Aura Flickering when zooming in

[doron]

I've started using my new Aura and had a very frustrating experience. Pages in pdf and rtf docs are so small that they are unreadable. When I zoom in the page flickers too many times - the background gets white and blacks in an annoying way, the letters are still too pale, the zoom in is always exaggerated...
How can I fix it?
Can I go for better contrast?
and can I make the current page that I read be the screen saver?

[meeera]

Convert rtf docs to epub before loading them. Try to convert pdf to epub (see Calibre FAQs); or give up on pdf altogether, it's a terrible format.

Where are you getting these books?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by meeera

Convert rtf docs to epub before loading them. Try to convert pdf to epub (see Calibre FAQs); or give up on pdf altogether, it's a terrible format.

PDF isn't a terrible format; it's just entirely unsuited for reading on a 6" screen. For the purpose that it was intended to be used for, which is to be a digital reproduction of a printed page, it's an excellent format, but only when read on the appropriate device, which is a large-screen tablet.

I read a lot of academic journal articles and page-scans of old books in PDF format, and on my iPad they work very well indeed. But not on a 6" eInk device!

[meeera]

Originally Posted by HarryT

PDF isn't a terrible format; it's just entirely unsuited for reading on a 6" screen.

....which is the situation we're talking about. I'm recommending the cessation of PDFs as a format for a person reading on a six inch ereader, in the same way as I'd warn someone on a cooking thread off trying to make plasticine work in an entree. And yet, plasticine remains a perfectly fine children's sculpting material.

[doron]

I've got many page-scans of books of large size (40-100M) and I chose Kobo especially for reading PDFs - I read it should deal with them quite well.
Can I convert the files online or do I have to calibre them? and are there any guidelines for getting good results with calibre?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by doron

I've got many page-scans of books of large size (40-100M) and I chose Kobo especially for reading PDFs - I read it should deal with them quite well.

I'm afraid you've been poorly advised; it won't deal with them at all well.

Can I convert the files online or do I have to calibre them? and are there any guidelines for getting good results with calibre?

There is no ideal way of converting PDFs to ePub, but the best results are generally obtained by using a decent OCR program such as Abbyy Finereader. It'll do a far better job than Calibre will. For the best results, though, read the PDF originals on a platform that's appropriate for the job, such as a large-screen tablet.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by meeera

....which is the situation we're talking about. I'm recommending the cessation of PDFs as a format for a person reading on a six inch ereader, in the same way as I'd warn someone on a cooking thread off trying to make plasticine work in an entree. And yet, plasticine remains a perfectly fine children's sculpting material.

Apologies, I misunderstood you. And yes, I completely agree.

[Ken Maltby]

While I agree that PDFs are a very poor choice for reading on a 6" device, before scrapping your Aura, you might try KOReader, an add on/alternative reader. An install guide.

Luck;
Ken

[oren64]

I'm using k2pdfopt/MR, that crop the text to 6'in screen, no need to zoom in.

[WolfBack]

The default reading program (Nickel) for reading pdf's is a pain; slow response on refresh while zooming in pages (especially if these pages is huge in resolution - above of 1024X758). The benefits of aura is the pinch & zoom function, but for a better reading experience with pdf handling you have a -really- few choices. All of them is mention above of my post.
Koreader: Crop the pdf page into readable pieces, but you lose the zooming feature.
k2pdfopt: Reduce the image size of pdf pages to fit in a 6'' screen. You read the pdf in Nickel (if you like to stay with this reader) and the zooming / rendering is really fast without flickering or blank un-responded screens. But be aware: you may lose some of image/text resolution... You also have the reflow option (even the OCR) (if your pdf is only text).
I think you must try both of those in your aura (like I did).
Alternate device: I think the best device for pdf reading is the tablets this days. Faster processors for rendering, millions of colors (if you decide to read magazines) and big screen to fit the pages and no need to zooming a lot. But all this is another story...

[freekobo]

I found PDF viewing in firmware 3.2.0 or lower is much much better, not sure what they've done to make it so slow on newer firmware's. Koreader works better as well.

[doron]

I'm trying now the k2pdfopt. However I have some questions:
I understand that the Koreader is an alternate software for processing ebooks. Just to be sure - can I always choose to launch it or use the original software?
Btw, what is reflow?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by doron

Btw, what is reflow?

"Reflow" means rearranging the words on the page so they fit on a screen that's smaller than the page size that the document was originally formatted for. This can be done reasonably successfully if the document only contains text, but all non-textual elements are generally lost.

This is only a problem for PDF. Formats which are designed for use as eBook formats (as opposed to PDF, which is a page description language) have reflow support "built in".

[WolfBack]

Originally Posted by doron

Just to be sure - can I always choose to launch it or use the original software?

With KSM launcher installed you're always be able to choose which reading software you want to use at device startup, Nickel, Koreader (or Cool Reader as well).

[doron]

Can I retain the table of content links in any of these methods ( In k2pdfopt I couldn't do it)? For a file with hundreds of links this is super important (especially when the page numbering is altered).