PRS-650 how to best read pdf's?

[luckycharms]

hi folks,

i'm wondering how the best way is to read academic pdf articles on my prs-650. I saw a friend reading them on his kindle, and it seemed much better than I'm able to do it on my sony. any suggestions?

here's an example of the type of pdf i'm trying to read: http://www.pnas.org/content/108/11/4352.full.pdf+html

thanks!

[luckycharms]

One other problem with reading pdf's seems to be that with a locked custom zoom, when you click the next page button, it really goes to the next page. If your zoom doesn't show the entire page, which it normally wouldn't, then you're left without being able to read the parts of the page not contained in your zoom. There doesn't seem to be a way to use a locked custom zoom and step through the pdf so that you can read it all.

I'm wondering if there's any way PRS+ might be able to improve upon how these units handle pdfs...

[adityadubey]

Doesn't the two column display work for files like that?

[sovre]

So far as a pdf reader I've found my Sony 950 pretty disappointing. From what I gather pdfs that are specifically formatted for the dimensions of the device can be easily read and worked with--but the pdfs I have were all created by other people and if there is a way to modify them so that they will display more nicely on the Sony, I am not aware of it.

After a fair amount of experimentation with various files from my electronic library, I've concluded the best way to read pdfs is in landscape mode at the default font size. Overall the process of reading such a document is rather too slow and awkward for my taste, but, with a little patience, it can be done (assuming the document displays fairly well in the first place).

I haven't been able to get anything like good results in my experiments with the zoom feature, and I haven't yet had a document that displayed readably in two column mode (the text is always too small for me to read, and attempts to enlarge always seem to create other problems).

Generally, whenever possible I convert pdfs to epub, because even if if the formatting comes out a bit skewed, it is still a much less frustrating reading experience.

Hopefully someone here who is more adept at working with pdfs and has had more success in getting them to readably display can give you some better tips than myself.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by sovre

So far as a pdf reader I've found my Sony 950 pretty disappointing. ...
... Hopefully someone here who is more adept at working with pdfs and has had more success in getting them to readably display can give you some better tips than myself.

I have to agree. Though my PRS-650 does at least try to re-flow PDF's so you can change to a larger font, the results are really hit or miss.

For full screen PDF viewing I haven't found anything better than using my Netbook with Ubuntu's standard built in Gnome PDF viewer.

I turn the Netbook 90 Degrees, then use the drop-down menu options to rotate the PDF 90 degrees and put the Gnome PDF viewer into 'presentation' viewing mode.

This lets you read the Netbook like a real book, using the left and right keypad buttons as dedicated page-forward and page-back page turn buttons.

My Gateway LT23 is only about 3 pounds, which is less than or equal to the weight of most full sized hardback books.

The touchpad mouse buttons on the LT23 are right at the edge, just like the dedicated page turn buttons on a Nook or Kindle, and the Ubuntu does an terrific job of font rendering with the built if viewer, and if that's not good enough, you can run Adobe's latest and greatest Adobe Reader and set it up the same way.

With Android getting better every day, eventually I may be able to replace my Netbook with an even more compact Android tablet, but for now I need the ability to run both Win7 and Ubuntu, so I can deal with just these kinds of issues.

[Rizla]

This youtube review focuses on pdf functionality for the 650 and the kindle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtrKo5UWpco

They seem pretty comparable.