What's the best way to read a 2-column pdf in Koreader?

[doron]

How can I read a paper which usually look like this one ?
Zoom to column shows me only the left column.
If there is no Koreader solution is there some other way?

[pazos]

I read pdfs with:

zoom to page
disable scroll mode
manual cropping

Some people like the reflow option.

[Frenzie]

I generally use zoom to content width, sometimes page width. I don't tend to see much of a point in fancy stuff.

Using manual cropping can be a decent solution in some extreme cases, as can reflow.

Your specific example here seems somewhat exceptionally ill-suited for my regular ways, but I'd probably just use landscape instead.

Originally Posted by doron

Zoom to column shows me only the left column

Huh, that's weird. That's not what it normally does, unless it quietly broke.

If there is no Koreader solution is there some other way?

You'll have slightly easier control over reflow if you use K2pdfopt on your computer.

[doron]

Manual crop for each column is tedious.

Landscape and zoom to content width is hard to read on my 6" Kobo aura.

Zoom to column works nicely on some pages then go crazy.

I really hope for a nice solution as almost every paper look like this

[Frenzie]

Reflow works perfectly though?

[doron]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

Reflow works perfectly though?

Only sometimes.

[Marinolino]

Originally Posted by doron

Manual crop for each column is tedious.

Landscape and zoom to content width is hard to read on my 6" Kobo aura.

Zoom to column works nicely on some pages then go crazy.

I really hope for a nice solution as almost every paper look like this

We can cut two-column pdf in half (one column per pdf page), beforehand on PC, using Briss, k2pdfopt, pdfscissors etc. if we are not satisfied with two-column modes on our 6" reader, and then read it in portraite without margins.

We can also reflow any pdf on PC using k2pdfopt.

There is a zoom & pan option in koreader, tap on the left upper corner for the small icon to appear thereon, double tap on column to zoom-in and then we can use panning.

On Kobo Aura One we can also use zoom & panning in its native pdf reader (Nickel), we can use a slider therein for more precise zooming than with koreader.

In Nickel double tapping on a column will commence two-column mode, with swipes as a way to flip through the page parts.

[doron]

Originally Posted by Marinolino

We can cut two-column pdf in half (one column per pdf page), beforehand on PC, using Briss, k2pdfopt, pdfscissors etc. if we are not satisfied with two-column modes on our 6" reader, and then read it in portraite without margins.

We can also reflow any pdf on PC using k2pdfopt.

There is a zoom & pan option in koreader, tap on the left upper corner for triangle to appear thereon, double tap on column to zoom-in and then we can use panning.

On Kobo Aura One we can also use zoom & panning in its native pdf reader (Nickel), we can use a slider therein for more precise zooming than with koreader.

Thanks!
Ths only thing I didn't get was the 2column koreader mode - I doesn't change anything compared to the 1column mode.

[Ken Maltby]

Aren't the column modes for the landscape mode?

[doron]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Aren't the column modes for the landscape mode?

It didn't make a difference in the article I'm checking with. Everything the Koreader does with it seems random.

[Marinolino]

Originally Posted by doron

Thanks!
Ths only thing I didn't get was the 2column koreader mode - I doesn't change anything compared to the 1column mode.

At first it also showed only the left column(s) (of your two-column pdf) in my Koreader too, but after I've turned a scroll mode (continuous view) off, changed margins-crop from none to auto and later to semi-auto, as well as tried out a zoom & pan mode and reflow-mode, Koreader's zoom-to-fit-column mode has started showing two-columns as expected (1,2,3,4 i.e. left column upper part, left column lower part, right column upper part, right column lower part).

So, I don't know what was the reason for the left-column issue, but it should work in the end as expected.

If we want narrower columns (when fonts are too big for our liking) we should use Koreader's manual-page-crop beforehand (cropping margins on the left and right side at a desired width) or its none-button (margins as in an original document, i.e. left intact).

For easier continuation of reading between the page-quarters there is also a page-overlap function, and we can choose between gray-out mode (all visible lines from the previous page quarter will be shown as gray, not black) or arrow mode (a very tiny triangle is shown, almost like a dot, on the very left side of the last line from the previous page quarter).

We can use both swiping & tapping for flipping through screens and I've also set the right-swipe as a quicker go-back function, after we've used a link/bookmark or maybe accidentally went to the other part of the file.
-----

In the zoom & pan mode (tap on the left upper corner for the book icon to appear and double tap on column to zoom in, then pan) double tapping on a column will usually zoom it in so as to completely fit the screen (smaller margins, bigger fonts), whereas double tapping beneath or above the column will make it narrower i.e. with bigger margins and consequently smaller fonts.

We can use this feature for quicker two-column reading (by tapping instead of panning) while in zoom&pan mode; double tap above the first column (zooming-in on the upper half of the 1st column), then double tap on column to zoom out, then double tap below the first column (zooming-in on the lower half of the 1st column), then double tap on column for zooming out, etc.

Before I've used to crop multi-column pdfs like in the attachement, so that every small 6" or 8" reader could read it quickly and easily.

Since 8" readers are pretty wide (12 cm) in portraite mode and a column in two-column pdf is about 8 cm wide on the paper, we can include more of the adjacent column in our pdf-cut, in order to make the column narrower (i.e. fonts smaller) when using fit-to-page-width mode.

[doron]

Originally Posted by Marinolino

At first it also showed only the left column(s) (of your two-column pdf) in my Koreader too, but after I've turned a scroll mode (continuous view) off, changed margins-crop from none to auto and later to semi-auto, as well as tried out a zoom & pan mode and reflow-mode, Koreader's zoom-to-fit-column mode has started showing two-columns as expected (1,2,3,4 i.e. left column upper part, left column lower part, right column upper part, right column lower part).

So, I don't know what was the reason for the left-column issue, but it should work in the end as expected.

If we want narrower columns (when fonts are too big for our liking) we should use Koreader's manual-page-crop beforehand (cropping margins on the left and right side at a desired width) or its none-button (margins as in an original document, i.e. left intact).

For easier continuation of reading between the page-quarters there is also a page-overlap function, and we can choose between gray-out mode (all visible lines from the previous page quarter will be shown as gray, not black) or arrow mode (a very tiny triangle is shown, almost like a dot, on the very left side of the last line from the previous page quarter).

We can use both swiping & tapping for flipping through screens and I've also set the right-swipe as a quicker go-back function, after we've used a link/bookmark or maybe accidentally went to the other part of the file.
-----

In the zoom & pan mode (tap on the left upper corner for the book icon to appear and double tap on column to zoom in, then pan) double tapping on a column will usually zoom it in so as to completely fit the screen (smaller margins, bigger fonts), whereas double tapping beneath or above the column will make it narrower i.e. with bigger margins and consequently smaller fonts.

We can use this feature for quicker two-column reading (by tapping instead of panning) while in zoom&pan mode; double tap above the first column (zooming-in on the upper half of the 1st column), then double tap on column to zoom out, then double tap below the first column (zooming-in on the lower half of the 1st column), then double tap on column for zooming out, etc.

Before I've used to crop multi-column pdfs like in the attachement, so that every small 6" or 8" reader could read it quickly and easily.

Since 8" readers are pretty wide (12 cm) in portraite mode and a column in two-column pdf is about 8 cm wide on the paper, we can include more of the adjacent column in our pdf-cut, in order to make the column narrower (i.e. fonts smaller) when using fit-to-page-width mode.

Thanks for the detailed answer!
Two thinks that you've mentioned I can't find in my v2015.11-1607...2018-03-29 Koreader - margins-crop and zoom & pan mode.

Is it a matter of version?

[Frenzie]

As was perhaps slightly hidden in that message:

"tap on the left upper corner for the book icon to appear and double tap on column to zoom in, then pan"