Quote:
Originally Posted by DaleDe
Hi orwell2k
Thanks for the review. Have you checked the real size of the PDF's you used. If you have a real A4 size PDF how does it look? You said PPT files were difficult to read and I would expect this to be true of PDF files as well if they were targeted at letter size or A4 as the majority are.
Have you tried images yet? How do they come across? how do you like the bookmark features? I do not believe the mobi font can be changed currently although it is likely the fb2 font can using Trutype fonts.
dale
|
PDF documents were all formatted for A4 - work documents, so I have the page settings defaulted to A4, same as printing to paper (e.g. Word doc formatted for A4 then a PDF "print" created). Same as for the PDF generated from PPT files.
Native PPT files don't read very well on the BeBook except at max zoom, but I am very surprised at how well the A4 PDFs read (such as the PDF created from the PPT file @ 1 slide per page). I have not yet tried to tailor the PDFs I create to better fit the BeBook display (e.g. using CutePDF or some such app).
And also remember I say the PDFs read well at zoom - default zoom (whole page A4) is usually hard to read; next zoom is OK (margins cropped, bottom of the page cropped so you have to page over to continue reading); max zoom at 1/2 original A4 page per screen in landscape works very well for me.
Some people will be annoyed at having to read twice as many pages in PDF, or having the device sideways, but I think it's fine, and in this mode the text is very clear, and figures are good. This doesn't bother me since eBooks are reformatted for displays and tend to have a lot more "pages" than the paper versions for the same amount of text, so I figure this is the same principle except there's no real page reformatting.
The PDF eBooks I've tried are 144mm x 230mm (~75% of A4 L x W, ~54% A4 area).
Images display quite well, albeit monochrome. In fact I was surprised at the definition possible with only 4 grey scales, but a standard photo/pic is perfectly clear. Technical diagrams (e.g. block diagrams, networks) are also quite nice on the device, as are maps. I don't find the image aspects as overly important at the moment, except for the eComic fans, but I'm sure this is one aspect of all these devices that will improve dramatically in the near future.
Bookmarking seems kind of limited (seems like only 5 per doc, but I haven't experimented yet) - usage is simple, and it seems easy to search/jump to bookmarks. I will test this feature more shortly.
The Mobi font face is internally selectable (i.e. you have a choice of 3 fonts: arial, times and IBOOKN). Arial looks best to me, but I would like to be able to try Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica, etc. for comparison. FB2 font choice is similar, but I have to play some more to check out all the options. I'm also interested in how Russian text displays (in FB2s and other ebook formats).
Hope this helps.