A major reason for me to go for the iPad is its (assumed?) capability to display full size (A4 or letter) PDFs. (To be more specific: I need to be able to read PDFs from
arXiv, some of which contain double columns, and virtually all of which contain mathematical equations.)
With a 9.7" screen and some margin cropping functionality, I expected not to have any display problems. So I had firm plans to purchase an iPad the very day it becomes available.
However, in a side-discussion in another thread Sonist wrote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonist
... IMO 9.7" is still too small for most PDFs, particularly tech/science ones.
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This makes me doubt.
I did some spot checks. The PDFs I need to read show quite a variation in actual size of text area per page (i.e size with fully cropped margins). The smaller ones tend to fit just within 7.8" x 5.8" (which I figure is the size of an iPad screen). However, larger ones (typically the ones with double columns) reach sizes close to 9" x 7".
I start wondering: is the iPAD screen wrongly sized for A4 PDFs? Too small for portrait and unnecessarily large for landscape (with the added drawback of the need for frequent scrolling)?
Am I perhaps overly concerned? Or should I wait for a future 12" device becoming available? Anyone with experience in displaying PDFs on iPAD-size screens (Kindle DX)?