iPad Clarifications on Accessing PDFs Please

[mvaldeslora]

I have a question about pdf use for someone who has already picked up an iPad and is willing to share his or her experience. I know a pdf can be accessed via Safari or an email attachment but that for me is really not feasible as some of the books and publications I have using that format are 50+ meg. How does access work for an app like Goodreader? Can one load and keep several such pdf's on the device for later use? Or do you have to load it each time you want to read it? And how about readability? How is reading pdf's on the iPad generally? Can you "flip pages" like with an epub? Or does it involve scrolling?

Many thanks.

Mario

[yvanleterrible]

Yes, that question bothers me too. Can we open a PDF at synch by dropping it in the shared documents of Pages?

[sea_los]

When I ordered the iPad, I was really excited about using it to view all the tech book PDFs I have been accumulating over the months. Before the iPad arrived on Saturday, I converted a couple of PDFs to epub using Calibre. It went as expected, but I finally installed them and opened with iBooks, I was a little disappointed because the formatting was removed. Since tech books and texbooks (and magazines as well) are heavily formated, epub was not going to work for me.

So that is when I discovered GoodReader. It is seriously an awesome piece of software that can handle all the PDFs that I have thrown at it. PDFs I have opened have ranged in size from 2MB to some over 80MBs.

There are a variety of ways to get the PDFs onto the iPad:

1. use iTunes, go to the "Apps" tab when your iPad is plugged in. Scroll all the way down and you will see GoodReader there with the option to browse your computer and upload PDFs that way.
2. GR can connect to: Google Apps, Box.net, MobileMe, Dropbox, any webdav server, FTP, etc.
3. You can add a URL to the PDF and it will download it.

Files are downloaded to your iPad and you can manage files (create folders, rename files, copy or move files, email from GR, etc) easily.

It works EXTREMELY well and is fast.

Since I'm an avid Google Apps user, I have created an account on my domain called "ebooks" and using the file upload functionality of Google Apps, I uploaded a few technical books (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, iPhone Dev stuff, etc). Browsed with GR and downloaded. This is a very convenient (and essentially free!) way to have an accessible digital library that any member of a development team can access.

Now I just wish that GoodReader could read CHM files, then it would be the perfect technical reader!

Oh, and to answer the OP original questions. Nope, there aren't any animations when you flip from page to page. But you can swipe up or down or tap up/down to navigate. No scrolling.

Yes you save the files locally, I have about 30 PDFs saved locally. It was after I discovered GR last night when I started to question whether or not 16GB was going to be enough! I might want to see about upgrading to the 32GB!

Spending 99 cents on GoodReader was probably the best buck I have ever spent on an app.

Cheers,
Sealos

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Yes, that question bothers me too. Can we open a PDF at synch by dropping it in the shared documents of Pages?

Pretty sure Pages doesn't support PDFs.

But there are a lot of Apps that do, like the 99cent Goodreader app mentioned above. That you can drag and drop PDFs to in iTunes when the iPad is hooked up, and they instantly appear on your iPad (don't have to synch).

You can also load a PDF in Safari, then type a "g" in front of the whole web address and it will download it into Goodreader.

It's not as easy as it should be (would love straight drag and drop without iTunes, but that won't happen with Apple products) but it's still pretty easy and PDFs look great on the Ipad.

[fulcrum]

sea_los,

Thanks for a great answer to this question.

I presume from some of the topics you mentioned that you might be viewing Apress books? And they are showing ok?

I was looking at a Kindle DX until the iPad was announced (similar price and a lot more features), but we don't have it here in Australia yet (only a few more weeks hopefully).

The problem with it not having a USB port is not being able to try this sort of thing before purchasing it. So we have to rely on you guys to tell us what it can or can't do.

Thanks again
fulcrum

[sea_los]

Originally Posted by fulcrum

sea_los,

Thanks for a great answer to this question.

I presume from some of the topics you mentioned that you might be viewing Apress books? And they are showing ok?

I was looking at a Kindle DX until the iPad was announced (similar price and a lot more features), but we don't have it here in Australia yet (only a few more weeks hopefully).

The problem with it not having a USB port is not being able to try this sort of thing before purchasing it. So we have to rely on you guys to tell us what it can or can't do.

Thanks again
fulcrum

Fulcrum, PM your email addy and I'll send you a few screencaps from the iPad showing what an Apress book looks like.

Cheers,
Sea_los

[jeffreycentex]

The easiest way was to turn on Wifi Sharing Mode, browse to the website URL it gives you on the screen, and create folders and upload files as need be.

I have loaded a 110 MB PDF (an Engineering Handbook that I scanned which is over 1800 pages) and it loads just fine..

The only things that don't work flawless are powerpoint and word files (mainly due to fonts).

[mvaldeslora]

Thanks to all for the very useful information. This is making it sound more and more like the iPad is something of great interest and use to me.

[Andanzas]

Thanks again for the useful info! One more question: Has anyone tried to read comics from series like 40 years of X-Men or The Amazing Spiderman: The Complete Collection? How do they look on the iPad? Considering that a single comic in the Marvel App is $2, it might be a good idea to buy these DVDs for $40 or $50...

[Firepong]

Originally Posted by Andanzas

Thanks again for the useful info! One more question: Has anyone tried to read comics from series like 40 years of X-Men or The Amazing Spiderman: The Complete Collection? How do they look on the iPad? Considering that a single comic in the Marvel App is $2, it might be a good idea to buy these DVDs for $40 or $50...

For comics, I say look up Comic Zeal 4 on the App store. Its what I use to read comics and it was the best $8 I have spent on that kind of app. I was tempted to get Comic Zeal 3 for my iphone but decided to wait till they came out with the universal version of e app so that It will just be free lol.

[mvaldeslora]

OK. So my iPad arrived today - courtesy of a friend's daughter spending her Spring break here in Athens - and I am very excited about this thing. So far I am very pleased but I seem to be having a problem with the GoodReader and my pdfs. I open the app in the iPad and the size is very small so I hit the 2x button and it fills out the screen. But then the text of any pdf I try to read is VERY chunky - as in illegible chunky. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting I need to mess with?

UPDATE: Just found the new version of GR for iPad so in those immortal words of Saturday Night Live skits from long ago - "Hmm. Never mind..."

[jakimo]

I have rather large out of print volumes that don't convert to text well, as the English is quite old and the formatting is odd to today's standards.

I found the volumes completely scanned into PDF via Archive.org, but their own conversion to EPUB and text is terrible - it just doesn't work.

I used GR via the iPad to view them, just blank. I then searched the FAQ of GR and found that some photo formats (JPEG2000 for instance) do not show on the iPad at this time. So I had to open these files and RESAVE these with Preview (native Mac viewing program) to become Mac friendly. The file sizes ended up HUGE, but that's not a big deal to me.

What kills me is the GR reader, I much prefer iBook if it's possible - each page being flipped and a choice between portrait with great presentation or landscape with two pages facing me.

Is there a way to convert these scanned pages into ePub without converting them (sloppily) into text first? Can ePub handle that each page would be a literal scan of an old library book?

Thanks for any help!!

Jacques

[scottjl]

i think you need to understand that epub is text, just wrapped up in a pretty package (xhtml). so converting (OCR'ing) your image files, be them in jpeg files or jepgs embedded into a PDF document, isn't going to make any difference. if your OCR software doesn't form a decent conversion you aren't going to get any better no matter what the outer wrapper is (individual files, or bundled up into one PDF).

[jakimo]

Originally Posted by scottjl

i think you need to understand that epub is text, just wrapped up in a pretty package (xhtml). so converting (OCR'ing) your image files, be them in jpeg files or jepgs embedded into a PDF document, isn't going to make any difference. if your OCR software doesn't form a decent conversion you aren't going to get any better no matter what the outer wrapper is (individual files, or bundled up into one PDF).

Doesn't ePub allow for photos? I've seen photos inside of ePub books before, for instance the free Pooh book that comes with iBooks.

Is there a way to string together each page (which is one photo) into an ePub book then?

Maybe this is too cumbersome an approach..

thanks for your thoughts

PS - since this isn't about viewing PDFs, but I just took a tangent to ask questions - please post in the new thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?p=876244 to keep it together with a proper subject (sorry for the double post guys)

Jacques