Quote:
Originally Posted by shawn99
what is reflow PDF and how it can benefit on the sony reader?
|
There are two kinds of PDF files: image files and text files. The image files are like a photograph of a document. If you try to display a PDF document taken, for example, from an 8 1/2 by 11 inch page, on a 6-inch screen like the Sony has, the text will be so small that you'll need a powerful magnifying glass to read it.
If the PDF file was created from an image, reflow won't help: its text will still be too small to read. But if it was originally a text based PDF, the new Sony PDF reader will reflow the text to fit the 6-inch screen. Page breaks get a little twitchy though. A full page of an 8 1/2 by 11 inch document will fill about two-and-one-half Sony sized screens. But you can keep paging through the document, even if it does display page breaks in odd places.
PDF files page very slowly on the Sony. BBeB and ePub files page at about the same speed. On my PRS505 it takes a BBeB or ePub file between less-than 1 to about 1.5 seconds to display the next page. PDF files, whether they have DRM or not, take about 2.5 to 3 seconds to turn a page. The new Sony software can also display secure (DRM laden) PDF files although they are still a comparatively poor choice in that they display poorly and page slowly.