PDF files Cybook or Sony

[Icarusflis]

Hello All;

I am new here and full of questions.

I am deciding between the Cybook and the Sony (waiting October 2 announcement) and one question that came to mind was which one of these two readers is better for reading PDF files like the ones that come with manuals, etc.

Thanks;

Steve

[bbusybookworm]

Hi Steve and welcome.

Hope you enjoy it here.

As for PDF Performance, it really depends on what kind of PDF you have.

If it is mainly text, the Sony does a very nice job as it automaticly reflows the text so make it easier to read.

On the other hand if the PDF's are complex, multi columnar, with a lot of Images, other components, the Cybook Gen 3 will probably do a better job as it displays the Page as it is in the PDF, and allows tiy to zoom in and out to see details when you wnat to.

For most manuals, where there are a lot of diagrams and such, or code samples, I figure that the Gen3 will do a better job.

[Icarusflis]

Thanks for the info.

Steve

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

Hi Steve and welcome.

Hope you enjoy it here.

As for PDF Performance, it really depends on what kind of PDF you have.

If it is mainly text, the Sony does a very nice job as it automaticly reflows the text so make it easier to read.

On the other hand if the PDF's are complex, multi columnar, with a lot of Images, other components, the Cybook Gen 3 will probably do a better job as it displays the Page as it is in the PDF, and allows tiy to zoom in and out to see details when you wnat to.

For most manuals, where there are a lot of diagrams and such, or code samples, I figure that the Gen3 will do a better job.

Unfortunately zooming it is not very easy if you have to do it to read an entire document. As a matter of course the Cybook zoom really isn't up to the task as it is not an arbitrary level and doesn't support panning so far as I know. The real issue is that a PDF that is page oriented on a letter or A4 sized piece of paper will not scale well to any 6" device. If you display the full page (or even half a page) the text is too small to read. The Sony solution works by abandoning the page layout and showing the text at full size. If you need to preserve the page layout you need a different device than any of the 6" devices. The iLiad at 8.1" does a good job of showing the page in landscape mode 1/2 page at a time. If you need the full page shown at once then the newer iRex Digital Reader at 10.2" can do the job. The data is still shrunk from A4 but you can make it out if you crop the margins off.

Dale

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Unfortunately zooming it is not very easy if you have to do it to read an entire document. As a matter of course the Cybook zoom really isn't up to the task as it is not an arbitrary level and doesn't support panning so far as I know.

With the latest firmware update it now does support panning. It's made it entirely usable for many A4 PDFs which were previously unreadable.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Unfortunately zooming it is not very easy if you have to do it to read an entire document. As a matter of course the Cybook zoom really isn't up to the task as it is not an arbitrary level and doesn't support panning so far as I know. The real issue is that a PDF that is page oriented on a letter or A4 sized piece of paper will not scale well to any 6" device. If you display the full page (or even half a page) the text is too small to read. The Sony solution works by abandoning the page layout and showing the text at full size. If you need to preserve the page layout you need a different device than any of the 6" devices. The iLiad at 8.1" does a good job of showing the page in landscape mode 1/2 page at a time. If you need the full page shown at once then the newer iRex Digital Reader at 10.2" can do the job. The data is still shrunk from A4 but you can make it out if you crop the margins off.

Dale

Well as harry mentioned, The new update has made PDF's more usable with much more control over the zoom leves and the ability to Pan. It also added the ability to handle larger files which sometimes crashed the reader in the past.

And my comparison was for 6'' device, specificely the Gen 3 and the Sony he asked about.

I do agree that none of the 6'' devices are going to be ideal for looking at PDF's , and the Larger screened Irex Illiad and Digital reader's offer a better option.

However if you don't want to carry around a larger reader, or PDF,s form a small part of what you want to read, the Sony, Gen3 and Bebook do offer an alternative.

One also has to take in cost into consideration, with the Irex devices being more then double the cost. Many (including me) balk at spending that much for devices that do at times seem a tad unfinished.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

With the latest firmware update it now does support panning. It's made it entirely usable for many A4 PDFs which were previously unreadable.

Thanks, I wasn't aware that panning was added. That will improve it considerably but still likely a bit awkward for long documents.

Dale

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Thanks, I wasn't aware that panning was added. That will improve it considerably but still likely a bit awkward for long documents.

Dale

Certainly - you wouldn't want to read a book with it. For scanning over a few pages, though (eg a journal article) it works pretty well.

[Icarusflis]

Great, thank you all the the detailed explanation.

Steve

[calvarez]

Originally Posted by HarryT

With the latest firmware update it now does support panning. It's made it entirely usable for many A4 PDFs which were previously unreadable.

Hi! I asked the same question here before (a few months ago), with the answer that the only thing that could do what I wanted was the iLiad (and that was too expensive).

So, doing a quick flashback:

Originally Posted by calvarez

First of all, I'm new to the site

I am a grad student in computer science who needs to read a lot. I have a large collection of computer graphics programming eBooks on PDF (and a few in CHM). These e-books are usually large in size, have lots of pictures, figures, complex formatting, etc. Eventually, if the technology is satisfactory for me, I would like to stop buying paper textbooks and just buy the eBook version of my textbooks.

I am tired of having to read on my laptop. Don't misunderstand me, I love my lappy, it's a MacBook Pro But I would like something that can be handled as easily as (or close to) a book, without having to carry a 15'' laptop or read on an LCD screen. I've tried using my PDA for this (a Zaurus SL-5500), but 1) the screen is so tiny, I'm tired of the horizontal scrolling and the low resolution, and 2) the PDF reader software available for it are not that great at displaying my PDF files properly (sometimes the layout gets messed up or some figures won't show).

My questions are:
A) Will an eBook reader do the job for me? (by this I mean, is an eBook reader a good replacement for having a physical library of books? Is it a better option than just reading my PDF files on my laptop, or on my PDA?) I know this ultimately will depend on me, my habits and preferences, but I would like to hear what you guys think.

B)Is the PDF/CHM software in these eBook readers good enough? Will they open large files (25MB+)? Are they robust at rendering PDF/CHM files, including figures and layout? (in other words, is it as good and reliable as reading the PDF on a computer with Adobe Reader 8.1?)

C)If so, which one would you guys recommend? If an eBook reader is for me, I can allocate $250-350 for it (I've noticed most are in that range). Again, what I care the most is:
(1)Correct rendering of PDF and CHM formats
(2)Being able to import all of my non-DRM'd PDF and CHM files (if I need to convert them to some other format, that's fine, as long as the layout and figures are kept reasonably well after converting)
(3)In general, having enough freedom for getting eBooks on my device. It's OK if some of the books obtained through the device's service are DRM'd as long as I can still put non-DRM'd eBooks in it, or eBooks from other stores such as Amazon, etc.

Thanks for your input! I know I'm asking a lot.

In light of these new developments, would the Cybook Gen3 fulfill my expectations?

[HarryT]

There's no eBook reader I know of that will handle CHM files. For PDF, both the Sony and the Gen3 now handle them well, but in different ways - the Sony by "reflowing" the page to fit the small screen; the Gen3 by allowing you to "pan" over the original, full-size page.

[igorsk]

I think Hanlin (and clones) supports CHM.

[Slite]

Originally Posted by igorsk

I think Hanlin (and clones) supports CHM.

According to the manual, it does, I've never tried a CHM though, so I can't really say how well it supports it. Can't try either, since I'm currently at work.