Quote:
Originally Posted by NickHiatt243
I paid some serious coin for a prs-500 because it claimed it could read pdfs....well we all know that was a big lie.
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There are many, many things I do not like about Sony and about how they provide content for their Readers. Yet I have to to say you are not right.
PRS 500 *CAN* read pdf files.
You simply do not understand pdf.
It is *IMPOSSIBLE* to reflow pdf document automagically.
pdf document simply *does NOT have* the required info. It has no notions about lines, paragraphs, format. All information stored in the pdf file is "put letter A on this x,y coordinate, put letter B on that x,y coordinate". And that lack of "reflowability" is a feature. This lack of possibility to manipulate pdf file is what made pdf so popular with publishers, manual authors, electronic document submitters. You can "print out" the document into the pdf -- in other words create pdf document -- and you can be 100% sure that anybody can print the exact layout on any platform, and that nobody would be able to take your work and rehash it a little bit by reflowing it, changing paragraph style of fonts and publish it as his own work.
There are basically two ways to handle pdf *FORMATED FOR PRINTING ON THE A4 OR LEGAL PAPER* on a 6" screen.
- display it with 40% zoom - in which case the letters are really small
- display small fraction of the page at the time - in which case you have to scroll around like mad.
Please, do not blame Sony for your lack of common sense. Have you tried to print a pdf document on a 120x90m large piece of paper using very low resolution (166dpi) printer before rushing to buy Reader? Have you given it any thought at all?
PRS 500 has many shortcomings(*), yet it does support pdf documents very well. You can create pdf documents formatted for 90*120 mm page and the results are great. Complicated graphics, all fonts in the world including Russian, Central European (like Czech, Polish, Slovenian, ....), even Chinese or Japanese.
If you really do care about reading your average pdf files just buy a second-hand notebook (or tablet PC) with screen at least 15" big. Period. Until there are 15" large e-ink screens available you do not have to bother check pdf support on any e-ink ebook reader.
(*) like not being able to connect to the Reader without the use of specialized SW, lack of directory support, lack of user configurable font for txt files, weak rtf support, lack of user replaceable fonts (for non-english texts) ...