08-07-2009, 01:52 AM | #1 |
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Scaling down PDF to work on BeBook
Hello all,
I have a Neevia PDF Toolbox software which allows me to scale down the PDF file to almost fit what BeBook requires. I have not yet purchased BeBook and I am thinking about getting it. With this software, I can take A4 sized PDF and scale it down to 91 x 156mm size. As I know BeBook's specs say 90 x 120mm, what will happen when I open this 91x156 sized PDF with BeBook? Will the leftover 26mm go to next page as white space or will BeBook scale the PDF a little to fit into screen? If it scales just a little bit, how is the quality of text and vector graphics? If you have BeBook, you can have a try with the file at http://www.majgaj.com/test.pdf The software has also user defined size, but this option gives me blank PDF for some reason. A bug is a software I guess. Last edited by spaze; 08-07-2009 at 01:54 AM. |
08-07-2009, 11:16 AM | #2 |
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I'm not sure this software is doing anything that matters on a BeBook. You started out with a single-page image in portrait mode and ended up with a single page image in portrait mode. No matter what page size the PDF specifies, the full page will be scaled on the BeBook to fit the actual screen, which is very small (6" diagonal). Things that could effect how a PDF displays on an EInk device include trimming margins and splitting one page into two pages (effectively magnifying what is on the page in the process).
When you hear advice to use small page dimensions for PDF documents, they mean text documents. What matters is how much text fits on each line and each page. Instead of making the overall page smaller with the same font size, you could instead keep the original page size but make the font size much larger (e.g. 26 point instead of 12 point). These two approaches give identical results on the typical EInk device. |
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08-07-2009, 11:47 AM | #3 | |
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08-07-2009, 12:01 PM | #4 | |
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One way to see a similar effect on your PC is to make the PDF reader window very small (about 90mmx120mm) and then select "shrink to fit". Both the original and the new version will then look the same in the small window. This is what the BeBook PDF software will do for you. There is also be a landscape mode and "reflow" modes which won't help for images. I'll make some screenshots of your PDF on my EZ Reader (Hanlin V3) this evening. I am using the latest mobile Adobe Digital Editions firmware. |
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08-07-2009, 12:23 PM | #5 |
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Thank you for your help, much appreciated.
I made another copy with a PDFcropper software that is said to optimize the PDF file for different ebook reader devices. Could you also have a look at the following file with your reader device? http://www.majgaj.com/resize.pdf |
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08-07-2009, 01:00 PM | #6 |
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08-07-2009, 08:33 PM | #7 |
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Here are the scans from my EZ Reader running the mobile ADE firmware. These are scans (from a HP All-in-One printer), and they are lower resolution than the screen, but since your monitor probably has fewer pixels per inch than the EZ Reader they may end up closer to actual size than a screen shot would be. In any case, the 1st three are original.pdf in portrat and landscape mode. The "zoom" modes in both orientations lead to a blank screen. The 4th is test.pdf in portrait mode. I think it is snaller because there is lots of blank space below the image. In landscape mode, this is essentially the same as original.pdf. The last 3 scans are from resize.pdf.
Rendering the images took longer than I expected. There was a noticeable pause between each image coming up on the screen. Last edited by wallcraft; 08-07-2009 at 08:36 PM. |
08-08-2009, 03:08 AM | #8 |
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Thank you so much for your effort! It seems to me from these images that perhaps the last one on top row is the best, did the zoom feature work on this (resize.pdf)
How long does it take to load the document? Perhaps it takes some time to load since there is so much vector graphic in it? |
08-08-2009, 03:30 AM | #9 | ||
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I don't know if any 6" EInk device is going to work well for this kind of document. The new Sony PRS-600 has an actual zoom mode, so that is one possibility (if they improved the zoom over that on the PRS-700). It would probably be fine on a 9.7" Kindle DX, or even on the 8" iLiad (which allows zoom). There are rumors of a cheaper iLiad follow-on, see Mainstream iRex 8.1-inch reader for 400$ (rumor). Finally, you could try splitting it into 4 quadrants using PDFread. |
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08-08-2009, 05:19 AM | #10 |
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But is the text readable in full-screen portrait mode? If you can read the numbers and text on the map, then this device is more than suitable for my use.
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08-08-2009, 11:19 AM | #11 |
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The numbers and text are well formed and distinct from the background, but they are tiny. I can make them out with a magnifying glass but not otherwise.
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08-08-2009, 04:34 PM | #12 |
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How would you describe tiny? Since people have different vision, you might need glasses but not me The original one has also tiny letters and numbers.
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08-08-2009, 06:04 PM | #13 |
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I suggest you print out the image on paper at about 76mm × 102mm. This will be very similar to how it looks on the screen. The actual screen background will be gray, but that does not significantly effect legibility.
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08-09-2009, 03:40 AM | #14 |
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I did print it out as you suggested and the letters are small, you are correct. Its hard for me to say if this would be usable for me, since resolution from the laster printer is different from the BeBook. Its pitty I can't go to a store and test it out, since there is only one store in Finland that sells these and its on the other side of the country from where I live.
Can you flip in the horizontal orientation back oand forth or do you scroll down and up? Thanks for your help though, I really appreciate your time to scan and test out my docs. |
08-09-2009, 11:49 AM | #15 |
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