Had to try it now I'm confused

Bob A · 02-19-2007, 04:29 PM

I only heard of the Sony reader yesterday - looked at today and bought it because why not. I was eager to put PDF files I have of various journal articles onto it and have transferred a couple, but they don't read so easy! I've figured out going to horizontal mode and it goes one step larger, but still hard to read. Do I have any options here? Would I use the Rastafarian program to reconfigure existing PDF files? I see lots of posts about converting non-Connect books and I hope to figure that out too.....first things first. Thanks!

NatCh · 02-19-2007, 04:33 PM

That's what the Rastafarian program is meant for, Bob A.

Welcome to MobileRead, BTW.

Have a look around, you'll find a lot of information and helpful tips here, both on the topics you've mentioned, and a bunch of others.

Bob A · 02-19-2007, 05:49 PM

Thanks for the welcome. I did download Rasta and Autoimage. I can figure out the former, but not the latter! Is it that the bold level will happen in Rasta since Autoimage is installed? I think a typical PDF two column article works split in half. I will keep playing with it and try a book soon as well.

NatCh · 02-19-2007, 07:56 PM

Alas, there I cannot help you, as I stick almost entirely to ... well, "not PDF" files.

As a consequence, I've never played with it, however, there are a bunch of folks around here who have, and will doubtless pipe up and share.

Azayzel · 02-20-2007, 04:01 AM

Just install autoimager and leave it be, you won't ever have to run it yourself as PDFRasterfarian does all the grunt work; e.g, all of the filters to edge-enhance, resize, etc. Works great and if you have any questions, post 'em and the people here will do what they can to help (the dev for PDFR is really good about helping people who have any problems with his tool, so just ask).

Have fun!

RWood · 02-20-2007, 08:47 AM

Welcome to MobileRead. Most of the developers and maintainers of the tools you will find in MobileRead or on the MobileRead Wiki Conversion page are active members of MobileRead. They want to make their products better and provide a level of "user support" that would be the envy of most commercial products.

vvaann · 02-20-2007, 09:18 AM

You do not have too many options If the size of pages in pdf is much bigger that the size of Sony reader screen.
1. You can split each page by JAP (Just Another Printer) program and read it piece by piece
2. You can make the script more solid by PDFRasterfarian
3. You can extract text and all pictures by ABBY PDF Transformer and transform it into another format.

I prefer the third way. Pdf -> Rtf -> Lrf. I use Book Designer

to make Lrf from Rtf. The result is

Mr. Goodbar · 02-20-2007, 10:28 AM

Bookdesigner does some really great stuff. You can got straight from pdf to bookdesigner, although if it is a complex pdf it might still need a little formatting cleanup. For me it is fine since most of what i'm converting are extracts or reviews and I'm not that concerned with formatting. In general bookdesigner is the best product I've found for converting content to the reader book format. One of the additional benefits is that the native book format is much smaller than the pdf. I would definitely check it out.

HarryT · 02-20-2007, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vvaann

I prefer the third way. Pdf -> Rtf -> Lrf. I use Book Designer

to make Lrf from Rtf. The resalt is

Why not just stop at RTF? Or do you have things like pictures or diagrams you need to display?

I prefer RTF for the flexibility of being able to easily change things like font face or size in "Word".

Bob A · 02-20-2007, 12:51 PM

Thanks all for comments - I will look into these ideas - the types of articles I want to gather into Reader are from Scholarly Journals taken from library online databases so there are images and columns to consider. Splitting in two with PDFRasta is working, but it takes these old eyes some patience to read it. Unfortunately, it seems that if I enlarge the size I lose part of the right column and there is no way around that in the reader. There is no way to isolate the right side of a page on the reader is there?

I am not sure what RTF is yet.

RWood · 02-20-2007, 03:34 PM

RTF (Rich Text Format) is a text file with formatting tags in it. It is used as a low level (meaning it is common to many programs) transfer format. Each word processor has its own native format and RTF may not support some of the unique formatting features. It also stores images (charts, photographs, etc.) as encoded text (somewhat like MIME on the USENET newsgroups.) These images take up a lot of file space and are not supported on the Sony Reader.

There are many products that assist the extraction of text and images from PDF files including the commercial products ABC Amber PDF Converter and ABBYY Fine Reader. Also many freeware (or free) programs are available as mentioned above. There is also a formatting macro for MS Word by Stingo that is great for straight text. A large collection of these can be found on the MobileRead Wiki Conversion page.

Happy hunting.

vvaann · 02-20-2007, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why not just stop at RTF? Or do you have things like pictures or diagrams you need to display?

I prefer RTF for the flexibility of being able to easily change things like font face or size in "Word".

Exactly, I would like to keep pictures and rtf does not support it.

02-19-2007, 04:29 PM	#1
Bob A Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2007 Device: PRS500	Had to try it now I'm confused I only heard of the Sony reader yesterday - looked at today and bought it because why not. I was eager to put PDF files I have of various journal articles onto it and have transferred a couple, but they don't read so easy! I've figured out going to horizontal mode and it goes one step larger, but still hard to read. Do I have any options here? Would I use the Rastafarian program to reconfigure existing PDF files? I see lots of posts about converting non-Connect books and I hope to figure that out too.....first things first. Thanks!

02-20-2007, 09:18 AM	#7
vvaann Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2006	You do not have too many options If the size of pages in pdf is much bigger that the size of Sony reader screen. 1. You can split each page by JAP (Just Another Printer) program and read it piece by piece 2. You can make the script more solid by PDFRasterfarian 3. You can extract text and all pictures by ABBY PDF Transformer and transform it into another format. I prefer the third way. Pdf -> Rtf -> Lrf. I use Book Designer to make Lrf from Rtf. The result is Last edited by vvaann; 02-20-2007 at 04:01 PM.

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02-19-2007, 04:33 PM	#2
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	That's what the Rastafarian program is meant for, Bob A. Welcome to MobileRead, BTW. Have a look around, you'll find a lot of information and helpful tips here, both on the topics you've mentioned, and a bunch of others.

02-19-2007, 05:49 PM	#3
Bob A Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2007 Device: PRS500	Thanks for the welcome. I did download Rasta and Autoimage. I can figure out the former, but not the latter! Is it that the bold level will happen in Rasta since Autoimage is installed? I think a typical PDF two column article works split in half. I will keep playing with it and try a book soon as well.

02-19-2007, 07:56 PM	#4
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Alas, there I cannot help you, as I stick almost entirely to ... well, "not PDF" files. As a consequence, I've never played with it, however, there are a bunch of folks around here who have, and will doubtless pipe up and share.

02-20-2007, 04:01 AM	#5
Azayzel Cache Ninja! Posts: 643 Karma: 1002300 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Tokyo, Japan Device: PRS-500, HTC Shift, iPod Touch, iPaq 4150, TC1100, Panasonic WordsGear	Just install autoimager and leave it be, you won't ever have to run it yourself as PDFRasterfarian does all the grunt work; e.g, all of the filters to edge-enhance, resize, etc. Works great and if you have any questions, post 'em and the people here will do what they can to help (the dev for PDFR is really good about helping people who have any problems with his tool, so just ask). Have fun!

02-20-2007, 08:47 AM	#6
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Welcome to MobileRead. Most of the developers and maintainers of the tools you will find in MobileRead or on the MobileRead Wiki Conversion page are active members of MobileRead. They want to make their products better and provide a level of "user support" that would be the envy of most commercial products.

02-20-2007, 10:28 AM	#8
Mr. Goodbar Wizard Posts: 1,005 Karma: 98078 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Mini 4	Bookdesigner does some really great stuff. You can got straight from pdf to bookdesigner, although if it is a complex pdf it might still need a little formatting cleanup. For me it is fine since most of what i'm converting are extracts or reviews and I'm not that concerned with formatting. In general bookdesigner is the best product I've found for converting content to the reader book format. One of the additional benefits is that the native book format is much smaller than the pdf. I would definitely check it out.

02-20-2007, 12:51 PM	#10
Bob A Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2007 Device: PRS500	Thanks all for comments - I will look into these ideas - the types of articles I want to gather into Reader are from Scholarly Journals taken from library online databases so there are images and columns to consider. Splitting in two with PDFRasta is working, but it takes these old eyes some patience to read it. Unfortunately, it seems that if I enlarge the size I lose part of the right column and there is no way around that in the reader. There is no way to isolate the right side of a page on the reader is there? I am not sure what RTF is yet.

02-20-2007, 03:34 PM	#11
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	RTF (Rich Text Format) is a text file with formatting tags in it. It is used as a low level (meaning it is common to many programs) transfer format. Each word processor has its own native format and RTF may not support some of the unique formatting features. It also stores images (charts, photographs, etc.) as encoded text (somewhat like MIME on the USENET newsgroups.) These images take up a lot of file space and are not supported on the Sony Reader. There are many products that assist the extraction of text and images from PDF files including the commercial products ABC Amber PDF Converter and ABBYY Fine Reader. Also many freeware (or free) programs are available as mentioned above. There is also a formatting macro for MS Word by Stingo that is great for straight text. A large collection of these can be found on the MobileRead Wiki Conversion page. Happy hunting.

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