Manybooks first to add support for iRex iLiad

[emkay]

The title says it all really - iLiad formatted e-books! Manybooks, with more than 10,000 e-books from Project Gutenberg and other free sources, is the first to offer PDF files especially formatted for the 16 greyscale display of the iLiad device.

PS: A rename of the PDF may be required before you upload it to your reader.

- great catch, emkay! Slightly edited and moved to the frontpage! Alex

[tribble]

Nice, thats the way i like it!
12 x 15 cm, nice fontsize, but i would appreciate a nicer font though

[stinky ox]

oo, nicely .

[yokos]

I'm not a big fan of the font Times Roman in long documents.
Left-justification is ok, but could be better. Hey, it's for free.

[tribble]

Originally Posted by yokos

I'm not a big fan of the font Times Roman in long documents.
Left-justification is ok, but could be better. Hey, it's for free.

For free dosnt have to mean bad fonts Since they make them automated, they could let the user choose a font size and font face. That would be really cool.

[vvoi666]

what's with the giant font size? i've noticed this in a few other pdfs in this forum as well. is there a reason for that?
looks like it's almost threee times the size of a normal trade paperback (wich i find not really difficult to read).

[fireproof]

What fonts/sizes would work well for you? The conversion software is kind of limited, but I'll see what I can do.

[vvoi666]

i've just compiled this pdf (with openoffice).
this seams about the size that is convenient for me to read over a longer time. the font is arial. page size is 12x15 cm. i haven't tried it on the iliad, since i only get my dirty hands ion it this afternoon.

[oliverbogler]

Originally Posted by vvoi666

i've just compiled this pdf (with openoffice).
this seams about the size that is convenient for me to read over a longer time. the font is arial. page size is 12x15 cm. i haven't tried it on the iliad, since i only get my dirty hands ion it this afternoon.

I like the manybooks site and it is an excellent tool. I agree that the font size is a little too large - the one that vvoi666 has made is a nice compromise.

vvoi666 - could you post a photo of this on your brand-spanking-new-iLiad (not that I'm jealous over here in the slightly slower US)?

[NatCh]

Hmm, looks like they're probably set up for the Sony Reader too -- assuming the Libre' (beta) files work on it, which I think is probably a reasonable assumption.

Sweet, all around! Thanks!

[vvoi666]

Originally Posted by oliverbogler

vvoi666 - could you post a photo of this on your brand-spanking-new-iLiad (not that I'm jealous over here in the slightly slower US)?

sure, here they come (in bright sunlight and a bit out of focus):

for larger versions (2448x3264) klick the following links:
pic1
pic2
pic3

made from html with openoffice (pdf export).

settings:
font - arial
size - 11
pagesize - 12x15 cm
left - 0.8 cm
right - 0.5 cm
top - 0.7 cm
bottom - 0 cm

[ath]

Originally Posted by tribble

For free dosnt have to mean bad fonts Since they make them automated, they could let the user choose a font size and font face. That would be really cool.

But tricky. In order to know how many characters will fit on a line, the font metrics for the fonts would be required. And ... it would work only if the font name used in the PDF file is the same on the client system ... and these are internal font names, not the ones users typically see. Or ... if the font was embedded, which is another kettle of fish.

A better approach would be, I think, to select from a few standard formats. The pages shown are too crowded for my taste: I want more line spacing (or, alternatively) shorter lines. Books for young children would also need larger type, shorter lines and very generous spacing.

I'm beginning to get rather worried about the apparent lack of contrast in the photos: darkish grey 'print' on less darkish grey 'paper' is not particularly useful for reading: older eyes will get tired rather fast.

[vvoi666]

Originally Posted by ath

I'm beginning to get rather worried about the apparent lack of contrast in the photos: darkish grey 'print' on less darkish grey 'paper' is not particularly useful for reading: older eyes will get tired rather fast.

right, it is not quite 'paperlike' in this regard.
here is shot of the iliad next a piece of copy paper. to me, the greyish 'paper color' of the iliad is not really a problem (i like it even better than 'normal' paper in bright sunlight). haven't tried it in dimly lit places, though.

edit:
the pics of my last post (3 pics) are a bit on the darker side. this one comes closer to the real screen 'whiteness' of the iliad

[tribble]

Originally Posted by ath

But tricky.

I never said it would be easy But if they are using some PDF package, then all thos mentioned problems should be handled automatically. Just a question of CPU time then.

I'm beginning to get rather worried about the apparent lack of contrast in the photos: darkish grey 'print' on less darkish grey 'paper' is not particularly useful for reading: older eyes will get tired rather fast.

Well, i have yet to see an image, that transports the feel of the eink display. It would be actually great, if the contrast were better, but the readability is amazing. I read about 400 pages on the iLiad so far and i did it in bright sunlight, normal room light, night stand lamp and usb lamp attached. You will be amazed, how well your eyes adapt. It was very easy to read in all situations. For me at least. But if the next eink version is even whiter, that would be fine with me

[ath]

Originally Posted by vvoi666

right, it is not quite 'paperlike' in this regard.

I've been looking over the photo threads ... some photos look close to perfect contrastwise, some look rather sad. I suspect there may be some autobalancing in some cameras ... but it seems pretty clear that the lighting situation does a lot, just as for ordinary books. (I've also seen those whiter-than-white images of E Ink paper in ads ... which I suspect may have been shot with manual white point on the 'paper'.)

I wonder if something like an IT8 target would be useful as a test image? It would show how well greyscales are rendered, and might even give some hints of colour-to-grey conversion. Hm ... now where did I put that ...