Kobo Aura One for pdf's

[feebsjee]

Hi

I have been looking for an e-reader to read pdf documents. I have thousands and converting them to other formats isn't practical. I have sensitive eyes and cannot use tablets so am stuck with e-ink. The pdf's are almost entirely text and not graphical.

I have noticed some threads about academics saying they have a similar requirement of wanting to use the kobo aura one to use pdf's but that the software is very bad. I was wondering if this has improved?

Having only ever owned a kindle 5 and never tampered with it I do not knw anything about installing 3rd party software, if I was to buy the Kobo Aura One would I easily be able to install KOReader? and if so would this likely solve the pdf viewing issues

I am currently undecided between this device and the Onyx Boox N96

thanks very much for your time

[davidfor]

The Kobo software does a good job of displaying PDFs. The problem is in navigating and performance. If you have a PDF that is sized to match the screen size, and do not need to zoom, it will be displayed very well. And tapping will turn the page. But, if the PDF needs to be zoomed, navigating around the page and between pages is clumsy.

Performance is the other issue. The devices are designed to be low power and hence have low-end CPUs and not much RAM. For small, simple PDFs the performance is probably acceptable. The larger and more complex the PDF, the worse it get.

This has been the case for all the time I have been using Kobo ereaders. There has been no real changes to how the Kobo firmware handles PDFs. I do not think Kobo have any plans to change this. So, do not buy a Kobo ereader for PDF reading thinking that it will improve. It almost definitely won't.

I don't use Koreader, so I won't comment on it.

[feebsjee]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The Kobo software does a good job of displaying PDFs. The problem is in navigating and performance. If you have a PDF that is sized to match the screen size, and do not need to zoom, it will be displayed very well. And tapping will turn the page. But, if the PDF needs to be zoomed, navigating around the page and between pages is clumsy.

Performance is the other issue. The devices are designed to be low power and hence have low-end CPUs and not much RAM. For small, simple PDFs the performance is probably acceptable. The larger and more complex the PDF, the worse it get.

This has been the case for all the time I have been using Kobo ereaders. There has been no real changes to how the Kobo firmware handles PDFs. I do not think Kobo have any plans to change this. So, do not buy a Kobo ereader for PDF reading thinking that it will improve. It almost definitely won't.

I don't use Koreader, so I won't comment on it.

Great, thanks for the help.

I was all set to buy an N96 for pdf's but then I found many posts by academics or people who also like me need to read pdf's whereby they say that the Aura One is the best pdf solution (although flawed) and I am trying to understand what it is about the Aura one that they found to be better

[Haesslich]

It's probably the 7.8" screen size (less resizing required) that gets them into that Aura One as a PDF viewer. If your reading is primarily simple text PDF files with no complex formatting, it loads and renders them decently fast.

This does not describe the majority of PDF files.

I've used the One to read game source books, but it takes ages to load and turn pages once you get a lot of graphics or other page elements (like tables, specific object placement on the page) involved. Single page graphics (like a comic scanned into PDF), load okay... but aren't great either, even if the resolution and screen size are usually high enough to read them. But the large screen makes for a better PDF reader then say, the basic Kindle with its low resolution 6" screen.

You'd be better off with even a cheap tablet, as the PDF reader software on Android tablets or Apple iPads is so much better than the Kobo solution.

[ratinox]

I don't have first-hand experience with N96 but I do have experience with Android 4.4 (KK) on tablets with similar SOCs like HiSense Sero 8. N96's SOC is way underpowered for Android. Sero 8 has twice the system RAM and more than twice the CPU power and it's still sluggish with PDFs (using Perfect Viewer's PDF plugin, muPDF, and ezPDF Reader).

Aura ONE isn't significantly more powerful than N96 but the software stack runs on the bare metal, not interpreted byte-code. That's a big win for performance despite the flaws in Kobo's software.

[feebsjee]

Originally Posted by Haesslich

It's probably the 7.8" screen size (less resizing required) that gets them into that Aura One as a PDF viewer. If your reading is primarily simple text PDF files with no complex formatting, it loads and renders them decently fast.

This does not describe the majority of PDF files.

I've used the One to read game source books, but it takes ages to load and turn pages once you get a lot of graphics or other page elements (like tables, specific object placement on the page) involved. Single page graphics (like a comic scanned into PDF), load okay... but aren't great either, even if the resolution and screen size are usually high enough to read them. But the large screen makes for a better PDF reader then say, the basic Kindle with its low resolution 6" screen.

You'd be better off with even a cheap tablet, as the PDF reader software on Android tablets or Apple iPads is so much better than the Kobo solution.

I wish I could but I have tried two tablets now, in 2014 I got a Galaxy Note 8, and then recently I got a Samsung S2 Tab 8.. with both I got eyestrain within minutes. I think perhaps my eyes are just sensitive to whatever screens they use on tablets, as oddly I've been looking at laptop screens for 16 years - 14 hours a day without any problems, also I can look at my Samsung Galaxy Grand 5" phone screen for hours without problems. Very strange. So I have had to resort to E-ink

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Haesslich

I've used the One to read game source books, but it takes ages to load and turn pages once you get a lot of graphics or other page elements (like tables, specific object placement on the page) involved. Single page graphics (like a comic scanned into PDF), load okay... but aren't great either, even if the resolution and screen size are usually high enough to read them. But the large screen makes for a better PDF reader then say, the basic Kindle with its low resolution 6" screen.

In defense of, well, everything, RPG PDFs tend not to be optimized at all. The PDFs you get from, say, Drive Thru Stuff, are intended for printing and binding, not reading on portable electronics. Even mid-tier tablets struggle with some of the RPGs I've thrown at them.

As for comics and manga? Aura ONE is fantastic. I've been reading quite a bit of manga on mine. No serious issues, but I do use ImageMagick to optimize for the device.

[Haesslich]

For CBZ and epub comics, I agree - the ugly problem is the lack of storage, which means I've gone to 100MB free space as a result. But for PDF files? I had better results with an iPad 3 and Goodreader, even seen those complex PDF files.

Kobo really needs a better PDF solution. The Sony Reader PDF software on the PRS-600 kicks the Kobo Aura One up and down the street, even with a processor ten years older and maybe a third of the RAM.

[surquizu]

Look at the video I recorded recently. Compare the pdfs with nickel (original kobo firmware) with the KOReader.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0i9WvxZUTUI

[Braid]

I don't know why Kobo's PDF support is so terrible. It's a real mystery to me. My Kindle Keyboard handles them at a comfortable, readable level. As does my Kindle Voyage, only a bit quicker. After installing Koreader, I was able to read PDFs on my Aura H2O with the same kind of performance as using one of my Kindle devices.

This idea that Kobo have been listening to customer feedback when designing the Kobo Aura One is what has made me hesitate before installing Koreader on it - they might improve the PDF support somehow. Probably not. They've lasted this long without changing anything. Most likely I'll install Koreader in a few months and put up with the ugly menus and inconvenience of a dual operating system. It's less reliable and has some glitches, but decent PDF viewing and reading epubs in landscape mode are worth it for me.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Haesslich

For CBZ and epub comics, I agree - the ugly problem is the lack of storage, which means I've gone to 100MB free space as a result. But for PDF files? I had better results with an iPad 3 and Goodreader, even seen those complex PDF files.

One thing that really, significantly helps with this is transcoding to JPG with a small Gaussian blur. From my testing, adding "-guassian-blur 0.05" is invisible to the naked eye and reduces final JPG file size by 1/3 to 1/2, everything else being equal. Right now I have... 72 complete manga volumes taking up about 5.5GB on my ONE, or about 75MB per volume. Not too shabby, IMO.

And at least for me, going from ~4GB (Kindle DX) to ~8GB (Aura ONE) is a big improvement in storage. YMMV of course.

Kobo really needs a better PDF solution. The Sony Reader PDF software on the PRS-600 kicks the Kobo Aura One up and down the street, even with a processor ten years older and maybe a third of the RAM.

Yeah... but if you normalize against the rendering resolution? PRS-600's CPU is 2-4 times as powerful as Aura ONE's. But seriously, it's not entirely CPU. The software is a significant factor. Aura ONE certainly has the chops to handle PDFs but Kobo haven't put the effort into optimizing the reader software. On the other hand, Sony have put a great deal of effort into optimizing their PDF software.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by ratinox

Yeah... but if you normalize against the rendering resolution? PRS-600's CPU is 2-4 times as powerful as Aura ONE's. But seriously, it's not entirely CPU. The software is a significant factor. Aura ONE certainly has the chops to handle PDFs but Kobo haven't put the effort into optimizing the reader software. On the other hand, Sony have put a great deal of effort into optimizing their PDF software.

That optimization is what's missing in the Kobo software - it's like they took the basic Adobe renderer for Linux and dropped it in as is rather then optimizing it for eReader usage. As I said, Kobo really needs to put more effort into their software - if they'd done even half the work Sony did with their engine (both ADE and PDF) , they'd have the best reader in the market for both epub and PDF. The big screen and RAM are present - now they need to have the software learn to ignore the elements only used for printing books in favor of rendering what it can as efficiently as, possible.

[filmo]

Kobo has many improved features for organizing and finding a specific book in Kobo reader library. But nothing close to Sony T1 ereader library, as I move slider slowly from A to Z author or title of first or last book on each library page is displayed as if I am looking for a word in a dictionary.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Haesslich

That optimization is what's missing in the Kobo software - it's like they took the basic Adobe renderer for Linux and dropped it in as is rather then optimizing it for eReader usage. As I said, Kobo really needs to put more effort into their software - if they'd done even half the work Sony did with their engine (both ADE and PDF) , they'd have the best reader in the market for both epub and PDF. The big screen and RAM are present - now they need to have the software learn to ignore the elements only used for printing books in favor of rendering what it can as efficiently as, possible.

Sorry, but that's the case. For epub and PDF rendering, Kobo is using the Adobe RMSDK. The same Adobe RMSDK that Sony used. Except that Kobo has updated it to a much later version than Sony ever used. This is built for these types of devices. The differences in this are in the options that Kobo and Sony used. Sony chose to enable reflow, Kobo didn't. There are probably other options used, but, I don't know what they are.

The other difference is the surrounding code. The code to actually present the page of the book on the screen, to navigate around and do things like zooming in on the page. I have never used a Sony, so I cannot really compare them. But, PDF reading on Kobo's does work. It's just not perfect, and I don't think it is a primary concern for Kobo. That is elsewhere. Plus, I think they know the limitations of the devices. They are relatively low on RAM and CPU power. That means they can never be a great PDF device, so they don't try.

Having said that, Kobo do have the best dedicated ereader for PDFs. Because of the, as you said it, "big screen", there is no dedicated ereader that is comparable.

[Braid]

The Kobo Aura One with its native software is definitely not the best dedicated ereader for PDF files. Google "Kobo Aura One PDF". There are other dedicated ereaders that provide a superior PDF reading experience, such as the Kindle Voyage.