Kindle Voyage vs Kobo Aura H2O

[sparklemotion]

That is my feeling on the H20 too, Judith. I love it! I hope you enjoy yours! On a side note, if you convert books to kepub with the calibre plug in, everything seems more snappy AND selecting and highlighting text is much easier and faster as well.

[judith009]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

That is my feeling on the H20 too, Judith. I love it! I hope you enjoy yours! On a side note, if you convert books to kepub with the calibre plug in, everything seems more snappy AND selecting and highlighting text is much easier and faster as well.

Thanks for the info! I think I already installed that Calibre plugin, so the next step will be to test it out sometime. It will be nice if things get snappier.

If I remember correctly, it was some of your posts that originally caused me to consider getting the H2O. Thanks!

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by judith009

Thanks for the info! I think I already installed that Calibre plugin, so the next step will be to test it out sometime. It will be nice if things get snappier.

If I remember correctly, it was some of your posts that originally caused me to consider getting the H2O. Thanks!

You're so welcome! I found the kepub's to make a definite difference. I'm someone who highlights a lot, so it makes that much easier as well. Page turns are faster as well, on par with my kindle paperwhite 2 now.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

You're so welcome! I found the kepub's to make a definite difference. I'm someone who highlights a lot, so it makes that much easier as well. Page turns are faster as well, on par with my kindle paperwhite 2 now.

sparks, could you elaborate on your prefered method to get best reading results on your Kobo ? Assuming I have a non drm mobi or epub, how do I proceed to get the best result with a kepub ?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

That is my feeling on the H20 too, Judith. I love it! I hope you enjoy yours! On a side note, if you convert books to kepub with the calibre plug in, everything seems more snappy AND selecting and highlighting text is much easier and faster as well.

I don't understand how converting a book to kepub could affect the ease of selecting text - that's a matter of the accuracy and sensitivity of the touchscreen, surely? Can you elaborate a little?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't understand how converting a book to kepub could affect the ease of selecting text - that's a matter of the accuracy and sensitivity of the touchscreen, surely? Can you elaborate a little?

If the reader-software displaying kepub is not the same as the one for generic epub, that could explain it. If Kobo does it on purpose, that would be a slap in the face. I am guessing it is more a budget problem not giving enough resources to the epub reader (time and money).

[judith009]

This was a pretty informative thread about the differences between kepub and epub:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=250953

These are some useful quotes from that thread:

The only differences arise because the rendering engine is different for both. Kepubs are rendered through ACCESS (somehow an engine only included in Kobos) while epubs are rendered through Adobe RMSDK which is a standard in every single eReader but kindles (because it's needed to handle ADEPT DRM scheme used by nearly everybody but Amazon). Each renderer has its own set of little differences.

These are the advantages of each format that I notice:


KePub (sideloaded):

* Quicker to respond to page turn gestures (especially tap gesture)
* Faster text selection (e.g. when highlighting large areas of text)
* Support for footnote previews
* Can double-tap to zoom images


ePub:

* Better hyphenation (kepub reader can hyphenate words in the wrong place if they have trailing punctuation)
* Full justification works properly (kepub reader doesn't properly justify some lines that contain certain common characters such as elipsis and mdash)
* Better support for embedded fonts
* Full-screen mode works without fonts being cut off
* Better word spacing when using full justification

(Apart from the last, all of these ePub advantages are due to bugs in the KePub reader.)

I think it makes sense that having different rendering engines could affect the speed of text selection and page turns.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by judith009

I think it makes sense that having different rendering engines could affect the speed of text selection and page turns.

Speed, yes, but speed isn't the issue when selecting text on the Kobo; the issue is poor accuracy, and that is, I believe, down to the touchscreen itself, rather than the rendering engine. I've found that it can take numerous attempts to successfully activate a small hyperlink, such as the ones used to link endnotes in a book.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Speed, yes, but speed isn't the issue when selecting text on the Kobo; the issue is poor accuracy, and that is, I believe, down to the touchscreen itself, rather than the rendering engine. I've found that it can take numerous attempts to successfully activate a small hyperlink, such as the ones used to link endnotes in a book.

Emphasis on small here. There may be a difference in the size of the touch area - e.g. epub you need to be touching exactly on the hyperlink vs. kepub you only need to be within 1 or 2 mm. The touchscreen would be same data, but interpreting that the touch was close enough to trigger the link is software.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Emphasis on small here. There may be a difference in the size of the touch area - e.g. epub you need to be touching exactly on the hyperlink vs. kepub you only need to be within 1 or 2 mm. The touchscreen would be same data, but interpreting that the touch was close enough to trigger the link is software.

A valid point, certainly. It would be instructive to try a book with endnote hyperlinks in both formats and see if the kepub did make it easier to select the endnotes.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by aceflor

sparks, could you elaborate on your prefered method to get best reading results on your Kobo ? Assuming I have a non drm mobi or epub, how do I proceed to get the best result with a kepub ?

I really don't do anything at all. I just convert to kepub and that's it. Previously I was using epubs and played with the patch settings a lot and had them looking the way I wanted. However, since I started using kepubs I'm satisfied with how they render right out of the gate. I like having the title of the book at top and the smaller footer at the bottom. It just looks balanced to me, similar to reading an actual book. I ended up not preferring having no header at the top and the page numbers way down at the bottom. Aesthetically it just didn't appeal to me. The patch is still worth it for advanced font controls on sideloaded fonts though.

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't understand how converting a book to kepub could affect the ease of selecting text - that's a matter of the accuracy and sensitivity of the touchscreen, surely? Can you elaborate a little?

I really don't know the technical reason why, but Duckie gives good reasoning above. It makes a huge difference to me is all I can say. I was using epubs previously. Highlight is much easier and page turns much faster with kepubs. The difference is very noticeable. Geoff on here made a good post about the differences between epub and kepub in the Kobo forum. Here's his post:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...57&postcount=7

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Speed, yes, but speed isn't the issue when selecting text on the Kobo; the issue is poor accuracy, and that is, I believe, down to the touchscreen itself, rather than the rendering engine. I've found that it can take numerous attempts to successfully activate a small hyperlink, such as the ones used to link endnotes in a book.

Hmm interesting. I don't have that problem.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

Hmm interesting. I don't have that problem.

Unfortunately it led to me selling my H2O. I'm doing a part-time degree in Egyptology, and a number of the books I need for the course are available as ebooks. They have numerous footnotes, and it was an exercise in frustration trying to read the footnotes on the H2O. I just don't have that problem at all on my Kindle.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unfortunately it led to me selling my H2O. I'm doing a part-time degree in Egyptology, and a number of the books I need for the course are available as ebooks. They have numerous footnotes, and it was an exercise in frustration trying to read the footnotes on the H2O. I just don't have that problem at all on my Kindle.

That's a shame, but I'm glad the kindle works out well for you.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unfortunately it led to me selling my H2O. I'm doing a part-time degree in Egyptology, and a number of the books I need for the course are available as ebooks. They have numerous footnotes, and it was an exercise in frustration trying to read the footnotes on the H2O. I just don't have that problem at all on my Kindle.

I'm experiencing the same frustration with the Aura HD. Since the touch sensor is IR, I tried using an old palm pilot stylus, but that did not work for end notes either. I really miss 5 way D-ring+button. That works great. Of course, a real back button is also great.