Sony Root PDF reading Apps

[Samsonerd]

I am thinking about getting a sony reader for a while now. https://www.mobileread.com/forumsshow...59#post1856759

Only thing i am concernd about is readability of PDFs

I read quite bit of PDFs (some scientific) and i would like to read them on the sony device and make comments and highlights while reading.

From what i learnd so far it seems the sony does okay with pdfs compared with other e reader but the displaying is still not great.

I wonder if there are any android apps available that work with the rooted sony and improve the reading and commenting of PDFs in comparison with the basic function of the sony with PDF.

Thanks for your help.

[ring0_event]

In my own limited experience, rooting the T1 was not a solution for my PDF reading issues, because the PDF reading packages (e.g. ezPDF) are made for a more responsive screen, so the result is a whole bunch of terribly annoying screen flashes. Maybe someone else has found another solution; I certainly could benefit.
So as far as I know the PDF reading experience is best with the native reader. Personally, I have not found the T1 to work well for simple reflowed text PDFs at all (big lag on page turns), so I only use it for ePubs, and use my 950 for PDFs.

[jr17oo]

Until now I have tried four different PDF viewers on the T1, and none of them has satisfied me.

ezPDF: Although I really like this app and use it on my phone, it is absolutely unusable on an eink device. If there was an option to turn off all animations, it would probably be worth a try.

RepliGo: Animations are less annoying than with ezPDF, but its functionality seems to be very limited.

Orion: Was recommended in another thread, as it is one of the rare apps with support for the T1's page turn buttons. Plus, it doesn't animate the page turns. I personally like the manual crop feature, but autocrop is not (yet?) available. Might be a good choice for some very simple PDF documents, but that's all.

Original Sony Reader app: Probably the best available app for the moment, but its functionality could still be improved.

I gave up reading PDFs on my T1, and I can't recommend to anyone using this device as a PDF reader.

[vishcompany]

Originally Posted by Samsonerd

I am thinking about getting a sony reader for a while now. https://www.mobileread.com/forumsshow...59#post1856759

Only thing i am concernd about is readability of PDFs

I read quite bit of PDFs (some scientific) and i would like to read them on the sony device and make comments and highlights while reading.

From what i learnd so far it seems the sony does okay with pdfs compared with other e reader but the displaying is still not great.

I wonder if there are any android apps available that work with the rooted sony and improve the reading and commenting of PDFs in comparison with the basic function of the sony with PDF.

Thanks for your help.

For your profile of use any (cheap) tablet/pad will give you a better experience than any eInk device. How about a kindle fire, kobo vox or nook tablet?

[Samsonerd]

Thanks for the feedback. It's very helpfull

Aside from the fact that (as far as i know) none of these are available in germany where i live, i really want the battery-life and readability of an eink screen. (also i like the poket size but its not a necessity)

Otherwise i can just keep using my netbook for reading PDFs, since a tablet wouldn't have the qualities i am looking for.

I kind of accepted that PDF's won't really work with e-readers. just wondered if the root might offer an attractive work around.
Thanks for your help. I think i will get the sony and make my own experiences.

[darseno]

Originally Posted by jr17oo

Orion: Was recommended in another thread, as it is one of the rare apps with support for the T1's page turn buttons. Plus, it doesn't animate the page turns. I personally like the manual crop feature, but autocrop is not (yet?) available. Might be a good choice for some very simple PDF documents, but that's all.

Original Sony Reader app: Probably the best available app for the moment, but its functionality could still be improved.

It really depends on what kind of pdf you want to read.

If you're interested in double-column letter-size pdfs, both Orion and Sony's app have a function for dividing the screen into sections where you successively zoom from top left to bottom left, then top right to bottom right, then to the next page. This works fine for double-column pdfs without footnotes. For single-column letter-size pdfs, a 6-inch screen is useless unless the pdf is somehow modified (ie. increase font size, reflow text, etc.)

If you're interested in reading Google Books in pdf format, the T1 is a good choice. Usually scanned books have smaller pages, and when you crop the margins the text is always big enough to read in landscape mode if your app allows panning via page-turn buttons. Both Orion and Sony's app have what it takes, but their cropping functions are pretty basic. Sony's manual crop won't let you specify specific values for each margin and it doesn't have the option for separately cropping even and odd pages (scanned books usually have different margin sizes for even and odd pages) Sony's autocrop function isn't tolerant of artifacts in the page margins, which makes it useless for scanned books (which often have smudges, spots, and typographic/printing symbols in the margins). Orion's manual crop is better because it's more configurable, but it doesn't have the even/odd cropping option either. Orion also lacks autocrop, and I hope the developer Mr. Bogdanov will soon add this feature.

A third choice for scanned pdfs is Ebookdroid, which has an excellent autocrop feature. Unfortunately, Ebookdroid's developers have ignored repeated requests from users to include options for disabling page-turn animations and supporting the T1's hardware buttons.

If Orion adds even/odd manual cropping and autocropping that works as well as Ebookdroid's, it will be the ultimate pdf reader for Android and especially for e-ink displays. I suspect Mr. Bogdanov is working on this right now. I'm looking forward to donating some money to him when it's complete.

I gave up reading PDFs on my T1, and I can't recommend to anyone using this device as a PDF reader.

For scanned books, the T1 is a great choice, even with only Sony's default app. For larger-size pdfs, you need a larger display.

[cadmus]

Originally Posted by jr17oo

Until now I have tried four different PDF viewers on the T1, and none of them has satisfied me.

ezPDF: Although I really like this app and use it on my phone, it is absolutely unusable on an eink device. If there was an option to turn off all animations, it would probably be worth a try.

RepliGo: Animations are less annoying than with ezPDF, but its functionality seems to be very limited.

Orion: Was recommended in another thread, as it is one of the rare apps with support for the T1's page turn buttons. Plus, it doesn't animate the page turns. I personally like the manual crop feature, but autocrop is not (yet?) available. Might be a good choice for some very simple PDF documents, but that's all.

Original Sony Reader app: Probably the best available app for the moment, but its functionality could still be improved.

I gave up reading PDFs on my T1, and I can't recommend to anyone using this device as a PDF reader.

jr17oo, I am guessing the unusable nature of these programs made you give up, but did you try highlighting and annotating PDFs with any of these android programs? Were you able to export any of them from the t1 to a PC based PDFreader/editer? Thanks, Pete

[multiprose]

none of the android pdf readers can compare to the sony stock. you will have a lot of frustration trying to use anything else. the best feature of the stock sony reader in my opinion is the ability to highlight a word or sentence and have a little pad pop wherein draw/diagram/write your notes, as they'll be linked thru the software but not, for example, adobe acrobat or other desktop pdf readers.

if your scientific pdfs are not journal articles, but like huge textbooks style, as most of mine are. the sony reader's TOC is quite robust and functional.

think about getting an entourage edge, which is a hybrid tablet/reader, so you can use ezpdf and other android apps that embed annotations and notes in a more compatible form. if your lucky you can get it for around $70 on ebay.

[cadmus]

Thanks for the help

Originally Posted by multiprose

think about getting an entourage edge...

ohh my. that thing is crazy. yeah that is cool. maybe.

Originally Posted by multiprose

none of the android pdf readers can compare to the sony stock. you will have a lot of frustration trying to use anything else. the best feature of the stock sony reader in my opinion is the ability to highlight a word or sentence and have a little pad pop wherein draw/diagram/write your notes, as they'll be linked thru the software but not, for example, adobe acrobat or other desktop pdf readers.

I agree that the sony non-rooted program is the best reader. But it does not allow me to retain my notes or highlights or scribbles on the PDF. On the 900 it exported them through the sony reader program into RTFs that were a thumbnail of the screenshot for scribbles (useless) and exports what you highlighted as notes. These were not spatialy tied to or embedded in the original PDF image. That is what most people need. I assume the t1 is similar. I wanted to try it at best buy today but the floor model had most the features removed.

I would be happy with any one of the scribble, note, or higlight features working.

I think this might be the solition to the scribble issue but it is over my head:
http://hoheinzollern.wordpress.com/2...to-svg-or-pdf/

multiprose, what non sony pdf programs did you use in your t1? did any of them retain highlights, scribbles or notes in the pdf file?

[jr17oo]

Originally Posted by cadmus

jr17oo, I am guessing the unusable nature of these programs made you give up, but did you try highlighting and annotating PDFs with any of these android programs? Were you able to export any of them from the t1 to a PC based PDFreader/editer? Thanks, Pete

Well, I did not try to get notes and annotations from the T1 to my PC. But I use ezPDF on my android phone, and it works perfectly. Everything is directly embedded into the PDF file. I do not see any reason why it should not do the same on the T1.

Someone else will have to try if other PDF readers behave similarly.

[multiprose]

Originally Posted by cadmus

I would be happy with any one of the scribble, note, or higlight features working.

I think this might be the solition to the scribble issue but it is over my head:
http://hoheinzollern.wordpress.com/2...to-svg-or-pdf/

multiprose, what non sony pdf programs did you use in your t1? did any of them retain highlights, scribbles or notes in the pdf file?

hi,
from the ones i tested, ezpdf, repligo, foxit pdf, all of them retain highlights, scribbles and notes directly on the PDF, but the problem is that navigation through bookmarks and/or transitions between pages when scrolling is excruciatingly slow *even with the "no full refresh" screen mod*.

foxit pdf is unbearble and ezpdf pretty much obsolete. freehand writing or drawing shapes etc. is extremely difficult because each time you lift the pen the screen blinks. only repligo faired ok with highlighting and shape drawing, but i still wouldn't recommend it. if you are interested in using these third party readers to annotate pdfs directly, i think the nook simple touch could work since it has partial page refresh; plus, there seems to be a big development community for it.

i haven't figured out how to install mantano reader (reads both epub/pdf) on my sony t1 but it would likely be the best third party pdf annotator because there are no page change animations, toolbars with annotator tools are well placed, and there are just a lot of useful functions.

[darseno]

The following configuration works well for scanned pdfs like Google books:

- EBookDroid (its autocropping works far better than Sony's software)
- Reassign buttons 105/106 to DPAD_UP and DPAD_DOWN (or vice-versa)
- Swipe Switcher app for loading external dictionary
- Fora Dictionary (custom dictionaries available, unlike Sony's dictionary)
- Set the "back" button in Fora to "exit" (to return to EbookDroid)

This configuration allows the use of hardware buttons in EbookDroid, and they still work in CoolReader and Orion. You must use Fora instead of ColorDict because ColorDict seems to kill the EbookDroid activity and requires reloading the book when you return to it after looking up a word.

I've found this configuration to be far better for scanned books than Sony's software, but it's no good for letter-size multi-column pdfs, in which case I would recommend Orion Viewer. As for epubs, Coolreader is better than Sony's software.

[zossi]

wow orion viewer is very nice. no more grey margins when using briss to crop my pdfs (unlike sony's default viewer). text actually fills the entire screen now. even has bookmark features.

one question though, how can i make the font darker? i tried the brightness settings but it doesn't seem to do anything..

other than that, i really think this will one day become the best pdf viewer for the T1.

[darseno]

Briss+Orion works well, but I've noticed that Briss uses a cropping method that doesn't give consistent results on every page, because it crops by groups of pages instead of individually. For cropping, EBookDroid's autocrop is generally better. Also, when the page is longer than the screen, Orion displays the last bit of the page on a separate page followed by blank space, which requires an extra page turn to continue reading. Orion could be better than EBookDroid if it added two features that EBookDroid already has.: Autocrop and continuous page mode.