Elipsa Kobo Elipsa 2E

[vice-versa]

Even for note taking ? As for reading, I have no complaint against my Sage, it's just the writting feature that annoy me (one other thing that's get me mad, is page turning while I write). Perhaps, with the next firmware, will the Sage behave itself better ?

[Quoth]

I bought the Elipsa and then the Sage. Especially the Sage is much better for notes. It's also a far better size for epubs and to hold in one hand.

Make sure pen tip touches screen before your hand rests on it and it won't scroll/page down.

It would be nice of the BT Keyboard worked in Notes, but in those only page up/down works. You can use it to type anywhere the touch screen keyboard would be active (like text notes for a highlight on epub), except it doesn't stay connected. However the BT is only "advertised" as being for audio books from Kobo. I think audio is a waste of eink. Any of my phones do that far better and some with decent battery as screen "sleeps".

[vice-versa]

what do I you mean by "BT Keybord" ? I'm sorry, but I'm French so I don't always understand acronyms.

Thanks for your insights in these devices.

[Quoth]

BT = Bluetooth in this context. It used to mean only British Telecom.

Don't apologise for being French. Especially in Ireland and Scotland.

Also I thought all Whippit addicts lived in Yorkshire (great tea, though they don't actually grow it there).

[binone]

New to kobo.

Purchased the new elipsa 2E for its advertised annotation capability on both pdf and epub. HOWEVER!

First use case tested (side loaded - via dropbox - pdf doc)

- PDF Doc has highlighted text from previous highlighting.

No existing highlights appear in Elipsa. Strangely, you can go to annotations summary view, and it lists pages where highlights exist, but does not show the actual highlights.

- Cannot “highlight” any text in pdf doc on elipsa. Can only add annotations to a pdf doc.

The annotations so created do sync back to dropbox.

- Sideloaded pdf doc does not sync to kobo app. Only available on elipsa.

Not being able to import existing highlights and not able to highlight pdf seems like a major limitation.

Not sure if the same applies to sideloaded epubs.

One last note, the pdf text is rendered very feint, almost grey and hard to read. The same doc shows up fine on eg my ipad.

Not impressed so far :-(

[UCCU666]

Developer Options:

https://i.imgur.com/p1f19Bd.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Mo4Rn2W.jpg

[HLS]

I have both the sage, and the Elipsa and I have the same page flipping while I’m writing problem I think it’s my hand, leaning against the screen that causes the page flip. I am left-handed.

[christianbk]

I received the 2e today. So far, I have generally positive impressions but one major “eh” that many of us have already mentioned.

The good:
- It’s noticeably snappier in everything. It’s like the kind of upgrade that you would feel from a Libra H2O to a Libra 2. It’s there, it feels nicer to use overall in all functions.
- Backlight with ComfortLight Pro is solid, even, and really nice when you’re used to only the basic light in the Elipsa 1.
- I like how I can magnetically place the pen on the top or bottom of the device. For the Elipsa 1, there was a small magnetic spot on the longer bezel side that I would plunk my pen but it never was very stable.
- Thank goodness some wavy/grippy bits are on the sleep button! The almost slightly recessed sleep button on the Elipsa 1 made it so I’d always have to search to hit it. Super easy to feel and hit on this device.

The eh:
- Definitely a different pen writing feel. I’m still futzing with whether it’s the pen or whether it’s the matte feel of the screen (or a combo of both).
- It’s a tough upgrade ask for current Elipsa 1 owners, as many have mentioned. I’m still evaluating whether to keep and sell my Elipsa 1 (leaning towards that) vs returning.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by binone

New to kobo.

Purchased the new elipsa 2E for its advertised annotation capability on both pdf and epub. HOWEVER!

First use case tested (side loaded - via dropbox - pdf doc)

- PDF Doc has highlighted text from previous highlighting.

No existing highlights appear in Elipsa. Strangely, you can go to annotations summary view, and it lists pages where highlights exist, but does not show the actual highlights.

- Cannot “highlight” any text in pdf doc on elipsa. Can only add annotations to a pdf doc.

The annotations so created do sync back to dropbox.

- Sideloaded pdf doc does not sync to kobo app. Only available on elipsa.

Not being able to import existing highlights and not able to highlight pdf seems like a major limitation.

Not sure if the same applies to sideloaded epubs.

One last note, the pdf text is rendered very feint, almost grey and hard to read. The same doc shows up fine on eg my ipad.

Not impressed so far :-(

As you’ve discovered, Kobo syncs changes to PDF docs automatically to the Dropbox folder. This makes the Elipsa perfect for document signing synced through Dropbox, as well as annotating PDF and ePub files for studying, editing, analysis, etc.

Kobo’s basic PDF support only allows for annotation with the stylus. There are no controls for highlighting, pen width, pen style, text, etc.

This is the same for annotating in ePubs. The exception being you can highlight and add notes in ePubs, but none of the annotations can be exported. At least PDF annotations are synced and exportable.

If you’re looking for better tools, you’ll find them in the notebooks, especially the Advanced notebooks, but you cannot import PDF files as notebooks. The Elipsa 2E does everything Kobo claims it will do, but the PDF editing is minimal.

[talaivan]

Yes. While the Elipsa 2E is a significant improvement over the Elipsa, I am also disappointed that you still can't adjust pen size etc. for pdf's and pub's. In fact, it would be quite useful if you could use color (which would be invisible on the ellipse but show up in the pdf on an iPad or other tablet). Perhaps at some point Kobo will fix this. I should add that I find the 2E superior in just about every respect to the Amazon Scribe.

[binone]

Originally Posted by Cootey

As you’ve discovered, Kobo syncs changes to PDF docs automatically to the Dropbox folder. This makes the Elipsa perfect for document signing synced through Dropbox, as well as annotating PDF and ePub files for studying, editing, analysis, etc.

Kobo’s basic PDF support only allows for annotation with the stylus. There are no controls for highlighting, pen width, pen style, text, etc.

This is the same for annotating in ePubs. The exception being you can highlight and add notes in ePubs, but none of the annotations can be exported. At least PDF annotations are synced and exportable.

If you’re looking for better tools, you’ll find them in the notebooks, especially the Advanced notebooks, but you cannot import PDF files as notebooks. The Elipsa 2E does everything Kobo claims it will do, but the PDF editing is minimal.

Thank you for your detailed response.

I wonder why they chose to not allow highlighting in pdf documents. Even the least functionally rich pdf readers support highlighting.

But more to the point, elipsa does not show any existing highlights in an imported pdf doc. It knows they are there. I.e if you go to the annotations section. Except that all annotations are shown as blank. It even jumps to the page where the highlights are supposed to be.

I think i could live with the pdf limitations *if* elipsa was consistent in also allowing a mechanism to export epub annotations.

Also, not sure if it is possible to copy an annotation and paste into a notebook for taking book notes.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by binone

I wonder why they chose to not allow highlighting in pdf documents. Even the least functionally rich pdf readers support highlighting.

Only sometimes. Not on PDFs with no text layers.

Only annotate epub with real text, not the pen, then the epub on Kobo is best system for annotation & export of any notes.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by binone

Thank you for your detailed response.

I wonder why they chose to not allow highlighting in pdf documents. Even the least functionally rich pdf readers support highlighting.

But more to the point, elipsa does not show any existing highlights in an imported pdf doc. It knows they are there. I.e if you go to the annotations section. Except that all annotations are shown as blank. It even jumps to the page where the highlights are supposed to be.

I think i could live with the pdf limitations *if* elipsa was consistent in also allowing a mechanism to export epub annotations.

Also, not sure if it is possible to copy an annotation and paste into a notebook for taking book notes.

This will be long, but I’m clear of mind and I don’t believe I have shared this in too much detail in this forum before, so I’ll charge ahead.

The problem with exporting annotations from epubs is in how Kobo chose to enable annotation in epubs. They are bitmaps. I cannot emphasize enough what a puzzling and poorly conceived solution this was. Vector graphics would have been a more scalable solution. I discovered this issue first hand when I accidentally deleted a manuscript revision that had detailed annotations. Using various Linux and Mac undeleting apps gave me hundreds of bitmap files divorced from their anchor point or epub.

A bitmap of your scrawled annotation is created in snapshots as you write, like a flip book animation of you writing. The previous snapshots seem to be discarded, but not deleted.

If you change the font settings, the bitmap can no longer be properly displayed—as a rigid bitmap, it no longer matches the layout—so Kobo puts a marker there to help you see a preview and to restore the font settings if you choose. If you aren’t careful, you can have annotation markers everywhere from various font settings.

Unfortunately, text conversion is only available in Advanced Notebooks. This makes annotations valuable only for personal reasons on the specific ebook. Fortunately, the annotations are synced to Kobo’s cloud along with highlights and text notes you create, so if you need to restore your Elipsa, your annotations will be restored along with your purchased books.

This is what I discovered last year. I haven’t investigated to see if Kobo improved things, but from my observations, they haven’t. I also cannot recall if annotations, which are saved to the cloud, are restored for sideloaded books.

After the deletion fiasco, I stopped annotating in the margins entirely except for personal enjoyment. I moved to a shared PDF for editing and annotating using GoodNotes on my Mac & iPad. I haven’t tested if a shared PDF on Dropbox would sync properly if my coworker annotated the file. It’s worth exploring. In the meantime, Quoth is correct that text notes remain your only option for exporting.

[JSWolf]

[HLS]

Originally Posted by Skydog

Can you return it? Sometimes it pays to keep watch of particular threads (like the speculating starting last December). In this thread, scroll down to post #125 providing link to the unboxing video on 3/26:

see post #125

That is too much of a hassle especially how i financed it