MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - PDF, my expereince Palm, Sony readers, iPhone and ipod touch

frabjous · 10-23-2009, 11:54 PM

I use my Sony 505 for almost nothing but PDFs. Even if I get a book in another format, I'll convert it to PDF. A well made PDF is better than pretty much everything else. Of course, the ideal one is one I made especially for my Sony, but even when it isn't made for my Sony, I can make it work.

I've yet to find a book or even technical journal article, so long as it is professionally made, I can't make work. (Magazines might be a different story, but who wants to read a large color magazine on a small black and white screen even with ideal zoom functionality and controls?)

The problem I think is a lot of people expect to just put the PDF onto their machine and read. You need to tweak it first. My usual tools are sopdf and PDFLRF. Occasionally I just use the pdfcrop tool from the TeXlive LaTeX distribution. Between those I can handle most tweaks, and since they don't alter the PDF content, they just trim margins and cut it up into screen-size chunks, nothing gets lost.

10-23-2009, 11:54 PM	#4
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	I use my Sony 505 for almost nothing but PDFs. Even if I get a book in another format, I'll convert it to PDF. A well made PDF is better than pretty much everything else. Of course, the ideal one is one I made especially for my Sony, but even when it isn't made for my Sony, I can make it work. I've yet to find a book or even technical journal article, so long as it is professionally made, I can't make work. (Magazines might be a different story, but who wants to read a large color magazine on a small black and white screen even with ideal zoom functionality and controls?) The problem I think is a lot of people expect to just put the PDF onto their machine and read. You need to tweak it first. My usual tools are sopdf and PDFLRF. Occasionally I just use the pdfcrop tool from the TeXlive LaTeX distribution. Between those I can handle most tweaks, and since they don't alter the PDF content, they just trim margins and cut it up into screen-size chunks, nothing gets lost.