Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald
Actually being able to pan in screen sized blocks with just a bit of overlap by pressing an arrow key would be a lot more convenient.
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Yes, I agree that this would be better and nudging an e-INK screen is basically not workable. Here is the suggestion that I have already submitted to Jinke on May 1st along with 30 other suggestions.
Many technical books are difficult to read on a 5" or 6" device because they contain images that cannot be read properly. There is a need to be able to zoom these images to make them legible. This is particular true of PDF, ePUB, and DJVU files which are often used as the formats for technical books. Using landscape mode helps but it is not enough. Here is my recommended solution.
A long press 8 (zoom) key should enter the zoom mode on the first picture on the page that has a pixel size too wide or too long to be displayed properly. If the image would fit on the page but is currently split the long press 8 would not enter zoom mode but would instead scroll the book page down far enough to display the full image.
If the image is too big it would be zoom from its current displayed size approximately 2x horizontal and 2x vertical (maintaining aspect ratio) or displayed at full size if the pixel size is smaller than 2x size. That is, on a 600 pixel screen a 900 pixel wide image would be zoomed to be shown at 100%.
In zoom mode the behavior would be like that of too long of a line covered in another thread. The next page key would pan to the right to display the right half of the image, only enough to display the image at full screen width.
If the next page key is pressed while already panned then the image would be panned up the full screen (minus about 10 pixels to provide a bit of overlap) and set back to the left margin of the image.
If the previous page key is pressed in zoom mode at the image is panned right then it would be panned left to the left edge of the image. If the previous page key is pressed when the image is already left but shifted downward it would be shifted up.
To visualize this think of the image containing text. You start at the top and read a line, next page to continue on the line, prev page to return to read the next line. Using next/prev keys are required until you get to the bottom of the screen. Pressing the next key in this case moves the image up allow you to continue read the text.
Limiting the zoom to 2x means that there is only minimal need to pan left and right to minimize the problem of the user getting lost in the image. This amount of zoom should provide enough to read almost any image. If for some reason the user wants more they can switch to landscape mode which will behave exactly the same way on the rotated image provides a bigger image.
A second long press of the zoom key will exit the zoom mode permitting the user to continue to read the text. Adjacent text will not be displayed in zoom mode. Note that in zoom mode the banner will not be shown no matter what the user preference is.
The image viewer should also support this zoom capability with the following differences. The image will be best fit as today. the 8 zoom key will enter zoom mode with 4X zoom or 100% display, whichever is smaller. The 9/0 keys will pan in the direction they are physically on the unit, i.e. left right, while the next/prev keys on the side of the screen will pan up/down. Again the banner will be removed for this operation. Press zoom a second time will revert to the original size and key behavior.
Having this capability will not only improve technical manual ability but it will permit the support of CBR/CBZ reading ability.
(In another suggestion I also defined the next/prev page key functionality defined above for zooming to be applied to tables that were too wide for the screen.)
Dale