Grad Student... so lost...

[cbell]

Yes, I agree that the DR1000S is wonderful for displaying PDF files, including journals. Its not quite as portable as the iLiad because of its larger size, but the screen size helps make the files very comfortable to read.

I'll aim to take some photos of your 2 files on our DR1000S on the weekend, DesiLinguist (and ccarleton), unless someone else does that in the meantime.

[patatan]

Some more screenshots:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31303

I have a cybook and tried to use it for pdfs. It was frustrating. Now I have a DR1000S. I use it without preprocessing the files for all kind of pdfs and for the 99% is OK. I think the screen size is fundamental. But the DR1000S is still very young. Do not ask too much from it.

[ccarleton]

Wow, thank you all for the replies. I've been immersed in C programming for the last few days so have only got back to this today. It looks to me as though the iRex Iliad is great (except for the $700 price point). The only other thing that I've found, which is really exciting for students and office professionals, is a device that is scheduled to bit the open market in 2010 from a company called Plastic Logic. It's like a tablet about the size of a clipboard that has a touch screen and styles for note taking that can read many formats - it's also not tied to a proprietary eBook retailer. If you're interested in checking out the link; http://www.plasticlogic.com/ - unfortunately the only draw back is the wait and the unknowns (things almost always change before a product actually arrives on the market including the price, which is as yet undetermined, but supposedly 'competitive').

I also really like the idea of the iRex 1000s reader (also except for the $1000 + that it will cost me here in Canada). So, cbell, if you do get a chance I'd love to see some images. Thanks again to everyone for posting here.

[readingrocks!]

What about the FoxIt eslick? It's supposed to be a pdf reader based on the info I saw. Has anyone heard anything about it? Pre-order price is $229, but it looks to be sold out until April.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by readingrocks!

What about the FoxIt eslick? It's supposed to be a pdf reader based on the info I saw. Has anyone heard anything about it? Pre-order price is $229, but it looks to be sold out until April.

It will be no better than any other 6" device at reading A4/Letter PDFs - ie, pretty awful. There's just no good way to display an A4 page on a device with a screen with only 1/6th the area of an A4 page.

The problem lies with the "page-based" concept of PDF, not with the reader.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It will be no better than any other 6" device at reading A4/Letter PDFs - ie, pretty awful. There's just no good way to display an A4 page on a device with a screen with only 1/6th the area of an A4 page.

I don't know if it will be "no" better. FoxIt has been know for quite a while as a quality PDF viewer. Many say it is better than Adobe, smaller and faster.

However, of course it will have to work within the restrictions of a 6inch screen and the eInk screen refresh properties of the device. In that vein it will be on a mostly equal footing.

BOb

[DesiLinguist]

Thank you everyone for all your helpful comments. cbell, those images on a DR1000 would be fantastic to see!

I have been reading some more threads about the DR1000 and I have a few questions:

(1) I read that page turning might take as long as 5 seconds on some PDFs. I am guessing that the same is true when viewing the same PDF on an iLiad v2 or book edition? Or does this problem only afflict the DR1000?

(2) On the same note, I have also read that the calibration of the DR1000 is bad and is a problem when writing notes on the screen. Does this same problem exist in the iLiad and, if it does, to what extent?

(3) I was curious as to how the zoom actually works and I found a video showing the same on YouTube. However, I am not sure how to use this zoom to get the entire pdf on screen like cbell does in his 4th screenshot in this thread on the previous page. cbell, could you explain?

Thanks again!

[Gideon]

Okay... here we are. About as exepected. Things that are usually turned into PDF's directly from a document usually come out great. Things that are scanned into PDF's usually don't (unless someone bothered to do some decent OCR on them.)

So a quick run through the shots:
14763 - This is a PDF of a journal article I just emailed myself. Unlike these others it was actually generated from a digital file and looks quite good. The weird text and stuff here is just a result of the coding at the top of the article. The article itself VERY readable.
14764 - As you can see in this image. This is later in that same article - you'll notice that it is even to use the strange punctuation and letter markings in the Pali/Sanskrit transliteration.
14768 - My syllabus. I just emailed it to myself and though it was certainly not made to be seen on such a small screen, it is still very usable.
18965-2 - this is a two column, badly scanned article. The Kindle sometimes parsed the text to make it look normal, and sometimes just showed the entire page like this making it unreadable.
18966-2 - This is another badly scanned article. However, it's only one column and the source it smaller so it is almost readable.

So.. in conclusion. For most PDF's that are over a few years olds, you're going to want a VERY big screen. For newer PDFS (which, at least in my fields, more often come from digital copies) any sort of reader that can handle that well should work.

But the big advantage of the Kindle again comes in the automatic email conversion and book stores.

A word about the Sony Reader (and others that use the LRF format, I've no experience with any others.) I spent an ENORMOUS amount of time editing and fooling around with files when I had a sony reader. With the Kindle I don't. It can either get converted well by emailing it or running it through Mobi Creator 95% of the time. if it can't... well, it usually can somehow but it'd be the same work as anything else and rarely worth it.

Just my take, at least.

[DesiLinguist]

Gideon, thank you so much for that comprehensive look at PDFs on the Kindle. I have to say, they came out better than I thought they would but they are still not as crisp as they would probably look on the iLiad. However, the price is still a factor, as it should be for a ramen-eating poor graduate student! ;-)

I am hoping to make a decision based on the really valuable information already gathered in this thread and more information as any subsequent questions are answered.

Thanks again!

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by Gideon

A word about the Sony Reader (and others that use the LRF format, I've no experience with any others.) I spent an ENORMOUS amount of time editing and fooling around with files when I had a sony reader. With the Kindle I don't. It can either get converted well by emailing it or running it through Mobi Creator 95% of the time. if it can't... well, it usually can somehow but it'd be the same work as anything else and rarely worth it.

Just my take, at least.

Hmm... Was that with the original Sony 1.0 firmware or the later 1.1 firmware. The reason I'm asking is that the later firmware, as well as adding ePub support, added support for reflowing PDFs, which means that text-based PDFs then became a lot more 'readable' on the 505. The 700's got that plus a zoom-feature, so if the OP is considering a 6" e-Ink device, I'd recommend they take a look at the other options too (including the Cybook).

[drew.spinnaker]

I am in the same boat as the original poster, and though I have a PRS505 it hasn't been the best with the kind of academic articles that I have to read regularly.
I think the suggestions and information in this thread is been great (I would love to have an iRex DR1000S bu I am just a poor grad student) and I was wondering if the Eslick changes any of the suggestions?
Has anyone seen how the Eslick and it's (allegedly) godlike pdf capabilities handle academic journal articles with both one and two columns?

Thanks in advance for any information you can pass on!

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by ccarleton

Of course, the PDF will need to be resized somehow to allow for easy reading with a large font. It also has to be able to handle the occasional image or math equation (colour isn't an issue for me and this part doesn't have to be perfect).

One quick comment on this: You don't want to convert any PDFs with math equations to a native format- in my experience, it really screws up the equations to a point of total unreadability.

Originally Posted by ccarleton

I's also like to see a post that shows images of the unit with a journal article displayed on the screen - both one that has been reformatted in some magical way and one that is just drag 'n dropped onto the unit as-is. Thanks in advance.

See the attached picture. This is the textbook I'm currently working on (which is available as PDF download through my universitys network, so it's legal) displayed on my Cybook. As you can see, I use landscape mode. I flipped it so that the controls are on the right-hand side of the device and zoomed in to the point where the page width corresponds to the screen width. Granted, it's not that large a print, but at least for me, it's big enough to easily read.

EDIT: For size reference: The screen is 9 cm in heigth and 12.3 cm in width.
EDIT 2: I forgot to mention this: About a third of the page gets displayed this way, with some overlap.

[cbell]

Originally Posted by DesiLinguist

(1) I read that page turning might take as long as 5 seconds on some PDFs. I am guessing that the same is true when viewing the same PDF on an iLiad v2 or book edition? Or does this problem only afflict the DR1000?

I find page turns for many documents are quicker on the DR than the iLiad. If you're reading forwards, the DR pre-renders the page (as does the iLiad). Page turns take the same time on the iLiad v2 as the iLiad book edition.

Originally Posted by DesiLinguist

(2) On the same note, I have also read that the calibration of the DR1000 is bad and is a problem when writing notes on the screen. Does this same problem exist in the iLiad and, if it does, to what extent?

You calibrate your stylus using a normal writing style on both devices. I don't do much writing, mostly sudoku and notes, but I don't have any problem with either DR or iLiad.
I use the DR templates at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30729
The only annoyance I have with writing on the DR is very minor. Its a bit difficult to remove the stylus when the flipover cover's in place, as I'm thoroughly left-handed and the stylus is on the right. The elastic on the cover gets in the way.
If someone has calibrated their device right-handed (either iLiad or DR) and I write on it, then my writing is a bit off-line. As left handers don't see their writing as it appears on the screen anyway, that would only be an issue for right handers. And how many DRs will have a rightie and leftie both using it anyway? I'm an exception, as my job is working with ebook readers.

Originally Posted by DesiLinguist

(3) I was curious as to how the zoom actually works and I found a video showing the same on YouTube. However, I am not sure how to use this zoom to get the entire pdf on screen like cbell does in his 4th screenshot in this thread on the previous page. cbell, could you explain?

On my iLiad screenshots, if you click 3 times to make them large, you can see the row of icons at the bottom. The 3rd from the left, is a 'full page' view - it 'stretches' the original page out to fit the screen. I think I've worded that badly, so if anyone wants to clarify, please feel free!

[DesiLinguist]

Thank you for the very informative answers, cbell.

BTW, I assume everyone here has seen the "official" (read: leaked) images of the new Kindle. I have to say that I am a little disappointed that it seems to retain the same sized screen from the first version. Of course, one can still hope for native PDF support and improved technical specs. If not, then I guess the iLiad it is.

The only thing I am apprehensive about is the fact that there are no service centers for the iLiad here in the US and the reports in these fora about iRex's customer service and turn-around time for repairs don't exactly inspire confidence.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by ccarleton

It looks to me as though the iRex Iliad is great (except for the $700 price point).

Don't forget a cover, you definitely need a cover for screen protection. I don't know if eReader Outfiters ships to Canada, but, in additions to iLiads, they have a selection of covers to choose from. I have the cheapest M-edge cover, which works well enough but makes the page turn bar a bit hard to reach. M-edge covers are also available through Amazon.