Kindle Scribe

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Update: It arrived two days earlier than promised, on a Sunday nonetheless. Very impressed with size, speed, handling. Not impressed with print replica - writing on top is nice, but I think I will simply sideload PDFs instead. Writing feels nice, but I think I will skip that too.

Yes, they have some way to go to improve Print Replica support. Hopefully the next update will address much of it.

I'm not interested in round-tripping annotations so much as being able to read them like any book (with dictionary lookup, highlighting etc.). And be able to read Kindle Store content in this format.

I know I can side load for a better reading experience but am lazy, and am reading other things instead.

While I wait for an update, I'm mostly sending PDFs of Sudoku and crossword puzzles, which work much better than they would as actual PDFs (which have no Pen support), and even better than pencil and paper (undo).

The Word integration is a much lower priority for me, they can take as long as they want to deliver that.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Yes, they have some way to go to improve Print Replica support. Hopefully the next update will address much of it.

I'm not interested in round-tripping annotations so much as being able to read them like any book (with dictionary lookup, highlighting etc.). And be able to read Kindle Store content in this format.

I know I can side load for a better reading experience but am lazy, and am reading other things instead.

While I wait for an update, I'm mostly sending PDFs of Sudoku and crossword puzzles, which work much better than they would as actual PDFs (which have no Pen support), and even better than pencil and paper (undo).

The Word integration is a much lower priority for me, they can take as long as they want to deliver that.

I agree mostly, except the doing puzzle part. Haven't progressed that far. On the plus side, I have not managed to get the Scribe to crash - easy to do on my Oasis with print replica. I noticed a new gimmik - page animation. Instead of something useful, they waste time on page animation.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I agree mostly, except the doing puzzle part. Haven't progressed that far. On the plus side, I have not managed to get the Scribe to crash - easy to do on my Oasis with print replica. I noticed a new gimmik - page animation. Instead of something useful, they waste time on page animation.

Page animation is not a gimmick. It eliminates 'flashing' (somewhat random full page refresh), with something arguably more pleasant. I use it (except when using Dark mode, where it is not supported).

Print Replica has no official support on Oasis. Stop torturing it!!

For puzzles of all sorts:

https://krazydad.com

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Page animation is not a gimmick. It eliminates 'flashing' (somewhat random full page refresh), with something arguably more pleasant. I use it (except when using Dark mode, where it is not supported).

Print Replica has no official support on Oasis. Stop torturing it!!

For puzzles of all sorts:

https://krazydad.com

I don't think I will torture the Oasis much anymore, if I even want to keep using it. As for the page animation, you are right it is better than the flashes. Page refresh is off by default (or was on mine). So adding page animation when refresh is off still ghosts. Only when refresh is turned on does page animation work as you say. Pretty neat, I think I keep refresh and animation both on and see if I get used to it.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I don't think I will torture the Oasis much anymore, if I even want to keep using it. As for the page animation, you are right it is better than the flashes. Page refresh is off by default (or was on mine). So adding page animation when refresh is off still ghosts. Only when refresh is turned on does page animation work as you say. Pretty neat, I think I keep refresh and animation both on and see if I get used to it.

"You would think" page animation alone would be fine. Though I have Page Refresh off, and don't notice (significant) ghosting. Will try turning it on to see if it looks any better.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by tomsem

"You would think" page animation alone would be fine. Though I have Page Refresh off, and don't notice (significant) ghosting. Will try turning it on to see if it looks any better.

Ghosting on the Scribe is excellent, much better than Oasis3. I only notice it, because I am reading an image heavy book right now. In a novel without pictures it is nearly invisible.

But there is definitely a difference of page refresh on and off.

ETA: that is why I thought it to be a gimmick at first as it only makes the page load slower.

ETA2: with page refresh and animation, there is no full page flicker and no ghosting, it appears like the animation is a little darker as if it flashes as it moves.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Ghosting on the Scribe is excellent, much better than Oasis3. I only notice it, because I am reading an image heavy book right now. In a novel without pictures it is nearly invisible.

But there is definitely a difference of page refresh on and off.

ETA: that is why I thought it to be a gimmick at first as it only makes the page load slower.

ETA2: with page refresh and animation, there is no full page flicker and no ghosting, it appears like the animation is a little darker as if it flashes as it moves.

Yes, tried it. Having Page Refresh on is not great for Dark mode, which I use quite a bit. So I'll be leaving it off. Still nice to know it is there for image heavy books.

[BionicGecko]

So as expected the Scribe is now on sale for the “Spring Sale” in Europe: between 15% and 18% off the regular price depending on the model/bundle. Anyone interested should act fast, as the sale ends tomorrow.

I contacted Amazon in the hope they would credit me back the difference for the Scribe I bough last week at full price (I heard they do it for Prime members); their “solution” was to return the Scribe and buy another one for the cheaper price. I have no idea how it can make financial sense for them to suggest that. Then again I took advantage of the sale to get the Essentials bundle with the cover, and also “upgraded” to the 64 GB version, spending more in the end than my initial purchase, so maybe that’s how

[LDB]

Penny wise and pound foolish maybe? I had the same thing once, return and repurchase with all the hassle and extra expense shipping to me for free shipping again, plus the time lost. Why not just return and resell me this one in computer bits and bytes without all the extra hassles?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

ETA2: with page refresh and animation, there is no full page flicker and no ghosting, it appears like the animation is a little darker as if it flashes as it moves.

Oh, fun. Just found another bug with print replica that needs to be fixed in an update. Print replica does not honor page refresh. It doesn't do animations either, but they are there greyed out suggesting they may be added once the text layer is highlightable and dictionaryable (no, not a real word, but it should be). The page refresh does not work at all, it defaults to a full flashing page refresh whenever it feels like. In a (KFX) comic animations are not available, but at least page refresh can be enabled as a separate and independent setting (in aA menu rather than settings). I have gotten used to the animations by now, like them in combination with page refresh. This only works in books and PDFs, which is fine by me, for now. A PDF converted to KFX comic has the extra option of "crop margins," which should be also included in the PDF renderer. The contrast setting should be available in a comic. All in all, all settings should be everywhere where applicable and in the same spot (e.g. justified or left aligned should only be in a reflowable book, nowhere else). A unified GUI, is that really so complicated? But neither print replica nor comics have the animations. And print replica is missing the page refresh on top of that.

Edit:found out that page animation not working in comics depends. Some do, some don't, even from store. So not sure what magic Amazon uses.

So, for now, my Scribe is getting either downloaded KFX, DRM removed books converted to KFX, or sideloaded PDF. Comics and print replica is lacking too much as of yet.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Oh, fun. Just found another bug with print replica that needs to be fixed in an update. Print replica does not honor page refresh. It doesn't do animations either, but they are there greyed out suggesting they may be added once the text layer is highlightable and dictionaryable (no, not a real word, but it should be). The page refresh does not work at all, it defaults to a full flashing page refresh whenever it feels like. In a (KFX) comic animations are not available, but at least page refresh can be enabled as a separate and independent setting (in aA menu rather than settings). I have gotten used to the animations by now, like them in combination with page refresh. This only works in books and PDFs, which is fine by me, for now. A PDF converted to KFX comic has the extra option of "crop margins," which should be also included in the PDF renderer. The contrast setting should be available in a comic. All in all, all settings should be everywhere where applicable and in the same spot (e.g. justified or left aligned should only be in a reflowable book, nowhere else). A unified GUI, is that really so complicated? But neither print replica nor comics have the animations. And print replica is missing the page refresh on top of that.

So, for now, my Scribe is getting either downloaded KFX, DRM removed books converted to KFX, or sideloaded PDF. Comics and print replica is lacking too much as of yet.

I think it's going to take a series of updates to improve Print Replica support.

I'm seeing some fixed layout books with page turn animation. I think the distinction is that the one I'm looking at does not have panel navigation. But I'll have to investigate and see if there is some other factor.

Contrast setting as it exists (assume you mean font weight?) applies only to text rendered from fonts. Comic books don't generally have such text: they're just pages of images, optionally with 'panel' definitions. So there's nothing to apply contrast to, unless you want a contrast setting that adjusts the contrast of the image as a whole (which would be a new feature of perhaps dubious value).

There are also fixed layout books (not categorized as comic books, but I think it is the same format) that do have actual text laid out on top of a page image. However Kindle platform does not support any operations on this (lookup, highlighting etc.).

Comic Book format does not have any accessibly features. One should be able to add alt-text with authoring tools so screen readers (and potentially TTS engines) can access that. And of course if its HTML has text content, you should be able to select it and do lookup, highlighting etc.

Print Replica is potentially 'accessible'. The Kindle app will, for example, read text out with Speak Screen on iOS, however there are issues (page turns do not synchronize with spoken text). (I have been meaning to try Voice View on Scribe to see if it works at all with Print Replica documents.)

So I agree that the 2 formats could benefit from some cross-pollination of features, wherever it makes sense.

But first, I want to see Scribe support for Print Replica measure up to the baseline set by the Kindle apps. Until then (as you relate) people are going to find reasons not to use it.

Even now, Print Replica is not great in the Kindle apps: does not support dark mode, does not support facing pages in landscape, no TTS or well functioning accessibility. But I think that's because they have not been widely encountered by users until now. With uptick in usage there will be more reason to improve the functionality and performance.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I think it's going to take a series of updates to improve Print Replica support.

Yes, I think so too.

Comic book format (at least from Kindle Store) does support page turn animation.

Mhh, do they usually come as KF8? Have to investigate why my sideloaded KFX comic doesn't animate - maybe it is not officially supported. Sideloaded KFX print replica fools the Scribe into thinking it came from the store, and offers to view it there. Have not actually tried to see what error message I get when looking up a book without ASIN in the store.

Contrast setting as it exists applies only to text rendered from fonts. Comic books don't generally have such text: they're just pages of images, optionally with 'panel' definitions. So there's nothing to apply contrast to, unless you want a contrast setting that adjusts the contrast of the image as a whole (which would be a new feature of perhaps dubious value).

That is what I thought as well, but the contrast setting in PDFs applies to text and images, unfortunately. It doesn't do it by making the text bolder, but by reducing the gamma. Text looks really nice, but images are so dark as to be unusable.

There are also fixed layout books (not categorized as comic books, but I think it is the same format) that do have actual text laid out on top of a page image. However Kindle platform does not support any operations on this (lookup, highlighting etc.).

You mean AZW4, which is a PDF in a AZW container?

Comic Book format does not have any accessibly features. One should be able to add alt-text with authoring tools so screen readers (and potentially TTS engines) can access that. And of course if its HTML has text content, you should be able to select it and do lookup, highlighting etc.

There is so many things you should be able to.

Print Replica is potentially 'accessible'. The Kindle app will, for example, read text out with Speak Screen on iOS, however there are issues (page turns do not synchronize with spoken text). (I have been meaning to try Voice View on Scribe to see if it works at all with Print Replica documents.)

Please try, if you have speakers or headphones hooked up to your Scribe. I am not even sure where my BT headset is.

So I agree that the 2 formats could benefit from some cross-pollination of features, wherever it makes sense.

But first, I want to see Scribe support for Print Replica measure up to the baseline set by the Kindle apps. Until then (as you relate) people are going to find reasons not to use it.

Even now, Print Replica is not great in the Kindle apps: does not support dark mode, does not support facing pages in landscape, no TTS or well functioning accessibility. But I think that's because they have not been widely encountered by users until now. With uptick in usage there will be more reason to improve the functionality and performance.

I doubt Amazon will listen to us. But, wishful thinking.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Yes, I think so too.

Mhh, do they usually come as KF8? Have to investigate why my sideloaded KFX comic doesn't animate - maybe it is not officially supported. Sideloaded KFX print replica fools the Scribe into thinking it came from the store, and offers to view it there. Have not actually tried to see what error message I get when looking up a book without ASIN in the store.

That is what I thought as well, but the contrast setting in PDFs applies to text and images, unfortunately. It doesn't do it by making the text bolder, but by reducing the gamma. Text looks really nice, but images are so dark as to be unusable.

You mean AZW4, which is a PDF in a AZW container?

There is so many things you should be able to.
Please try, if you have speakers or headphones hooked up to your Scribe. I am not even sure where my BT headset is.


I doubt Amazon will listen to us. But, wishful thinking.

I realize now you were referring to contrast setting of PDF, which of course is not available for any Kindle Store books, it is just a feature of Kindle's PDF software (FoxIt engine I think). I did find that useful for some PDFs, but have not read PDFs on Kindle much lately and had completely forgotten the contrast feature existed.

AZW4 == print replica.

So I did try, but VoiceView does not work with Print Replica documents as of now, since you cannot select anything, and the Start reading gesture does not not seem to be recognized. It does not work with PDFs either (the Kindles with TTS will read PDFs).

Amazon has been pretty good about accessibility features for Kindle platform. At least there's an opportunity to improve accessibility for Print Replica, since they seem to be making it more prominent.

[FierceDeityLink]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

In my case it lists as $52 on the bill, and that is still lower than the current sales price. So even if I could, I would still need to pay $20 extra to get the burgundy color. I will take the saving, especially since I am merely settling on prefered color rather than quality.

I am fairly sure that the black 64gb essentials bundle is the best value, oftentimes literally cheaper than others. It is that one unicorn Amazon throws as a bone to people like me that are numbers driven.

Thank you for the tip. Maybe I should hit CS up and ask for my 4 free months of KU. The essential bundles don't include that while all non bundle Scribes do.

Ended up going with this $12 case: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BN5N838R
It fits nicely. Both the Kindle and the pen are friction-fit which I prefer to using magnets, and the back has a nice rubber texture. But I can see the official case being nicer if you like going from case to caseless quickly.

[HLS]

Originally Posted by FierceDeityLink

Ended up going with this $12 case: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BN5N838R
It fits nicely. Both the Kindle and the pen are friction-fit which I prefer to using magnets, and the back has a nice rubber texture. But I can see the official case being nicer if you like going from case to caseless quickly.

My $17 case for Scribe is quite nice but I may use it for my Elipsa for the Elipsa included case is way too bulky. I got the $59 case for the Scribe yesterday and I like it regardless of the price tag. I like to have my ereader out of case when I read and it's easier with the kindle case for its all magnets. Don't have to wrestle it out of a snap in case