Kindle 3 Large Pdfs

asabz · 09-11-2010, 10:40 PM

I am thinking of getting the kindle to read a lot of academic papers for uni. How does kindle handle large pdfs? Can you navigate them effectively? How do footnotes show up? I've heard the kindle dx is the one to go for with the larger screen but the price is too high for me.

Thanks for your info.

desertgrandma · 09-11-2010, 10:53 PM

I'm interested in the answer to this also.

Bad Astronaut · 09-12-2010, 02:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asabz

I am thinking of getting the kindle to read a lot of academic papers for uni. How does kindle handle large pdfs? Can you navigate them effectively? How do footnotes show up? I've heard the kindle dx is the one to go for with the larger screen but the price is too high for me.

Thanks for your info.

I have the K3 and I read a lot of academic papers, but I do NOT read them on the Kindle. It's very painful due to the small screen and slow scrolling. Footnotes and diagrams are there but it's tedious to navigate. Also, the text is not that easy to read because it doesn't use the Kindle's native fonts - it's more like viewing a photo of the paper. To read PDFs you really need something with a screen close to 8.5x11". Maybe an iPad or a Kindle DX as you mentioned.

I highly recommend the Kindle for reading books, but I just as strongly unrecommend it for PDFs.

Bratzzo · 09-12-2010, 05:22 AM

Hi,

the first day I got the Kindle 3, I had tested the daily newspaper as pdf. The file was about 20MB and contains a lot of photos and text.

The page turn was so slow, I don't know if the Kindle crashes or if it is still turning.

So I decided not to read such pdf files on my Kindle.

Bratzzo

HarryT · 09-12-2010, 05:33 AM

The Kindle 3 makes a very poor PDF reader in that it doesn't support any kind of reflow, as most other devices do. You can zoom in on a page of a PDF and then pan around it, but that's a rather tortuous way of reading.

You'd be better off getting either the large-screen Kindle DX, or one of the many 6" readers which do support reflow (of which the BeBook Neo/Onyx Book 60 has one of the best implementations).

bluemoonjules · 09-12-2010, 05:35 AM

You can also convert pdf files to MOBI using Calibre software - you may have to fiddle with the settings to make them more readable.

Nick Singh · 09-12-2010, 05:41 AM

A 6 inch reader is not really the best option to read techincal PDFs.

I read a lot of Programming PDFs, so I need to keep the original format and layout (no reflow).

I currently use the Sony PRS 505, which is a 6 inch screen like the new kindle 3, but I crop the pages to remove the header, footer and margins. I take the edited PDF and process via pdflrfwin.exe which automatically remove any remain excessive margins.
The resulting output is readable on the PRS 505, but about on average 70% in size of the hardcopy version of the book.

I have a friend whom purchased a Kindle 3 and asked him to test a techical pdf. I did process the techincal pdf to remove unwanted space (header, footer, margins and move subtitles etc).

The kindle 3 did display the context quite well in landscape mode and did autosize to remove any remaining white space (margin etc.) , but I been informed this feature does depends upon your PDF document.

IMHO the kindle DX is the better option, but is not the most cost effective option.

The best PDF reader for portable use is a netbook. You can get a decent 2nd hand netbook for half the cost of a Kindle DX, but battery life can be an issue for some users.

Yes I also have a netbook which I use to read PDFs, but I use the Sony PRS 505 on public transport when traveling to work or when my netbook is charging.

tomsem · 09-12-2010, 12:07 PM

I find it works adequately for some material, especially if you crop the margins/headers/footers before putting it on Kindle (using any of a number of tools).

I find that I'm able to easily read most PDFs formatted for book-sized pages in portrait mode, and those formatted for letter-size pages in landscape.

In portrait mode, K3 is supposed to display the full page, but it will occasionally cut off the bottom line or two and I have to zoom to read it. It's an annoying bug, hopefully Amazon will fix it at some point.

Tech · 09-12-2010, 04:42 PM

The Kindle reads large, image heavy A4 PDFs very fast (just like my MBP w/ SSD). I'm impressed with the performance. To reading experience is not that good. Switching to landscape, zooming and scrolling - it's a hassle. Good for looking up stuff, but not for reading.

Tested books: "Pathfinder Core Rulebook" and "1601-1700, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 4th Edition"

lost66615 · 09-12-2010, 05:10 PM

i have the kdx and use pdf a lot magazines and uni books if converting to mobi will not convert the pictures it takes a while to load pdfs in and u can adjust the text in pdfs i have no problems read pdfs

asabz · 09-12-2010, 08:40 PM

Thanks for the info. I guess I am yet again going to hold back on e readers, until the larger ones drop in price

Zerodime · 09-13-2010, 04:37 AM

Hm, for a different opinion:
I'm using my Kindle 3 for reading Dungeons & Dragons 4 Books.
These babys are 65MB of graphic-heavy / funny text-formating books.
I still love my Kindle to death ^_^
Page turning is very fast (in my opinion), zoomed-reading is "ok" not "perfect" and it works best with selectable text (not badly scanned pdfs).

vyiciu · 09-13-2010, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Singh

I currently use the Sony PRS 505, which is a 6 inch screen like the new kindle 3, but I crop the pages to remove the header, footer and margins. I take the edited PDF and process via pdflrfwin.exe which automatically remove any remain excessive margins.

May I ask what program you use to crop the header/footer and margins? I have a lot of books which I manually scanned to pdf files. I can use Preview.app on my Mac to do batch cropping, but since it is very hard to have all the pages centered exactly the same when manually scanning books, I can only trim away a bit at the edges when batch cropping, and manually cropping every single page would be too tiring a task. Is there any software out there that can automatically detect white margins and crop them out?

odfi · 09-13-2010, 08:03 AM

personnaly I use briss to crop book (like d&d or other role playing game book), it works well, but the kindle3 doesn't provide a good way to zoom (only fixed zoom 150%, 200 or 300 %..
a zoom that can be tweak like 110, 115%, 120 130% .. will be appreciate)

so for now.. reading this kind of book stay difficult and not pleasant for me..

If someone find how to get better result for croping and reading this page on kindle3 will be helpfull..

Edmundton Euler · 09-13-2010, 09:01 AM

You may be able to create a reasonably good looking PDF by exporting all the pages from the document into images and using Scan Tailor to get rid of the margins, and if it is in grayscale, convert it to monotone.

So to sum up the work flow:
1. Adobe Reader: Export to PNG, JPG, or TIFF (preferably something that isn't too lossy)
2. Use Scan Tailor to tweak everything, the program is self explanatory.
3. Again, use Adobe Acrobat to bundle the Scan Tailor Output to PDF, or if you have a PDF virtual printer, that will work too.

09-11-2010, 10:40 PM	#1
asabz Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Vancouver Device: none	Kindle 3 Large Pdfs I am thinking of getting the kindle to read a lot of academic papers for uni. How does kindle handle large pdfs? Can you navigate them effectively? How do footnotes show up? I've heard the kindle dx is the one to go for with the larger screen but the price is too high for me. Thanks for your info. Last edited by asabz; 09-11-2010 at 10:50 PM.

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09-11-2010, 10:53 PM	#2
desertgrandma Enjoying the show.... Posts: 14,270 Karma: 10462843 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Device: A K1, Kindle Paperwhite, an Ipod, IPad2, Iphone, an Ipad Mini & macAir	I'm interested in the answer to this also.

09-12-2010, 05:22 AM	#4
Bratzzo Addict Posts: 342 Karma: 533558 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: WOB / Germany Device: Kindle	Hi, the first day I got the Kindle 3, I had tested the daily newspaper as pdf. The file was about 20MB and contains a lot of photos and text. The page turn was so slow, I don't know if the Kindle crashes or if it is still turning. So I decided not to read such pdf files on my Kindle. Bratzzo

09-12-2010, 05:33 AM	#5
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	The Kindle 3 makes a very poor PDF reader in that it doesn't support any kind of reflow, as most other devices do. You can zoom in on a page of a PDF and then pan around it, but that's a rather tortuous way of reading. You'd be better off getting either the large-screen Kindle DX, or one of the many 6" readers which do support reflow (of which the BeBook Neo/Onyx Book 60 has one of the best implementations).

09-12-2010, 05:35 AM	#6
bluemoonjules Connoisseur Posts: 52 Karma: 64 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle 3G	You can also convert pdf files to MOBI using Calibre software - you may have to fiddle with the settings to make them more readable.

09-12-2010, 05:41 AM	#7
Nick Singh Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: PRS500	A 6 inch reader is not really the best option to read techincal PDFs. I read a lot of Programming PDFs, so I need to keep the original format and layout (no reflow). I currently use the Sony PRS 505, which is a 6 inch screen like the new kindle 3, but I crop the pages to remove the header, footer and margins. I take the edited PDF and process via pdflrfwin.exe which automatically remove any remain excessive margins. The resulting output is readable on the PRS 505, but about on average 70% in size of the hardcopy version of the book. I have a friend whom purchased a Kindle 3 and asked him to test a techical pdf. I did process the techincal pdf to remove unwanted space (header, footer, margins and move subtitles etc). The kindle 3 did display the context quite well in landscape mode and did autosize to remove any remaining white space (margin etc.) , but I been informed this feature does depends upon your PDF document. IMHO the kindle DX is the better option, but is not the most cost effective option. The best PDF reader for portable use is a netbook. You can get a decent 2nd hand netbook for half the cost of a Kindle DX, but battery life can be an issue for some users. Yes I also have a netbook which I use to read PDFs, but I use the Sony PRS 505 on public transport when traveling to work or when my netbook is charging.

09-12-2010, 12:07 PM	#8
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,905 Karma: 27013865 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	I find it works adequately for some material, especially if you crop the margins/headers/footers before putting it on Kindle (using any of a number of tools). I find that I'm able to easily read most PDFs formatted for book-sized pages in portrait mode, and those formatted for letter-size pages in landscape. In portrait mode, K3 is supposed to display the full page, but it will occasionally cut off the bottom line or two and I have to zoom to read it. It's an annoying bug, hopefully Amazon will fix it at some point.

09-12-2010, 04:42 PM	#9
Tech Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Kindle 3 3G+Wifi	The Kindle reads large, image heavy A4 PDFs very fast (just like my MBP w/ SSD). I'm impressed with the performance. To reading experience is not that good. Switching to landscape, zooming and scrolling - it's a hassle. Good for looking up stuff, but not for reading. Tested books: "Pathfinder Core Rulebook" and "1601-1700, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 4th Edition"

09-12-2010, 05:10 PM	#10
lost66615 Enthusiast Posts: 38 Karma: 134 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: ENGLAND Device: kindle dx	i have the kdx and use pdf a lot magazines and uni books if converting to mobi will not convert the pictures it takes a while to load pdfs in and u can adjust the text in pdfs i have no problems read pdfs

09-12-2010, 08:40 PM	#11
asabz Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Vancouver Device: none	Thanks for the info. I guess I am yet again going to hold back on e readers, until the larger ones drop in price

09-13-2010, 04:37 AM	#12
Zerodime Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 44 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Kindle3	Hm, for a different opinion: I'm using my Kindle 3 for reading Dungeons & Dragons 4 Books. These babys are 65MB of graphic-heavy / funny text-formating books. I still love my Kindle to death ^_^ Page turning is very fast (in my opinion), zoomed-reading is "ok" not "perfect" and it works best with selectable text (not badly scanned pdfs).

09-13-2010, 08:03 AM	#14
odfi Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: kindle 3	personnaly I use briss to crop book (like d&d or other role playing game book), it works well, but the kindle3 doesn't provide a good way to zoom (only fixed zoom 150%, 200 or 300 %.. a zoom that can be tweak like 110, 115%, 120 130% .. will be appreciate) so for now.. reading this kind of book stay difficult and not pleasant for me.. If someone find how to get better result for croping and reading this page on kindle3 will be helpfull..

09-13-2010, 09:01 AM	#15
Edmundton Euler Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle DX	You may be able to create a reasonably good looking PDF by exporting all the pages from the document into images and using Scan Tailor to get rid of the margins, and if it is in grayscale, convert it to monotone. So to sum up the work flow: 1. Adobe Reader: Export to PNG, JPG, or TIFF (preferably something that isn't too lossy) 2. Use Scan Tailor to tweak everything, the program is self explanatory. 3. Again, use Adobe Acrobat to bundle the Scan Tailor Output to PDF, or if you have a PDF virtual printer, that will work too.