Firmware Update Kindle PDF support vs ADE

[Artha]

My former reader actually used ADE both for epub and pdf rendering. Now, as Kindle does not know epub, I assume pdf isn't handled by ADE. Do you have any experience both with Kindle 3 and some other reader, this time powered by ADE? How do the two relate? Do you see any difference, any improvement of one over another?

[JeremyR]

Don't get a Kindle 3 for PDFs, you'll only be disappointed.

[Artha]

That ends my quest it seems. No epub and bad PDF make it rather useless to me. Thank you for clearing that up.

Do you know if Kindle DX the second generation is any nicer because of the big screen?

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Artha

... and bad PDF make it rather useless to me. ...

"Bad" is a poor term to apply to the K3's PDF functions. The K3's PDF rendering is not in any way "bad". In fact, it renders most PDFs very well.

What the K3 lacks are the various "crutches" that aid in viewing inappropriately constructed PDFs (e.g. those built for letter-size pages, textbook sized pages, ...) to be viewed adequately on a small screen.

While you will find some readers that have a better toolbox of such crutches, absolutely no small screen (read: 7" or smaller) device is better than passable when given the job of displaying most of the PDFs out there. If you want good or better PDF display a 10" or larger display is an absolute minimum requirement.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dwig

If you want good or better PDF display a 10" or larger display is an absolute minimum requirement.

And preferably an LCD screen, so you can do instant zoom in/out, scroll, etc. The iPad + Goodreader is a combination that's hard to beat for this.

[Mark Rehorst]

Originally Posted by Artha

Do you know if Kindle DX the second generation is any nicer because of the big screen?

I have a DXG and it is better for pdfs than a smaller screen device, however, it still is not great. Adding Duokan improves it somewhat but the real flaw in all currently available readers is inadequate screen size. A small screen requires that the pdf be panned/zoomed and the e-reader software to do that is not very good for some reason.

My DXG handles many small pdf files quite well, and rotating to landscape mode applies just enough zoom to make files quite readable, but it can't display a whole page so you're back to scrolling/panning. Large pdf files choke the device and are all but unuseable. Page turns and panning/scrolling can take minutes.

If you really want to read pdfs, you'd better stick with a tablet that has a fast processor and plenty of memory. The display will still be too small, but the panning and zooming (and color) will be better.

When someone markets an e-reader with a screen that is as large as an A4 or letter page (about 13") the need for pan and zoom will disappear and everything will work better.