DR800S: Reasons for PDF-Zoom function (was: ePub bug?)

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by DeReader

I tried to rename the thread title, but somehow it is not reflected globally. If anybody has a hint for me how to do it right, a PM would be fine.

Back to the original topic, did changing the font size have any effect on your particular epub?

[DeReader]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Back to the original topic, did changing the font size have any effect on your particular epub?

No, it only rendered the image larger or smaller but text was not displayed in any setting.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DeReader

I tried to rename the thread title, but somehow it is not reflected globally. If anybody has a hint for me how to do it right, a PM would be fine.

Only mods can rename threads. I've changed it for you.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I primarily read PDFs, prefer the larger 8" screen size of my iLiad, and rarely (if ever) use the zoom feature. I'm not sure why you think that one would require the other, or why there wouldn't be any justification for it.

Would you argue against having zoom on the larger DR1000? 90% of the features in Microsoft Word I don't use, but some part appeals to someone and that is one way Microsoft gets their product to sell.

Not all PDFs are legible at the DR800's 768x1024 resolution. When e-paper reaches 1200+ dpi, I may give up zoom and get a magnifying glass. Panning and Zooming on an e-ink device is like accessing the internet on dial-up but it's better than not being able to read a document at all. I would want more intelligent zoom features than simple magnification percentage and panning (the less I need to scratch across the screen with the pen the better):

• Trim margins option to automatically not display margins. It's important that this work automatically and not require enabling after every page turn. And note that this is not a zoom level but a zoom option, so this can be used with other zoom modes such as Fit Width. Mighty as well shoot for the moon and have a tolerance slider so this function is not ruined by a small non-white elements like page numbers.
• Custom fit option where one can define a custom crop (perhaps by drawing a line from one corner to the other).
• Fit width for portrait or tall documents.
• Fit height for landscape or spreads.
• Lock zoom option to configure the page turn controls to either:
  • Change page while maintain the current zoom settings, which is useful when using 'Custom Fit'
  • Show the next section of the zoomed page instead of going to the next page and only have the page turn when viewing the edge of the document. My canon camera has this feature when viewing photos. I believe sony readers do this when viewing in landscape mode.

[DeReader]

Very good collection of helpful features for PDF zooming, badbob001!

I want to add another one, if we're at it

• Different zoom settings for even and odd pages, most publishers PDFs are straight from the book-layout, and often you see different margin settings for even and odd pages. Would be even better if the "auto" zoom option could catch this and zoom up to the text limits, depending on the layout of the current page.

P.S. HarryT, thank you for changing the thread title!

[catharsis]

@Matthijs: any comments on the previous posts?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by FutureBSD

Now that I'm reading that the guys of iRex still don't know if they're going to implement pdf zoom and annotation I'm not going to buy this device until they implement it.

I agree that it's always a good idea to wait until a feature exists before you buy. That's a good policy no matter what company it is we're talking about.

As long as iRex is not talking about implementing this features, or better, as long as the two features are not available (because they already promised them and now they don't know if they will implement them) I'll wait and see what else is entering the market.

To be fair, I don't think they ever promised that zoom would be available. They did, however, initially say that annotation would be. Personally, annotation isn't a big deal to me, but it is disappointing that they originally said it would be added and are now saying that they haven't decided yet. That's not a good way of making your customers happy.

However, as a customer, you should never rely on promises. They do tend to set expectations though.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Matthijs

BTW: what is your use-case for zooming?
If you're reading books, reflow will work much nicer than zoom.

(maybe we should split this into a new topic?)

About half of my documents on iRex 800 (and iLiad and 1000S) is of professional nature: SLAs, contracts, proposals, ....
Those I mainly get as PDFs (sometimes it's even scanned faxes).
I'd like to read them in their original layout. Zoom makes way more sense to me then reflow.
It's different for my casual Stephen King of course.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

About half of my documents on iRex 800 (and iLiad and 1000S) is of professional nature: SLAs, contracts, proposals, ....
Those I mainly get as PDFs (sometimes it's even scanned faxes).
I'd like to read them in their original layout. Zoom makes way more sense to me then reflow.
It's different for my casual Stephen King of course.

Right or wrong, the intent of the DR800 is for your casual Stephen King, where reflow is a more viable option. It's not really being sold to handle professional documents, that's what the DR1000 is for.

I'm not saying I necessarily agree with that, but that's why the DR1000 has additional PDF functionality that the DR800 does not. That may change in the future, but right now they are not supposed to have the same capabilities.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Right or wrong, the intent of the DR800 is for your casual Stephen King, where reflow is a more viable option. It's not really being sold to handle professional documents, that's what the DR1000 is for.

Where as one can buy content in epub format, it is easier for one to create content in PDF format (print to pdf). Unless there is an argument that non-professionals don't use printers, then everyone can make use of PDFs. Too bad there no mention of a way to directly print to the device, be it wireless or wired.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Where as one can buy content in epub format, it is easier for one to create content in PDF format (print to pdf). Unless there is an argument that non-professionals don't use printers, then everyone can make use of PDFs. Too bad there no mention of a way to directly print to the device, be it wireless or wired.

If you're creating your own PDF documents, then you can set the page size and font size any way you want.

I'm not sure how you would print to it via 3G (it doesn't have wifi). As far as wired, I don't know if you can print to it using the USB connection. You can on the DR1000, but they haven't said anything about whether or not the same feature is supported on the DR800.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

If you're creating your own PDF documents, then you can set the page size and font size any way you want.

I'm not sure how you would print to it via 3G (it doesn't have wifi). As far as wired, I don't know if you can print to it using the USB connection. You can on the DR1000, but they haven't said anything about whether or not the same feature is supported on the DR800.

I won't have much control over the format of content from web pages and email attachments. As for personal documents, it would not be convenient to reformat documents to fit the reader, especially if I intend to print to paper those documents later and not want to maintain two versions. I think my wedding guest list done in excel would not be usable if horizontal scrolling was not possible. The formatting difference for 160 dpi and 1200 dpi output is huge.

Amazon's wireless solution is to send the document to a special email address for delivery to the kindle, though there is a free for this method.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by badbob001

I won't have much control over the format of content from web pages and email attachments.

Both those basically reflow by definition.

I think my wedding guest list done in excel would not be usable if horizontal scrolling was not possible.

I don't know if spreadsheets are something they really intend to support on the DR800, that's more of a DR1000 type function.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I don't know if spreadsheets are something they really intend to support on the DR800, that's more of a DR1000 type function.

My point was that if I were to print a spreadsheet to fit to paper, the same document would be less useful when fit to a reader, due to the much lower dpi. And hence the need for zooming and panning. As with web pages, the popularity of webkit on iphone and android has shown that zooming and panning ultimately won over the complicated and inexact task of mobile re-formatting. Information can be lost when reformatting/reflowing and a choice to view in the original format is useful.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by badbob001

My point was that if I were to print a spreadsheet to fit to paper, the same document would be less useful when fit to a reader, due to the much lower dpi. And hence the need for zooming and panning.

I understand what you're saying. My point is that the type of documents that are in need of zooming/panning are not what they intend to be a primary use of the DR800. Spreadsheets (whether or not they're printed to a PDF) are probably not something that they view a "casual reading device" should be concerned with.