten more and more adept at making awkwardly-large sized PDFs readable on my Sony. Tools you can find here like PaperCrop, SoPDF and PDFLRF help immensely.

Not really a plug for Sony... more of a "if your budget can't allow the more expensive ones... not all hope is lost..." plug.

From my experience with archive.org, however, the PDFs there are not letter/A4 paper sized, but just scans of actual paper books. Very rarely do actual books have a text-width anywhere near the full size of A4 or letter size paper... indeed, they're very rarely more than 4.5 inches wide. Stripping the margins would be the main thing, which a variety of tools can do.

Still, let's hope you don't have vision problems...

[davidspitzer]

Originally Posted by frabjous

The Kindle DX and the iRex are definitely going to be your best bet, though I've gotten more and more adept at making awkwardly-large sized PDFs readable on my Sony. Tools you can find here like PaperCrop, SoPDF and PDFLRF help immensely.

Not really a plug for Sony... more of a "if your budget can't allow the more expensive ones... not all hope is lost..." plug.

From my experience with archive.org, however, the PDFs there are not letter/A4 paper sized, but just scans of actual paper books. Very rarely do actual books have a text-width anywhere near the full size of A4 or letter size paper... indeed, they're very rarely more than 4.5 inches wide. Stripping the margins would be the main thing, which a variety of tools can do.

Still, let's hope you don't have vision problems...

I have done the same - pdfread and rasterfarian were my friends - if you live in the US though i can say with confidence that the DX is really very nice for pdf's - I rarely even have to rotate the screen to read them

[Ea]

From the OP's postscript my guess is that brunoalessi is Brasilian - I'm not sure which of Kindle DX or iRex DR is easier to obtain there.

My advice would be an iRex DR. I've had good experience with the way iRex deal with PDFs on both the Iliad and the DR. From posts read here, it was my impression that the Kindle DX didn't handle PDFs quite as well, and was a bit lacking in general.

Anyway, for the kind of PDFs that the OP mentions, I wouldn't advice anything smaller than about 10'' - but a netbook may be a cheaper alternative. With a 6-9 cell battery it has a decent battery time, and it's still quite portable and light compared to a "usual" 15-17 inch laptop/notebook.

I *like* my iRex DR for reading, but for working, I'm not sure if I don't prefer my netbook or computer. Perhaps the money might be better invested in a comfortable chair for sitting by the computer....? If you really want an e-ink device and can afford it; buy it!

[Gogolo]

I *like* my iRex DR for reading, but for working, I'm not sure if I don't prefer my netbook or computer.

For me it depends what sort of working: Reading a journal article from beginning to the end, a report, a book I like the DR1000. If I want to have a quick overview, search for a good sentence in a paper the screen refresh of e-ink is annoying.

Gogolo

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Gogolo

For me it depends what sort of working: Reading a journal article from beginning to the end, a report, a book I like the DR1000. If I want to have a quick overview, search for a good sentence in a paper the screen refresh of e-ink is annoying.

Gogolo

Exactly what I meant, but you put it much better E-ink can feel too slow for non-linear reading, and in my experience "work" reading is often on-linear.

[HarryT]

One important benefit of the DR1000 over the Kindle is if you're working with multiple documents at once - eg reading a paper, and looking up references in it in other papers. The DR allows you to have multiple documents open at once, and flip between them with a tap of the stylus. The Kindle DX does not offer this ability.

[brunoalessi]

Originally Posted by Ea

From the OP's postscript my guess is that brunoalessi is Brasilian - I'm not sure which of Kindle DX or iRex DR is easier to obtain there.

My advice would be an iRex DR. I've had good experience with the way iRex deal with PDFs on both the Iliad and the DR. From posts read here, it was my impression that the Kindle DX didn't handle PDFs quite as well, and was a bit lacking in general.

Anyway, for the kind of PDFs that the OP mentions, I wouldn't advice anything smaller than about 10'' - but a netbook may be a cheaper alternative. With a 6-9 cell battery it has a decent battery time, and it's still quite portable and light compared to a "usual" 15-17 inch laptop/notebook.

I *like* my iRex DR for reading, but for working, I'm not sure if I don't prefer my netbook or computer. Perhaps the money might be better invested in a comfortable chair for sitting by the computer....? If you really want an e-ink device and can afford it; buy it!

Yes, you guessed correctly!

First, Thanks for all answers.

It is possible to buy an iRex DR1000S in Brazil, but the price is too high.
Believe me, it is high enough to buy four cheap 7" netbooks with Linux!

It seems that readers with smaller screens aren't good options to
read scanned PDFs in A4/Letter sizes without constantly zooming in and out...
Is it correct?

[Floeee]

i got my DR yesterday, after having a prs505 with 6" and im really impressed
after a hard decision between DR and iliad2 i decided to get the DR because of screen size

so i can read any pdf without zooming and i can do everything i want with it
but now im also thinking if the iliad2 would also fit for reading pdf, because its really huge on DR and you dont need to zoom anything

with the iliad2 you could also read in landscape without zooming i guess and its much smaller and cheaper

my recommendation would be to buy an used iliad2
there are also many of them around this forum

and eInk is definitive much better than an netbook, because of the bad lcd panels they have and its really laborious to read an a4 pdf on them, because you have to do this in landscape and not in portrait like a real a4 paper
good alternative would also be a tablet pc with an ips panel, but this is much more expensive than a DR and not that portable