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Mackx · 09-26-2009, 05:40 AM

Kent,

Thanks very much for the analysis. This was the first magazine that has this problem (although it might be unclear what page 26 is I realise now, its 26 of the document, which is named 24 in the magazine...). I think most of the pdf problems are 'due' to the open source poppler library that is used (V0.8.7 sept 2008, current version is V0.12.0). Since it was iRexs strategy to have an opensource firmware (as much as possible) and they wanted to have some level of confidence in the used library it seems logical that they chose for the 0.8.7 version and stuck to it. Since they chose to partner with Adobe several month ago, they do not want to spend effort=money on upgrading to a newer poppler release (I also would not do if it was my money). Unfortunately people using the pdf-format moved ahead creating more complex documents, which now leads to problems on the DR. (The easy work-around for the problem with the magazine was to avoid looking at page 26 and continue reading on page 27 after a reset...)

On the complexity of the document, as you might have seen there is also an on-line version, that has links to other pages. I assume that the complexity of the online version is reflected in the generated pdf. But it is a good idea to trigger the publisher asking them to also give attention to e-readers.

Lets hope that the new firmware with EPUB support also has a new pdf library from Adobe, which should get ride of the pdf problems (at least for a few years).

PS: On your remark: "or could it be that you have won the Gift Card?". I do not live in the US, so unfortunately I can not participate with the lotery.

09-26-2009, 05:40 AM	#16
Mackx Guru Posts: 999 Karma: 19985 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Netherlands Device: iRex DR1000S	Kent, Thanks very much for the analysis. This was the first magazine that has this problem (although it might be unclear what page 26 is I realise now, its 26 of the document, which is named 24 in the magazine...). I think most of the pdf problems are 'due' to the open source poppler library that is used (V0.8.7 sept 2008, current version is V0.12.0). Since it was iRexs strategy to have an opensource firmware (as much as possible) and they wanted to have some level of confidence in the used library it seems logical that they chose for the 0.8.7 version and stuck to it. Since they chose to partner with Adobe several month ago, they do not want to spend effort=money on upgrading to a newer poppler release (I also would not do if it was my money). Unfortunately people using the pdf-format moved ahead creating more complex documents, which now leads to problems on the DR. (The easy work-around for the problem with the magazine was to avoid looking at page 26 and continue reading on page 27 after a reset...) On the complexity of the document, as you might have seen there is also an on-line version, that has links to other pages. I assume that the complexity of the online version is reflected in the generated pdf. But it is a good idea to trigger the publisher asking them to also give attention to e-readers. Lets hope that the new firmware with EPUB support also has a new pdf library from Adobe, which should get ride of the pdf problems (at least for a few years). PS: On your remark: "or could it be that you have won the Gift Card?". I do not live in the US, so unfortunately I can not participate with the lotery. Last edited by Mackx; 09-26-2009 at 08:22 AM.