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jodeum · 11-01-2009, 11:21 AM

I've had the PP for two weeks now and thought I would post a couple comments on it. For reference I have installed the latest firmware from the website.

The speed of the page turns seems to be relative to the file type. The second day after I got it I wanted to find out which format would be the best for most of my reading. So I took three different books that I happened to have in both text and epub format, their sizes (in text) were 36kb, 742kb and 1.6mb. I then converted each of those text versions to the following formats; doc, rtf, pdb, pdf, and html. I put a copy of all of them, including the epub, on both the reader and the SD card (8GB Sdhc class 6). After doing a very unscientific test of loading each one and turning the page button, the scroll wheel on the right side, as fast as i can for one minute and counting the page turns. I noticed a general difference in that the doc format had fewer page turns and the pdf had the least of all (8 page turns less than text). Html, pdb, txt and epub I didn't notice much difference. No difference between the device and the card.

One thing that did stand out is the rtf format for the bigger file. The 1.6mb text file after being converted to rtf was over 3mb. This file locked up the device after a few page turns, I had to restart the machine (and reset it once). That happened when I went into the book and immediately started turning the page. If I went into that file and waited a minute then turned the pages I didn't have that problem. It's a way around the problem but for me it means I will never use rtf format for any large file.

Now overall, since I was happy with the speed of the txt, html, pdb, epub and to some extent rtf I started looking at the features available in each. For some reason text versions don't seem to retain bookmarks and last page read info if you exit the book to look at some other file and then go back into the original. So that didn't overly impress me. There's also some annoyances in other formats, some rotate when you go to the largest font selection, some rotate through the menu command. I don't see why that has to be. Some don't have TTS, and so on, you get the idea. The type I personally have settled on is the epub. It has more text size selections (all 5), it has TTS, I can rotate the screen in any of the font sizes through the menu, the bookmarks seem to be retained and it remembers the last page read when reentering the book, and it supports catalog (direct chapter access if the book has them).

One last note for people using doc or rtf file formats. Something the manual and FAQ on the web page does not tell you is the saved font size makes a difference. In other words if you save the file in MS Word, or OpenOffice in 10pt font size and then transfer that to the EZ Reader it will be unreadably small on the screen. But if you save that same file with 22pt font size it will be about the average text size as a txt format file. And further, saved at 72pt, it will be bigger than any text size that can normally be attained in other formats.

11-01-2009, 11:21 AM	#88
jodeum Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: Pocketbook Touch HD 3	I've had the PP for two weeks now and thought I would post a couple comments on it. For reference I have installed the latest firmware from the website. The speed of the page turns seems to be relative to the file type. The second day after I got it I wanted to find out which format would be the best for most of my reading. So I took three different books that I happened to have in both text and epub format, their sizes (in text) were 36kb, 742kb and 1.6mb. I then converted each of those text versions to the following formats; doc, rtf, pdb, pdf, and html. I put a copy of all of them, including the epub, on both the reader and the SD card (8GB Sdhc class 6). After doing a very unscientific test of loading each one and turning the page button, the scroll wheel on the right side, as fast as i can for one minute and counting the page turns. I noticed a general difference in that the doc format had fewer page turns and the pdf had the least of all (8 page turns less than text). Html, pdb, txt and epub I didn't notice much difference. No difference between the device and the card. One thing that did stand out is the rtf format for the bigger file. The 1.6mb text file after being converted to rtf was over 3mb. This file locked up the device after a few page turns, I had to restart the machine (and reset it once). That happened when I went into the book and immediately started turning the page. If I went into that file and waited a minute then turned the pages I didn't have that problem. It's a way around the problem but for me it means I will never use rtf format for any large file. Now overall, since I was happy with the speed of the txt, html, pdb, epub and to some extent rtf I started looking at the features available in each. For some reason text versions don't seem to retain bookmarks and last page read info if you exit the book to look at some other file and then go back into the original. So that didn't overly impress me. There's also some annoyances in other formats, some rotate when you go to the largest font selection, some rotate through the menu command. I don't see why that has to be. Some don't have TTS, and so on, you get the idea. The type I personally have settled on is the epub. It has more text size selections (all 5), it has TTS, I can rotate the screen in any of the font sizes through the menu, the bookmarks seem to be retained and it remembers the last page read when reentering the book, and it supports catalog (direct chapter access if the book has them). One last note for people using doc or rtf file formats. Something the manual and FAQ on the web page does not tell you is the saved font size makes a difference. In other words if you save the file in MS Word, or OpenOffice in 10pt font size and then transfer that to the EZ Reader it will be unreadably small on the screen. But if you save that same file with 22pt font size it will be about the average text size as a txt format file. And further, saved at 72pt, it will be bigger than any text size that can normally be attained in other formats.