Which eReader should I purchase?

[lizzybeth05]

I am considering purchasing a mobile device for reading eBooks, but the more research I do, the more confused I am becoming. It seems that there are many issues to consider related to the functions & features of the individual devices as well as the types of book formats that the devices will support.

The various book formats is the source of most of my confusion, and I am hoping that some of you can help me filter through all the jargon that I do not understand to determine the best device for me.

I live in NYC and as a result I spend a lot of my time on public transportation. I have taken to reading various books (typically fiction, very light reading) as a way to pass the time. Constantly carrying a book (and sometimes multiple books) is getting annoying, so the idea of a lightweight electronic device is appealing. However, if I stare at a computer screen for very long, my eyes become irritated and vision can become blurry, so I would like a device where the print looks like paper (This technology is called eInk or ePaper, right?)

Besides that, the main issue for concern is the formats that the device will support. I have looked into the Amazon Kindle, and most books that I am interested in appear to be available through their store (and at a pretty good rate in comparison). However, if I choose to upgrade the device in the future, I would be forced to stay with an Amazon reader, as there files can not currently be read by other devices (right?).

I have also looked into Sony’s Reader 700 & 505. Both look promising, but again it appears that they don’t support a lot of formats. They say that they support their format (BBeB) as well as ePub, TXT, RTF, Adobe® PDF, however I haven’t found any places that offer txt or rtf files, and from my understand reading eBooks in PDF format can become annoying as the font can not be resized (is this correct?)

Basically, I don’t want to be looked into buying from once source (if I can help it) and in the future I don’t want to be locked into purchasing a new reader from the same company so as to not loose my library.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[desertgrandma]

Welcome to MobileRead, lizzybeth.

Enjoy the forums.

[HarryT]

You certainly appear to have got a sound grasp of the basics. Unfortunately there is "ideal" device (or we wouldn't be having these discussions!).

Most devices on the market today, including the Kindle, but excluding the Sony, can read MobiPocket format books, so buying a device which supports Mobi gives you the maximum flexibility. It is very easy to buy books in a "neutral" format such as Microsoft Reader format ("LIT") and convert those to Mobi format using free tools (it takes literally seconds to do).

The Kindle is an excellent device. There are, however, other choices, such as the CyBook Gen3 (which I have myself), and the EZReader.

[lizzybeth05]

Harry,
First of all, thank you for your response; it’s always nice to know that people are willing to take the time to give advice.

I just have a few questions:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Most devices on the market today, including the Kindle, but excluding the Sony, can read MobiPocket format books, so buying a device which supports Mobi gives you the maximum flexibility.

First, I was under the impression that the Kindle only supported Unsecured Mobi books, at least without using other tools as a ‘work around’(is this true)?

Second, I know that Igorsk has developed a few programs which allow Kindle users to purchase mobi DRM books and then alter them so that they can be loaded onto the Kindle.

I have a few questions regarding these programs:

1. Does anyone know if they will work with the Kindle 2?
2. The alterations performed on the file (that allow it to be loaded on to the Kindle), is the process basically removing the DRM? If so, isn’t that considered illegal?
3. By loading these files onto the Kindle (which I’m guessing is not an ‘authorized’ use of the kindle) would it void the warrenty? Or get you in trouble in anyway with Amazon, or are you violating any kind of copyrights?

Originally Posted by HarryT

It is very easy to buy books in a "neutral" format such as Microsoft Reader format ("LIT") and convert those to Mobi format using free tools (it takes literally seconds to do).

First, where can I get these free tools which are used to make these conversions and where can I get information on how to use them? Do these tools still work for secured .lit files?

Second, when the files are converted, are there any problems with the formatting?

For example: if you copy text from a PDF file and paste them in Word the letters will copy over but a lot of the formatting is lost or altered. There are typically extra line breaks and sometimes extra spaces between letters of the same word. Is this kind of thing a problem with the conversions from microsoft reader format to mobi format?

Thanks again, in advance, for all your help

[sigma8]

Hi Lizzy, I'm also in the market for a reader, so I've been digesting a lot of information about this kind of stuff as well.

TXT and RTF files are file extensions that mean "text" and "rich text format" files, respectively. These are very, very basic feature-poor formats. One could say that TXT offers absolutely no features at all, since it's just raw text at its rawest.

If you want to see some example TXT file, just google for "readme.txt", and click pretty much any of the hits. It's all monospaced and very basic. RTF actually looks pretty nice, it supports formatting and other more word processory things, but it's still pretty basic. No special support for annotations or columns. Or print-accuracy.

I'm personally looking into readers, too. I don't view Sony's lack of mobi support as a crippling feature. Sony does offer epub support (which is a comparable, emerging standard), and more importantly, it supports DRM'ed PDF's which could come in very handy for me. If you're reading for pleasure--selecting your books based on availability--mobi has a better selection (currently) and seems like a nicer experience that is more tailored to the capabilities of eBook readers, but if you need to buy specific books, PDF (often DRM'ed) is the most ubiquitous and therefore, more "flexible" to me.

That said, I'm still a bit ignorant with how different types of PDF will look on the Sony devices. I'm hopefully going to find out within a couple hours, as I'm going to make a trip to the Sony store with a properly formatted SD card with PDF's to see how the readers cope!

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by lizzybeth05

Harry,

By loading these files onto the Kindle (which I’m guessing is not an ‘authorized’ use of the kindle) would it void the warrenty? Or get you in trouble in anyway with Amazon, or are you violating any kind of copyrights?

Kindle owners would be better at the first 2 questions, and perhaps the warranty question here, but in terms of copyright violation, I believe the answer would be this: you would technically be guilty of violating the DMCA (digital millenium copyright act), due to your act of subverting a DRM schema to allow a file to be used on an unintended device. That said, considering you'd be altering a file you purchased in way that only affects your personal use of it, the odds of anyone caring is beyond remote.

If, say, you won the lottery, and someone decided to use this as an excuse to litigate against you and milk some of your winnings out of you, I have doubts they'd even be able to win in court. There's a few conflicting interests between fair-use and the DMCA that remain unresolved. And anyway, you would probably be able to afford a good lawyer at that point

In other words, this is a bit of a gray area. I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep a backup of your original file.

Second, when the files are converted, are there any problems with the formatting? [INDENT]For example: if you copy text from a PDF file and paste them in Word the letters will copy over but a lot of the formatting is lost or altered. There are typically extra line breaks and sometimes extra spaces between letters of the same word. Is this kind of thing a problem with the conversions from microsoft reader format to mobi format?

I recently downloaded Calibre, which is a free content management suite for non-DRM'ed content on eReaders. I did a quick conversion on a PDF book that I had bought (to both LRF and Mobi, it wouldn't even successfully convert to epub), and it was awful. Nearly all formatting was lost. I'm sure there are some cases where the conversion works well, but bad results are definitely a real possibility.

[lizzybeth05]

Originally Posted by sigma8

I'm still a bit ignorant with how different types of PDF will look on the Sony devices. I'm hopefully going to find out within a couple hours, as I'm going to make a trip to the Sony store with a properly formatted SD card with PDF's to see how the readers cope!

Sigma8, thanks for your response, when you go to the sony store will you be looking at ebook pdfs or just technical/work/bussiness files? If you look at any books in pdf format, please let me know what you think of quality and formating.

Thanks :~)

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by lizzybeth05

Sigma8, thanks for your response, when you go to the sony store will you be looking at ebook pdfs or just technical/work/bussiness files? If you look at any books in pdf format, please let me know what you think of quality and formating.

Thanks :~)

Actually, I just bought an eBook from oreilly.com (an iPhone programming book), which came in mobi, epub, and PDF formats (all non-DRM'ed). So I'm going to have that with me as well! I'm trying to see if I can find one more PDF before I go, preferably something with 3 colums. I'll post my results when I get back.

Sadly, the SD card I'm using is the same one I use for my camera.....so I won't be able to take pictures but I can try to pressure my iPhone into camera duty and we can see how that looks.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by lizzybeth05

First, I was under the impression that the Kindle only supported Unsecured Mobi books, at least without using other tools as a ‘work around’(is this true)?

Yes, only DRM-free or KindleFIXed MOBIs are supported. The KindleFIX tool can allow some DRMed MOBIs to work (primarily lending library ebooks now) and mobidedrm can strip the DRM entirely.

Originally Posted by lizzybeth05

Second, I know that Igorsk has developed a few programs which allow Kindle users to purchase mobi DRM books and then alter them so that they can be loaded onto the Kindle.

I have a few questions regarding these programs:

1. Does anyone know if they will work with the Kindle 2?
2. The alterations performed on the file (that allow it to be loaded on to the Kindle), is the process basically removing the DRM? If so, isn’t that considered illegal?
3. By loading these files onto the Kindle (which I’m guessing is not an ‘authorized’ use of the kindle) would it void the warrenty? Or get you in trouble in anyway with Amazon, or are you violating any kind of copyrights?

So far it seems to work on the K2, but no one has one yet to check for sure. Some have argued that KindleFIX violates Amazon's terms of service, but it is entirely legal from an ebook copyright point of view. You are buying the ebook from an agent of the copyright holder and that agent has accepted the Kindle PID - in other words the copyright holder has authorized reading the ebook on one particular Kindle. As evidence of its legality, this is the only DRMed ebook tool that has its own wiki page here and is downloadable from a static and publically available web site. Lots of K1 owners are using KindleFIX on lending library ebooks and Amazon has not done anything to prevent this.

Originally Posted by lizzybeth05

First, where can I get these free tools which are used to make these conversions and where can I get information on how to use them? Do these tools still work for secured .lit files?

Second, when the files are converted, are there any problems with the formatting? [INDENT]For example: if you copy text from a PDF file and paste them in Word the letters will copy over but a lot of the formatting is lost or altered. There are typically extra line breaks and sometimes extra spaces between letters of the same word. Is this kind of thing a problem with the conversions from microsoft reader format to mobi format?

The easiest tool to use is Calibre (which has its own forum here). MobiPocket Creator can also convert exploded LIT (OEB) to MOBI. The reason this works so well is that LIT and MOBI are both based on OEB 1.0, so the conversion is between very similar formats. LIT to ePub (OEB 2.0) also works well.

All conversion tools work on DRM-free ebooks. To strip the LIT DRM use "ConvertLIT GUI". Note that this is generally thought to be illegal in the US (although there are no controlling cases), but ConvertLIT has been available for years without MicroSoft doing anythng about it and stripping DRM from ebooks you bought for your own use hurts no one.

[sigma8]

Okay, I just got back from the Sony Style store, and was able to demo my extremely recent epub purchase out on it, as well as a plethora of PDF's.

I was pretty impressed with what I saw. The PDF's actually looked really nice! Nice...but most were a bit on the smallish side. Depending on the document and your eyesight, I can see things being too small for comfort over an extended reading session. Some PDF's looked ok, but some looked like extremely small print.

The PDF reflow worked really well with some PDF's, essentially converting the PDF to eBook-friendly material. It even did a good job correctly ordering text that was formatted in columns. However, it doesn't do anything with images or crazy font symbols, and it completely discards a lot of whitespace formatting. So for documents with lots of symbols, diagrams, or with extensive page-layout...things can quickly become chaotic or even useless.

Picture time! I apologize for the poor quality--these are iPhone shots under subpar lighting conditions. I shrunk the image sizes since there was no point keeping them big. NOTE: these pictures are blurry, the text was not. All of the text in the shots below was legible. Even the tiny text from the 2nd to last set was just barely readable. As I discovered, 800x600 on a 6 inch display is really quite sharp. Since these pics are sadly so blurry, they're mainly to give you an idea of proportions of text-size to the device.

This is a PDF I made myself by copy/pasting a CNN article into an RTF editor, copy/pasting THAT into a Pages document, making it into two columns, and then converting to PDF (using OS X's built-in "save as pdf" option under the print command). Portrait, landscape, and reflowed. You can see the reflowed works very nicely here. I had one other PDF (some anthropology abstract) that was bicolumnar as well, and reflow worked really well on it, too.


Here's that same article in its original form. This is also a PDF I made by loading the web page in Safari and choosing "print", then "save as PDF". Portrait and landscape shots. This was very attractive looking on the reader, reminiscent of a mini-newspaper.


This one is the book I bought earlier this evening. The first image is the epub version. It's definitely the easiest to read, and appears appropriately formatted and well-behaved. The second image is the exact same book as a PDF (both versions were included in my purchase). You'll note is has much larger margins but is otherwise pristine. The third image is that same PDF reflowed. It looks fine for the "narrative" part of the text, but the formatted directory listing gets garbled.


Here's a PDF that doesn't use "text" but is probably from a scan, so...more like a photograph of text. Basically, it's an image. You'll notice that it's just really small and there's really nothing you can do about it. Even if you're willing to tolerate a poorly reflowed document, that's not even an option here since there's no real text to work with. Both portrait and landscape look small, I included a third image with the portrait text superimposed atop the landscape text. You can see landscape really is bigger, but viewed in isolation they just all appeared too small.


Finally, here's a math document.. with both equations and diagrams, it actually looks fine when viewed normally, but if you want to make it bigger than landscape offers, it's completely unacceptable in reflowed form. I can swear I've seen this document used in this forum before, it must be the top hit for "math pdf" on google :P (portrait, landscape, reflowed)


I did most of my testing on the PRS-505. In the last 10 minutes before the store closed, I put my memcard into the PRS-700, and tried out the PDF pan and zoom. They really do work pretty nicely, but if you try to dismiss the zoom controls, it unzooms you. As a side effect, you can't turn pages or do anything besides zoom and pan while in zoom mode. So if you have one of those PDFs with fat margins, you can't zoom-crop the margins and then happily flip through the pages. The second you try to do turn off the zoom mode (which you'd need to do to turn a page), it zooms all the way back out.

In light of that, I think it would be good for longer documents, where you have to pan up or down a lot to read everything OR it would be good for documents with occasional small print or diagrams. It's not a good substitute for a font-size boost. It's a great feature, nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the 700 screen just drives me bonkers. It might be better on your eyes than LCD, but it really doesn't look like an e-Ink display. It reminds me more of of a PalmPilot with the contrast set too low. The 505 has nice contrast, and the "white" even seems to have some grain to it (like paper).

Unless you absolutely needed PDF zooming or notation capability, I'd recommend the 505 over the 700. It's a tough call for me, because I don't need annotation right now, but I might after summer. It's also a feature I'd like to investigate pedagogically. It's this dilemma that makes the Kindle2 really appealing, with its keyboard. But has less open-format support! Argh

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Most devices on the market today, including the Kindle, but excluding the Sony, can read MobiPocket format books, so buying a device which supports Mobi gives you the maximum flexibility. It is very easy to buy books in a "neutral" format such as Microsoft Reader format ("LIT") and convert those to Mobi format using free tools (it takes literally seconds to do).

Of course, it's also true that to convert from Mobi format to a Sony format also takes only a few seconds using free tools, in exactly the same way as from .LIT books, so if you're willing to do that, the Sony ends up being able to read Mobi as well as ePub & LRF.

I'd suggest that the main things to look at are

• Are the eBooks you want *only* available from Amazon? If so, then maybe a Kindle is what you should be considering.
• Do you want dictionary support? If so, then maybe the CyBook...
• Do you want ePub support or reflowable PDF support, If so, then maybe the Sony

---
Sigma8: Nice set of images/info, by the way!