Reading PhD theses with formulae, figures and tables

[ktakeda]

Originally Posted by ddavtian

I have both the iRex and Sony 505. I try to read tech papers/books on iRex because of the screen size but sometimes I carry only Sony with me. I run my papers/books through pdflrfwin (used to be in this forum, google it), it does great job removing white spaces and making everything looking better on the reader.

I'm sure you can read your docs on the reader without a problem.

Thanks folks for that. So the PRS-505 isn't so bad with a little bit of preprocessing.

Thanks, and look forward to seeing the high-res pics - again, your efforts are much appreciated

Another consideration, is the Sony or iliad generally faster for rendering PDFs?

Given a choice of one or the other, which would you buy for PDFs?

I'm not sure if I'm more decided now or not

Thanks,
Kenji

[scottcstoness2]

Originally Posted by ktakeda

Hi,
I'm seriously wanting to get a PR-505 in the UK. As an engineering lecturer my main job for it would be to read PhD, MSc and undergraduate theses.

These are A4 page format, containing equations, figures and tables. They are typically 100-300 pages each, so an e-book would be perfect to allow me to read these when on the road, and save me lugging them to and from home without breaking my back.

They are usually submitted as PDFs. So my question is:

- Can I reflow technical PDFs to be really readable on a PR-505?

I am willing to pay for software to do this. I already have Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection CS4, but haven't delved into it for this application.

Many thanks,
Dr Kenji Takeda
www.ktakeda.net

The other option is, if they are technical theses in LaTeX, have students submitting them to you output them to the appropriate sized PDF page. I've got a LaTeX set-up that works fine for text; not sure how it would look with the equations, but if you have your students spit out output for a 4.5" by 6" page, it'd be easy to read so long as it didn't mess up the images/equations too much. Would probably be an issue for double-column papers, but probably OK for actual theses....

[ktakeda]

[QUOTE=scottcstoness2;282658]The other option is, if they are technical theses in LaTeX, have students submitting them to you output them to the appropriate sized PDF page. [QUOTE]

Hi, that's a good option for some students, but a lot of them use Word. Thanks for the tip though.

Currently tossing up between the Sony, Iliad Book Edition and Digital Reader. Just can't make up my mind?!?

Thanks,
Kenji

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

They're your students - tell 'em they'll lose marks if they submit it in anything otehr than your preferred format

Sorry for the delay in getting the better pics up, btw - I need to retake them as I messed the focussing up

[theguru]

Check out the tool soPdf

[MrPopNFresh]

This thread is exactly what I came to mobileread looking for! I'm looking at getting a PRS505 for reading technical journal papers. The papers come as PDFs, so like ktakeda, I'm trying to gage whether they'd be legible on the PRS505. I don't have the option of buying any other reader (I'm only a poor graduate student, not a professor ). Is there any benefit in converting the PDFs to another format first? I see there are some tools that take PDF->LRF, would that retain embedded images but allow for zooming the text? I'm completely new to all of this.

[soilwork]

Originally Posted by MrPopNFresh

This thread is exactly what I came to mobileread looking for! I'm looking at getting a PRS505 for reading technical journal papers. The papers come as PDFs, so like ktakeda, I'm trying to gage whether they'd be legible on the PRS505. I don't have the option of buying any other reader (I'm only a poor graduate student, not a professor ). Is there any benefit in converting the PDFs to another format first? I see there are some tools that take PDF->LRF, would that retain embedded images but allow for zooming the text? I'm completely new to all of this.

I think this thread may be relevant to your question.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32360

[ktakeda]

Originally Posted by MrPopNFresh

This thread is exactly what I came to mobileread looking for! I'm looking at getting a PRS505 for reading technical journal papers. The papers come as PDFs, so like ktakeda, I'm trying to gage whether they'd be legible on the PRS505. I don't have the option of buying any other reader (I'm only a poor graduate student, not a professor ). Is there any benefit in converting the PDFs to another format first? I see there are some tools that take PDF->LRF, would that retain embedded images but allow for zooming the text? I'm completely new to all of this.

Hi,
I ended up going for the Iliad Second Edition. Pretty expensive, and the Book Edition would be the same but without WiFi.

The Iliad's 8.1 inch screen is A5. So if you print a PDF paper 2-up you will see what this looks like exactly. The Sony PR-505 is only 6 inches, so I think that it would look extremely small. Single column papers look great on the Iliad. Double-column is readable but quite small. My eyesight is fine though!

Easiest thing is to print it out at the correct size to see if it is legible. Not sure if the Sony PDF support is as good as the Iliad's though.

Anyway, I'm VERY impressed by the Iliad. Decided against the 10 inch DR1000 due to portability and battery concerns.

One happy Iliad customer here. The Book Edition is £399 inc VAT, double the Sony, though

Hope that helps. Cheers,
Kenji

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by ktakeda

The Iliad's 8.1 inch screen is A5. So if you print a PDF paper 2-up you will see what this looks like exactly.

A5 in mm is 148 × 210. The iLiad's screen is significantly smaller at 122x163, the overall size of the device is about A5 though (155 x 216). The DR1000 screen is similar to A5, at 163x203. Printing to paper at the correct size is a good way to tell what the screen will look like, particularly if you start with a screenshot.

[MrPopNFresh]

Originally Posted by soilwork

I think this thread may be relevant to your question.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32360

That is interesting, but I'm still unclear, if you convert a PDF to LRF, can you then zoom the text? Or is the whole PDF just images embedded in a file format the PRS505 can process faster.

Not only is the PRS505 the only one I can justify buying (I can get a good deal on the red version), I'm in Canada, so it's pretty much the only one readily available.

[theguru]

Originally Posted by MrPopNFresh

That is interesting, but I'm still unclear, if you convert a PDF to LRF, can you then zoom the text? Or is the whole PDF just images embedded in a file format the PRS505 can process faster.

Not only is the PRS505 the only one I can justify buying (I can get a good deal on the red version), I'm in Canada, so it's pretty much the only one readily available.

No you cannot zoom the text if you convert it to LRF format. The entire file is just an image file of the original file. Use the soPdf tool and you can zoom the text.

[MrPopNFresh]

Originally Posted by theguru

No you cannot zoom the text if you convert it to LRF format. The entire file is just an image file of the original file. Use the soPdf tool and you can zoom the text.

I've looked at soPDF and it looks quite good, it just reformats the PDF, correct? Once the file's on the PRS-505, you can't change the size of the text like you can with ebooks? Thanks for all the clarification.

[soilwork]

As theguru pointed out, image-based LRF does not support zoom any more.
However, I prefer image-base LRF over PDF, since
1) LRF is faster than PDF, and
2) I rarely need zoom feature.
So, I think it is up to your preference.

I could not try soPDF since I don't have enough hard drive space to install required software (visual studio) but it sounds like a good idea. You can try both conversion methods and copy the results on a SD card and test them in Sony store.

[ktakeda]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

A5 in mm is 148 × 210. The iLiad's screen is significantly smaller at 122x163, the overall size of the device is about A5 though (155 x 216). The DR1000 screen is similar to A5, at 163x203. Printing to paper at the correct size is a good way to tell what the screen will look like, particularly if you start with a screenshot.

You're absolutely right, the Iliad screen is smaller than A5, but you can zoom in exactly using the stylus to chop the margins off.

This means an A5 document is almost precisely the viewable area on the Iliad, so is a very good indication of what it will look like. In other words, An A4 PDF printed 2-up with margins chopped off is the same size as the Iliad viewable area. I have one and did this, so I know it is accurate! Measure the diagonal of your printout and you'll see what I mean.

IMO the Sony would be too small, as the Iliad's 8.1" screen is viewable if you have good eyesight. Also, the Iliad has this precise zoom control, not sure if the Sony does. Hence I spent the extra on the Iliad.

Hope that helps!
Kenji

[MrPopNFresh]

Ok. I think things are becoming a little muddled (and it's probably because I don't fully understand something).

If I have a digitally created PDF, the text is recognized as text (go file->save as text to see) and the figures as figures. In this case, the PRS-505 fits the whole PDF to one page without any ability to increase the font size of the text like it can with ebooks, correct? Is it possible to convert a PDF like this to some format with embedded images where the PRS-505 will be able to increase the font size of the text/reflow it to the screen on it's own?

I understand that the figures can never be zoomed and that if I convert the whole PDF to a series of images, it can't be zoomed either, but what if it's text with embedded images? Does the presence of embedded images in the file keep the reader from changing the text font size?

Edit:I can't try soPDF right now, I'm on Linux.