PDF eBook

[MikeKing]

I am college student @ Uo Arizona and many of my books are Adobe PDF formatted. Are these files easy to convert? (My major is computer science/mathematics, so I wouldn't mind having to write code to convert files). If it is near impossible to convert these files (and I'm sure someone has tried by now) what reader would handle PDF format well? Is there a universal format most readers will be able to read without problem and displays correctly?

And the real question... Is this worth my time and money? I would love not to have to carry around huge text books all day.. but if this isn't a practical solution, someone stop me now.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by MikeKing

I am college student @ Uo Arizona and many of my books are Adobe PDF formatted. Are these files easy to convert? (My major is computer science/mathematics, so I wouldn't mind having to write code to convert files). If it is near impossible to convert these files (and I'm sure someone has tried by now) what reader would handle PDF format well? Is there a universal format most readers will be able to read without problem and displays correctly?

And the real question... Is this worth my time and money? I would love not to have to carry around huge text books all day.. but if this isn't a practical solution, someone stop me now.

Most eBook readers will read PDF (exception is the Kindle) but the ease of use and readability is often a problem. PDF is a page oriented format, like a paper book. The page is often too large to fit on the smaller eBook screen. You should check the size of the various pages that are used on the books you are interested in. If they are huge (like notebook paper size for example) then you will need a large screen to view them as a page. Really Large screen eBook readers are just appearing and they are very expensive. If you don't mind reading them 1/2 page at a time then the reader can be turned sideways and the iRex iLiad gives excellent results but it is fairly expensive as well.

The smaller 6" devices approach the problem different ways. The Sony uses reflow to view the page. That is it displays the text with reasonable sized fonts but rearranges it to fit the screen. This is ok for some books but probably not for physics books with lots of equations. You didn't say what kind of text books you have. The Cybook zooms in on the page and then you pan the page around on the screen. You can read this way and look something up but it is awkward for long term reading. Perhaps, as a reference in class it would work but when you got home you would need the paper book. Other solutions are even worse in that they can only zoom the page to 1/2 size and even then the text is usually too small to read easily.

Bottom line is that you can solve the problem with expensive units but otherwise you will have to determine if the compromise solutions are acceptable to you. By the way, if the book has large pictures then there is no easy way to see them as a full view with all the detail on a small screen.

Read the wiki on PDF for more details.

Dale

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by MikeKing

I am college student @ Uo Arizona and many of my books are Adobe PDF formatted. Are these files easy to convert? (My major is computer science/mathematics, so I wouldn't mind having to write code to convert files).

:-) And some of us code for a living, but PDF conversions aren't that simple.
There are a few ways to convert/read PDFs, but they all have different drawbacks.

Originally Posted by MikeKing

Is there a universal format most readers will be able to read without problem and displays correctly?

And the real question... Is this worth my time and money? I would love not to have to carry around huge text books all day.. but if this isn't a practical solution, someone stop me now.

The 'universal' format would be text with 7-bit Ascii, but most devices will handle things such as some level of HTML or RTF, however...

For your basic requirement, at the moment and until larger screens are a commercial reality (e.g. Plastic Logic?), I'd think that your best bet would be to look at a tablet/laptop/notebook/sub-notebook based solution - Asus Eee PC 900, if you can live with the short battery life, maybe?

[MikeKing]

Yeah, their mostly physics, and computer science books at the moment. That have quite a few diagrams as well =/. Anyways, thanks for the feedback. I've already got a laptop, but I'd prefer something easy to pull out in between classes that isn't very clunky in size, ect. If anyone else has any comments to make, I would love to hear them.

Thanks,
- Mike

[MikeKing]

Originally Posted by gwynevans

:-) And some of us code for a living, but PDF conversions aren't that simple.
There are a few ways to convert/read PDFs, but they all have different drawbacks.

Has anyone tried writing software that takes snapshots of each page, flips it 90 degrees and has a variable trim to cut off the white edges so all the pages can be viewed as image files? This would seem like the easiest solution to keep images and equations intact. I was looking through the conversion tools but was unable to find something like this.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by MikeKing

Has anyone tried writing software that takes snapshots of each page, flips it 90 degrees and has a variable trim to cut off the white edges so all the pages can be viewed as image files? This would seem like the easiest solution to keep images and equations intact. I was looking through the conversion tools but was unable to find something like this.

Yes, this is a typical way to do the job. It works fairly well but remember a 6" device even turned sideways has page that is only 4.8" wide which will shrink a page quite a bit. We have a forum devoted to conversion tools. I am surprised your research didn't find it. For example one such tool is https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21906 PDFRead. It does a good job. Also check our wiki. There is lots of conversion data and other information for your research.

Dale

[MikeKing]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Yes, this is a typical way to do the job. It works fairly well but remember a 6" device even turned sideways has page that is only 4.8" wide which will shrink a page quite a bit. We have a forum devoted to conversion tools. I am surprised your research didn't find it. For example one such tool is https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21906 PDFRead. It does a good job. Also check our wiki. There is lots of conversion data and other information for your research.

Dale

I believed that particular conversion too to be some sort of text conversion, but that was an assumption based on the output file extension types (which I'm not familiar with any of them).

Edit: Ahh, I missed the italicized part, my bad. "It does this by creating an image out of each page, enhancing the image and then collating the images in a device-specific format."

[DaleDe]

The clear winner for reading PDF files is the new IRex Digital Reader with its 10.2" screen. You can read about it on the wiki or in the forum devoted to it.

[Azayzel]

I also agree regarding the crop of iRex products. After recently receiving a gen 1 model of the iLiad, even with an 8" screen it still a marked improvement over any 6" device regarding reading standard A4 size PDF's. I was actually quite impressed with how much easier it is to read, especially using the full-screen patch to the PDF reader. While the 10" device would be that much better, it's still quite expensive so you could probably go with the 8" model and still be OK. On the other hand, you can still get a full-function TabletPC for what their devices run, or cheaper, and enjoy it in color!

Even with my latest gadget, I'm still holding out for the Plastic Logic reader... can't wait! (I've given up on the Flepia. Who knows where it's at now. sigh...)

[MikeKing]

Originally Posted by Azayzel

I also agree regarding the crop of iRex products. After recently receiving a gen 1 model of the iLiad, even with an 8" screen it still a marked improvement over any 6" device regarding reading standard A4 size PDF's. I was actually quite impressed with how much easier it is to read, especially using the full-screen patch to the PDF reader. While the 10" device would be that much better, it's still quite expensive so you could probably go with the 8" model and still be OK. On the other hand, you can still get a full-function TabletPC for what their devices run, or cheaper, and enjoy it in color!

Even with my latest gadget, I'm still holding out for the Plastic Logic reader... can't wait! (I've given up on the Flepia. Who knows where it's at now. sigh...)

Thank you for mentioning the Plastic Logic reader, I think I might hold off for it as well. It looks really promising.

[DickyCheung22]

I think Amazon should consider to support PDF format in the future, otherwise, they will lost some market... btw, EEE PC is really a good replace for ebook reader if you don't mind the battery life...

[brontus]

What works best for me (a larger screen ebook reader is waaay out of my budget) is to view the pdf in landscape mode on my Reader. You have to page between the top half of the page and bottom half. It's a pain for the 2 column text, but works reasonable well for single column text.

ED

[DesiLinguist]

I just got a brand new iLiad and I have to agree with Azayzel. I use my iLiad to read technical PDFs all the time. I will be installing the fullscreeen iPDF in a couple of days (waiting for the CF card to arrive) and then it would probably make things even better.

[svakanda]

whats the best one to view pdfs natively?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by svakanda

whats the best one to view pdfs natively?

Irex Digital Reader