Sony Question and tip!

[seb530]

ok, thinking of pre-ordering the sony e-reader from Waterstones.. but I have a question.. first a couple of tips you may or not know about..

1. You can get free e-book each week from the sony site in August, you just need to download the software from http://ebookstore.sony.com/?cid=ebooks_BS_080808 then register an account (saying you are in the USA) and then download the books.. no credit card etc required

2. If buying the reader in the UK, waterstones is offering 500 points on their card (not a credit card).. just register and ask for the card. Not sure what you get for 500 points but hey. Also you still get he 100 free books on cd. Additionally, if you use GreasyPalm as a referrer you can get 3.5% cashback (£7). Just register at http://www.greasypalm.co.uk/r/?l=326574 and follow their link

In reference to the first point, i downloaded the current free book and can view it in the sony PC reader software but to me the font looks quite big - its set to SMALL...... is this how books would look on the reader? Just looks to me like you get a lot less text on a page compared to a paper book??

[RCR]

Originally Posted by seb530

In reference to the first point, i downloaded the current free book and can view it in the sony PC reader software but to me the font looks quite big - its set to SMALL...... is this how books would look on the reader? Just looks to me like you get a lot less text on a page compared to a paper book??

No! No! No!

The viewer in the Sony Library software is very deceptive. The image on your computer screen is much larger than the screen size of the Sony.
For RTF format files on my Sony, a font size of 16 is about the best for me. Even then, I sometimes put it on "M" for medium. That gives me about 25 lines of text on the screen - looks large and clear - just the thing for bumpy tram rides and gloomy train stations.

Try looking at font size 16 in your word processing program on your computer. It looks way over-sized. But on the small Sony screen, it ain't.

(Also note that your Sony screen is not in colour and won't have the search facility that the Sony Library software has).

[Patricia]

Seb530, When viewing via the Ebook library software, click on the squares at the bottom of the page. One will get you to a two pages per screen display (much more like a book). Others will allow you to view the text in medium or large.

But, having said that, some of the Sony books do come in a smaller font than I would choose.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by seb530

i downloaded the current free book and can view it in the sony PC reader software but to me the font looks quite big - its set to SMALL...... is this how books would look on the reader? Just looks to me like you get a lot less text on a page compared to a paper book??

You can get an idea of the screen size by taking a screenshot on the PC, cropping out the 600x800 display pane and printing it on paper at 3.6" by 4.8" (166 dpi).

The limit of 3 fonts sizes is the only serious limitation of the Sony vs other EInk readers. This isn't even necessary with Adobe DE, but Sony retained it anyway. This isn't a problem with DRM-free ebooks (just change the font size in the ebook), but if an ebook has DRM there is nothing that can be done about the font size - or at least so far no one has come up with a work around.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The limit of 3 fonts sizes is the only serious limitation of the Sony vs other EInk readers.

I must respectfully disagree, wallcraft. For me personally, the lack of dictionary lookup is a major shortcoming. The Sony is the only major player in the market not to support dictionaries.

[seb530]

Thanks for all the replies........ I suppose what I am trying to get at is if you take a paper book and the same e-book, does an ebook page equate to a book page or is it generally along the lines of 70%, therefore more "pages" in th ebook?

[HarryT]

For a device with a 6" screen, you generally get around half a page of a printed book onto the eInk screen, so the eBook will have about double the number of pages of the printed book. The PC emulator is an accurate representation of the amount of text that you get on a page of a "real" Sony Reader, but of course the monitor will generally be much larger than the real Reader screen, which is why the fonts look so large.

[seb530]

ah thanks... a little disappointing tbh... if its the same size as a book and the same quality why cant it display full pages? it just seems a little more tricky to read as it doesnt appear to flow so well or is that just me? I assume you get used to it?

Are all other readers the same or do some mimic the actual content of a page more closely. Based in UK so choice is limited.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by seb530

ah thanks... a little disappointing tbh... if its the same size as a book and the same quality why cant it display full pages? it just seems a little more tricky to read as it doesnt appear to flow so well or is that just me? I assume you get used to it?

Are all other readers the same or do some mimic the actual content of a page more closely. Based in UK so choice is limited.

Because it's not the same size as a book. All the 6" screen readers (Sony, CyBook, Kindle, etc) use the same screen, which is 90x120mm in size. Cut out a piece of paper that size and compare it to the page size of a printed book.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The Sony is the only major player in the market not to support dictionaries.

It does not have support from Sony, but there is a dictionary capability - see Dictionary for Sony PRS500/5 (autorun from SD card).

I agree that all dedicated reading devices should have dictionary support as a standard feature. This may in the end be the Achilles heel of Adobe DE.

[HarryT]

I didn't realise that Adobe DE didn't support dictionaries - thank you for pointing that out!