Best ereader for quick skiming

Ore · 11-05-2020, 10:35 AM

Hi everyone

I am a first time ereader buyer and after some long research I am torn between the Kobo Clara HD and the Pocketbook touch lux 4 or lux 5.

The pocketbooks have a better native handling of PDF which is important to me as I want to read a lot of long but simple PDFs (But I could convert them with calibre if needed). Notes export is native there. Better default privacy.

The Kobo seems faster and has a bigger community and hacks available as I want to synchronize with my nextcloud and my wallabag instance. The privacy privacy issues also have remedies.

One aspect I could not find information on is the capability to "skim read" a book.

For instance I would like to be able to read the first and last paragraph of each chapter before commiting to reading it. Kobo seems to have a skip features and there are page turn video that look good enough.

Has anyone done the same with a pocketbook ? Is the KoReader better on this aspect ?

Thanks for your help !

Quoth · 11-05-2020, 12:19 PM

Conversion of PDFs can be erratic. Only a high CPU power Android tablet or iPad at 10" or better will allow quick PDF viewing.

The Kobo Libra quick page turn etc is much faster than the original H2O or a Kindle PW3, but only for epub2 (or epub2 related kpub).

There really four sorts of families of PDF:
1) Actual Postscript text based. If you can copy and paste text and the result matches the original.
2) Vector based Postscript or a Vector based drawing in a PDF wrapper. Not usually text.
3) Scans encapsulated in a PDF wrapper. There might be a TOC. You can only copy/export an image of the text.
4) Scans with an OCR layer. The OCR allows easy building of a TOC and search. A copy and paste either fails or gives you the rather inaccurate pre-created OCR.

Only Type 1 will turn pages at a reasonable speed and only Type 1 can be converted.
The Type 2 can't be converted to any sort of ebook without rasterising it. It can be fast or painfully slow depending on the complexity, basically like CAD, Schematics or Inkscape in a multipage PDF wrapper.
Type 3 and 4 is as slow as loading high resolution images or worse.

PDF is a wrapper and a spec. It can have text, static bitmaps, or static vectors and even multiple layers of those per page as well as all the needed fonts. It's a kind of superset of Postscript.

Ore · 11-05-2020, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

1) Actual Postscript text based. If you can copy and paste text and the result matches the original.

Thank you for the breakdown of PDF families. I am only dealing with the Type 1 PDF so I should be ok.

DaleDe · 11-05-2020, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ore

Hi everyone

I am a first time ereader buyer and after some long research I am torn between the Kobo Clara HD and the Pocketbook touch lux 4 or lux 5.

The pocketbooks have a better native handling of PDF which is important to me as I want to read a lot of long but simple PDFs (But I could convert them with calibre if needed). Notes export is native there. Better default privacy.

The Kobo seems faster and has a bigger community and hacks available as I want to synchronize with my nextcloud and my wallabag instance. The privacy privacy issues also have remedies.

One aspect I could not find information on is the capability to "skim read" a book.

For instance I would like to be able to read the first and last paragraph of each chapter before commiting to reading it. Kobo seems to have a skip features and there are page turn video that look good enough.

Has anyone done the same with a pocketbook ? Is the KoReader better on this aspect ?

Thanks for your help !

Like many other things done with eBooks, there is a better way to skim the way you wish. Just use the TOC, pick a chapter, back up a page, read through the first page and repeat.

Dale

hobnail · 11-05-2020, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Like many other things done with eBooks, there is a better way to skim the way you wish. Just use the TOC, pick a chapter, back up a page, read through the first page and repeat.

Dale

Except that so many dern books don't have a toc, at least not the one you get by tapping the TOC icon. It seems I need to open them in Sigil and do the thing to generate the ncx file.

DaleDe · 11-06-2020, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hobnail

Except that so many dern books don't have a toc, at least not the one you get by tapping the TOC icon. It seems I need to open them in Sigil and do the thing to generate the ncx file.

Yes, I always like to have a TOC for many reasons. It is also a way to evaluate the content by seeing the subjects that are covered.

Dale

Waiting4somethin · 11-07-2020, 05:34 AM

Well i just posted about this but what the hey. You might want to look at the hisense q5, it's a regular tablet/screen except without a back light. The screen image is actually very legible and not particularly reflective. I have one and skimming through pdfs is one of my favorite things about it.

Ore · 11-09-2020, 03:13 AM

Thank you for your suggestion but the price point is a bit outside my budget and I consider NOT having android on the ereader a feature, as it diminishes the temptations to go on social media etc.

JSWolf · 11-09-2020, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hobnail

Except that so many dern books don't have a toc, at least not the one you get by tapping the TOC icon. It seems I need to open them in Sigil and do the thing to generate the ncx file.

What books are you finding that d not have a ToC? I find most eBooks do have a ToC. It's a lot of illegal eBooks that don't have a ToC.

MarjaE · 11-09-2020, 05:00 PM

Most pdfs are formatted for larger screens. So reading them on 6" or 7.2" screens could cause extra eye strain.

davidfor · 11-09-2020, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What books are you finding that d not have a ToC? I find most eBooks do have a ToC. It's a lot of illegal eBooks that don't have a ToC.

Sorry Jon, but there are a lot of legally available books with no ToC. Or just a single entry. Or just rubbish in it.

And honestly, I have had looked at what is available via illegal means. Either they are just copies of what can be bought (and hence have the same ToC), or, they are better made than the official versions. If your illegal books are rubbish, you are looking in the wrong places

DNSB · 11-09-2020, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

If your illegal books are rubbish, you are looking in the wrong places

Darn you, davidfor. Now I've got this song stuck in my head...

11-05-2020, 10:35 AM	#1
Ore Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 130 Join Date: Nov 2020 Device: none	Best ereader for quick skiming Hi everyone I am a first time ereader buyer and after some long research I am torn between the Kobo Clara HD and the Pocketbook touch lux 4 or lux 5. The pocketbooks have a better native handling of PDF which is important to me as I want to read a lot of long but simple PDFs (But I could convert them with calibre if needed). Notes export is native there. Better default privacy. The Kobo seems faster and has a bigger community and hacks available as I want to synchronize with my nextcloud and my wallabag instance. The privacy privacy issues also have remedies. One aspect I could not find information on is the capability to "skim read" a book. For instance I would like to be able to read the first and last paragraph of each chapter before commiting to reading it. Kobo seems to have a skip features and there are page turn video that look good enough. Has anyone done the same with a pocketbook ? Is the KoReader better on this aspect ? Thanks for your help !

11-07-2020, 05:34 AM	#7
Waiting4somethin Addict Posts: 249 Karma: 7162 Join Date: Dec 2017 Device: Wexler Flex One, NookST, n96ml+	Well i just posted about this but what the hey. You might want to look at the hisense q5, it's a regular tablet/screen except without a back light. The screen image is actually very legible and not particularly reflective. I have one and skimming through pdfs is one of my favorite things about it. Last edited by Waiting4somethin; 11-07-2020 at 05:37 AM.

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11-05-2020, 12:19 PM	#2
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,016 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Conversion of PDFs can be erratic. Only a high CPU power Android tablet or iPad at 10" or better will allow quick PDF viewing. The Kobo Libra quick page turn etc is much faster than the original H2O or a Kindle PW3, but only for epub2 (or epub2 related kpub). There really four sorts of families of PDF: 1) Actual Postscript text based. If you can copy and paste text and the result matches the original. 2) Vector based Postscript or a Vector based drawing in a PDF wrapper. Not usually text. 3) Scans encapsulated in a PDF wrapper. There might be a TOC. You can only copy/export an image of the text. 4) Scans with an OCR layer. The OCR allows easy building of a TOC and search. A copy and paste either fails or gives you the rather inaccurate pre-created OCR. Only Type 1 will turn pages at a reasonable speed and only Type 1 can be converted. The Type 2 can't be converted to any sort of ebook without rasterising it. It can be fast or painfully slow depending on the complexity, basically like CAD, Schematics or Inkscape in a multipage PDF wrapper. Type 3 and 4 is as slow as loading high resolution images or worse. PDF is a wrapper and a spec. It can have text, static bitmaps, or static vectors and even multiple layers of those per page as well as all the needed fonts. It's a kind of superset of Postscript.

11-09-2020, 03:13 AM	#8
Ore Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 130 Join Date: Nov 2020 Device: none	Thank you for your suggestion but the price point is a bit outside my budget and I consider NOT having android on the ereader a feature, as it diminishes the temptations to go on social media etc.

11-09-2020, 05:00 PM	#10
MarjaE Guru Posts: 937 Karma: 53902736 Join Date: Jun 2015 Device: multiple	Most pdfs are formatted for larger screens. So reading them on 6" or 7.2" screens could cause extra eye strain.

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