E-reader for Academic Reading - Page 3

HarryT · 07-30-2010, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eLiNK

Sorry Harry, but a couple of hours is not typical for academic reading.
Try reading the whole day on the iPad, day in, day out.

What do you think will happen if I do? Honestly, I've been reading eBooks on LCD screens for 20+ years. I fully appreciate that some people have issues with doing so, but personally I don't.

eLiNK · 07-30-2010, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

What do you think will happen if I do? Honestly, I've been reading eBooks on LCD screens for 20+ years. I fully appreciate that some people have issues with doing so, but personally I don't.

Well, in that case let us agree to disagree.

I happen to know what quality the LCD screens had 10 or 20 years ago and what eye specialists recommended and still recommend.

HarryT · 07-30-2010, 09:34 AM

I'm certainly not disputing that you (and some other people) find LCD screens hard on the eye. Many people don't, though, and the "instant response" of the LCD screen makes many tasks a lot easier to do on an LCD screen than on an eInk screen, most notably annotation - something that's important for academic reading.

I think that for many people, the reason they get eye-strain on LCD displays is because the brightness is set too high. I always set the screen brightness to the minimum at which the book is still clearly readable.

darknessangel · 07-31-2010, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

What do you think will happen if I do? Honestly, I've been reading eBooks on LCD screens for 20+ years. I fully appreciate that some people have issues with doing so, but personally I don't.

Me too... I spend more or less 5-6 h a day in front of a screen. Of course I would prefer a large eink screen however there's nothing I like right now with those specifications =(

GJMS

Erinath · 08-01-2010, 09:04 AM

It's not just the contrast that bothers my eyes when reading from a screen, no matter how high a refresh rate I set the screen flickering tires my eyes out very quickly.

HarryT · 08-01-2010, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erinath

It's not just the contrast that bothers my eyes when reading from a screen, no matter how high a refresh rate I set the screen flickering tires my eyes out very quickly.

LCD screens don't flicker. Each pixel on an active-matrix LCD display maintains a constant light output from one addressing cycle to the next. That's why LCD screens are normally only refreshed about 60 times a second, compared to the higher refresh rates required for CRT displays, where the light output does "decay" between refresh cycles, and a high refresh rate is necessary to avoid flicker.

mrgerlo · 07-08-2011, 05:09 PM

Hello
Im in the same situation, 3rd year grad student and I want to get a decent pdf reader for engineering papers, with good equation handling capabilities.

I am wondering, greeneggs, did you finally made up your mind??? Which device sis you get? are you happy with your purchase???

Just a follow up....

twowheels · 07-08-2011, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrgerlo

Hello
Im in the same situation, 3rd year grad student and I want to get a decent pdf reader for engineering papers, with good equation handling capabilities.

I am wondering, greeneggs, did you finally made up your mind??? Which device sis you get? are you happy with your purchase???

Just a follow up....

Just bought a Kindle DX for our graduate student son. He's still in the evaluation mode, not quite sure if it'll work out or not. The DX works fairly well with PDF files in that he can review them as an overview in portrait mode, then use the automatic screen rotation (the DX has an orientation sensor) to switch to landscape mode to read with a decent font size. Two column PDF files aren't quite as easy as you have to read down and then hit back twice to get back to the top of the page for the next column, but if you hit it twice quickly it goes back relatively quickly. Also, he says that much of the stuff that he reads from arXiv is formatted by the author and isn't usually in two column format yet.

At first he loved it for the easy-on-the-eyes eink screen, then he started thinking about returning it because he can't view a figure on one page while reading about it on another page, and now he's back to thinking about keeping it...

The biggest disappointment with the DX itself is the fact that the browser doesn't allow direct download of PDF files, so he can't just go to arXiv directly to download them without the assistance of his laptop.

hel · 07-12-2011, 06:47 PM

For a long reading DX is better, but for quick references, ability to make an annotation fast, perform quick searches etc. iPAD is so much better, but my eyes do not allow me to read for a long time from it. So I use them both ))) There is an unofficial update to 3.2.1 for Kindle DX, which I prefer to an official firmware 2.5.8 as far as 3.2.1 gives a better PDF support and better browser.

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07-30-2010, 09:34 AM	#33
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I'm certainly not disputing that you (and some other people) find LCD screens hard on the eye. Many people don't, though, and the "instant response" of the LCD screen makes many tasks a lot easier to do on an LCD screen than on an eInk screen, most notably annotation - something that's important for academic reading. I think that for many people, the reason they get eye-strain on LCD displays is because the brightness is set too high. I always set the screen brightness to the minimum at which the book is still clearly readable.

08-01-2010, 09:04 AM	#35
Erinath Shy Philosopher Posts: 99 Karma: 10000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: England Device: Sony PRS-T1, Nook Simple Touch, Nook HD+ & Kindle Keyboard (wifi only)	It's not just the contrast that bothers my eyes when reading from a screen, no matter how high a refresh rate I set the screen flickering tires my eyes out very quickly.

07-08-2011, 05:09 PM	#37
mrgerlo Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Glo HD, Aura H2O	Hello Im in the same situation, 3rd year grad student and I want to get a decent pdf reader for engineering papers, with good equation handling capabilities. I am wondering, greeneggs, did you finally made up your mind??? Which device sis you get? are you happy with your purchase??? Just a follow up....

07-12-2011, 06:47 PM	#39
hel Sorceress Posts: 169 Karma: 19604 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Montreal Device: Kobo Libra Colour, Boox Air2&Nova 3C, Kindle, Sony, and more	For a long reading DX is better, but for quick references, ability to make an annotation fast, perform quick searches etc. iPAD is so much better, but my eyes do not allow me to read for a long time from it. So I use them both ))) There is an unofficial update to 3.2.1 for Kindle DX, which I prefer to an official firmware 2.5.8 as far as 3.2.1 gives a better PDF support and better browser.

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