Darker PDFs

mike_bike_kite · 07-11-2010, 05:04 PM

Is there a setting to make PDFs appear with darker text. I just find it difficult to read a PDF when the main text is showing as light gray. I assume this is (or should be) a setting somewhere. If not can I do this in Calibre?

eboyhan · 07-11-2010, 05:49 PM

This is the result of the pdf being created using something other than pure black for text color. Some books use dark gray, and if text was in color it'll be mapped to some shade of gray on grayscale devices.

There is no control built in to the kindle ecosystem to adjust this. If you are creating the pdf, you can adjust the color of the source text. If you are dealing with an already created pdf, then you will need a pdf editor. The gold standard here is Adobe Acrobat (retail $300). For something a little cheaper the folks who do the free Nitro pdf reader also sell an affordable pdf editor.

You might be able to use Calibre, but it is primarily a format converter to/from pdf and other ebook formats. Experience with pdf's on Calibre has not been very good for anything other than the simplest of texts.

Hope this helps a bit. Amazon still has a ways to go on pdf handling.

mike_bike_kite · 07-11-2010, 07:35 PM

Thanks for the info. I'll admit that a $300 PDF editor is out the question. I'm really just looking for something that can just make gray text into black text and do it free. It doesn't strike me as much to ask and I'm sure most folks with ereaders may have one or two PDFs they have acquired that might need this treatment.

guiyoforward · 07-11-2010, 10:21 PM

I would re-process the pdf with the pdf editor, I think version 7 still had a "print color as black" option that was pretty handy. I don't know how to do it without this option...

ivanz · 07-12-2010, 11:38 AM

If the color is the problem you could possibly try to print the PDF to PDF via the free and open source PDFCreator "printer" driver and set the Color to Black and White or something.

But from my experience the reason why PDFs look crappy is because the kindle scales the page to fit the screen which in turn causes the text to loose "boldness".

mike_bike_kite · 07-12-2010, 04:08 PM

cheers - I'll try each method.

harryE123 · 07-13-2010, 08:58 AM

Tha ks from me too, any option of changing the font via acrobat or nitro?

07-11-2010, 05:04 PM	#1
mike_bike_kite Digitally confused Posts: 500 Karma: 1500000 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: London, UK Device: KPW, K2i, Nexus 7 32gb, Kobo Mini	Darker PDFs Is there a setting to make PDFs appear with darker text. I just find it difficult to read a PDF when the main text is showing as light gray. I assume this is (or should be) a setting somewhere. If not can I do this in Calibre?

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07-11-2010, 05:49 PM	#2
eboyhan PandaMuse Posts: 104 Karma: 104 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Florida Device: kindle dx, kindle touch SO, kindle fire, kindle fire hd8.9	This is the result of the pdf being created using something other than pure black for text color. Some books use dark gray, and if text was in color it'll be mapped to some shade of gray on grayscale devices. There is no control built in to the kindle ecosystem to adjust this. If you are creating the pdf, you can adjust the color of the source text. If you are dealing with an already created pdf, then you will need a pdf editor. The gold standard here is Adobe Acrobat (retail $300). For something a little cheaper the folks who do the free Nitro pdf reader also sell an affordable pdf editor. You might be able to use Calibre, but it is primarily a format converter to/from pdf and other ebook formats. Experience with pdf's on Calibre has not been very good for anything other than the simplest of texts. Hope this helps a bit. Amazon still has a ways to go on pdf handling.

07-11-2010, 07:35 PM	#3
mike_bike_kite Digitally confused Posts: 500 Karma: 1500000 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: London, UK Device: KPW, K2i, Nexus 7 32gb, Kobo Mini	Thanks for the info. I'll admit that a $300 PDF editor is out the question. I'm really just looking for something that can just make gray text into black text and do it free. It doesn't strike me as much to ask and I'm sure most folks with ereaders may have one or two PDFs they have acquired that might need this treatment.

07-11-2010, 10:21 PM	#4
guiyoforward Zealot Posts: 101 Karma: 7104 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kindle DX Graphite	I would re-process the pdf with the pdf editor, I think version 7 still had a "print color as black" option that was pretty handy. I don't know how to do it without this option...

07-12-2010, 11:38 AM	#5
ivanz Member Posts: 11 Karma: 15 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Amazon Kindle DX Graphite	If the color is the problem you could possibly try to print the PDF to PDF via the free and open source PDFCreator "printer" driver and set the Color to Black and White or something. But from my experience the reason why PDFs look crappy is because the kindle scales the page to fit the screen which in turn causes the text to loose "boldness".

07-12-2010, 04:08 PM	#6
mike_bike_kite Digitally confused Posts: 500 Karma: 1500000 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: London, UK Device: KPW, K2i, Nexus 7 32gb, Kobo Mini	cheers - I'll try each method.

07-13-2010, 08:58 AM	#7
harryE123 Banned Posts: 272 Karma: 70 Join Date: Dec 2008 Device: irex reader	Tha ks from me too, any option of changing the font via acrobat or nitro?

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