03-03-2010, 08:57 AM | #1 |
Junior Member
Posts: 2
Karma: 10
Join Date: Mar 2010
Device: Sony PRS-505
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Very Annoyed
Greetings all.
My father has lent me his Sony PRS-505 to read a few books so I can determine if I want an "eReader" or not. After reading "Poison Study" by Maria Synder on the PRS-505, I found my self becoming quite fond of the reader. After finishing the said book, I decided to buy the next one in the sequel, namely "Magic Study". I decided to buy the "Magic Study" sequel from ebooks.com, in PDF format, for Adobe Digital Editions. Once I got the Sony software for my Mac (OS X 10.6) and was able to import the DRM protected PDF to my reader, I found the format of the book uncomfortable to read. The text is too small, zooming in produces crude results and although all the formatting is well preserved, I simply can't read it at night in bed with my little lamp shining down. I'm quite annoyed at this. I've paid $7 (which I consider a very fair price) for the PDF eBook and I am unable to get it to "format" its self in a manner that would resemble the easily readable "Poison Study" that came with the reader. If I could get it converted to LRF, I think this would resolve the issue, but I fear the DRM will prevent this. Here are my questions regarding this matter:
I don't want this to be the undoing of my eBook reader experience. I hope I can find a solution to this and start getting cosy with some good books. All feedback is welcome and appreciated, and thank you for taking the time to read my thread. Regards, Mike. |
03-03-2010, 09:15 AM | #2 |
zeldinha zippy zeldissima
Posts: 27,827
Karma: 921169
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Paris, France
Device: eb1150 & is that a nook in her pocket, or she just happy to see you?
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Hi Mike,
sadly you've fallen into the same trap as many others discovering ebooks. pdf is not a good format for reading on a dedicated device, unless it has been formatted specifically for that screen size, because (as you have discovered...) while it does an admirable job of displaying a set layout, it does not adapt to different layouts gracefully at all (mainly because the format was specifically conceived to do precisely the opposite of that). the best format to get is epub ; it will "reflow" (adapt to the size of the screen while preserving layout and document styles) which means you can zoom or read your book on any device you have available. i don't have any experience personally with ebooks.com but you might try contacting their customer support. explain your problem, and if the book is available in another format, ask to exchange it. if it's not available you can try requesting a refund. i don't promise this will work, but it's worth a try. if the book is not available in epub format, other formats can much more easily be converted to epub, including .lit (MS Reader) and .mobi / .prc (Mobipocket). you must remove the drm first to convert them ; we can't give you explicit instructions for that in the public forum but google is your friend. if you can't get a refund or an exchange, it's worth trying to convert the pdf. you can do this with calibre, for example. conversion of pdfs tends to give variable results (to say the least...) and require more work than converting other formats, but it usually can be done. good luck ! if you want to try reading a few books in a format which is better suited, why not try a free book ? we've got thousands available here, just click on the "E-Books" link at the top of any page, and select epub (or lrf). or you can try a site like feedbooks. to answer your questions, 1. try calibre (free download, see the "calibre" forum here) ; you'll have to remove the drm first (google) 2. pdf wrong format ? short answer : yes. best to get epub, or another reflowable format in future. wasted your cash ? not necessarily. 3. different people will give you different answers here. we've got a list of ebook stores in our wiki (link at the top of any page), and for a quick price comparison across multiple stores, try a site like http://inkmesh.com/ or http://ebooks.addall.com/ 4. just the information that pdfs are rarely formatted for a small screen, and reading a large (page size) pdf on a small screen is an unpleasant experience. feel free to take a look around and ask any more questions. we've got some very knowledeable people here who can help you with anything. welcome to the forum ! |
03-03-2010, 09:32 AM | #3 |
Wizard
Posts: 3,454
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Join Date: May 2006
Device: PocketBook 360, before it was Sony Reader, cassiopeia A-20
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A quick and dirty remedy is to use the Reader in lansdcape.
Press and hold the size button and the book will display in landscape so the characters on that unfortunate pdf are a little bit bigger. Not an ideal solution, but ... |
03-03-2010, 10:23 AM | #4 | |||||||
Junior Member
Posts: 2
Karma: 10
Join Date: Mar 2010
Device: Sony PRS-505
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Thank you both for your suggestions and tips. I shall go away and do some research and return with my findings and share the results (good or bad). Regards, Mike. |
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03-03-2010, 10:33 AM | #5 | ||||||||
zeldinha zippy zeldissima
Posts: 27,827
Karma: 921169
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Paris, France
Device: eb1150 & is that a nook in her pocket, or she just happy to see you?
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Tags |
digital editions, pdf, prs-505, sony |
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