To be perfectly honest with you those kind of PDFs typically don't look good on any ebook reader with an eInk screen. The Sony readers and Kindles can view this kind of PDF, but navigation will probably be slow and you would probably need to zoom in, and that makes navigation even slower. Even on a large eInk screen like the Kindle DX has, the experience of reading a scanned PDF is not very good. Readable they are, but I think your friend would be disappointed. This is one type of document where the iPad or a good tablet computer is probably the best choice, though they cost a lot more than ebook readers. There is a color Nook coming out in November from Barnes and Noble for about $250. He/she might want to await its release and see how well it does with PDFs. I think it will have a 7" screen.