What is the best e-reader for .pdf scanned books?

[delftse_student]

Hello,

I had been checking the forum about the ability of e-readers to 'read' .pdf scanned books. Unfortunately the posts, though on the subject, were quite old (2004, even earlier) and as such the results were not very positive (most of the time letter size problems).

I am an architecture student and for me printed books are precious. But they have some disadvantages: they are most of the time heavy and expensive. So most of the time I scan them and read them on my laptop.

I usually scan them .pdf coloured and the resulting files are about 100 to 170 MB.

So my question is: are there any e-readers, currently, that can read such files?
(if possible, please recommend any other brand than Apple - because in my opinion they do not offer value for money).

I need to see images as well as text and I do not plan to do any OCR as this would take time and probably change the layout of the page. An easy to use zoom in function should suffice.

Thanks in advance.

Christiaan

[beachwanderer]

Hi delftse_student and welcome to MR!

Well, with pdf-files in colour and an apple-pad-aversion there is no real alternative but some android based tablet. As you'll have seen there are masses of them around right now, some adapted from booksellers or people who try to sell them (with some customized os or software) as special ereaders like nook colour, pocketbook iq, bebook live, possibly the amazon tablet to come, or the big hardware developers/resellers. With the latter ones it's more a question of price and the app you'll choose to view the pdf with.

Hope you'll find something that is ok for you.

[Ken Maltby]

I have an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer ordered and due Wednesday.

http://usa.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_...nsformer_TF101

It might meet your needs.

Luck;
Ken

[rlauzon]

Ya, an Android tablet would be the best way to go.

Keep in mind that PDF is not an eBook format. It's a page-layout format.

If the PDFs you want to read are layed out for a 8x11 page, then you'll need an 8x11 reader. Anything smaller than that and you have 2 choices:
1. A smaller looking page, scaled down to fit the screen.
2. Reading the PDF through a "keyhole" as you scroll back and forth to see the whole page.

The biggest Android tablets today are about 10". Archos sells one (the Archos 101). And today's Woot! is a 10" tablet from ViewSonic. Expect to pay $250-$350 depending on the deal and how much storage you want.

[jbcohen]

Most of the readers that I have come across are very good at PDFs, however I would think that resolution, or the ability to display the text that you are scanning into the PDFs would be a major factor. You most likely dal with a lot of very detailed digrams of various things so the ability of the reader to show those digrams would most likely be important.

Well Barns and Noble's new Simple Touch Nook has taken advantage of the recent advances in display technology giving it better then average resolution. Another good candidate is the Kindle DX, which uses older display technology but its a large scren reader and therefore display more of the diagrams.

Bottom line: I woud buy the simple touch nook simply because it makes use of the latest in display technology.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Another good candidate is the Kindle DX, which uses older display technology but its a large scren reader and therefore display more of the diagrams.

Bottom line: I woud buy the simple touch nook simply because it makes use of the latest in display technology.

Actually, the Kindle DX Graphite uses the same E-Ink Pearl screen as the new Nook does, so it's a wash on that score.

[delftse_student]

Thanks for the input.

I wouldn't mind reading books through key-holes as you name it (zooming up the page and reading it by scrolling). I anyway scan whole pages, which sometimes are about A3 page size so even by a normal laptop I need to zoom in anyway.

But I am interested in the 'all-new NOOK' and I would like to ask you guys some questions - especially for those that worked with it (on a side note: it is amazing that their specs section is poorly informative but very commercial)

1) How large a file can be in order to be read on this device?
2) Can it easily rotate pages for better display?
3) Can it zoom in selected parts of the page (like where the illustrations are - a function i've seen it is perfect at iPad)?
4) Can it highlight and add notes to certain parts of the text?
5) Can it copy and paste sections of the text (like for example doing 'screenshots') in new documents?

Thanks in advance.

C

[odiakkoh]

Well my first suggestion is to wait a bit to see what/if Sony comes out with next.
If you can't/don't want to wait, I would suggest the Sony 950.

[anamardoll]

I use my Nook Color (running CM7 from the SD card) for color PDF documents. I'm basically using it as an Android tablet. I use QuickOffice from the Google Market, and it has really clean pan and zoom functions. The only downside is that it doesn't have bookmarking capabilities, so you always have to remember what page you were on. It has very good quality, overall, for color PDFs.

If you want a non-color eInk device, I just bought a Sony PRS 950 ($200 at Best Buy, if you can find one or buy the floor model) strictly for PDF reading. Of all the eInk readers I've tried, it has the best PDF support. The 7" screen means that you're already starting out on a good foot for PDF pages, and the reader has a LOT of custom zoom functions that you can then "lock" into place for the rest of the book once you find the right zoom "sweet spot" for that particular document.

I highly recommend the Sony PRS 950 for PDF reading, but keep in mind that you won't get color on it -- on the other hand, the battery life is great and you can read it in full sunlight, so that's a big plus.

Good luck, and feel free to PM me with any questions.

EDIT: Also, just adding: the Nook Color and PRS 950 do support landscape reading for PDFs; the new Nook 2 as far as I understand, does not.

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

The only downside is that it doesn't have bookmarking capabilities, so you always have to remember what page you were on. It has very good quality, overall, for color PDFs.

Try RepliGo Reader for PDF reading. It doesn't let you set a bookmark, but it does remember where you left off.

[Elfwreck]

The Sony 950 isn't going to be good for letter-size/A4 or larger scanned PDFs, especially not if color is important.

There are ways to cut down the filesize of the scans; you don't need high-res scans for reading on computer or ereader screens, and you should be able to strip the color out of the pages that don't need it. (Better to scan those pages in B&W to start with, though.) Or you might be able to throw the high-res versions into an OCR program (Finereader, Omnipage) that converts the text, which will cut down the filesize drastically but leave you with OCR errors, depending on how much proofing you have time for.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I use QuickOffice from the Google Market, and it has really clean pan and zoom functions. The only downside is that it doesn't have bookmarking capabilities, so you always have to remember what page you were on. It has very good quality, overall, for color PDFs.

If you want bookmarking and stuff EZ PDF is very versatile. Definitely the best PDF reader I've found for Android (not that I've tried that many).

https://market.android.com/details?i...android.reader


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrntS5kc8h4

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

The Sony 950 isn't going to be good for letter-size/A4 or larger scanned PDFs, especially not if color is important.

Well, I guess it depends on how the PDF is laid out. But the PRS-950 has the 2-column view which is very nice, and the locked zoom. I'll just say that half my library is PDFs and from the samples I've loaded to the 950, they've all worked great.