1100, 1150, or ebookman

[fatalfunnel]

First post so be nice.

REB1100, Ebookwise 1150, or Franklin Ebookman? They all seem to be about the same price on ebay and I'm ready to take the plunge and utilize my extensive pdf collection. I realize pdf's will need to be converted, but no big deal (right?).
I don't really need the limited pda functions of the ebookman, but audiobook capability would be nice.

Sooo, If you were me, which would you go for? Pros/Cons

[ashkulz]

Originally Posted by fatalfunnel

First post so be nice.
REB1100, Ebookwise 1150, or Franklin Ebookman? They all seem to be about the same price on ebay and I'm ready to take the plunge and utilize my extensive pdf collection. I realize pdf's will need to be converted, but no big deal (right?).
I don't really need the limited pda functions of the ebookman, but audiobook capability would be nice.

Sooo, If you were me, which would you go for? Pros/Cons

Well, PDFs need to be converted specially using a tool I wrote for either device.

I don't know much about the ebookman, so can't really can't comment on it.

REB 1100
+ can load custom TTF fonts
+ can change to landscape orientation
+ tools for using it in linux available
- monochrome display
- second-hand only, battery life may be unpredictable
- no commercial books available
- limited HTML support

EBW 1150
+ grayscale screen
+ commercial ebooks available
+ better HTML support
+ available new, so no battery life worries
- no custom fonts
- no landscape mode
- linux support via WINE only

I myself prefer the REB1100, but that's because it's advantages for me outweigh its disadvantages. I find the ability to load custom fonts especially very nice -- you aren't stuck with the default fonts.

Hope that helps.

[alophind]

Originally Posted by ashkulz

Well, PDFs need to be converted specially using a tool I wrote for either device.

I don't know much about the ebookman, so can't really can't comment on it.

REB 1100
+ can load custom TTF fonts
+ can change to landscape orientation
+ tools for using it in linux available
- monochrome display
- second-hand only, battery life may be unpredictable
- no commercial books available
- limited HTML support

EBW 1150
+ grayscale screen
+ commercial ebooks available
+ better HTML support
+ available new, so no battery life worries
- no custom fonts
- no landscape mode
- linux support via WINE only

I myself prefer the REB1100, but that's because it's advantages for me outweigh its disadvantages. I find the ability to load custom fonts especially very nice -- you aren't stuck with the default fonts.

Hope that helps.

Can you please post a picture of a book with a custom font you preffer over the default one ? :-)

Thanks.

[Jadon]

Originally Posted by alophind

Can you please post a picture of a book with a custom font you preffer over the default one ?

BookDesigner can make image-mode IMPs for the 1150, and they can use any font and even be portrait mode. The cost is file size: an image IMP runs 10-20 times the size of a text one. PDF conversion can be iffy. If they're not text, but merely collections of scanned pages, they often rasterize down into quite tiny fonts.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by alophind

Can you please post a picture of a book with a custom font you preffer over the default one ? :-)

Thanks.

I am not the author that posted the idea of custom fonts on the 1100 but since no one has answered your post I will point out that you can determine what the fonts look like yourself if you have a pc. All of the TTF are supported by downloading the fonts from a pc to the 1100. Look at the fonts in Word or Wordpad to determine what they look like. TTF is true type fonts.

Personally I prefer the 1150 BTW.

Dale

[Jadon]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

the idea of custom fonts

One thing I dislike about the default serif font of the 1150 is that lowercase-L and numeral-1 differ by all of two pixels, and not even at the top (many fonts differentiate by having l have a horizontal top and 1 an inclined one), but just having the numeral having a wider base. Bad design. Q is ugly, as well.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Jadon

One thing I dislike about the default serif font of the 1150 is that lowercase-L and numeral-1 differ by all of two pixels, and not even at the top (many fonts differentiate by having l have a horizontal top and 1 an inclined one), but just having the numeral having a wider base. Bad design. Q is ugly, as well.

I would agree that the serif font l and Q are not the best. The 1150 could use a few improvements but overall as the cheapest reader available it is still a pretty good unit.

Dale