How do you read PDF files?

[CO'Neil]

Did try the latest version of Calibre with some all-text pdf's to lrf's for my Sony 500. They came out 10 times larger than converting the same contents from lit to lrf, so in future I'll try to avoid pdf's for the Sony.

That said, the Calibre conversion did work, albeit with a slight resolution deficiency. It was waaay easier to read than a straight split-landscape pdf.

Chris

[Moonraker]

I use Copistar which will create a new unlocked pdf from both non-drm and drm'd pdf files.
If a pdf file can be opened on your computer then Copistar will work.

It works by capturing multi-page on-screen data and saves it to a new PDF file which can then be printed or OCR'd.

I discovered that Copistar will not work with Foxit PDF Reader or Acrobat Reader 8 -- I use Acrobat Reader 6.

I set Copistar so that it creates a pdf at a high resolution by zooming the original at 300 to 400%.
This can put a strain on an under-powered computer but it creates a file that can be more easily read by an ocr programme with fewer errors.

I then OCR the new pdf file using Abbyy Fine Reader 8.0., proof-read the result, and create an html file.

[Beau]

For unsecured pdfs, I'm still using the mobile adobe reader, if it is tagged properly.

Until DE, I wasn't convinced that I would be able to continue to have access to the material, so didn't purchase drm'd material. Now I'm waiting to see if it is going to ubiquitous enough. I like to reread.

[M@rcel]

Originally Posted by BlackVoid

Is there any way to easily remove these? Anyone know about a pdf converter that can leave out the header/footer page numbers?

http://www.pdfcropper.com/

[alexxxm]

I discovered the beauty of bookbinding, and I believe that it wonderfully complements the electronic part of my reading life (Sony 505).

So whenever I happen onto an unreadable PDF, it is a wonderful surprise.
I print it at once in booklet A5 (ask if interested), then work on the binding, finding the aptest one for the book kind, etc.

Highly recommended.


alessandro

[WillAdams]

In addition to my Tablet PC, I read .pdfs (of a suitably small format-size) on my Sony PRS-505.

William

[=X=]

The new PRS-505 firmware has changed the way I read PDF. I use to convert them by default.
Before PRS-505 Firmware:

Convert 1: If the PDF is something I plan to reference or re-read then I look into converting it. Using pdftohtml and BookCreator.dot.

Convert 2 OCR: If the PDF was an image I used a free(open source) software terraocr and have a series of scripts that convert a PDF to text. Then use BookCreator.dot to format the text. If there is no graphics in the PDF the conversion is quick and easy.

PDFLRF If conversion will take a lot of work. (e.g. two columns PDF or lots of graphs. I use PDFLRF.

After the Firmware I've changed my PDF process:

Leave as is: I first load the PDF to the PRS-505 reader. If the PDf looks good on the PRS-505 I leave it alone.

PDFLRF: The new firmware also loads large books much faster. Before I would have to break up PDFLRF files into small sections (about 2MB) for acceptable performance. I can now convert the whole book with no problem.

<Then I look into>
Convert 1
Convert 2

[TallMomof2]

Most of my PDF files are technical and I mostly print those out using both sides of the paper. I strenuously avoid fiction PDFs. Even though with Copistar I can always unlock the PDF, assuming I can open it on the PC, and create a PDF that I can then convert to a better format.

[xianfox]

I'm going to have to go with the "I read it on my iLiad anyway despite the fact that I hate PDFs and I have to resort to screen rotation" option.

[vegetrendian]

I have been trying in vain to find a good way to load Lonely Planet's newly released PDF versions of their travel guides onto a PRS-505 and none of it is working very well.
If anyone has a solution for that I would extremely grateful. I am planning a long trip to a number of countries and if I can squeeze all the travel guides into a small device it would make an enormous difference.
I have tried converting them with pdfread, and with Calibre, and with Smart PDF Converter but they all come up either way too small to read (in either portrait or landscape) or the formatting is way off.
Since I will be taking a large number of the guides, it would be probably over a thousand pages, so manually reformatting everything isn't a viable option.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by BlackVoid

This is just what I am looking for! Could you explain in detail how it is done? Thanks.

First, I am using the full version of Adobe Acrobat (the paid for one, not the free Acrobat Reader.) The steps are as follows:

1. Start the application and load the PDF document
2. Remove any front and back pages that you do not wish to convert
3. Pick a representative page (some books have the same format for all interior pages, others will vary by odd or even, so adapt as needed)
4. From the top menu, select "Document | Page |Crop"
5. Insert your best guess as to the amount to crop from each side (if wanted), top, and bottom
6. Leave the display to cropbox so you can see what you have included and excluded
7. At the bottom of the screen are several options where you can apply your changes to a single page, a range of pages, or all pages. Additionally, you can apply it to all pages, all the even numbered pages or only to the odd numbered pages. (Remember that this applies to what Adobe calls an odd or even page, not always what the book page number is.)
8. Check OK and see what it looks like
9. If you need to crop more (or less) repeat again. Remember that the measurements are absolute from the original page edge, they are not cumulative crops.
10. When happy with the results, select "File | Save As" and save the file with a new name. I will just append "-cropped" to the end of the base file name.

The file should be ready for conversion to text. One problem with any PDF to text conversion is that all paragraphs that break across a page boundary will result in two paragraphs that must be manually joined together later.

Good luck. I hope this helped.

[laowai]

Interesting question.
Until last month I had decided not to read them on my Cybook as it was not worth the effort.
Then I downloaded the updated version of Mobipocket reader which makes the conversion seamless through drag & drop. Still not ideal but at least was easy so I started to read some again.
Then last weekend I saw the new build for my CyBook and ..and eventually, there wasthis feature to zoom on pdf on the eReader! I tried it own and I read them again with pleasure... Still prefer the other format though

[Gibbo]

Is it possible to convert an .etd (Adobe Digital Edition) file to... what whatever?

[=X=]

Originally Posted by RWood

It depends on what the document is, <SNIP .. >.
If it is graphic intense and for my own use I will use PDF read and pdflrf and look at the results and use the better of the two. Of late PDF read has been winning the face-off about 5:1 over pdflrf.

Hi RWood,
If I may ask what settings do you use for PDFRead. I would like to transiton from PDFLRF to PDFRead since it is a supported app, by two outstanding members of our mobi community. but for me PDFLRF does a better job.

thank you
=X=

[DixieGal]

I'm quickly losing my eyesight, so the last 2 books I "read" have been PDF's which were on my computer. I let Adobe Acrobat (the paid one, not the free one) do its "Read Aloud" function. It's sort of bland and monotonal, but better than nothing. It also reads the page headers and page numbers, which I just put up with rather than bothering to try to delete. Sort of bums me out to not be able to read on my EB-1150 anymore.