903 PocketBook Pro 902/903

[jekvb]

Originally Posted by adrhc

Now I would like some similar pictures but taken with a DSLR (aperture F9) . I still think that PB has really gray fonts with both viewers (Adobe, PDFviewer) but to be convinced I need a crystal clean image.

I asked my wife if she 's willing to take some photo's with her Nikon DSLR. She 'll do that tomorrow. With aperture F8, since F9 doesn't exist.

Originally Posted by adrhc

Q2: is it possible to do something to make the fonts darker in PDF and not damaging the formatting (I think this would be equivalent with not using file conversion)

As far as a I know it is not possible to make fonts any darker then they show.

[adrhc]

@rkomar

PB90x and PRS 505 are also identical when reading technical PDFs ?

You might try this one if you don't use technical PDFs:
http://www.springsource.org/documentation
After the page opening near the text "Spring 2.5 to 3.0 Upgrade Guide" you'll see the link for the PDF to test. It's a technical pdf document, something with java.

[adrhc]

@jekvb
F8 is ok so I'll wait .

Q3: Is it possible to add new fonts on PB90x ?
Q4: Is it possible to add new kindle's fonts on PB90x ?

[jekvb]

Hello adrc,
bad news: I am not able to make a reliable photographic representation of the e-readers' pages. When I compare the color, brightness and contrast of the e-paper background and the blackness of the fonts on the photographs with the real e-reader there is a huge difference.
Maybe it is the bad weather here, with its extreme cloudiness. The aperture F8 does not combine very well with a shutterspeed of 1/125 at 200 ASA.
It wouldn't be fair to the Pocketbook 902/903 to put these pictures here.

[adrhc]

@jekvb

It wouldn't be fair to the Pocketbook 902/903 to put these pictures here.

Good point, I don't want that either. Anyway, try to take the pictures when there is enough sun light out there and no clouds. Don't shade the device -> that would make it blue . Shutter speed of 1/125 should be fine if you hold as better as possible the camera still.

[jekvb]

Originally Posted by adrhc

@jekvb

Anyway, try to take the pictures when there is enough sun light out there and no clouds.

I will. For the next few days there is quite some rain expected here, so it may take some time...

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by adrhc

PB90x and PRS 505 are also identical when reading technical PDFs ?

I should first point out that my PB 902 is running an older version of the firmware (2.0.4), so it's possible that newer versions will produce better results.

The 902 has twice the screen area of the 505, so it can render the characters larger (which helps a lot). If I put the 505 in landscape mode and the 902 in portrait mode, then the widths of the screens are similar. Comparing the same Latex-generated PDF file, it looks like the rendering on the 505 is slightly darker than on the 902. The fonts are tiny, though, so it isn't easy to read on either one. Using the 902 in landscape mode makes it much easier to read the PDF file.

Knowing how PDF files work, I don't think you can just replace one font with another when drawing. The characters are placed precisely in positions that give a nice result for the particular font specified in the document. Rendering with a different font will produce ugly spacing (and even overlapping) between the characters. If you want to use a different font, you have to rebuild the whole PDF from source to get the character spacing (i.e. kerning) right. That's why you don't generally see an option to use different fonts in PDF viewers.

Fonts used in PDFs are generally optimized for ink on paper (i.e. high resolution and contrast). Hence, PDFs rendered on current E-Ink technology are usually difficult to read unless they have been created specifically for such devices. I don't think there is any E-Ink reader out there now that can do a really good job of rendering technical PDF documents. We have to wait for higher resolution and contrast E-Ink technology. For me personally, I can tolerate reading letter-sized PDFs on my 902 in landscape mode, but I definitely get more eye-strain than when reading an EPUB version of the same file.

I don't have a good digital camera, but I took a few 'pictures' of my 902 on my scanner at 600 dpi resolution. The colours in the scans don't look right on my monitor (the background is darker in the images), but it gives a good idea of how the characters are rendered. I took a scan of an EPUB for comparison, and a Latex-generated PDF and an O'Reilly PDF both in portrait and landscape modes. You can download it from: http://www3.telus.net/rkomar/PB902-scans.tgz, but be warned that the file is about 50 MB in size.

Edit: I should note that I used AdobeViewer for all the scans.

[adrhc]

@rkomar
First, a lot !

Clarification: when I ask about PB90x and PRS 505 as being similar I'm only interested about tones (how much dark or gray).

I don't think there is any E-Ink reader out there now that can do a really good job of rendering technical PDF documents.

Kindle 3 has a function (only for PDFs) that allow someone to darken the fonts (I'm not comparing the other capabilities for handling PDFs, I'm only interested in tones). Is it possible something similar for PB90x ? That function is really great.

Edit: I should note that I used AdobeViewer for all the scans.

I don't understand what do you mean ? You want to say that you used AdobeViewer for scanning ?

What is the percent when viewing these image to use for showing PB90x at it's real size ? As if you have a big monitor and if you'd put your PB over the image would be a perfect match (or almost perfect) .

[rkomar]

The background grey is about the same on both devices. The PDF fonts look darker on the 505, but they seem to be more bold as opposed to having a darker black on the device.

I made the scans of PDFs viewed using AdobeViewer on the 902. I didn't make any scans of PDFs viewed with pdfviewer.

The scans were made at 600 dpi (dots per inch), so that should give you a rough idea of size of what you're looking at. The PB 902 is about 10.5 inches tall and 8.5 inches wide. The E-Ink screen is roughly 8 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide. (1 inch = 25.4 mm) Unfortunately, my scanner scans at slightly different resolutions in the X and Y directions, so the images tend to show things as being skinnier than they really are. I'm not sure which direction is actually closer to 600 dpi.

[dstb]

Thank you, Rkomar & Jekvb! You're helping me too with your answers & photo tests! Best wishes!

[adrhc]

Originally Posted by adrhc

@rkomar
First, a lot !
...
What is the percent when viewing these image to use for showing PB90x at it's real size ? As if you have a big monitor and if you'd put your PB over the image would be a perfect match (or almost perfect) .

It seems that the percent to use is 15%. Should be about 15.2% but with ACDSEE I can use only integer numbers.

[paola]

Originally Posted by adrhc

Q3: Is it possible to add new fonts on PB90x ?
Q4: Is it possible to add new kindle's fonts on PB90x ?

oh yes, plenty of them - as for the Kindle fonts, as far as I now Caecilia is propietary, but Lexia DaMa is very similar, and free - if you search for the "font" threads you'll find plenty of info on this.

[adrhc]

@Jekvb

Originally Posted by jekvb

You 'll find your answers right here........
http://koolstraat.org/ebooks/Pocketbook.tar.gz

The filenames refer to the program that is rendering the pdf. I have made the pictures outside in the garden, so one of them is somewhat blueish. Hope you don't mind. Total filesize as a .tar.gz is 12 MB.
The file will be there till tonight 24:00 o'clock.

Regards,

The share is no longer available there (I have it at home but I tried to take it at job).

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by adrhc

It seems that the percent to use is 15%. Should be about 15.2% but with ACDSEE I can use only integer numbers.

It really depends on how your computer display is set up (what the screen resolution is and what the physical dimensions of the screen are).

The colours you see in the image will also depend on how you set up the brightness, contrast, "warmth",... of your monitor. The scanner I used also introduces colour and size aberrations. There's no way you're going to look at those images and see what colours I see when I look at my actual PB 902. However, you can get a good idea of how the fonts are rendered, and that was my purpose for providing the images in high resolution. You can see how the thin fonts in the PDFs produce a lot of antialiasing, and thus fading, of the characters.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by paola

oh yes, plenty of them - as for the Kindle fonts, as far as I now Caecilia is propietary, but Lexia DaMa is very similar, and free - if you search for the "font" threads you'll find plenty of info on this.

I'm not sure if this has changed in recent firmware versions, but at least with 2.0.4, AdobeViewer does not recognize any fonts added to the system afterwards. The other viewing applications don't have this problem, though.

I have to say that PocketBook did a very good job making their devices customizable by us users without having to get root privileges. There is no need for the equivalent of Duokan or PRS+ because the system is already set up to allow the addition of new fonts, applications, dictionaries, software keyboard layouts,... There is even an SDK to allow the development of arbitrary applications by users. I am very pleased with this aspect of my PB reader.