Can't annotate PDFs in Kindle? You could!

johndoesecond · 02-05-2010, 03:36 PM

I always thought Kindle had made a reasonable and intelligent compromise when it comes to annotating and highlighting the ebook formats it supports.
I made my points elsewhere so I won't go through that here again.

But, you cannot take notes on PDFs ... or could you?

Well, you could!

You just need to "mobize" the PDF. Here's a little proof-of-concept example.

1. Say, we have this PDF (just one dummy page for simplicity).

2. Now, you slice it into small jpg horizontal stripes (see attached)

3. Put all the slices in an html file, one below the other (see the attached text.zip file)

4. Generate a mobi file out of the html (attached also).

5. Fire it to your Kindle
And there you go!: every slice is an independent picture in a mobi file, so you can put your note on each stripe; and that's more or less what's needed.
(N.B. I reduced these screenshots for this post, they really look much better and totally alright on my Kindle DX; try the attached .mobi yourself!)

I know, I know ... the quality isn't perfect, but hey, I said it was just a proof-or-concept.

I got a bit rusty in programming and don't have too much time, but maybe there is someone around here willing to jump on this and bundle all this workflow (I did with several tools) in a neat all-in-one tool, for the joy of all the PDF-crippled Kindle users?

Cheers.

daffy4u · 02-05-2010, 03:48 PM

That's really thinking outside the box! Very interesting approach. Very cool. I look forward to following your progress.

neadams99 · 02-05-2010, 04:19 PM

Whoa! If only I was brave enough try that!

Pardoz · 02-05-2010, 04:25 PM

...that's a brilliant work-around, kudos.

jernej · 11-05-2010, 04:28 PM

Do you still use this approach...I read that you can annotate PDF files on Kindle 3. generation...what about Kindle 2 DX

?

johndoesecond · 11-05-2010, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jernej

Do you still use this approach...I read that you can annotate PDF files on Kindle 3. generation...what about Kindle 2 DX

?

No, I haven't played with it any longer, as soon as I heard K3 has it.

I hope and pray they put it on DXs, both old and new.

jernej · 11-05-2010, 07:05 PM

Yeah there's really nothing else we can do besides hoping and praying.....can we do a petition or something and send it to amazon

curstpriest · 11-05-2010, 11:42 PM

This is the same approach that PDF printer programs take when they convert mixed media to PDF.

I could see you running into some problems however...
You would have to scale the DPI of the image strips to display properly on the screen, or it would look odd on the 6 in, I don't think you really expect to view a whole A4/letter on a k2/3 so you will have to figure out how to manage this (horizontal 2 page view?).

IMO it's kind of a backward workaround for a problem that could easily be fixed by some minor work on the PDF viewer itself.

Perhaps this will come to all previous versions when they do major updates with lending or whatever new BS they have to implement.

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02-05-2010, 03:48 PM	#2
daffy4u I'm Super Kindle-icious Posts: 6,734 Karma: 2434103 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Long Drive, Calinadia Candafornia Device: KDXG, KT, Oasis	That's really thinking outside the box! Very interesting approach. Very cool. I look forward to following your progress.

02-05-2010, 04:19 PM	#3
neadams99 Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Sacramento, CA Device: kindle 2, 3, KFire, Samsung Epic 4G	Whoa! If only I was brave enough try that!

02-05-2010, 04:25 PM	#4
Pardoz Which side are you on? Posts: 370 Karma: 1964 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Variable, currently Czestochowa, Poland. Device: Kindle 2 Int'l	...that's a brilliant work-around, kudos.

11-05-2010, 04:28 PM	#5
jernej Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: none	Do you still use this approach...I read that you can annotate PDF files on Kindle 3. generation...what about Kindle 2 DX ?

11-05-2010, 07:05 PM	#7
jernej Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: none	Yeah there's really nothing else we can do besides hoping and praying.....can we do a petition or something and send it to amazon

11-05-2010, 11:42 PM	#8
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	This is the same approach that PDF printer programs take when they convert mixed media to PDF. I could see you running into some problems however... You would have to scale the DPI of the image strips to display properly on the screen, or it would look odd on the 6 in, I don't think you really expect to view a whole A4/letter on a k2/3 so you will have to figure out how to manage this (horizontal 2 page view?). IMO it's kind of a backward workaround for a problem that could easily be fixed by some minor work on the PDF viewer itself. Perhaps this will come to all previous versions when they do major updates with lending or whatever new BS they have to implement.

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