PRS 950 PDF support

[MR. Pockets]

I am helping a friend decide which ereader to buy. He wants to use it to read/view mostly PDFs that are not text, but scans of the original (mostly old books, from before the 1700s). Does the prs 950 display picture PDFs well? If not, do you know of an ereader that does?

Thanks.

To be perfectly honest with you those kind of PDFs typically don't look good on any ebook reader with an eInk screen. The Sony readers and Kindles can view this kind of PDF, but navigation will probably be slow and you would probably need to zoom in, and that makes navigation even slower. Even on a large eInk screen like the Kindle DX has, the experience of reading a scanned PDF is not very good. Readable they are, but I think your friend would be disappointed. This is one type of document where the iPad or a good tablet computer is probably the best choice, though they cost a lot more than ebook readers. There is a color Nook coming out in November from Barnes and Noble for about $250. He/she might want to await its release and see how well it does with PDFs. I think it will have a 7" screen.

[MR. Pockets]

I actually was thinking of recommending the iPad or something similar, but, mainly due to price, wanted to check out the other options. I'm also considering recommending the Entourage Edge or the Notion Ink Adam.

Thanks for the info.

[doctj]

I've read a 600 page book (with figures) scanned to pdf on my 950. It's definitely readable because once you've zoomed in the screen can be locked to your preference. I would advise your friend to get one from a brick and mortar store, if things don't work out he can always return it as I did with my Kobo reader.

[MR. Pockets]

Thanks for the suggestion.

My friend said that this book (googlebooks) is pretty normal for what he wants to read. Could someone try it out and tell me how well it displays?

[Abstractus]

Originally Posted by MR. Pockets

My friend said that this book (googlebooks) is pretty normal for what he wants to read. Could someone try it out and tell me how well it displays?

I do not have PRS 950, but I read scanned google books in Latin (like the one you linked) on my PRS-505, and I do it on regular basis.

The problem is that simply downloading and reading Google PDF rarely works.
Therefore I normally convert the PDF to a set of page images in jpg format in native resolution of the e-ink screen, croping margins as much as possible, and than, using calibre, I convert these images to a single .lrf file (using calibre).

In some cases, when pages are big, I split the page into two jpegs, and rotate
them by 90 degrees, so that I can read them in landscape mode.

I have a script which does all of this more of less automatically. Unfortunately, google PDFs are not always encoded with the same method, so some tweaking is required from time to time.

[Abstractus]

Originally Posted by MR. Pockets

My friend said that this book (googlebooks) is pretty normal for what he wants to read. Could someone try it out and tell me how well it displays?

I do not have PRS 950, but I read scanned google books in Latin (like the one you linked) on my PRS-505, and I do it on regular basis.

The problem is that simply downloading and reading Google PDF rarely works.
Therefore I normally convert the PDF to a set of page images in jpg format in native resolution of the e-ink screen, croping margins as much as possible, and than, using calibre, I convert these images to a single .lrf file (using calibre).

In some cases, when pages are big, I split the page into two jpegs, and rotate
them by 90 degrees, so that I can read them in landscape mode.

I have a script which does all of this more of less automatically. Unfortunately, google PDFs are not always generated in the same way, so some tweaking is required from time to time.

Once the conversion is done, reading is very pleasant - way better than reading the same scanned book on a tablet with LCD display.

[xtracto]

Hello,

I just got my PRS950 for christmass and have been reading scanned PDFs since quite heavily with good results.

To make the reading experience better I use the free Briss program that allows me to "cut" the unused space along the scanned pages (soPDF can achieve the same for normal pdfs).

As for the quality of the display (e.g. for zoomed books) it looks good (depends of course on the quality of the scanned book!).

If you asked me between an iPad/tablet and the eBook reader I'll go for the eBook reader (if the main use was going to be for reading!!)