902 PocketBook vs. Kindle - Legibility contest

[tuxor]

Is Pocketbook working on this font anti-aliasing issue?

They are busily working on a new firmware. To me this thread sounds like adding a few software enhancements concerning font anti-aliasing could bring the PocketBook's look-and-feel to a completely new level. I don't understand, why PocketBook hasn't yet fixed it. I would understand, if they had a new generation of Pearl-devices coming - competing with older devices in terms of display quality. But since PocketBook is still using those Vizplex-screens, ameliorating display quality with this piece of software should be the most intelligent thing to do...?!

[Huyggy]

I was thinking about something. Since it's a linux OS, would it be possible to use Wine and then install some excellent PDF viewer as PDF x-change viewer (who would win easily the legibility contest again Adobe viewer or others) ?

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Huyggy

I was thinking about something. Since it's a linux OS, would it be possible to use Wine and then install some excellent PDF viewer as PDF x-change viewer (who would win easily the legibility contest again Adobe viewer or others) ?

Whatever you install would have to be able to use the E-Ink display. Most programs on the reader use the InkView library for this, but I think there are some that use Gtk. I'm not sure what Wine uses, but it might be using the X interface, which would not work without a lot of extra work (to port X to the reader).

Finally, the reader display is much lower resolution than ink on paper, and much lower contrast than even a computer screen. Fonts in PDF files are generally designed for ink-on-paper, and look pretty bad on E-Ink. I don't think any program is going to get around this problem. I guess a program could just increase the stroke size when rendering fonts to make them look bolder, but that could make letters overlap unless the kerning is changed, too. Changing the kerning will likely cause changes to the number of words on lines... There is no easy fix except to hope for higher resolution/higher contrast E-Ink displays someday.

[Huyggy]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Whatever you install would have to be able to use the E-Ink display. Most programs on the reader use the InkView library for this, but I think there are some that use Gtk. I'm not sure what Wine uses, but it might be using the X interface, which would not work without a lot of extra work (to port X to the reader).

It's a shame if it's impossible. Because, and I don't want to change my opinion, it is mainly a software problem, the bad eink display only increases the problem:


I have opened the same PDF in the two viewers on my PC to illustrate my idea:
I don't use Aobe reader anymore as for me due to this problem. And it's the same for all the PDF but maybe more on certain types of PDF (the example here isn't a scanned document).

[rkomar]

Have you looked in the Preference->Display menu for acroread? It looks to me like maybe you have font smoothing disabled.

[Huyggy]

I don't think so. Here's my preferences.You can try too to view this PDF (at 50% zoom for example)

[rkomar]

That test.pdf file just contains an image of text in it. So, PDF x-change just uses a higher quality image scaling algorithm than acroread. This has nothing to do with font rendering. You can try to extract the image from the PDF file and viewing it directly on your ereader to see if the image viewing software scales it better than the PDF viewing app.

[Huyggy]

Originally Posted by rkomar

That test.pdf file just contains an image of text in it. So, PDF x-change just uses a higher quality image scaling algorithm than acroread. This has nothing to do with font rendering. You can try to extract the image from the PDF file and viewing it directly on your ereader to see if the image viewing software scales it better than the PDF viewing app.

I didn't think it was a problem of font rendering. But whatever the problem is, it's the same result for me as adobe reader is unable to render correctly my PDF (at least to a legible level) unlike the other viewer.
The picture viewer of Pocketbook is really cheap (But at least the pictures and fonts are clear...) : one fixed level of zoom, you can't change pages after zooming, accelerometer is turned off automatically (!), etc.

[carlitoernesto]

Is there no way to adjust the brightness and contrast of individual files like in sony's prs readers? When reading PDFs with my sony reader, I usually customize the contrast to +40 and brightness to -40 -- generally works best within the range of +-30 to +-50. This way, the text is sometimes rendered even better than my hard copy of a book/paper.

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update: never mind my asking. I reread the first page only to find out that there is no way to adjust the contrast. I thought that such option (brightness/contrast) would have been so very EASY to add.

[skydive]

You can adjust contrast on epub files only with Cool Reader3.

Originally Posted by carlitoernesto

Is there no way to adjust the brightness and contrast of individual files like in sony's prs readers? When reading PDFs with my sony reader, I usually customize the contrast to +40 and brightness to -40 -- generally works best within the range of +-30 to +-50. This way, the text is sometimes rendered even better than my hard copy of a book/paper.

---

update: never mind my asking. I reread the first page only to find out that there is no way to adjust the contrast. I thought that such option (brightness/contrast) would have been so very EASY to add.

[carlitoernesto]

Originally Posted by skydive

You can adjust contrast on epub files only with Cool Reader3.

Thing is... adjusting brightness and contrast should be necessary for PDFs because of the rendering of fixed font types, and rarely is this needed in epubs anyhow.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by carlitoernesto

Thing is... adjusting brightness and contrast should be necessary for PDFs because of the rendering of fixed font types, and rarely is this needed in epubs anyhow.

I agree, but perhaps this is a hardware issue. Maybe the Pearl screens can adjust their brightness and contrast, but the earlier technology can't. It's hard to understand otherwise how to fine-adjust the contrast on a device with 16 shades of grey. Does anyone know such details? My old PRS-505, which seems to have the same E-Ink technology as the PB devices, can't adjust brightness/contrast either.

[arthurmnev]

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

Dulin's Books is right, this option has no effect on PDFs. As for the refresh setting it has always been set to 'always'.


While I'm writing I will share a bit more of my musings. Before I received the PocketBook 902 I narrowed down the set of devices from which I was going to choose one to keep 'for life' to the following ones: Kindle DX, PocketBook 902/903, or Onyx Boox M series.

Today I discounted one contender, namely Kindle DX, as I got reply from Amazon that they would not tell me if they were planning to release Wi-Fi version of it or not, how nice of them. I want Wi-Fi in my reader for web browsing so this answer means a 'no' to me.

On the other hand I got a prompt reply from a Onyx representative who said (in a much nicer manner) that they were currently working on the issues with their devices (including the most infamous one where some of their readers, as I was told a very small percentage, die after going into standby) and the next update should be released within a month. I found it reassuring enough to give a green light to trying out one of their devices and it is going to be M90. By the way he also said that they would release a new model but you have to wait for it until the next Spring. I would prefer them to iron out the bugs in their existing models rather than shifting their attention to yet another one but what can I do.

For the sake of completeness I will also ask the people at PocketBook (this colour seem to suit it well) what their plans are but if the screen in the Onyx performs better then I think that they have slim chances of winning me over now. In the meantime I keep using my PocketBook in the landscape mode and find it satisfying enough when there is just regular text but these may be my last moments with it...

I'd hold off buying m90, i had it and returned it -- read my review on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-...R2LODFWXWCCPNO

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Huyggy

I was thinking about something. Since it's a linux OS, would it be possible to use Wine and then install some excellent PDF viewer as PDF x-change viewer (who would win easily the legibility contest again Adobe viewer or others) ?

Not possible.
WINE is an acronym that stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator.
Both Linux and windows binaries run on the same Intel x86 compatible processor on PC. The "only" difference is, that Linux binary and Windows binary (exe program) have different format of the beginning of the file and different file organisation and that they require certain services from underlying operating system. Services like access to the filesystem, library calls ... . But the underlying machine code tht actually runs on processor is essentially the same.
PocketBook runs on different type or processor. Freescale if I remember correctly.

Even Linuc programs can not be run very easily on PocketBook. They have to use special [not very well documented] libraries to access hardware, such as e-ink display. So software must be re-written - ported to PocketBook system and compiled for special type of processor PocketBook readers use.

[paola]

Originally Posted by carlitoernesto

Thing is... adjusting brightness and contrast should be necessary for PDFs because of the rendering of fixed font types, and rarely is this needed in epubs anyhow.

don't want to raise my hopes too high, but i just read on the Ukranian forum that in the next 2.1.3 firmware they will include the possibility to adjust contrast in pdf files!