which large screen e-ink reader?

Shevek0506 · 06-09-2011, 09:58 AM

Hi,

I'm looking to get an e-ink reader in the next month or so. I plan to use it for reading and annotating scholarly articles and PDF musical scores (some will be scanned images, others will use embedded fonts). I want as big a screen as possible, and a touch screen would be nice. I don't particularly care about the device being able to do anything other than display documents. I use Linux exclusively, so I need a reader that is compatible with Linux/Calibre and open formats.

It's looks to me from poking around the MobileRead wiki like my best bet would be the PocketBook Pro 902 or the Onyx Boox M90. Is there a reason to prefer one to the other, or to get something else entirely? One thing that could make a big difference to me would be the zoom options and interface, since it is likely I won't be able to resize many of the scores and articles I will be reading.

Also, is there anything I should know about the compatibility of music PDFs with e-readers? Two potential problems come to mind. First, some of the scores I will be viewing will be hundreds or thousands of pages long, with each page consisting of a scanned image. Will that slow things down to the point of non-usability? I don't need to be able to turn pages in real time, as I won't be using the reader for performing, but more than a second for a page turn would get to be very annoying. Second, in scores stored with embedded fonts, will I run into problems with the reader trying to reflow pages? The music PDFs I produce using my notation software (Finale, if anyone's interested) seem to rely heavily on special positioning of characters and such like, so I can imagine the music becoming quite unreadable if the formatting were disturbed. (Actually, I suppose I should also ask if the embedded fonts themselves will cause issues.)

Thanks for your help!

LoneTech · 06-10-2011, 07:03 AM

The 902 is the model without the digitizer; 903 has an inductive digitizer (i.e. stylus only). Sadly, there's no firmware thus far that lets you handily take notes on PDFs, barring review's hack. A beta firmware has it for FBreader, so it may be in the works, but who knows how long.
Boox has at least some freehand note taking, and they've demonstrated selection zoom (an inexplicable omission on the Pocketbook).

Scanned images are typically not a problem for the viewers; when paging forwards, they may even prerender a page while you read the one before. Some complex PDFs get heavy, but it's not really dependent on size the way many assume. I've had some extreme results involving nearly a minute for a page turn, but at least I could choose another viewer that didn't have the problem.

At a quick glance, I'd lean towards the M90, but this is from single-sided experience. It's sad that I only reach recommending against what I have experience with.

06-09-2011, 09:58 AM	#1
Shevek0506 Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: none	which large screen e-ink reader? Hi, I'm looking to get an e-ink reader in the next month or so. I plan to use it for reading and annotating scholarly articles and PDF musical scores (some will be scanned images, others will use embedded fonts). I want as big a screen as possible, and a touch screen would be nice. I don't particularly care about the device being able to do anything other than display documents. I use Linux exclusively, so I need a reader that is compatible with Linux/Calibre and open formats. It's looks to me from poking around the MobileRead wiki like my best bet would be the PocketBook Pro 902 or the Onyx Boox M90. Is there a reason to prefer one to the other, or to get something else entirely? One thing that could make a big difference to me would be the zoom options and interface, since it is likely I won't be able to resize many of the scores and articles I will be reading. Also, is there anything I should know about the compatibility of music PDFs with e-readers? Two potential problems come to mind. First, some of the scores I will be viewing will be hundreds or thousands of pages long, with each page consisting of a scanned image. Will that slow things down to the point of non-usability? I don't need to be able to turn pages in real time, as I won't be using the reader for performing, but more than a second for a page turn would get to be very annoying. Second, in scores stored with embedded fonts, will I run into problems with the reader trying to reflow pages? The music PDFs I produce using my notation software (Finale, if anyone's interested) seem to rely heavily on special positioning of characters and such like, so I can imagine the music becoming quite unreadable if the formatting were disturbed. (Actually, I suppose I should also ask if the embedded fonts themselves will cause issues.) Thanks for your help!

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06-10-2011, 07:03 AM	#2
LoneTech Zealot Posts: 135 Karma: 7767 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: PocketBook Pro 903	The 902 is the model without the digitizer; 903 has an inductive digitizer (i.e. stylus only). Sadly, there's no firmware thus far that lets you handily take notes on PDFs, barring review's hack. A beta firmware has it for FBreader, so it may be in the works, but who knows how long. Boox has at least some freehand note taking, and they've demonstrated selection zoom (an inexplicable omission on the Pocketbook). Scanned images are typically not a problem for the viewers; when paging forwards, they may even prerender a page while you read the one before. Some complex PDFs get heavy, but it's not really dependent on size the way many assume. I've had some extreme results involving nearly a minute for a page turn, but at least I could choose another viewer that didn't have the problem. At a quick glance, I'd lean towards the M90, but this is from single-sided experience. It's sad that I only reach recommending against what I have experience with.

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