PDFs look nicer than epubs. Is there a SIMPLE solution for Kobo Aura?

lori87 · 09-28-2019, 04:45 AM

Many PDF's look far nicer and formatted better than .epubs or .moi. I have a Kobo Aura H20 Edition 2, is there any way I can have it display PDF's nicely? Why are Kobos so bad at doing this?

I just want to zoom into the text so all the text is on the page, instead it's small. If I zoom in, the margins are off and you're zooming around the page (i.e. it's unreadable).

Am I just SOL and need another tablet?

i think Koreader was okay but I've run into too many issues on my ereader where I constantly have to reinstall it, so I've been using nickel but it sucks at pdfs. Is there any solution you'd recommend?

davidfor · 09-28-2019, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lori87

Am I just SOL and need another tablet?

Yes, get a tablet.

DNSB · 09-28-2019, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lori87

Many PDF's look far nicer and formatted better than .epubs or .moi. I have a Kobo Aura H20 Edition 2, is there any way I can have it display PDF's nicely? Why are Kobos so bad at doing this?

I just want to zoom into the text so all the text is on the page, instead it's small. If I zoom in, the margins are off and you're zooming around the page (i.e. it's unreadable).

Am I just SOL and need another tablet?

i think Koreader was okay but I've run into too many issues on my ereader where I constantly have to reinstall it, so I've been using nickel but it sucks at pdfs. Is there any solution you'd recommend?

Hmmm.... Kobo's ereaders are intended for reading reflowable ebooks not fixed format print replica ebooks (i.e what pdf is intended to be). I do keep quite a few tech manuals on my Kobos but as backup to an iPad Pro or my laptop.

So my advice is to buy a large screen tablet with a screen that is a fairly close match to either letter or A4 (~ 36cm or 14" diagonal) and enjoy reading pdfs. Works a treat until you run into a foldout diagram which was a folded up A1 size sheet in the original print manual.

frostschutz · 09-28-2019, 06:43 AM

realtime scrolling/panning/zooming is not possible on eink display. tablet does it better.

there is k2pdfopt which can optimize pdf to ereader and smartphone screens (removes the need for the scrolling - what epubs are supposed to give you for free)

Quoth · 09-28-2019, 09:30 AM

PDFs are previews of material designed for paper print, so obviously they can look nicer. Most ereaders do not have a large enough screen.
PDFs are not ebooks and have none of the advantages:
* Can't change font size at same page size (tired eyes, poor eyesight etc).
* Can't reflow text for different size screens.
* Can't change margins.

They are for WYSIWYG electronic preview of paper documents, or as an envelope for old scanned books / magazines / datasheets / manuals that either have not been OCR & proof read or can't easily be text in a ebook due to large tables, equations/formula, large detailed images, schematics and diagrams.

The eink ereaders are for real ebooks, which are primarily important for the text and the images are not important to the content.

A special category is the monochrome graphic novel or manga. They need larger eink readers (8") and more storage.

PDFs that are based on scans of older material or for textbooks or other larger format books with lots of tables/formula/important diagrams or photos can't be optimised or converted sensibly for ereaders.

Most novels in PDF format that match print versions will be pirated copies as the official ebooks of novels are 100% in epub or kindle. Other than out of copyright scans of books only text books are sold in PDF format, or a KFX Kindle format for Kindle App, not eink Kindles. The Fire is NOT a real Kindle, it's a locked down Android tablet, hence uses a Kindle App similar to the one for Android. Smaller tablets are no use for PDFs or the Amazon special formats that are barely more than PDF wrappers.

A PDF itself is a wrapper and defines the page size and margins absolutely. Each page can be an actual bitmap, a vector or Postscript like text, or all of those in layers.

09-28-2019, 04:45 AM	#1
lori87 Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 126 Join Date: Oct 2018 Device: kobo	PDFs look nicer than epubs. Is there a SIMPLE solution for Kobo Aura? Many PDF's look far nicer and formatted better than .epubs or .moi. I have a Kobo Aura H20 Edition 2, is there any way I can have it display PDF's nicely? Why are Kobos so bad at doing this? I just want to zoom into the text so all the text is on the page, instead it's small. If I zoom in, the margins are off and you're zooming around the page (i.e. it's unreadable). Am I just SOL and need another tablet? i think Koreader was okay but I've run into too many issues on my ereader where I constantly have to reinstall it, so I've been using nickel but it sucks at pdfs. Is there any solution you'd recommend?

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09-28-2019, 06:43 AM	#4
frostschutz Linux User Posts: 2,282 Karma: 6123806 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Heidelberg, Germany Device: none	realtime scrolling/panning/zooming is not possible on eink display. tablet does it better. there is k2pdfopt which can optimize pdf to ereader and smartphone screens (removes the need for the scrolling - what epubs are supposed to give you for free)

09-28-2019, 09:30 AM	#5
Quoth Still reading Posts: 13,935 Karma: 103895653 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	PDFs are previews of material designed for paper print, so obviously they can look nicer. Most ereaders do not have a large enough screen. PDFs are not ebooks and have none of the advantages: * Can't change font size at same page size (tired eyes, poor eyesight etc). * Can't reflow text for different size screens. * Can't change margins. They are for WYSIWYG electronic preview of paper documents, or as an envelope for old scanned books / magazines / datasheets / manuals that either have not been OCR & proof read or can't easily be text in a ebook due to large tables, equations/formula, large detailed images, schematics and diagrams. The eink ereaders are for real ebooks, which are primarily important for the text and the images are not important to the content. A special category is the monochrome graphic novel or manga. They need larger eink readers (8") and more storage. PDFs that are based on scans of older material or for textbooks or other larger format books with lots of tables/formula/important diagrams or photos can't be optimised or converted sensibly for ereaders. Most novels in PDF format that match print versions will be pirated copies as the official ebooks of novels are 100% in epub or kindle. Other than out of copyright scans of books only text books are sold in PDF format, or a KFX Kindle format for Kindle App, not eink Kindles. The Fire is NOT a real Kindle, it's a locked down Android tablet, hence uses a Kindle App similar to the one for Android. Smaller tablets are no use for PDFs or the Amazon special formats that are barely more than PDF wrappers. A PDF itself is a wrapper and defines the page size and margins absolutely. Each page can be an actual bitmap, a vector or Postscript like text, or all of those in layers.

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