I found out that my friend has a Paperwhite (I believe this is the version 3, she is not sure) and I got to try it out with some dual columns PDFs:
- The double tap to zoom to column works well and it is comfortable to read the PDF at this zoom level.
- Traversing a column through scrolling or single click also works well.
- Switching from the end of column 1 to the beginning of column 2 is slightly problematic, mostly because there is often some text on top of the PDF above where column 2 starts. The kindle tries to reset the zoom level to match this text. The workaround I found is to simply pinch to zoom out and then double tap the second column, which works well.
Overall, I think this is quite doable. I have yet to try landscape mode, but I think that might work to read the pdf as is. Small annoyance is that I sometime click a linked reference, which brings me to the bibliography on the last page of the pdf. Graphs, and diagrams are totally readable while, photos are naturally not that great, which I expected and it's not very important to me.
One last thought: does anyone have any experience with the
PocketBook 626 Touch Lux 3 eBook reader? It is 30 CAD more expensive than the Kindle, for slightly worse screen resolution and slower processor. But pocketbook seems to have
great PDF features. And also hardware buttons, and supports all ebook formats.