DR1000 PDF features with 2.0 firmware

[CoolDragon]

Can someone give a short description on the PDF features in the 2.0 firmware release? Such as navigation, TOC, zoom, annotation etc ....

[gaphic2]

Just a few things I noticed so far:

Positive:
- I've not seen any font or layout problems. With the Poppler-based render engine some layout elements didn't come out right. Wrongly spaced text, wrong fonts, ...
- Speed: page turns are noticeably faster

Negative:
- Contrast of the text is less than before. For me this is a major problem. E-ink isn't very contrast rich under medium lighting conditions as it is. The Adobe Mobile Reader engine perhaps uses a different kind of aliasing, I'm not sure. The result is poor visibility.
- Max. zoom level: the beta firmware's select to zoom magnifies far less than before.

[CoolDragon]

Only "select to zoom"?

[SplogSplog]

I am very unhappy with support for larger PDF files. Right now I just opened "The Hobbit". With the old firmware it was quite slow, although bearable, and zooming was good enough that I could read it.

With 2.0 the zooming is abysmal, so instead I switched to landscape mode and changed the fontsize. Although this works, each page turn now takes approximately five minutes. This, of course, makes the whole experience unrealistic.

The only thing good about the device is the screen size. However, the short battery life, the overly-long startup time, and now the worsened zooming and extremely slow page turning on larger documents with altered fontsize makes me regret my purchase. It is very sad, since when I first got the device I thought it had great promise. Alas, it seems my optimism was poorly placed.

[CoolDragon]

Sounds like a bug in reflow mode. What kind of zoom feature can you use in landscape mode?

Originally Posted by SplogSplog

I am very unhappy with support for larger PDF files. Right now I just opened "The Hobbit". With the old firmware it was quite slow, although bearable, and zooming was good enough that I could read it.

With 2.0 the zooming is abysmal, so instead I switched to landscape mode and changed the fontsize. Although this works, each page turn now takes approximately five minutes. This, of course, makes the whole experience unrealistic.

The only thing good about the device is the screen size. However, the short battery life, the overly-long startup time, and now the worsened zooming and extremely slow page turning on larger documents with altered fontsize makes me regret my purchase. It is very sad, since when I first got the device I thought it had great promise. Alas, it seems my optimism was poorly placed.

[gaphic2]

Originally Posted by CoolDragon

Only "select to zoom"?

No fixed percentages anymore. Only fit to screen/select to zoom. Landscape zoom gives the same choices. Maybe someone from Irex could comment if they have enabled the max zoom the Adobe engine allows?

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by gaphic2

- Contrast of the text is less than before. For me this is a major problem. E-ink isn't very contrast rich under medium lighting conditions as it is. The Adobe Mobile Reader engine perhaps uses a different kind of aliasing, I'm not sure. The result is poor visibility.

So the white of the page is the same and it's only the fronts are different? If not, someone needs to break out the microscope to check if the new firmware is wiping the e-ink as effectively as before. I suppose comparing the viewing of an image or an image of text can tell if it's an e-ink issue or a text rendering issue.

Originally Posted by gaphic2

- Max. zoom level: the beta firmware's select to zoom magnifies far less than before.

So if you select-zoom something really tiny like a single letter, it will not zoom to just view the selection?

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by gaphic2

No fixed percentages anymore. Only fit to screen/select to zoom. Landscape zoom gives the same choices. Maybe someone from Irex could comment if they have enabled the max zoom the Adobe engine allows?

So what's the default zoom when flipping to landscape? On the dr800, it would default to fit to screen, which made a portrait document look very small. I suppose you can then 'fit-width' by drawing a select-zoom horizontal line from one side to the other. Then what happens when you click the next-page button? Does it move the view to the next section of the page (good) or skip to the next page (bad)?

[SplogSplog]

Originally Posted by gaphic2

Negative:
- Contrast of the text is less than before. For me this is a major problem. E-ink isn't very contrast rich under medium lighting conditions as it is. The Adobe Mobile Reader engine perhaps uses a different kind of aliasing, I'm not sure. The result is poor visibility.
- Max. zoom level: the beta firmware's select to zoom magnifies far less than before.

I noticed the contrast issue too. It creates particular problems when text is quite small, and is now quite a lot fainter than before - making it a strain to read. I looked for an option in the settings to increase contrast, but could not find one.

Relating to your second point, as I have mentioned now in a couple of posts, the zoom capabilities are now very strange. As far as I can tell, there is now only one zoom level, which is either too much or not enough based on what you are zooming into. Since I deal largely with two-column texts, and need a finer-grained zoom, this clunky zoom in 2.0 is a showstopper.

[gaphic2]

Originally Posted by badbob001

So what's the default zoom when flipping to landscape? On the dr800, it would default to fit to screen, which made a portrait document look very small. I suppose you can then 'fit-width' by drawing a select-zoom horizontal line from one side to the other. Then what happens when you click the next-page button? Does it move the view to the next section of the page (good) or skip to the next page (bad)?

A4 pdf in landscape -> default zoom = fit height
If you have continuous page view on and select-to-zoom to page width, the next page button displays the next section of the page. If continuous page view is off then it moves you to the top of the next page. This is the same as before, I think.

[CoolDragon]

Originally Posted by gaphic2

A4 pdf in landscape -> default zoom = fit height
If you have continuous page view on and select-to-zoom to page width, the next page button displays the next section of the page. If continuous page view is off then it moves you to the top of the next page. This is the same as before, I think.

OK, at least it sounds like the zoom level is kept between pages. And with the select zoom feature, it is not unusable.

The thing I don't understand is why IREX doesn't do "fit to width" when you switch to landscape orientation as the Sony 900 does. There is no technical problem at all if you are using the Adobe RM SDK, it is just about feature definition (and about 1 line of code change) for god's sake!

[gaphic2]

Originally Posted by badbob001

So the white of the page is the same and it's only the fronts are different? If not, someone needs to break out the microscope to check if the new firmware is wiping the e-ink as effectively as before. I suppose comparing the viewing of an image or an image of text can tell if it's an e-ink issue or a text rendering issue.

So if you select-zoom something really tiny like a single letter, it will not zoom to just view the selection?

1. To my eye, the 'white' looks the same; Good suggestion about looking at a bitmap. I'll try that.

2. Yes. On the same A4 in landscape mode, select-to zoom will only zoom in to about half the width, for example.

While doing this landscape testing, I frequently ran into drawing problems. When choosing the menu, only half of the menu or the frame around it is shown.

[gaphic2]

Originally Posted by CoolDragon

The thing I don't understand is why IREX doesn't do "fit to width" when you switch to landscape orientation as the Sony 900 does. There is no technical problem at all if you are using the Adobe RM SDK, it is just about feature definition (and about 1 line of code change) for god's sake!

Couldn't agree more. I just hope the Irex people here take notice. If they want to continue marketing this as a professional device options and settings need to offer a lot more choices.

[gaphic2]

Originally Posted by SplogSplog

I noticed the contrast issue too. It creates particular problems when text is quite small, and is now quite a lot fainter than before - making it a strain to read. I looked for an option in the settings to increase contrast, but could not find one.

Relating to your second point, as I have mentioned now in a couple of posts, the zoom capabilities are now very strange. As far as I can tell, there is now only one zoom level, which is either too much or not enough based on what you are zooming into. Since I deal largely with two-column texts, and need a finer-grained zoom, this clunky zoom in 2.0 is a showstopper.

Select to zoom is by definition very flexible. But you can't zoom in far enough, in my opinion. Acrobat on the pc lets me zoom in to 6400%! In the previous firmware, if you had a pdf with some small vector graph, you could make that fill the whole screen. Being vector, it was crystal clear.

[gaphic2]

Originally Posted by badbob001

I suppose comparing the viewing of an image or an image of text can tell if it's an e-ink issue or a text rendering issue.

OK, I've downloaded some 16-gray bitmap test images from here. The shades of gray do look different on different firmwares.

I'm still sticking by my impression that text rendering is different as well. The main font I use for my DR1000S pdf's is rather fat, because e-ink contrast is not super in low light. In the new firmware, the letters appear thinner.