Aura HD Koreader functionality vs kindle for pdf

[DanCa]

Hello,

I am mainly reading technical pdfs and epubs, some scanned, and some text.
All with pictures and formulas.

Currently I use a PW with koreader which works surprisingly well, but
I'd like to get a better screen and more memory. Many documents are 50 MB each, and the kindle's
low memory is an issue for me.

I would like to get an Aura HD for the large screen and the memory slot.
The dealbreaker for me is that the pdfreader on the Aura HD is not good enough.

Many documents have a large margin, but the built in reader has no is no crop or zoom to fit content.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=217401
(I can manually crop, but honestly this is too much effort)

My questions are:

-If I get an Aura HD and install the koreader (or other software, maybe?), can I expect to have the same features as on the PW?

-Has anyone both readers and can comment on the quality of the pdf display?

-One big problem I have with the koreader on the PW is that I can't get zoom to work properly. The pinch to zoom seems to have only two zoom levels, and zooming destroys the crop settings.

My typical workflow is to open the pdf and crop using semi auto settings.
When I want to zoom in on a formula or figure, I can pinch once and get a slightly larger zoom level, but then I have to crop again.

-I assume that with the inferior touchscreen on the Aura HD, doing any changes will be even worse. Any comments?

Many thanks,

Dan

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DanCa

I would like to get an Aura HD for the large screen and the memory slot.
The dealbreaker for me is that the pdfreader on the Aura HD is not good enough.

Many documents have a large margin, but the built in reader has no is no crop or zoom to fit content.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=217401
(I can manually crop, but honestly this is too much effort)

My questions are:

-If I get an Aura HD and install the koreader (or other software, maybe?), can I expect to have the same features as on the PW?

-Has anyone both readers and can comment on the quality of the pdf display?

-One big problem I have with the koreader on the PW is that I can't get zoom to work properly. The pinch to zoom seems to have only two zoom levels, and zooming destroys the crop settings.

My typical workflow is to open the pdf and crop using semi auto settings.
When I want to zoom in on a formula or figure, I can pinch once and get a slightly larger zoom level, but then I have to crop again.

-I assume that with the inferior touchscreen on the Aura HD, doing any changes will be even worse. Any comments?

Many thanks,

Dan

I've used koreader on my Aura HD. It works pretty much the same as koreader on the Kindle owned by a co-worker. The Aura HD does lack the pinch to zoom functionality. For the most part, I've found myself using my iPad for PDFs since the documents I use tend to feature complex diagrams which are a pain to follow on a smaller screen -- by smaller, I mean anything smaller than the approximate A2 unfolded size of the hard copy diagrams though the Aura HD's higher resolution does make them easier to follow when it's what I have to use.

You'll find several threads on koreader and various methods of launching it -- my preference is using advboot to launch koreader but fmon and start menu seem to be more popular methods of launching koreader.

Regards,
David

[Ken Maltby]

Have you tried Reflow with koreader? It seems to handle illustrations, graphs and formulas presented in a box, very well, on my AuraHD. I usually use the crop route reading pdfs in koreader on my 10.1" android tablet. I can usually read a page on the AuraHD, because it is so sharply rendered, but for most full page pdfs, the 10.1" screen is as small as I would like to go. I am surprised how koreader's reflow makes it reasonable to read scanned pdfs on the small screen.

Luck;
Ken

[DanCa]

Thank you for your comments, much appreciated. Neither the eReaders, nor the tablets are there, but they are very close. I still haven't found a tablet I like, I do a lot of my reading outside and prefer eInk. I just tried out a galaxy tab in the store, and even found the reflections of the ceiling lights very annoying.

Honestly I was surprised that the kindle works so well on pdfs, it is an amazing device.
I wish there was a way to quickly zoom in and out by drag-to-zoom and then go back to the same position as before (for example to read a footnote or look at a picture), with better navigation one could tolerate the smaller screen better. If the Aura HD can't even pinch to zoom, it is probably even more difficult to move around.

It is probably not worth it to upgrade from the Kindle to the Aura HD now that higher resolution 8" readers are on the way (i86, inkPad).

Cheers,

Dan

[DanCa]

I just tried out reflow on some 50's scanned papers with two columns. It works very well most of the time. Only problem is around figures.
Thanks!