cheap portable device for reading text pdf's

[nana77]

I'd tried to make this pics, as comparison the size of the text into the last document is less than 10: it's 8 or 9.
The 3rd image is using the devige in landscape, it spits the document (A4) in -less than-half.
https://imgur.com/a/PZfgUyq
Personally I would prefer in landscape and using the buttons instead of scrolling, or directly in portraid it's quite legible imho. The scrolling itself it's sure not the super fastest. Pics are not the best, too.

Edit: tried two pics in daylight, https://imgur.com/a/enBnF7A

[Renate]

Have you considered transforming the PDFs to straight text? Then you have reflow and you can set the font/spacing/etc trivially. Then even a cheap phone in landscape would be good enough.

[brehon]

Originally Posted by nana77

I'd tried to make this pics, as comparison the size of the text into the last document is less than 10: it's 8 or 9.
The 3rd image is using the devige in landscape, it spits the document (A4) in -less than-half.
https://imgur.com/a/PZfgUyq
Personally I would prefer in landscape and using the buttons instead of scrolling, or directly in portraid it's quite legible imho. The scrolling itself it's sure not the super fastest. Pics are not the best, too.

Edit: tried two pics in daylight, https://imgur.com/a/enBnF7A

Thanks, I'm pretty amazed that fonts are so sharp on your device. Of course jpeg compression and viewing on LCD monitor doesn't give the actual picture but I can at least see the scale.

Originally Posted by Renate

Have you considered transforming the PDFs to straight text? Then you have reflow and you can set the font/spacing/etc trivially. Then even a cheap phone in landscape would be good enough.

Actually that's what I'm sometimes doing when using my normal phone. I can reflow using basic pdf apps like MoonReader+.

But I found that opening pdf in MS Word (or converting to opt/docx using certain online services which are probably using MS office for conversion) gives best results when it comes to maintaining document structure. Those doc files can be even modified slightly, sometimes it's possible to change font or size a bit without damaging document itself. Then I can either open them natively on my reader or re-convert back to pdf or other format.

Anyway not only my phone screen has smaller screen than listed devices(including in landscape) but there's also horrible glare and reflections all over the place. And I was wondering on broad daylight usage, hence I'm considering E-Ink over LCD(including NXtpaper).

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by brehon

Yes, I was considering Kindle Scribe as my bigger device but this whole debacle with converting files using Amazon services drives me off.

Scribes read PDF natively just fine, so no need to convert or go through Amazon unless you specifically want to write directly on them.

[brehon]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

Scribes read PDF natively just fine, so no need to convert or go through Amazon unless you specifically want to write directly on them.

I've read that converting to KFX format allows for several benefits.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by brehon

I've read that converting to KFX format allows for several benefits.

Negatives
* Does nothing for annotating PDFs vs other platforms.
* Doesn't always work properly
* Adds having to use WiFi/Internet twice or four times!
* Poorer for environment
* Gives Amazon a copy.

Positives
* Allows annotation on Kindle Scribe (no other Win/Mac/Linux/ Android/iOS annotation program or ereader needs a "cloud" connection or conversion).

What other benefit has it?

PDF margins can be cropped, OCR layers can be extracted, image based PDFs can be reduced in size... A wide variety of tools and some ereaders & apps & programs have them built in.

PDFs are especially designed for a particular page size at format/design time and to be viewed or printed. It's one of the worst formats to convert. The only successful Amazon "conversions" simply add a wrapper of Amazon DRM with the actual PDF inside.

The way the Amazon and the Scribe use PDFs (misuse) is an attempt to take control, have your documents and create a walled garden, It's worse than Sony DPT or the reMarkable.

Okular is one of the best PDF programs on Linux. Summatra on Windows. Pocketbook App (reading) on Android and Nebo is best for annotation on iOS & Android.

The PDF native reader on Elipsa (crop built in now), Sony DPT and reMarkable allow annotation and that adds a layer that can extracted. They do not require an Internet connection or someone else's server (that's what the Cloud is).

However I've found that 14" is a minimum size to read all PDFs. The Scribe isn't big enough for many and the Elipsa and reMarkable are slightly poorer resolution. The colour Onyx 10″ is much poorer resolution and very dark.

[Frogm4n]

[delete]

[nana77]

I forgot to say that for PDFs, on ereaders, while using portrait or half-page in landscape, using the page-buttons doesn't scrolls the screen, but advances as turning the pages (I was giving that implied and not explained). Also you can fit the text basing on horizontal's or vertical's page.

[Bookchin]

That NXTPAPER 14 looks interesting. It seems the matte anti-reflective treatment is well done and looks like it doesn't mute colors or introduce much graininess.

Is there a pen available for it?

The best implemented matte treatment I've come across so far (without seeing the device in person) is the Huawei MatePad Pro : https://youtu.be/cIkrjAfBUCk?si=J56lObsYaFgpLdj_

[Quoth]

Yes, the nxtpaper 14 usually comes with a pen & cover. I bought Nebo for my Nxtpaper 10 & Nxtpaper 14.

It's as good as eink with the front light on. Either is far superior to Elipsa or reMarkable (I gave both of those away). The 14 is better for PDFs (2:3 aspect and 14.25″), but the 10 is nicer as a notepad (not annotating), being about 10:16 aspect and 10.9″. Also the 10 has the SD card slot and the 14 has not. The 11 pro is completely different to 11, but the 14 pro is hardly different to 14.

I was so pleased I got a Nxtpaper phone (there are a confusing variety). All 3 are OK in direct sunlight and sharp. Early Nxtpaper wasn't bright enough. Some models use OLED and some LCD. LCD allows longer display life and greater brightness. Decent LCDs have suitably dark blacks, and are still "black" in dim conditions if you turn the brightness down. I'd only use "Auto" outdoors. It tends to be too bright and too unstable indoors.
Also looks best with sRGB mode and all NxtPaper gimicks turned off!