PRS-650 Questioning Sony PRS 650 abilitiy

[Hicham]

Hi guys,

I have a little little question, does sony prs 650 handle scanned pdf files? I want to get one but I want to be sure it handles these scanned files as I have lots of them for my college studies.
Would I still be able to take notes and make highlights with these scanned pdf files?
Thanks lots.

[sonyreaderfan]

This was discussed previously, I believe, when you asked first about buying Sony Reader for pdf. In summary, the PDFs can be reflowed so it works great if a document can be reflowed. In case of scanned documents, they can't be reflowed. So you have two choices for reading it. 1) Read it sideways for bigger text, but document will be split into two or three sections (like on a K3 if you have tried it out on that since you said you are selling it), or 2) use zoom and lock in portrait mode, but the text sizes will probably still be small. Neither option is ideal for scanned pdf. If I have to read scanned PDF constantly, I would get a big screen ereader. A kindle DX might be useful, but that's not for me because a PDF is just a static document on it and you can't annotate on it. I would get a iPad and buy a PDF reader app that allows you to annotate on the pdf.

[Hicham]

Originally Posted by sonyreaderfan

This was discussed previously, I believe, when you asked first about buying Sony Reader for pdf. In summary, the PDFs can be reflowed so it works great if a document can be reflowed. In case of scanned documents, they can't be reflowed. So you have two choices for reading it. 1) Read it sideways for bigger text, but document will be split into two or three sections (like on a K3 if you have tried it out on that since you said you are selling it), or 2) use zoom and lock in portrait mode, but the text sizes will probably still be small. Neither option is ideal for scanned pdf. If I have to read scanned PDF constantly, I would get a big screen ereader. A kindle DX might be useful, but that's not for me because a PDF is just a static document on it and you can't annotate on it. I would get a iPad and buy a PDF reader app that allows you to annotate on the pdf.

Hi, thanks for the answer. with the kindle 3 I have now its impossible to read scanned pdf files, and thats why I am thinking seriously to sell it and get a sony 650. I know You didnt answer my question to that if I can take notes and highlight on a scanned pdf file.
Thanks lots for your guidance.

[Rizla]

Get some good OCR software and scan the scanned pdfs to text, then convert the result to epub using calibre. How successful it is has a lot to do with how complex the pdf isn't.

But you probably better with an ipad.

[sonyreaderfan]

Yes, you can take notes and highlight on PDFs. You can highlight and take notes on any type of documents displayed. However there is a big limitation on taking notes on scanned pdf (but not on epubs or pdfs that can be reflowed). You can only take notes while the page is displayed in the original format, because it's like writing notes on a picture. So if you have zooming level set up, taking notes will put the page into the original size. You can take notes while the page is displayed in landscape mode however. It still has to be in original size. So if you're using margin cut view, the document has to revert to original page view. Of course if you're viewing the document using reflow (e.g. making the text size bigger), you don't have to go to the original size (because technically, the page is in the original size. You're just making the text sizes bigger).

Btw, on what Rizla said, if your documents are scanned using OCR software (in general if the document is word-searchable), the documents can be reflowed. If the document isn't content-searchable, it can't be reflowed.

[UpSpin]

take a look at a thread I created a few weeks ago:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=129179

I use it to read PDF files only. I don't own eBooks and won't buy any.
I use it as a PDF viewer to read scanned science books or Nature PDF articles on the way, outside in the sun, or just at home, so I don't have to hold a heavy book all the time or carry it with me.

The PDF Viewer has, compared to a viewer on a PC, a limited set of features but displays everything perfectly fine. It's fast and works.

I scan a book with the best quality possible and save the pages as image files, then optimize those with Photoshop to get a good contrast ratio, real blacks and real whites, and finally create the PDF file with Acrobat and OCR them with ClearScan. That way the file size gets reduced dramatically, the font gets converted to vectors, AND it does not destroy equations or mathematical expressions and you can search the document. So it's the best technology for science books I've seen yet. In the last step I have to crop the pages to remove not necessary margin and optimize it for the Sony Reader.

I read those scanned books in landscape mode to get a large comfortable font size. In portrait mode some books are readable pretty well, too.

But you have to optimize your books!! If you don't do it, it gets hard to read them. You can zoom in later, but only in a very limited way.

There are also some reading modes. If I want to read a Nature article stored as two or three column PDF file then I can select two or three column reading mode which works pretty well in portrait mode.

I can highlight, select and translate words in the PDF files flawlessly, add ink notes (but the pen isn't that great to write anything, rather underlining only), add page marks (ink or text).

If you have other questions, want more images of the PDF viewer, or if you want a screenshot of how a PDF book you have looks like on the Sony Reader, then just attach a page of this PDF file to your post and I'll make a few screenshots.


PS: A lot of people mention PDF reflow:
If you use science books, it just doesn't work. It does not support mathematical expressions. It works, maybe, if it's text only. But what book has text only? :-)

[Hicham]

Originally Posted by UpSpin

take a look at a thread I created a few weeks ago:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=129179

I use it to read PDF files only. I don't own eBooks and won't buy any.
I use it as a PDF viewer to read scanned science books or Nature PDF articles on the way, outside in the sun, or just at home, so I don't have to hold a heavy book all the time or carry it with me.

The PDF Viewer has, compared to a viewer on a PC, a limited set of features but displays everything perfectly fine. It's fast and works.

I scan a book with the best quality possible and save the pages as image files, then optimize those with Photoshop to get a good contrast ratio, real blacks and real whites, and finally create the PDF file with Acrobat and OCR them with ClearScan. That way the file size gets reduced dramatically, the font gets converted to vectors, AND it does not destroy equations or mathematical expressions and you can search the document. So it's the best technology for science books I've seen yet. In the last step I have to crop the pages to remove not necessary margin and optimize it for the Sony Reader.

I read those scanned books in landscape mode to get a large comfortable font size. In portrait mode some books are readable pretty well, too.

But you have to optimize your books!! If you don't do it, it gets hard to read them. You can zoom in later, but only in a very limited way.

There are also some reading modes. If I want to read a Nature article stored as two or three column PDF file then I can select two or three column reading mode which works pretty well in portrait mode.

I can highlight, select and translate words in the PDF files flawlessly, add ink notes (but the pen isn't that great to write anything, rather underlining only), add page marks (ink or text).

If you have other questions, want more images of the PDF viewer, or if you want a screenshot of how a PDF book you have looks like on the Sony Reader, then just attach a page of this PDF file to your post and I'll make a few screenshots.


PS: A lot of people mention PDF reflow:
If you use science books, it just doesn't work. It does not support mathematical expressions. It works, maybe, if it's text only. But what book has text only? :-)

Hallo, das ist sehr nett von dir! your answer is so good, many thanks indeed, you provided lots of good infos. Grüße aus Freiburg, Deutschland.