DR800 TechPDF: Yet another PDF reader (technology preview)

[AlpGlide]

Help page really helps!
Thanks

[GregorRichards]

Originally Posted by AlpGlide

Help page really helps!
Thanks

Hmm? *confused*

[AlpGlide]

Originally Posted by GregorRichards

Hmm? *confused*

I means "half page" really helps!
I really appreciate your help!

[Fat Abe]

First let me thank Gregor for creating the PDF viewing app. Since I have not purchased a DR800SG yet, I'm not able to test the existing PDF viewer or his app. As a potential buyer, I'd love to see some reviews of the device on Amazon, with the depth of some of the reviews on the Kindle DX:

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireles...rBy=addTwoStar

Most notably, there is a post by one reviewer, Fred Bacon, that really gets to the heart of the matter. Only by trying out several hundred PDF files (and inducing a memory leak) can you tell how stable the PDF software is. Has anyone compared the Irex pdf implementation with that of Adobe? What type of pdf files does the Irex have difficulty rendering? I find the iPad to be wanting, the Sony readers goofy, and the K2 abysmal in the pdf reading department. Woe to the honest man in search of a good pdf reader!

Anyway, I'm tempted to buy the reader just to test the oem software and Gregor's app. Decisions, decisions.

[GregorRichards]

The builtin implementation is an Adobe-derived one. My only problems with it are:
1) The version in the 1.x firmware has no zooming, making it nigh-on useless.
2) The version in the 2.x firmware has only manual zooming and panning, no intelligent defaults.

Since 99% of the time all I want to do is view half a page at a time and scroll half a page at a time, having to do that with a manual zoom selection and dragging it to pan is major overkill, especially, since turning pages is sufficiently different from panning that it tends to get it all wrong. Since I also read a lot of two-column stuff, the two-column half-page mode was a nice addition for me too.

If you want my reviewish-but-totally-non-comprehensive ideas on the DR800SG, here's why I bought it:

• The screen is exactly the right size for viewing half a letter page. It's about 7.5in tall, just an inch under the width of a letter page. In my opinion this makes it sufficient for reading technical papers, while also keeping the price within human limits. Since my primary goal was to have a device to throw all the research and technical papers I read onto, thus eliminating the need to carry around pounds of paper, this was important to me.
• Having a tablet screen is a nice little plus. First off, it's about the same physical dimensions as a Kindle 2 but the screen is much larger since there's no wasted real-estate for the rarely-used keyboard. Second, although everything is accessible without the tablet, it's sometimes just quicker with!
• I anticipated that the PDF viewer would suck for my purposes, but I also anticipated I'd be able to write a better one.
• What can I say, I'm a hacker! This is easily the most hackable eInk reader on the market. The Kindle has an SDK, but it's under the "we don't know what we're going to do with this" license, they all run Linux but this is the only one that has a totally open, actually quite standard software stack with a free and GPL SDK.
• I needed eInk. Reading long things on a backlit display is a form of torture. So even comparing it to the iPad is silly. Besides, the iPad SDK is under the "we own your sperm" license (this is the only way they can get a first-born son clause into a modern license agreement without stepping on child or slave labor laws)

So, I don't know whether it would be ideal for somebody who wasn't as much of a hacker as me, but it definitely has its niceties nonetheless.

[AlpGlide]

Originally Posted by GregorRichards

Since 99% of the time all I want to do is view half a page at a time and scroll half a page at a time, having to do that with a manual zoom selection and dragging it to pan is major overkill, especially, since turning pages is sufficiently different from panning that it tends to get it all wrong. Since I also read a lot of two-column stuff, the two-column half-page mode was a nice addition for me too.

That's exactly what I am looking for. half page of pdf on DR800's screen.
I wonder why Irex guys do not know that. I believe they do not use it to read pdf much.

[Fat Abe]

To clarify, does the half page option exist in landscape mode to just show the upper or lower half of the page? If it does, then can you slightly scroll up or down to view an equation that might otherwise be split at the divide line?

[GregorRichards]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

If it does, then can you slightly scroll up or down to view an equation that might otherwise be split at the divide line?

At present, it shows 51% of the page. A particularly tall equation (or graph, or anything else for that matter) would cause troubles, but I'm not sure exactly what I'd like to do about that just yet. This is one of the reasons I consider this still alpha-grade software :P

[CoolDragon]

Originally Posted by AlpGlide

That's exactly what I am looking for. half page of pdf on DR800's screen.
I wonder why Irex guys do not know that. I believe they do not use it to read pdf much.

All IREX needs to do based on the current 2.0Beta firmware is: (only for PDF)
1. Default to "fit width" zoom level when rotate to landscape orientation
2. Default to "pan" mode
3. When the current view has reached the bottom of the current page, forward push the flipbar moves to the "top" of next page, currently it does nothing and using the stylus to go to the next page will show the same offset of next page.
Similarly, when the current view has reached the top the current page, backward push the flipbar moves to the "bottom" of previous page.

[GregorRichards]

Originally Posted by CoolDragon

All IREX needs to do based on the current 2.0Beta firmware is: (only for PDF)
1. Default to "fit width" zoom level when rotate to landscape orientation
2. Default to "pan" mode
3. When the current view has reached the bottom of the current page, forward push the flipbar moves to the "top" of next page, currently it does nothing and using the stylus to go to the next page will show the same offset of next page.
Similarly, when the current view has reached the top the current page, backward push the flipbar moves to the "bottom" of previous page.

Some things I read have ridiculously enormous left and right margins, so fit width would be three screens per page instead of two. TechPDF's half-page is always half the page, regardless of width. Minor discrepancy though.

[CoolDragon]

Originally Posted by GregorRichards

Some things I read have ridiculously enormous left and right margins, so fit width would be three screens per page instead of two. TechPDF's half-page is always half the page, regardless of width. Minor discrepancy though.

My definition of "fit-width" is without margin cropping, same as what Adobe Reader and Foxit PDF Reader do. In that way, letter-size and A4-size PDFs should be splitted into two parts with a little bit overlapping between the two parts.

Another thing I forgot to mention in the v2 beta firmware is the "scribble/pencil" mode, flipbar currently changes to next page regardless of the current zoom factor, especially annoying when in landscape mode. It should just act as in pan mode. I agree with AlpGlide that people in IREX just don't read PDFs that much, which is weird given the iLiad's good PDF support.

[Mr. X]

I think what the stock firmware really needs is a 'crop' mode which is the current zoom area behavior with no pan (e.g. set the viewable window for the page, flip bar changes pages but doesn't change the position of the viewable window) plus a 'zoom' mode which encompasses fit width/fit height/fit visible/pan and has the behavior that the flip bar advances a screen up/down like people have been requesting.

With pdf ebooks the current crop is the behavior which makes sense, and the irex team seems to see pdf as for ebooks first and foremost on the 800. The PDF is already large enough to be read, you just want rid of the large margins. I would be sad to see this feature completely disappear.

For 8.5x11 or A4 pdfs there may be margin issues as well, but you also often need to rotate and a page at a time to have it be legible, so you need a true zoom not just a crop...

[Mr. X]

Also, thanks a lot for TechPDF. even at alpha stage it is awesome for reading 2-column academic papers. When the 2.0 sources come out with the updated liberscribble are you planning to try and add scribbling?

[GregorRichards]

Yeah, but that'll be a post-alpha feature :P

[AlpGlide]

Originally Posted by GregorRichards

At present, it shows 51% of the page. A particularly tall equation (or graph, or anything else for that matter) would cause troubles, but I'm not sure exactly what I'd like to do about that just yet. This is one of the reasons I consider this still alpha-grade software :P

I understand a cropped graph is not so beautiful, but we have to get used to it because screen size is not A4.
Or another way. Cut most of the pages in half, but if here is a big graph just in the middle, cut a page into three, by doing this way, we do not need crop a graph. I understand it is not so easy to implement, so I am pretty happy with current TechPDF version.
Thanks again.