Touch Rooting Nook Touch for a better PDF viewer?

[huma79]

I'm considering getting a Nook Touch, but the lack of a good PDF viewer in it is a real turn off for me, especially the lack of reflow. Is it possible to root the Nook Touch and install an Android app like ezPDF for viewing PDF's? Has anyone tried this and what are the results?

I have a Sony PRS-350 which does reflow decently - would ezPDF be comparable?

[varelov]

Yet another eReader that is incapable of proper pdf display. Yawn...
It almost becomes insulting how they train us, their customers, to lower our expectations. I am yet to see a single ebook eink reader that does even half decent job with pdf's.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by varelov

Yet another eReader that is incapable of proper pdf display. Yawn...
It almost becomes insulting how they train us, their customers, to lower our expectations. I am yet to see a single ebook eink reader that does even half decent job with pdf's.

Well, PDF is a non-reflowable format, what do you expect when you try to squeeze an 11x8.5 into 6" diagonal? PDF is supported in these devices because marketing dictates it needs to. Unless the PDF is formatted for this screen size, it's an exercise in futility. I saw how horrible PDFs were on the nook original, I haven't even loaded one on the touch, it's not what I got it for. I read my technical PDFs on the laptop.

[spyrule]

The Touch does PDF reflow really well straight out of the box. The font sizes available, however, are kinda strange. Either too big or too small but never just right, imho. You can't highlight or note yet—hopefully they'll ad features soon though.

I tried ezPDFReader, and it works nearly perfectly. Though, as the app is intended for smartphones that tend to support, say, pinching, some the features don't work as expected. After enabling reflow of a pdf, for example, if you double tap to zoom, then do it again and again, you'll notice that there is no way to zoom back out. Only two commands can zoom back out; a two-fingered double-tap, or a pinch out. So the only way to get it back to a readable size is to exit back to the menu and reload it.

If you don't need to highlight, bookmark, note, etc., a pdf, then the built-in viewer is the better of the two.

Hope that helps!

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by spyrule

If you don't need to highlight, bookmark, note, etc., a pdf, then the built-in viewer is the better of the two.

Hope that helps!

or you need to read Adobe DRM PDF, still a common offering with libraries.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by huma79

I'm considering getting a Nook Touch, but the lack of a good PDF viewer in it is a real turn off for me, especially the lack of reflow. Is it possible to root the Nook Touch and install an Android app like ezPDF for viewing PDF's? Has anyone tried this and what are the results?

I have a Sony PRS-350 which does reflow decently - would ezPDF be comparable?

Any reason why you need an eink reader for PDfs? Because if you can really afford two devices, I better recommend you a 10" tablet for PDFs only. I don't believe 6" screen is big enough for a PDF document.

[huma79]

Originally Posted by spyrule

The Touch does PDF reflow really well straight out of the box. The font sizes available, however, are kinda strange. Either too big or too small but never just right, imho. You can't highlight or note yet—hopefully they'll ad features soon though.

I tried ezPDFReader, and it works nearly perfectly. Though, as the app is intended for smartphones that tend to support, say, pinching, some the features don't work as expected. After enabling reflow of a pdf, for example, if you double tap to zoom, then do it again and again, you'll notice that there is no way to zoom back out. Only two commands can zoom back out; a two-fingered double-tap, or a pinch out. So the only way to get it back to a readable size is to exit back to the menu and reload it.

If you don't need to highlight, bookmark, note, etc., a pdf, then the built-in viewer is the better of the two.

Hope that helps!

That's exactly what I wanted to know, thanks a lot! I *do* need to do a lot of highlighting though, so it sounds like ezPDF would be better for me. I dont think I would be doing much zooming in on reflowed text or images anyway.

Since I do need to read a lot of files in PDF format, i've considered getting a proper tablet, however I'd like to go with e-ink mainly for two reasons: cost, and the fact that I can rest my eyes since I stare at a backlit LCD screen anyway for most of the day. I may go for the Sony PRS-950 since it's so large, especially in landscape mode.

[anamardoll]

About half of my library is PDF (don't ask, lol), and the Sony 950 is now my device of choice for those. The price tag is steep, but it's worth it imho. I found one for $200 at Best Buy, but if it broke tomorrow (and if I lost my extended warranty, ha), I'd rebuy from Sony for $300.

I'm getting WAY too much heat for pimping the Sony 950 for PDFs on the B&N forum, so I'll just say PM me if you'd like to talk more. (Although my personal feelings are that if I pay for a device, I can gripe about its shortcomings all I want. )

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by huma79

That's exactly what I wanted to know, thanks a lot! I *do* need to do a lot of highlighting though, so it sounds like ezPDF would be better for me. I dont think I would be doing much zooming in on reflowed text or images anyway.

Since I do need to read a lot of files in PDF format, i've considered getting a proper tablet, however I'd like to go with e-ink mainly for two reasons: cost, and the fact that I can rest my eyes since I stare at a backlit LCD screen anyway for most of the day. I may go for the Sony PRS-950 since it's so large, especially in landscape mode.

On that case, I suggest taking a look on the Kindle DXG. If what you need is highliting , will serve you well. Trust me, reading on 10 inch screen is better than 6 or 7. The DXG still is eink and is better on PDFs than Nook Touch. Moreover, you don't need to hack anything, it just works out of the box. It is also lighter than and iPad or Xoom.

Again, for a better PDf reading experience I think a tablet is the way to go, but if you don't need a lot of PDF editing capabilities, the DXG is more comfortable for your eyes than any 6 inch screen.

[EldRick]

The DX software has never been updated to match the K3, and its PDF software is buggier than an anthill.

I had several PDF documents that would lock up the DX when opened, before I returned it to Amazon.

Try before you buy - IMHO, the DX' PDF software is not an improvement over the NT.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by EldRick

The DX software has never been updated to match the K3, and its PDF software is buggier than an anthill.
I had several PDF documents that would lock up the DX when opened, before I returned it to Amazon.
Try before you buy - IMHO, the DX' PDF software is not an improvement over the NT.

The software has not been updated like Kindle 3 but its not buggy. I have never had major issues with it. Yes, some users had problems opening complex and large PDF documents but its because the file itself. Remember, PDFs are not ebooks. Regardless, if you're having issues opening a PDF on DXG, there is a chance you have tables, graphics, etc, son won't fit or display properly on most eink devices anyway.

[tomsem]

Maybe we should take up a collection here and give B&N a commission to develop the PDF features we all need and want. I'll put in $5.

[toolong]

Read a computer science paper on the nook using a sideloaded adobe pdf viewer. The paper was completely unreadable using the builtin viewer. Adobe pdf viewer could reflow it in a useful manner and showed all of the diagrams. The downside is that it occasionally crashes (ie if one zooms around too much, probably due to the nook only having 256mb of ram?), other than that it works great.

[montag11]

This is a compete noob question but how would I load ezPDF or Adobe PDF onto the Nook STR? Thanks -- I'm a little in the dark here and really bought this b/c I wanted a nice portable way of reading pdfs. iPhone and Pod Touch do fine w/ EPUB and PDB.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by montag11

This is a compete noob question but how would I load ezPDF or Adobe PDF onto the Nook STR? Thanks -- I'm a little in the dark here and really bought this b/c I wanted a nice portable way of reading pdfs. iPhone and Pod Touch do fine w/ EPUB and PDB.

You would have to root the device and install the market app (with the associated libraries). Once you have the market, you can download the PDF app.