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porkupan · 10-19-2006, 10:41 AM

Well, the PDF viewer speed is a major issue on the Reader. It is not as noticeable with simple text-based PDFs, especially the ones generated by HTMLDoc. But it becomes a nightmare with the PDFs heavy on graphics and generally image-based.

We already know that the PDFs created by different programs do not play the same on the Sony Reader. PDFCreator is not as fast as PrimoPDF, PrimoPDF is a bit slower than HTMLDoc. I think the main issue here is not the complexity, and not the number of pages, but file size. If you bother to compare the output of the PDF generating software, you will see that the size of PDF files created from the same input is not always the same. Once the PDF file gets above 2-4 MB, we start seeing some delays, which can drive any user insane.

There is a new program called Just Another Printer (see the Russian E-book Forums for more info), which allows you to convert graphic-based books (DJVU, PDFs, image sequences) into PDFs while adjusting the frame sizes so that the text is easily readable on the Sony Reader. It would have been a tremendous help, only if the PDF parser on the device worked as it is supposed to. The size of the result file is sometimes very big - as much as 50 MB for a 1000-page book. There is no problem with loading a file of this size into any viewer on the PC, nor on iRex iLiad or even the Linux-based Jinke V2 (as far I know). The file may take a couple of seconds to load, and then the pages turn normally. Not so on the Sony Reader. The file takes as much as 10-15 minutes to load, and it takes as much as 10-15 minutes to turn a page! This is just absolutely ridiculous. All right, not all graphic heavy PDFs are 50 MB in size. We can take a 10 MB PDF, and we will see the load times of 1.5 minutes, and page turning times of about 1.5 minutes as well. I don't know who made the PDF parser for Sony, but they sure didn't do a very good job of it.

10-19-2006, 10:41 AM	#12
porkupan Fanatic Posts: 556 Karma: 1057213 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Eastern U.S. Device: Sony Reader	Well, the PDF viewer speed is a major issue on the Reader. It is not as noticeable with simple text-based PDFs, especially the ones generated by HTMLDoc. But it becomes a nightmare with the PDFs heavy on graphics and generally image-based. We already know that the PDFs created by different programs do not play the same on the Sony Reader. PDFCreator is not as fast as PrimoPDF, PrimoPDF is a bit slower than HTMLDoc. I think the main issue here is not the complexity, and not the number of pages, but file size. If you bother to compare the output of the PDF generating software, you will see that the size of PDF files created from the same input is not always the same. Once the PDF file gets above 2-4 MB, we start seeing some delays, which can drive any user insane. There is a new program called Just Another Printer (see the Russian E-book Forums for more info), which allows you to convert graphic-based books (DJVU, PDFs, image sequences) into PDFs while adjusting the frame sizes so that the text is easily readable on the Sony Reader. It would have been a tremendous help, only if the PDF parser on the device worked as it is supposed to. The size of the result file is sometimes very big - as much as 50 MB for a 1000-page book. There is no problem with loading a file of this size into any viewer on the PC, nor on iRex iLiad or even the Linux-based Jinke V2 (as far I know). The file may take a couple of seconds to load, and then the pages turn normally. Not so on the Sony Reader. The file takes as much as 10-15 minutes to load, and it takes as much as 10-15 minutes to turn a page! This is just absolutely ridiculous. All right, not all graphic heavy PDFs are 50 MB in size. We can take a 10 MB PDF, and we will see the load times of 1.5 minutes, and page turning times of about 1.5 minutes as well. I don't know who made the PDF parser for Sony, but they sure didn't do a very good job of it. Last edited by porkupan; 10-19-2006 at 11:20 AM.