505 and Adobe Digital Edition Format

[Billydog]

Hi

I am getting a 505 for XMAS and have been browsing here and the ebook shops. I have just bought the John Lennon Biography from Books on Board for $9.69 which seems like great value. There was no EPUB format available so I downloaded the Adobe Digital Edition version. Can anyone tell me if this will read ok on my 505 when I get it? I am in Dublin Ireland.

Thanks in advance.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Welcome to the forums

I'm sure you'll love the 505

Adobe DE books read fine on the 505 I can't comment on that specific book, but I have a few others.

[Valloric]

Aren't Adobe DE books (the non-epub ones) just DRMed PDF's? If so, it will display on the Reader, but it will be ugly.

[wallcraft]

The ADE version is almost certainly a Secure PDF, which will be displayed like any PDF (full page, or reflowed on a page by page basis).

Another popular option, if you have a Windows PC and if you are comfortable removing DRM, is to buy the MS Reader version and strip the DRM using "ConvertLIT GUI". Calibre can then convert the DRM-free LIT to ePub or LRF. It is also possible to strip the DRM from MOBI and eReader ebooks.

In the case of this ebook, I suggest waiting to see if the PDF version is "good enough" (most are, depending on how tolerant you are of a half empty screen every 2-3 page turns). You probably can't get a refund, but LIT may be an option for your next ebook.

[julia]

Originally Posted by Billydog

Hi

I am getting a 505 for XMAS and have been browsing here and the ebook shops. I have just bought the John Lennon Biography from Books on Board for $9.69 which seems like great value. There was no EPUB format available so I downloaded the Adobe Digital Edition version. Can anyone tell me if this will read ok on my 505 when I get it? I am in Dublin Ireland.

Thanks in advance.

i have the same book. but took the drm off and used calibre. the book reads ok.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by julia

i have the same book. but took the drm off and used calibre. the book reads ok.

Can you tell us how you removed the DRM from an ADE book?

BOb

[julia]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Can you tell us how you removed the DRM from an ADE book?

BOb

sorry guys bought the mobiformat of the same book!

[Billydog]

Originally Posted by Valloric

Aren't Adobe DE books (the non-epub ones) just DRMed PDF's? If so, it will display on the Reader, but it will be ugly.

Thanks for the views everyone. Am I right in thinking that as it is a ebook PDF as opposed to a PDF of say an A4 size document or a newspaper or something that the chances are it might read OK?

If not I might go back to Books on Board, tell them I downloaded the wrong version and as if I can have the Mobi one now so that I can proceed as outlined above and de DRM

Thanks and Happy Christmas to all.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Billydog

Thanks for the views everyone. Am I right in thinking that as it is a ebook PDF as opposed to a PDF of say an A4 size document or a newspaper or something that the chances are it might read OK?

No, it is probably formatted as an A4 page. But, the Adobe reader on the PRS-505 will reflow the text so that it will fit on the Sony screen and you can select from the 3 font sizes.

So, it should be usable on your 505.

BOb

[KDawg]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

No, it is probably formatted as an A4 page. But, the Adobe reader on the PRS-505 will reflow the text so that it will fit on the Sony screen and you can select from the 3 font sizes.

So, it should be usable on your 505.

BOb

I'm currently reading two ebooks.com DRM's pdf's on my Reader. I find the pdf reflow to be a pretty big mess. I just stick to reading it sized for A4 - tiny but readable text. I wish the Reader would just allow a zoom so I could just crop off the enormous margins on these books and grow the text just a little.

[ChrisI]

I've only got 1 Adobe DE book, which I borrowed from the library. The reflow is unimpressive. Sometimes paragraphs begin correctly, and other times they run together. This gets very confusing when reading passages of dialog.

It is readable, but I would not buy books for the 505 in this format.

[HistoryWes]

I just transferred my first ADE books today after I authorized the PRS-505. They read fine. I've been getting quite a few free from publishers I've found on http://finding-free-ebooks.blogspot.com/. I probably won't buy any books that are encoded with DRM, but these are free, so hey.

[Billydog]

Hi

I wasthe original poster.I receivedmy reader from Santa as expected and am delighted with it.

As most of the contributors to this thread advised the ADE version of the book did not read well with a half page blank on every second page. I downloaded the Microsoft Reader version and with the help of the recommended applications transferred into version suitable for the reader and it worked great.

Thanks for your help.

[barryhf]

I've posted my thoughts on the formatting problems for Adobe eBooks viewed on the PRS-505. I've had the device for a week and wouldn't recommend it for viewing content downloaded from the library. Single-line quotes, pagination and hyphens are my complaints.

But, man, other than that, it's a great device. I love the usability. Content from the Sony eBook store looks fine.

I had also hoped that downloading scanned content would be useful (e.g. from Google books), but the device renders too slowly to be useful. It takes 8 seconds to change the page. Hmm, seems like they could pre-render the next page while waiting...

I think all of these issues are ultimately solvable, but I wouldn't buy a device based on these hopes.

Barry

http://www.barryfriemel.com/2009/01/...-deformat.html

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by barryhf

I've posted my thoughts on the formatting problems for Adobe eBooks viewed on the PRS-505. I've had the device for a week and wouldn't recommend it for viewing content downloaded from the library. Single-line quotes, pagination and hyphens are my complaints.

This is a nice summary of the problems with PDF ebooks on the PRS-505, but note that this is not ePub. The Adobe Digital Editions software (Desktop or on the Sony) reads both PDF and ePub but they are not the same thing. EPub is the very latest industry standard reflowable ebook format, which does not have the problems you describe. There are as yet relatively few Secure Adobe ePubs, and although I think OverDrive has announced lending library ePubs I have never seen one. Lending library Adobe ebooks are generally Secure Adobe PDFs.

I had not seen the hyphenation problem described before. It can also occur with genuinely reflowable ebooks if the transfer from the original text did not take out the hard hyphens at the end of lines (i.e. if the transfer was done poorly). There will be a small number of cases where the hyphen should remain, but I agree that Adobe Digital Editions should remove all of the end-of-line hypens rather than leaving them all.