Aura HD Kobo Aura HD Impressions Thread

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ectoplasm

It looks like you don't understand that PDFs are not necessarily scanned images that are OCR'd. Commercial ebook PDFs are almost always created directly from a digital source. There can be no errors and there is no "scanned layer".

I was agreeing with you until the "There can be no errors". Maybe no errors introduced by OCR but I've seldom read any ebook in any format that did not include a couple of spelling and/or grammar errors. Quite a few of those errors are the type that indicated a dependence on software to proof the copy and not a human eye. One recent ebook I read had spots which reminded me of the spellchecker poem.

I have a spelling checker
It came with my PC
It highlights for my review
Mistakes I cannot sea.

I ran this poem thru it
I'm sure your pleased to no
Its letter perfect in it's weigh
My checker told me sew.

Regards,
David

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by ectoplasm

It looks like you don't understand that PDFs are not necessarily scanned images that are OCR'd. Commercial ebook PDFs are almost always created directly from a digital source. There can be no errors and there is no "scanned layer".

No offense, Mr. Plasmic, but either I failed to make the point of my post clear or you felt it would be utterly delightful to respond without having read it! I suspect you might understand what I mean after reading this bit:

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

I'm wondering whether we're talking about two different kinds of pdf, in which case the magazine might be illustrative of your experience, while a scanned pdf of a vintage copy of Michelet's Insects from Google Books is illustrative of mine.

This was my polite way of suggesting that commercial pdfs (like the kind our magazine's post-production team creates) and pdf scans of books (like those on archive.org) are different things, and that reflowing text within a formatted pdf itself was not something I recalled the 350 being able to do.

My suggestion (which was intended to be tactful) was that perhaps the poster was talking about the OCR layer of a scanned pdf and not reflowing the pdf text itself. One of the main reasons publishers like using pdfs is because they can restrict users' access to features like text reflow and selectability. Technically, a pdf creator can set the preferences to allow the user to reflow text, but in practice, most publishers want you simply to increase the size of the document view, which tends not to be practical on an e-ink reader with a relatively small screen.

The ability to reflow is another thing, which depends on a combination of whether the PDF was tagged, and the capabilities of the reader software. I've found even untagged PDFs can still reflow pretty well for novel type text.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in publishing who didn't know that already. But in practice, I see publishers wanting to restrict users' options as much as possible, and I definitely don't recall being able to reflow any of the pdfs in my library on the 350. That's why I suggested the possibility the poster was looking at a scan layer -- not because all pdfs have one, but because that might have been what that particular poster saw.

[speakingtohe]

@Prestidigitweeze
I am afraid I am as guilty as Rizla in misinterpreting this paragraph. The PDFs I use on my reader, admittedly few, don't actually have any scanned text to switch to. I have scanned quite a few books, not perfectly I admit, but I do delete the scanned image portion eventually. My understanding is that most publishers do this as well. Shows what I know perhaps

In my experience, when you adjust the font size of a pdf, the 350 switches automatically to the scanned text. I've never had the experience of changing the font size of a pdf and keeping the same layout, font and relatively error-free text.

Helen

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

@Prestidigitweeze
I am afraid I am as guilty as Rizla in misinterpreting this paragraph. . . . I have scanned quite a few books, not perfectly I admit, but I do delete the scanned image portion eventually. My understanding is that most publishers do this as well. Shows what I know perhaps
Helen

Helen:

Rizla didn't misinterpret, so far as I know. My sense is that ectoplasm might have, though.

Since I don't like reading pdfs on e-readers, the majority that I own are of books which are unavailable in any other format. Most are scans available on public sites, and most retain the OCR text. The scanned text level tends to be so error-ridden as to be completely unreadable.

The other pdfs I own are completely unaffected by increment-decrement font settings. You can adjust the overall size of the pdf, but you certainly can't reflow the text.

The Smoking Book, by Leslie Stern (U. of Chicago Press) is a case in point: It is a commercial book and you can't change the size of the font with the PRS-350. This is also true of the pdf edition of the magazine I co-edit, which is why I never attempt to read it on e-ink e-readers.

A different kind of example is The Letters of Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849), available from archive.org. The pdf itself contains the correct text (since its pages are a series of photos of the physical book's pages). Using the increment-decrement buttons on the 350 brings up the scanned text, which has no pdf layout at all and can be reflowed easily, but which is unreadably error-laden.

It's possible that Rizla has an extensive library of pdfs which have fully accessible text and were designed to be reflowed. I, however do not and therefore have no empirical knowledge of any pdf font size feature. Literally every pdf I've tried has not allowed font resizing.

The possibility that Rizla has used his 350 to read a kind of pdf which I have not is suggested by this quote:

Originally Posted by Rizla

I'm talking about pdf files that contain actual text, i.e. ascii or something like it. I am not talking about pdf files that contain a graphical image like a jpeg file.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Helen:

Rizla didn't misinterpret, so far as I know. My sense is that ectoplasm might have, though.

Since I don't like reading pdfs on e-readers, the majority that I own are of books which are unavailable in any other format. Most are scans available on pubic sites, and most retain the OCR text. The scanned text level tends to be so error-ridden as to be completely unreadable.

The other pdfs I own are completely unaffected by increment-decrement font settings. You can adjust the overall size of the pdf, but you certainly can't reflow the text.

The Smoking Book, by Leslie Stern (U. of Chicago Press) is a case in point: It is a commercial book and you can't change the size of the font with the PRS-350. This is also true of the pdf edition of the magazine I co-edit, which is why I never attempt to read it on e-ink e-readers.

A different kind of example is The Letters of Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849), available from archive.org. The pdf itself contains the correct text (since its pages are a series of photos of the physical book's pages). Using the increment-decrement buttons on the 350 brings up the scanned text, which has no pdf layout at all and can be reflowed easily, but which is unreadably error-laden.

It's possible that Rizla has an extensive library of pdfs which have fully accessible text and were designed to be reflowed. I, however do not and therefore have no empirical knowledge of any pdf font size feature. Literally every pdf I've tried has not allowed font resizing.

The possibility that Rizla has used his 350 to read a kind of pdf which I have not is suggested by this quote:

Probably she has but I don't really know. The whole pdf thing makes my head hurt. I will have to put one or two on my reader and see after I finish packing to move back to civilisation.

Helen

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Probably she has but I don't really know. The whole pdf thing makes my head hurt. I will have to put one or two on my reader and see after I finish packing to move back to civilisation.

Helen

You coming to join us again, Helen? Will you have as much "free" time? I don't want to lose your words of wisdom.

[Waba]

Bought this $10 cover, and am pleased (took 10 days to arrive):
http://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Folio.../dp/B00DDMN73E

Really, really, really like the sleep/wake up cover option... Now I never have to dig for the non-protruding power switch... And I can just collapse in bed without having to worry about shutting it down.

Reflow of PDFs is a non-issue for me. While Sonys do reflow the PDF page breaks are still intact, so some pages on the ereader will only have a few lines... I found it so annoying on the first few PDFs I tried it on I never did it again. Either accept the PDF as it is [after cropping] (complex formatting or graphics), or convert the text to something readable (epub).

Best ereader I've ever owned! ... My sole complaint is the big "Page XXX of YYY" on the bottom that never disappears. However, I know that the patcher can fix this if I spend more time on figuring it out... Reading text now, so it's not a big deal. Once I start reading PDF or image epubs, the "Page XXX of YYY" will have to go!

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by Waba

Bought this $10 cover, and am pleased (took 10 days to arrive):
http://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Folio.../dp/B00DDMN73E

Darn it, really got my hopes up then! But the vendor only ships within the US. :-(

[treadlightly]

This one ships worldwide:

eBay Link

[danicca]

Well, I went and bought one. I have touch and just now realized I don't know how to delete a book from ereader. I want to delete it only from aura hd, and leave it on touch, even after they're synced. (Or should I avoid sync?) I also want to remove recommendations tille from home screen.

[glos]

if you do a long press on the title of the book you want to delete while on library/shelf you'll have the option to delete it (idk about the syncing, i've never done that and I only have 1 device). same for tiles, though i have no recommendations tile so idk if that's one like the "sync" tile that one can't dismiss? (the dismiss is temporary, iirc)
also if you go to settings>reading life and notifications you can uncheck the kobo notification option (not sure that's what you wanted, but less push from kobo is better).
maybe others with more than 1 kobo device will help you more

[robko]

Originally Posted by danicca

Well, I went and bought one. I have touch and just now realized I don't know how to delete a book from ereader. I want to delete it only from aura hd, and leave it on touch, even after they're synced. (Or should I avoid sync?) I also want to remove recommendations tille from home screen.

If you want to have the book on one device but not on the other, you will need to avoid syncing one of them. The idea of syncing is to keep them both "identical".

[danicca]

Originally Posted by robko

If you want to have the book on one device but not on the other, you will need to avoid syncing one of them. The idea of syncing is to keep them both "identical".

I was afraid of that. And recommendations tile popped up right after sync.

[llcj]

Originally Posted by danicca

I was afraid of that. And recommendations tile popped up right after sync.

Just long press on the tile and you will get the option to dismiss it. The only tile you can't dismiss is the sync tile.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by llcj

Just long press on the tile and you will get the option to dismiss it. The only tile you can't dismiss is the sync tile.

My sync tile went away on its own. Haven't seen it for months. My library tile went and my recommendations tile as well. I didn't dismiss them or use a utility to dismiss them. I was messing around with the config file though to try and make the evil kobo Aura HD sort books by author instead of by title. Now with the exception of my currently read book, the tiles have taken on a life of their own. Mildly amusing when I remember to use my Aura HD and actually look at the home page.

Helen