Aura HD Kobo Aura HD Impressions Thread

[PeterT]

No it does not. reading of both ePubs and kobo ePubs is portrait only.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by PeterT

No it does not. reading of both ePubs and kobo ePubs is portrait only.

:-(

Bummer!

[sebasdoes]

I am considering buying the Aura HD as an upgrade to my PRS-T1. I do have one question about ePub 3 support because I want to read Japanese ePubs on it.

Does the Aura support vertical writing (tategaki) and ruby script (furigana)? These are both functions of ePub 3, and both quite important to me when considering an upgrade. The PRS-T1 supports neither, so I want at least that when upgrading.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Considering that Kobo sells to the Japanese public I would say that it's certain that it supports vertical display. In fact I've seen it myself (on the Glo, not the Kobo)

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by sebasdoes

I am considering buying the Aura HD as an upgrade to my PRS-T1. I do have one question about ePub 3 support because I want to read Japanese ePubs on it.

Does the Aura support vertical writing (tategaki) and ruby script (furigana)? These are both functions of ePub 3, and both quite important to me when considering an upgrade. The PRS-T1 supports neither, so I want at least that when upgrading.

Only kepubs currently support tategaki (iirc). the adobe renderer doesn't support epub 3 yet (apparently they had a roadmap to implement it, then withdrew that).

If you have tategaki epubs and you want to read them on your kobo, you can use calibre's Extended Kobo Touch plugin and it will convert your books on-the-fly when it is transferring them to your device. This means your computer will still have your original epubs, but on your kobo they will be using the kepub renderer which DOES support epub 3.

Furigana is definitely supported on epub. And I would be incredibly surprised if it wasn't supported in kepub (since it supports japanese really well). I can't give you a 100% on that simply because none of my kepub have furigana. If you know of a free one from the kobo store, I can try it out. But as I say, furigana support shouldn't be a problem with both formats.

Edit:
Just found a free kepub that happened to use both tategaki and furigana. Both work fine. There is no epub available for this book, which kinda signals that an epub wouldn't work with the tategaki as I suspected.

Final verdict:

Tategaki: use kepub (using calibre's extended plugin for epubs from stores other than kobo to get them to use the kepub renderer on device)

Furigana: works with both epub and kepub.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Considering that Kobo sells to the Japanese public I would say that it's certain that it supports vertical display. In fact I've seen it myself (on the Glo, not the Kobo)

the epub renderer doesn't support R to L writing, which vertical writing in japanese is. All R to L languages have this issue and have to use kepub instead. So even if it can display vertical writing, it won't be the right direction. It would still be L to R. I don't have a vertical writing japanese epub to confirm, but considering how much people using R to L languages have discussed this, I'm pretty confident.

[sebasdoes]

Thanks a lot! That sounds really promising.

EDIT: I'm suddenly doubting a bit between the Glo and the Aura HD (there's a €60 difference here), the Glo supports ePub3 features with kepub as well I assume?

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by sebasdoes

Thanks a lot! That sounds really promising.

EDIT: I'm suddenly doubting a bit between the Glo and the Aura HD (there's a €60 difference here), the Glo supports ePub3 features with kepub as well I assume?

Yup. I have the Glo, not the Aura.

[flips01]

Just got my Aura HD (espresso). It's my first Kobo device, and my second eInk reading device, my first being Kindle DX.

I borrowed a Kindle Paperwhite to compare it to.

My experience so far:

Screen: Amazing crispness/detail level when reading in daylight!

Frontlight: Works well. Compared to Kindle PW the lowest setting, 1 % on the Aura, seems to be similar to level 3 on the PW. (To me that's OK, because most of the time the lowest setting on the PW would be too low for me.)
The PW lights are slightly uneven at the bottom. That's better on the Aura, nice and smooth.

BUT: I would really like to have an "inverted mode", make the text white and the rest dark (like when upgrading etc.). @Kobo, Please make this!
Until I get this, I'm not sure I find frontlights much better than backlit iPhone retina. Time will tell -- and will surely test it ...

Also: Reading (k)ePubs in landscape would be nice, to my hand (not very small), landscape feels good.

The device feels and looks nice, but I'll probably find some case or thin adhesive material to make it less slippy.
The shape is nice, but the Kindle PW's more rubber-like material feels better.

Size: It's just slightly bigger than the PW, and not much heavier (if at all). The screen crispness is much better on the Aura, and the resolution is clearky visible. Both are nice and white, maybe the Kobo is even whiter.

The Kobo screen still is not big enough for my eyes to read PDF books (like O'Reilly tech books) without serious strain on my eyes.

Screen real estate:
It seems to waste some space at the bottom of the ePubs, as some have mentioned.
I will look into some of the tips mentioned elsewhere ...

Bottomline: I think I will be happy with the Aura HD. I did consider getting the PW, but after comparing, I think I'll prefer the Kobo.
(I like the fontweight option.)

Just my five cents ...

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by flips01

BUT: I would really like to have an "inverted mode", make the text white and the rest dark (like when upgrading etc.). @Kobo, Please make this!
Until I get this, I'm not sure I find frontlights much better than backlit iPhone retina. Time will tell -- and will surely test it ...

Seeing as the front light is a front light and not a back light I'm not sure the inverted mode will do anything for you. The whole point of inverted mode is to reduce the amount of light coming out through the screen. Since zero light comes out through the screen of a front lit reader anyway it probably wouldn't have much effect.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by sebasdoes

I am considering buying the Aura HD as an upgrade to my PRS-T1. I do have one question about ePub 3 support because I want to read Japanese ePubs on it.

Does the Aura support vertical writing (tategaki) and ruby script (furigana)? These are both functions of ePub 3, and both quite important to me when considering an upgrade. The PRS-T1 supports neither, so I want at least that when upgrading.

The two epub3 Japanese texts (sample-tate and sample-yoko) I tried displayed properly on a Kobo when renamed to .kepub.epub to trigger using the Access NetFront renderer. I don't know how furigana would display since I have only run into one Japanese language epub3 that mentioned using ruby --I don't think it was from the Azardi site but rather from a Google depository -- and since I don't read Japanese never bothered to grab it.

Edit: Just grabbed it, copied it to my Aura and vertical r to l and furigana look okay to a non-Japanese reading eye. What it would look like to someone who can read it may be a different story.

Regards,
David

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by flips01

The Kobo screen still is not big enough for my eyes to read PDF books (like O'Reilly tech books) without serious strain on my eyes.

Did you try zooming? I find reading PDF zoomed quite similar to font size I use in epubs.
Note: right now there is a bug to do with ghosting when moving around zoomed PDFs, the work around is to set refresh to 1 page when reading PDFs.

[FJames]

Originally Posted by flips01

(I like the fontweight option.)

Ok, I finally tried the Advanced font editing, and you're right - increasing the font weight does make the text darker and more readable in poor light or when using the glow light.

[flips01]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Seeing as the front light is a front light and not a back light I'm not sure the inverted mode will do anything for you. The whole point of inverted mode is to reduce the amount of light coming out through the screen. Since zero light comes out through the screen of a front lit reader anyway it probably wouldn't have much effect.

I thought it looked good with the black screen when upgrading or something, but maybe that was without the glowlights, I can't remember.
I think Bookeen implemented inverted mode. Can anyone report as to wether this works, or if it's pointless for reading in complete darkness?

[flips01]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

Did you try zooming? I find reading PDF zoomed quite similar to font size I use in epubs.
Note: right now there is a bug to do with ghosting when moving around zoomed PDFs, the work around is to set refresh to 1 page when reading PDFs.

Yes, but I found the navigate/mini page box to steal valuable space. (Maybe I can hide it? Just did a quick test.)

+ Reading large documents where you have to zoom and scroll a lot for each page, don't seem like a good option to me. (Unless there's some smart "tap to skip to next column/page" function like GoodReader on iOS has.)