Just got my Astak EZ Reader..Advice?

[Thrasymachus]

Originally Posted by Xiaopanda

Agreed! Epub looks great, but without a magifying glass, can be tough to read, and the step-up magification goes from Tiny to massive, totally unlike Mobi-pocket...and I am NOT re-formatting and changing fonts and whatever else.


Agreed, and this is why PRC is my preffered format, as well as being able to read these on a Kindle.



I like the EZ reader, and enjoy mobipocket prc files, but the others are pretty hit-and-miss IMO. Epub support need to be dramatically improved so the font size steps up reasonably and amybe being able to change font style, though that's not a deal-breaker.....

I've been playing some more with the new firmware, and I found they've actually changed the PDF viewer more than I realized: it now reflows the text rather than simply trimming the whitespace in the margins. I liked the idea of just removing the margins; it usually worked pretty well if the PDF page size wasn't too big. But the reflow works pretty well too, at least on the half dozen books I've tested so far. One of the books wouldn't reflow properly at all -- words and lines were broken in random places. The others were much better, though some formatting is lost (e.g., justification and indented first lines), but italics, superscript, etc., all worked well.

For the EPUB files, I wonder if there's a way to tweak calibre when doing a conversion so that zoom level 1 results in a 'normal' text size? One of my books did come out with that result, but I can't remember what I did to get it!

Another issue I'm noticing with EPUB is that the EZ Reader leaves no margins at all -- so that even a shadow on the edge of the frame will cover text. Plus of course the silly page numbers also tend to overlap text. Weird.

I agree with you -- I like the EZ Reader, but I'm still kind of annoyed that I bought it because it claimed to support so many other file types, but in effect, I'm limited to PRC, EPUB, PDF and DJVU. Contrast that with the Sony Reader, which effectively supports LRF, EPUB, PDF, RTF and TXT, and has a more attractive appearance. To me, that means when I upgrade, I'm not likely to go back to Astak, or recommend it to anyone, unless they really need DJVU support, or want to try switching firmwares for some of the alternatives out there. My impression is that the company just isn't candid about its product.

[DaleDe]

EPUB margins are set in CSS. If you make a eBook with Calibre you can control this unless it is overridden in the CSS. It defaults to 5 pixels in Calibre.

[Xiaopanda]

Originally Posted by Thrasymachus

I agree with you -- I like the EZ Reader, but I'm still kind of annoyed that I bought it because it claimed to support so many other file types, but in effect, I'm limited to PRC, EPUB, PDF and DJVU. Contrast that with the Sony Reader, which effectively supports LRF, EPUB, PDF, RTF and TXT, and has a more attractive appearance. To me, that means when I upgrade, I'm not likely to go back to Astak, or recommend it to anyone, unless they really need DJVU support, or want to try switching firmwares for some of the alternatives out there. My impression is that the company just isn't candid about its product.

I thnk they are pretty honest about it, The EZ reader will display all the file types they list, just not in a readily modifiable or functional way. I bought the EZ cos it was 1) cheap and 2) supported Mobi-prc files which is what I usually convert everything to.

I guess that with this tech, you get what you pay for...Still happy with the Astak, but would have liked a slightly sleeker more "star trek" looking unit.... But I read way WAY more on it then I ever did with pBooks or a PDA.... I took a night off reading last night and was constantly asked what was wrong , was I feeling ill..... (I was, but not the point)

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Thrasymachus

I've been playing some more with the new firmware, and I found they've actually changed the PDF viewer more than I realized: it now reflows the text rather than simply trimming the whitespace in the margins. I liked the idea of just removing the margins; it usually worked pretty well if the PDF page size wasn't too big. But the reflow works pretty well too, at least on the half dozen books I've tested so far. One of the books wouldn't reflow properly at all -- words and lines were broken in random places. The others were much better, though some formatting is lost (e.g., justification and indented first lines), but italics, superscript, etc., all worked well.

For the EPUB files, I wonder if there's a way to tweak calibre when doing a conversion so that zoom level 1 results in a 'normal' text size? One of my books did come out with that result, but I can't remember what I did to get it!

Another issue I'm noticing with EPUB is that the EZ Reader leaves no margins at all -- so that even a shadow on the edge of the frame will cover text. Plus of course the silly page numbers also tend to overlap text. Weird.

I agree with you -- I like the EZ Reader, but I'm still kind of annoyed that I bought it because it claimed to support so many other file types, but in effect, I'm limited to PRC, EPUB, PDF and DJVU. Contrast that with the Sony Reader, which effectively supports LRF, EPUB, PDF, RTF and TXT, and has a more attractive appearance. To me, that means when I upgrade, I'm not likely to go back to Astak, or recommend it to anyone, unless they really need DJVU support, or want to try switching firmwares for some of the alternatives out there. My impression is that the company just isn't candid about its product.

Dear Thrasymachus:

I work for Astak and this is the first I have heard of this. It does support all those file types claimed on the box and I have read books myself in almost all of them without any problem. This company is VERY candid and I see to it that we do not lie.

So, I am upset that you are upset... and I want to solve the problem for you. I am prepared to take it to our technical support expert, Walter. If he cannot solve it we will go to the factory and have them make the necessary changes.

First, please, can I ask you to email to: support@astak.com so we can get started! I will take a copy of your post to our tech also but emailing will help a lot more. TELL us clearly what problem you are having where you cannot open or use the other formats listed. TXT is my personal favorite and most of my eBooks are in that and read great.

Also, at any time, you can send a private message to me on MobileRead Forum and then I can give you my personal emal address.

Let's work together to get this righted!!

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Xiaopanda

Agreed! Epub looks great, but without a magifying glass, can be tough to read, and the step-up magification goes from Tiny to massive, totally unlike Mobi-pocket...and I am NOT re-formatting and changing fonts and whatever else.

Just add a font-size style in the body tag. You are able to finetune the size of the fonts with that. For me 120% works the best!