Mentor: Zoom in for pdf files?

wutugu · 06-18-2010, 06:49 PM

Hi, is there any way for me to zoom in on pdf files? I have some scanned pdf books and changing font size does not affect these. Thanks.

Lady Fitzgerald · 06-19-2010, 09:20 PM

I'm having the same problem. After loading a few test books (scanned PDFs) the smaller (physically) books aren't too bad but larger ones, especially the ones with finer print, are too fine to see, especially with my old eyes. Does the older Mentor have a way to zoom in on what are essentially images? I hope so because I like this thing but if not, I'll have to return it.

Forgot to mention, switching to landscape just continues to put the entire page on the screen, making the text even tinier.

Sylver · 06-20-2010, 02:29 PM

e-readers, except for kindle DX, are mainly for text based reading, I would not think a 5 or 6 inch display is a good solution for scanned PDF and image files, even if you can zoom, there will be tons of issues in navigating appropriately within an enlarged image. Unless they stated otherwise in their product description or official user guide, the image zooming issue you both described really does not sound like a defect to me. I obviously like more functions in the reader also (such as an integrated English dictionary or text-to-speech feature or a standard earphone jack), but I cannot honestly justify a return merely because it lacks a function I wanted or liked or assumed or wished. That said, I do think Astak should have posted more thorough product info for mentor - I had hard times to understand the need to go search through RobertB's blog for a product information instead of just posting it somewhere at astak.com or theezreader.com where it can be much easily found.

Lady Fitzgerald · 06-20-2010, 04:29 PM

I never said it was a defect. One can't call a Mercedes defective because it can't tow a travel trailer (which is why I have a truck and not a Mercedes). If something doesn't meet my needs, no matter how good the product may be, there is no point in me keeping it. If the Mentor I recently purchased can't zoom (even if the zoom did nothing but eliminate the margins in the scanned book and the margin the unit adds, it may be enough), then it will not meet my needs. I posted here because I was hoping there was something I was missing in the instructions (which are a bit vague) or something like a firmware change would give the unit the zoom I need. If not, then why should I keep it? The vendor has a 30 day return policy.

As I've already mentioned, it's a nice unit and I like it but if it can't do what I need, then there is no point in having it.

Lady Fitzgerald · 06-22-2010, 01:22 PM

From other posts and just fooling around with this unit, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to have to return it and hold out for an affordable 9" reader (unless someone comes out with an affordable 6" with decent zoom). The 6" size is much more convenient but, apparently, some things are just not meant to be. It's a pity since the resolution on this unit is excellent (even as fine as the print was on the larger PDFs I have, it was sharp but my eyes are also old), better than one can hope for from an LCD, navigating the unit is easy once one gets used to it, it doesn't have a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles (it works like a book, not a bloody media center), page turns are about the same speed as what it takes me to do with a regular book (and I can do them with a simple finger press; even jumping pages takes only one finger). If all I had were conventional e-books , this unit would be perfect but since the vast majority of my books are scanned pdfs (it would be time prohibitive for me to OCR and edit them; there are just too darned many of them), I'm going to need something different.

DaleDe · 06-22-2010, 02:34 PM

The EZ Reader basic 6" can change the viewer to allow zooming on PDF. It can either use ADE or XPDF. It supports XPDF with one page portrait, remove margins portrait, and remove margins, half page landscape. The last one is the most useful for this books you have scanned. But even so the text is still a bit small.

Dale

Lady Fitzgerald · 06-22-2010, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

The EZ Reader basic 6" can change the viewer to allow zooming on PDF. It can either use ADE or XPDF. It supports XPDF with one page portrait, remove margins portrait, and remove margins, half page landscape. The last one is the most useful for this books you have scanned. But even so the text is still a bit small.

Dale

Could you expand on that? Is this a different reader or different firmware?

theducks · 06-22-2010, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Could you expand on that? Is this a different reader or different firmware?

Different MODE
when viewing a PDF
Press the Menu key
Switch to XPDF or (back)
The book will exit. when started, you will be using the "other" reader.

IIRC you must use Adobe for DRM infested books.

Lady Fitzgerald · 06-22-2010, 08:07 PM

That function must not be supported in the Mentor. I sure as heck can't find it.

theducks · 06-22-2010, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

That function must not be supported in the Mentor. I sure as heck can't find it.

Right

My bad
It is on the EZReader models

wutugu · 06-22-2010, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

The EZ Reader basic 6" can change the viewer to allow zooming on PDF. It can either use ADE or XPDF. It supports XPDF with one page portrait, remove margins portrait, and remove margins, half page landscape. The last one is the most useful for this books you have scanned. But even so the text is still a bit small.

Dale

Ez reader and mentor are different products.
I installed the icon firmware on my mentor, now it kind of supports zoom in on pdf, however when I zoom in I cannot turn pages(have to do zoom in on each individual pages).
To Lady Fitzgerald: The cooler reader firmware (http://www.coolreaders.com/fw.asp) works on mentor also, maybe you can try that. I agree that 9' reader is much better on reading pdfs if price is not a concern.

Lady Fitzgerald · 06-23-2010, 12:14 AM

How does one change the firmware?

DaleDe · 06-23-2010, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

That function must not be supported in the Mentor. I sure as heck can't find it.

the comment was based on your comment that you were looking to buy a different device with better support.

Dale

sagars24 · 06-24-2010, 04:45 PM

The Zoom feature works really well on the mentor. install the Icon FW and then go to menu while reading the book, next go into font size option and click on zoon, you can go upto 400% zoon on PDF. Let me know if you need more help with that.

Sylver · 06-24-2010, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sagars24

The Zoom feature works really well on the mentor. install the Icon FW and then go to menu while reading the book, next go into font size option and click on zoon, you can go upto 400% zoon on PDF. Let me know if you need more help with that.

you are talking about text based PDF whose fonts can be enlarged, but both Lady and the original poster were talking about scanned PDF (basically images not text), so your solution won't work.

06-18-2010, 06:49 PM	#1
wutugu Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: none	Mentor: Zoom in for pdf files? Hi, is there any way for me to zoom in on pdf files? I have some scanned pdf books and changing font size does not affect these. Thanks.

06-19-2010, 09:20 PM	#2
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	I'm having the same problem. After loading a few test books (scanned PDFs) the smaller (physically) books aren't too bad but larger ones, especially the ones with finer print, are too fine to see, especially with my old eyes. Does the older Mentor have a way to zoom in on what are essentially images? I hope so because I like this thing but if not, I'll have to return it. Forgot to mention, switching to landscape just continues to put the entire page on the screen, making the text even tinier. Last edited by Lady Fitzgerald; 06-19-2010 at 09:42 PM.

06-20-2010, 02:29 PM	#3
Sylver Addict Posts: 234 Karma: 40 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: The Nook, iPad	e-readers, except for kindle DX, are mainly for text based reading, I would not think a 5 or 6 inch display is a good solution for scanned PDF and image files, even if you can zoom, there will be tons of issues in navigating appropriately within an enlarged image. Unless they stated otherwise in their product description or official user guide, the image zooming issue you both described really does not sound like a defect to me. I obviously like more functions in the reader also (such as an integrated English dictionary or text-to-speech feature or a standard earphone jack), but I cannot honestly justify a return merely because it lacks a function I wanted or liked or assumed or wished. That said, I do think Astak should have posted more thorough product info for mentor - I had hard times to understand the need to go search through RobertB's blog for a product information instead of just posting it somewhere at astak.com or theezreader.com where it can be much easily found. Last edited by Sylver; 06-20-2010 at 02:38 PM.

06-20-2010, 04:29 PM	#4
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	I never said it was a defect. One can't call a Mercedes defective because it can't tow a travel trailer (which is why I have a truck and not a Mercedes). If something doesn't meet my needs, no matter how good the product may be, there is no point in me keeping it. If the Mentor I recently purchased can't zoom (even if the zoom did nothing but eliminate the margins in the scanned book and the margin the unit adds, it may be enough), then it will not meet my needs. I posted here because I was hoping there was something I was missing in the instructions (which are a bit vague) or something like a firmware change would give the unit the zoom I need. If not, then why should I keep it? The vendor has a 30 day return policy. As I've already mentioned, it's a nice unit and I like it but if it can't do what I need, then there is no point in having it. Last edited by Lady Fitzgerald; 06-20-2010 at 04:38 PM.

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06-22-2010, 01:22 PM	#5
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	From other posts and just fooling around with this unit, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to have to return it and hold out for an affordable 9" reader (unless someone comes out with an affordable 6" with decent zoom). The 6" size is much more convenient but, apparently, some things are just not meant to be. It's a pity since the resolution on this unit is excellent (even as fine as the print was on the larger PDFs I have, it was sharp but my eyes are also old), better than one can hope for from an LCD, navigating the unit is easy once one gets used to it, it doesn't have a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles (it works like a book, not a bloody media center), page turns are about the same speed as what it takes me to do with a regular book (and I can do them with a simple finger press; even jumping pages takes only one finger). If all I had were conventional e-books , this unit would be perfect but since the vast majority of my books are scanned pdfs (it would be time prohibitive for me to OCR and edit them; there are just too darned many of them), I'm going to need something different.

06-22-2010, 02:34 PM	#6
DaleDe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,470 Karma: 13095790 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Grass Valley, CA Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7	The EZ Reader basic 6" can change the viewer to allow zooming on PDF. It can either use ADE or XPDF. It supports XPDF with one page portrait, remove margins portrait, and remove margins, half page landscape. The last one is the most useful for this books you have scanned. But even so the text is still a bit small. Dale

06-22-2010, 08:07 PM	#9
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	That function must not be supported in the Mentor. I sure as heck can't find it.

06-23-2010, 12:14 AM	#12
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	How does one change the firmware?

06-24-2010, 04:45 PM	#14
sagars24 Member Posts: 19 Karma: 82 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: borges impres-	The Zoom feature works really well on the mentor. install the Icon FW and then go to menu while reading the book, next go into font size option and click on zoon, you can go upto 400% zoon on PDF. Let me know if you need more help with that.

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