Does PDF files STRESS the Kindle too much?

vugtitan · 09-17-2010, 12:06 PM

I have noticed that opening a pdf file on my pc is quite resource intensive.My crystal cpuidle goes from low cpu usage blue to high cpu usage red.

I notice that the hideous adobe acrobat file exe accord stays in my task manager even after i close a pdf file!.

i have to get rid of it manually using the task manager as it seems to drain the memory.

anyone else knows what i am talking about?

in other words pdf files are a memory drain.For the low power kindle pdf files must be very stressful too.

I use a Athlon +3200 cpu running at 1ghz idle and 2ghz when doing something intensive controlled by the crystal cpu idle software.

I have tried to switch to foxit and that seems to improve things.

This bring me to the main thrust of the point that maybe the kindle freezes because of pdf files which are very resource intensive.

what i am trying to say is that you should ideally convert pdf to text or rtf for the kindle and this will eliminate any resource intensive freezing/slowdowns/corruptions,reboots,etc.

paperwastage · 09-17-2010, 12:09 PM

pdfs are somewhat a pain

larger scanned pdfs take a lot longer time to load than regular PDFs(like 1.5x longer) on my DX Graphite

and so far, after a week on my graphite, i estimate about 5 days battery life for my graphite with 3g on and a lot of pdf reading...

susan_cassidy · 09-17-2010, 12:10 PM

I don't believe that Kindle uses Adobe software. However, PDF files tend to be much larger than Kindle-formatted files, and thus, take up more memory. It is quite possible that the rendering engine is more resource-intensive than the one for regular Kindle files.

I've never had any problems like the ones you mention on your pc.

ricsmania · 09-17-2010, 12:19 PM

My Kindle never got stressed while reading PDF files, it remained pretty calm.

TallMomof2 · 09-17-2010, 12:23 PM

In my experience, PDFs that are text not images work far better on the Kindle. I had a couple of image pdfs that I converted to text (time consuming) and they work much better.

Fat Abe · 09-17-2010, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vugtitan

I have noticed that opening a pdf file on my pc is quite resource intensive.

I've experienced what you are describing. Usually, I had a number of pdf files open in Reader, as well as a great many other running applications, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, IE, and Developer Studio. Win XP seems to have a choke point in terms of caching and file swapping. Win 7 is only slightly better.

Not all PDF's are laid out so they render efficiently. The more over-the-top "burdens" the authoring source put into the creation, the harder it is to display the document. Any power user who has spent time coverting pdf's to other formats can tell you there are far too many unclean layouts out there.

I'll report back in a few days about how bogged down a Kindle (Model DXG) can get when it has to deal with very large pdf files. Example: The Complete Guide to Dream Kitchens, which weighs in at 155 MB! However, I expect that problem tech papers will give the Kindle the most grief.

TomF · 09-17-2010, 05:00 PM

My Kindle got so stressed out that I took it to my doctor. He advised rest and relaxation and to not download any more murder mysteries or other types of thrillers, so now I just read those types of books in paperback.

JeremyR · 09-17-2010, 06:15 PM

Also bear in mind, that adobe's own PDF reader is incredibly bloated and runs awfully, especially on older computers.

There used to be an alternative (FoxIt?) that read them much much better.

tomsem · 09-17-2010, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

I don't believe that Kindle uses Adobe software. However, PDF files tend to be much larger than Kindle-formatted files, and thus, take up more memory. It is quite possible that the rendering engine is more resource-intensive than the one for regular Kindle files.

I've never had any problems like the ones you mention on your pc.

Actually, Amazon does license Adobe's Mobile Reader SDK for its PDF features.

I have one PDF that is 30Mb and it opens just fine, but I've had some slightly smaller than that that crashed Kindle. Unless the PDF is password protected, you can split larger ones up into pieces that Kindle can load.

softshell · 09-22-2010, 07:40 PM

wouldn't using calibre to convert the file to mobi solve any issues of the kindle using more resources to read this format? or does the conversion somehow leave the mobi file as somehow different (like a mutant version of mobi that still consumes a bit more than the purebred mobi files)?

paperwastage · 09-22-2010, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by softshell

wouldn't using calibre to convert the file to mobi solve any issues of the kindle using more resources to read this format? or does the conversion somehow leave the mobi file as somehow different (like a mutant version of mobi that still consumes a bit more than the purebred mobi files)?

this process mostly works if the PDF contains OCR'd text, not picture scan and stuff

and doing this, graphics will be removed too

aquawater · 09-22-2010, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeremyR

Also bear in mind, that adobe's own PDF reader is incredibly bloated and runs awfully, especially on older computers.

There used to be an alternative (FoxIt?) that read them much much better.

Agreed with you, adobe reader is bloated. I never use this anymore.
Stick to Foxit Reader.

s0litaire · 09-23-2010, 12:17 AM

It depends on the PDF.

I've opened a few PDF's on my 2Ghz Celeron Ubuntu laptop and had the CPU hit 100% while they have been opened. While others PDF's are fine!

Think it's the type of compression the PDF uses. There's ZIP and LZM (Think they are the 2 main options!) if they were created using any abnormal settings it may stress out the CPU while de-compressing the PDF's

I've not used Adobe to create PDF's in years!
Ubuntu has a print to PDF option by default but not sure of it's settings (Or how to change them!).

pashlit · 09-23-2010, 11:14 AM

Just finished a 280 pages book downloaded from Google. Pages were processed by Google as images. Most of the images do not show at all and reading was kinda slow. I have DX btw. Abot 5 times Kindle just froze and rebooted itself.
Now I am reading another PDF book. Pages are not images this time but the book has some images. While loading images it becomes slow. Some images do not load up and annoying text "Some features cannot be displayed by Kindle this time" or smth like that pops up. Otherwise works OK.
When reading just text PDFs Kindle speed is OK. But I wished they improved PDF feature. Right now its just terrible and zoom feature is pointless for me.

DiapDealer · 09-23-2010, 12:05 PM

Since Amazon doesn't actually sell pdf ebooks, I don't expect pdf reading on the Kindle to ever be an effortless, pain-free experience. They'll support it because they said they would (and it may get increasingly 'better'), but they're not going to sink a lot of time and expense into making it a true pdf reader.

This is probably one of those instances where a third-party app is going to have to come to the rescue somewhere down the road.

09-17-2010, 12:06 PM	#1
vugtitan Addict Posts: 299 Karma: 1042776 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: none	Does PDF files STRESS the Kindle too much? I have noticed that opening a pdf file on my pc is quite resource intensive.My crystal cpuidle goes from low cpu usage blue to high cpu usage red. I notice that the hideous adobe acrobat file exe accord stays in my task manager even after i close a pdf file!. i have to get rid of it manually using the task manager as it seems to drain the memory. anyone else knows what i am talking about? in other words pdf files are a memory drain.For the low power kindle pdf files must be very stressful too. I use a Athlon +3200 cpu running at 1ghz idle and 2ghz when doing something intensive controlled by the crystal cpu idle software. I have tried to switch to foxit and that seems to improve things. This bring me to the main thrust of the point that maybe the kindle freezes because of pdf files which are very resource intensive. what i am trying to say is that you should ideally convert pdf to text or rtf for the kindle and this will eliminate any resource intensive freezing/slowdowns/corruptions,reboots,etc.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Custom PDF files for Kindle	lyrx	Kindle Developer's Corner	22	11-29-2010 01:45 PM
Is there any way to let kindle only rotate PDF files?	JackLiu	Amazon Kindle	6	09-25-2010 08:08 PM
Troubleshooting Why does my Kindle crash with PDF files?	picardo	Amazon Kindle	4	08-16-2010 08:23 AM
Organizing small pdf files on Kindle	greeneggs	Amazon Kindle	6	08-04-2010 11:27 PM
read overdrive drm pdf files on kindle	suzwhite	Introduce Yourself	2	01-06-2010 10:53 PM

09-17-2010, 12:09 PM	#2
paperwastage Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 1310 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: kindle DX Graphite	pdfs are somewhat a pain larger scanned pdfs take a lot longer time to load than regular PDFs(like 1.5x longer) on my DX Graphite and so far, after a week on my graphite, i estimate about 5 days battery life for my graphite with 3g on and a lot of pdf reading...

09-17-2010, 12:10 PM	#3
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	I don't believe that Kindle uses Adobe software. However, PDF files tend to be much larger than Kindle-formatted files, and thus, take up more memory. It is quite possible that the rendering engine is more resource-intensive than the one for regular Kindle files. I've never had any problems like the ones you mention on your pc.

09-17-2010, 12:19 PM	#4
ricsmania Connoisseur Posts: 61 Karma: 40 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Brazil Device: Kindle 3 3G+Wifi	My Kindle never got stressed while reading PDF files, it remained pretty calm.

09-17-2010, 12:23 PM	#5
TallMomof2 Kindlephilia Posts: 2,017 Karma: 1139255 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Snowpacolypse 2010 Device: Too many to count	In my experience, PDFs that are text not images work far better on the Kindle. I had a couple of image pdfs that I converted to text (time consuming) and they work much better.

09-17-2010, 05:00 PM	#7
TomF Kindle Enthusiast Posts: 243 Karma: 1818 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: San Diego, CA Device: Kindle 3G Graphite, Kindle Fire	My Kindle got so stressed out that I took it to my doctor. He advised rest and relaxation and to not download any more murder mysteries or other types of thrillers, so now I just read those types of books in paperback.

09-17-2010, 06:15 PM	#8
JeremyR Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 2458402 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: St. Louis Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+	Also bear in mind, that adobe's own PDF reader is incredibly bloated and runs awfully, especially on older computers. There used to be an alternative (FoxIt?) that read them much much better.

09-22-2010, 07:40 PM	#10
softshell Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	wouldn't using calibre to convert the file to mobi solve any issues of the kindle using more resources to read this format? or does the conversion somehow leave the mobi file as somehow different (like a mutant version of mobi that still consumes a bit more than the purebred mobi files)?

09-23-2010, 12:17 AM	#13
s0litaire Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Kindle 3	It depends on the PDF. I've opened a few PDF's on my 2Ghz Celeron Ubuntu laptop and had the CPU hit 100% while they have been opened. While others PDF's are fine! Think it's the type of compression the PDF uses. There's ZIP and LZM (Think they are the 2 main options!) if they were created using any abnormal settings it may stress out the CPU while de-compressing the PDF's I've not used Adobe to create PDF's in years! Ubuntu has a print to PDF option by default but not sure of it's settings (Or how to change them!).

09-23-2010, 11:14 AM	#14
pashlit Zealot Posts: 132 Karma: 1310 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Hamilton, NJ Device: DXG, PRS-350	Just finished a 280 pages book downloaded from Google. Pages were processed by Google as images. Most of the images do not show at all and reading was kinda slow. I have DX btw. Abot 5 times Kindle just froze and rebooted itself. Now I am reading another PDF book. Pages are not images this time but the book has some images. While loading images it becomes slow. Some images do not load up and annoying text "Some features cannot be displayed by Kindle this time" or smth like that pops up. Otherwise works OK. When reading just text PDFs Kindle speed is OK. But I wished they improved PDF feature. Right now its just terrible and zoom feature is pointless for me.

09-23-2010, 12:05 PM	#15
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,361 Karma: 203720150 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Since Amazon doesn't actually sell pdf ebooks, I don't expect pdf reading on the Kindle to ever be an effortless, pain-free experience. They'll support it because they said they would (and it may get increasingly 'better'), but they're not going to sink a lot of time and expense into making it a true pdf reader. This is probably one of those instances where a third-party app is going to have to come to the rescue somewhere down the road.

Advert

Advert