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Edmundo · 11-23-2010, 05:13 AM

I have a scanned dictionary that I like to consult. It's a huge PDF file with one image per page. On a powerful desktop machine with a big screen it's not bad to use. With a bit of practice I can find a word in it (with evince) probably a bit faster than I could with the paper version. On a cheap laptop it's usable, though rather slower than using the paper version. On a Kindle 3 (3.0.2) I can view the pages but it would probably take about 15 minutes to look something up as it takes so long to move from page to page with the slowness caused by:

1. The user interface: typing a page number is awfully slow with the "Sym" key mechanism.

2. The hardware and the software: it takes a while to render a page.

3. The screen.

So my first question is: Is there some feature of the Kindle 3's PDF reader that I don't know about that might make it easer to jump to random pages in a big PDF, other than Menu -> Go to... -> page?

I'm guessing that I will probably have to adapt my file somehow to make it easier to use on the Kindle. If at the same time I can make it easier to use on a slow laptop that would be a bonus.

Firstly, I note that the Kindle 3's PDF reader seems to ignore any bookmarks or table of contents in the PDF file. I'm not an expert on everything that's available according to the PDF standard so I might be wrong about that, but I've not yet found a PDF file with an index or table of contents that the Kindle tells me about. Can anyone confirm this?

So, what I tried first was adding some invisible text to each page of my PDF. I was hoping I could jump to a particular page by using Menu -> Search This Document. If I stick to using a PDF I'll have a file that I could use on lots of different platforms.

It works, but it's horribly slow. It seems that the Kindle doesn't compute an index of the text in a PDF file but scans through the entire file, which mostly consists of giant images. That's a shame, and something that Amazon should think about improving.

Is there a way of putting all the text in one place in the PDF file so that the Kindle's PDF reader might search it faster? Obviously I need the text to be linked to the appropriate page and the reader needs to be able to randomly access that page in the file, which is more than 200 MB.

If none of the above is possible, I might have to give up using a PDF and make a MOBI file instead. I expect that's possible, though I can see one potential problem: apparently images in a MOBI file have to be GIFs or JPEGs. My PDF uses G4 compression, which is typically much more efficient for a scan. However, within limits, I don't really care if the file is huge provided there is efficient random access to it.

What might be the best way of creating a MOBI file corresponding to a scanned dictionary?

I have the list of head words and would be prepared to create a list mapping those to page numbers if it let me use the file on my Kindle.

11-23-2010, 05:13 AM	#1
Edmundo Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kindle 3	Using a scanned dictionary with Kindle 3 I have a scanned dictionary that I like to consult. It's a huge PDF file with one image per page. On a powerful desktop machine with a big screen it's not bad to use. With a bit of practice I can find a word in it (with evince) probably a bit faster than I could with the paper version. On a cheap laptop it's usable, though rather slower than using the paper version. On a Kindle 3 (3.0.2) I can view the pages but it would probably take about 15 minutes to look something up as it takes so long to move from page to page with the slowness caused by: 1. The user interface: typing a page number is awfully slow with the "Sym" key mechanism. 2. The hardware and the software: it takes a while to render a page. 3. The screen. So my first question is: Is there some feature of the Kindle 3's PDF reader that I don't know about that might make it easer to jump to random pages in a big PDF, other than Menu -> Go to... -> page? I'm guessing that I will probably have to adapt my file somehow to make it easier to use on the Kindle. If at the same time I can make it easier to use on a slow laptop that would be a bonus. Firstly, I note that the Kindle 3's PDF reader seems to ignore any bookmarks or table of contents in the PDF file. I'm not an expert on everything that's available according to the PDF standard so I might be wrong about that, but I've not yet found a PDF file with an index or table of contents that the Kindle tells me about. Can anyone confirm this? So, what I tried first was adding some invisible text to each page of my PDF. I was hoping I could jump to a particular page by using Menu -> Search This Document. If I stick to using a PDF I'll have a file that I could use on lots of different platforms. It works, but it's horribly slow. It seems that the Kindle doesn't compute an index of the text in a PDF file but scans through the entire file, which mostly consists of giant images. That's a shame, and something that Amazon should think about improving. Is there a way of putting all the text in one place in the PDF file so that the Kindle's PDF reader might search it faster? Obviously I need the text to be linked to the appropriate page and the reader needs to be able to randomly access that page in the file, which is more than 200 MB. If none of the above is possible, I might have to give up using a PDF and make a MOBI file instead. I expect that's possible, though I can see one potential problem: apparently images in a MOBI file have to be GIFs or JPEGs. My PDF uses G4 compression, which is typically much more efficient for a scan. However, within limits, I don't really care if the file is huge provided there is efficient random access to it. What might be the best way of creating a MOBI file corresponding to a scanned dictionary? I have the list of head words and would be prepared to create a list mapping those to page numbers if it let me use the file on my Kindle.