Quote:
Originally Posted by tmoody
As I understand it, I have to get these articles through JSTOR or wherever, and then send them to Amazon for conversion, and hope for the best.
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Many of the academic articles available through services like JSTOR are not really PDF's -- ok, that's a lie, but ...
Quite a few of the journals were scanned as pictures of the pages. These pictures were then assembled into one pdf document. However, they were never really recognized as text. They just appear as a series of pictures. Therefore, if you try to convert them to another format you will only get a blank file, or at best the original pictures.
If you try to view them on an ebook screen (in pdf) the ebook can't change the page length to fit on the screen. It can shrink the entire page picture down to fit on a 6" screen (too small to read), or it can show you a 6" window of a full sized page (slow scrolling to read full page).
So here are a few steps I would investigate if I were you.
1) Download one of your pdf files and download Calibre. See if Calibre can convert it into another format. If it can, then you can consider converting it for reading on your ebook.
2) Check out the soon to be released EZreader pocket pro. At 5" it is even smaller. However, it is supposed to have lightening fast page turns due to its new Epson controller (however, none of us has actually seen it yet, so take it with a grain of salt). If true, these fast page turns might make it more acceptable to move your 'window' around a full sized pdf page. Truthfully, however, I suspect only a full sized reader (Kindle DX or Irex 1000 series) would do for me and pdf's.
Finally, some of the threads above mention buying from the Kindle bookstore and converting it to another format. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think it is that easy. First, you must have a registered Kindle or the iPhone Kindle application to buy from the Kindle store.