Clara HD I seem to be missing something in the software

[johnwhelan]

I normally use an LG V20 running android 8 which has a 5.7 inch screen and 515 ppi running Moonreader pro+ and calibre to get the books on. Just for fun I thought I'd take a look at the Kobo HD Clara.

First comment I prefer white lettering on black, is this possible?

Second can I set the margins to the limit of the display? It seems crazy to pay for the screen only to find I can't use part of it.

Third I'm used to holding my books in Calibre then just loading a few up onto the reader. The Clara seems to just load in some of my books from Kobo at random. How do I say I've read this recently?

Fourth can I list the books by title, author, without the cover rather than looking at the book cover in black and white?

Fifth this really is just a comment, I was surprised to find a usb micro? port rather than a usb c port.

Calibre connects just fine and at least shows me what books are on the device. I'm sure the device lists them somewhere, my books downloaded or imported. It does seem to handle normal epub books on an import through Calibre

Home seems to list covers scattered over the page but my books at least let's you sort them into order.

Are my expectations too high for this device?

Thoughts

Thanks John

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by johnwhelan

First comment I prefer white lettering on black, is this possible?

Yes, by enabling the dark mode. It's under Reading Settings.

Second can I set the margins to the limit of the display? It seems crazy to pay for the screen only to find I can't use part of it.

You can certainly do it via kobopatch (I'm not sure if it's possible without it). But this also depends on the individual css of the specific book. Some books have wide margins set in their css and those must be disabled with an epub editor.

Third I'm used to holding my books in Calibre then just loading a few up onto the reader. The Clara seems to just load in some of my books from Kobo at random. How do I say I've read this recently?

You can archive your Kobo-purchased books on the Kobo website. This prevents them from auto-downloading to your device.

Fourth can I list the books by title, author, without the cover rather than looking at the book cover in black and white?

No.

Fifth this really is just a comment, I was surprised to find a usb micro? port rather than a usb c port.

The Clara HD is an older device. Newer devices have USB-C.

[Quoth]

I've perfectly good things not worth upgrading (or sometimes newer is worse) that have USB-B, extended USB3 USB-B, mini-USB, micro-USB, extended USB3 micro-USB, one is USB 3 using an A to A cable. Of course I have USB-C also.
I've two devices that also have a coax power plug and one doesn't charge via USB at all. The other charges slower on USB.

My car charger cable does micro- mini- and USB-C.

[johnwhelan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've perfectly good things not worth upgrading (or sometimes newer is worse) that have USB-B, extended USB3 USB-B, mini-USB, micro-USB, extended USB3 micro-USB, one is USB 3 using an A to A cable. Of course I have USB-C also.
I've two devices that also have a coax power plug and one doesn't charge via USB at all. The other charges slower on USB.

My car charger cable does micro- mini- and USB-C.

USB c specifically is more robust and can be plugged and unplugged more times.

Thanks John

[johnwhelan]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, by enabling the dark mode. It's under Reading Settings.


The Clara HD is an older device. Newer devices have USB-C.

Oops I meant to buy the one with the ink carta 1300 screen. Rats.

Thanks John

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by johnwhelan

USB c specifically is more robust and can be plugged and unplugged more times.

It's less robust than everything except micro-USB. Also we have seen more faulty USB-C plugs on cables than micro-USB plugs on cables, due to poor quality cables, not the spec.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by johnwhelan

Oops I meant to buy the one with the ink carta 1300 screen. Rats.

The quality of the light pipe, top screen surface etc creates more differences than the Carta HD (Kindle Voyage 2014, Kindle PW3 2015 and Kindle Oasis 1 2016) vs Carta 1200 or Carta 1300. The latest Kaleido 3 use Carta 1300 and are poorer contrast than Pearl and not much sharper than a 5" Pearl (without capacitive touch). Pearl is the eink between Vizplex and the first Carta version.

Other than screen size and CPU / Memory specs there is little change in eink compared to the best models 12 years ago.

The Kindle Voyage was November 2014, twelve and a half years ago. It's still better than than some current models, though only 6″ and less than 4G bytes of space for ebooks.

E Ink Carta HD features a 1080 by 1440 resolution on a 6" screen with 300 ppi. It is used in many eReaders including all new Kindle model lines since 2014 (Voyage, Oasis, Scribe) as well as the Paperwhite 3 (2015) and newer, Tolino Vision 2 (2014), Kobo Glo HD (2015),[50] Nook Glowlight Plus[51] (2015), Cybook Muse Frontlight, PocketBook Touch HD[52] (2016), PocketBook Touch HD 2 (2017), and the Kobo Clara HD[53] (2018).

(not entirely accurate article) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink#...splay_products

[johnwhelan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's less robust than everything except micro-USB. Also we have seen more faulty USB-C plugs on cables than micro-USB plugs on cables, due to poor quality cables, not the spec.

I tend to stick with UGreen for cables and have a variety of USB C cables hanging off my desktop machine which runs Calibre. Having to have a different cable type adds complications.

Cheerio John

[johnwhelan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The quality of the light pipe, top screen surface etc creates more differences than the Carta HD (Kindle Voyage 2014, Kindle PW3 2015 and Kindle Oasis 1 2016) vs Carta 1200 or Carta 1300. The latest Kaleido 3 use Carta 1300 and are poorer contrast than Pearl and not much sharper than a 5" Pearl (without capacitive touch). Pearl is the eink between Vizplex and the first Carta version.

Other than screen size and CPU / Memory specs there is little change in eink compared to the best models 12 years ago.

The Kindle Voyage was November 2014, twelve and a half years ago. It's still better than than some current models, though only 6″ and less than 4G bytes of space for ebooks.


(not entirely accurate article) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink#...splay_products

I think the LED screens still offer the best contrast although the Clare BW is usable. For the moment having tried an eink screen once more I think I'll stick with using an LG V20. Moonreader pro + software is easier to use and it displays the time at the top ef the screen which is always useful.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Cheerio John