Kindle 3 auto-cropping PDFs?

arnuschky · 06-20-2011, 04:39 AM

Hey,

I convert my epubs to pdf and read them on my Kindle 3. Quite happy with the result; proper hyphenation etc makes it a much more pleasant read than the reflowed stuff.

I have one problem though: the kindle is auto-cropping and centering pages. If pages have different length (i.e., chapter ends), the text shows up in the middle of the screen and not at the top. Additionally to this, font-size slightly changes across pages, and on some pages the last pixels of the last word of each line is not displayed.

Can I somehow prevent the kindle from cropping my pdfs?

Cheers,
Arnuschky

tomsem · 06-20-2011, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arnuschky

Hey,

I convert my epubs to pdf and read them on my Kindle 3. Quite happy with the result; proper hyphenation etc makes it a much more pleasant read than the reflowed stuff.

I have one problem though: the kindle is auto-cropping and centering pages. If pages have different length (i.e., chapter ends), the text shows up in the middle of the screen and not at the top. Additionally to this, font-size slightly changes across pages, and on some pages the last pixels of the last word of each line is not displayed.

Can I somehow prevent the kindle from cropping my pdfs?

Cheers,
Arnuschky

Sure. If you add annotations to the page, you can establish your own cropping boundaries and prevent that behavior. On Mac OS X, the Preview app can handle both tasks. Adobe Acrobat obviously will too if you happen to have that.

What I have done (but am too lazy to keep doing) is draw horizontal lines at the top and bottom to establish the minimum height (approximating the cropped height the other pages which are filled with text). If there's Kindle is cropping too much whitespace from the sides as well, you can draw a box to establish cropping limits on all four sides. For extra credit, reduce the Opacity to 5% or even less (if the tool allows that) - that way they won't be visible on Kindle.

There are several free cropping tools (e.g. Briss is one I've used). It might be a nice enhancement if these could optionally add a box annotation at the cropping boundaries that you establish (with minimal opacity) to eliminate this problem with automatic cropping and give a more uniform appearance to the PDF when viewed on Kindle.

songer · 06-20-2011, 08:25 PM

I have the same question.

I wonder if we can specify some lines on the file reader.pref to disable the auto-cropping function. However, I have no idea where to find out more information about this. Maybe those who do the jailbreak have some idea about this.

arnuschky · 06-21-2011, 05:01 AM

@tomsem: I also thought about adding a frame around all pages to prevent autocropping. I am wondering how the kindle is doing it. My PDF has only the MediaBox set, and neither the CropBox nor BoundingBox. Adding either of them does not change anything (the Kindle does not seem to read the boxes' dimensions). I haven't found a tool yet that allows me to automatically to add a frame of the page size to all pages, though. Will need to investigate, if somebody has an idea... (mayby Latex?)

Apart from this, it would be great if we could just switch this behavior off in the kindle's config. What is this reader.pref, I've never heard about it before? BTW, is it possible to switch off the bar at the bottom?

AceVentura · 12-30-2011, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arnuschky

@tomsem: I also thought about adding a frame around all pages to prevent autocropping. I am wondering how the kindle is doing it. My PDF has only the MediaBox set, and neither the CropBox nor BoundingBox. Adding either of them does not change anything (the Kindle does not seem to read the boxes' dimensions). I haven't found a tool yet that allows me to automatically to add a frame of the page size to all pages, though. Will need to investigate, if somebody has an idea... (mayby Latex?)

Apart from this, it would be great if we could just switch this behavior off in the kindle's config. What is this reader.pref, I've never heard about it before? BTW, is it possible to switch off the bar at the bottom?

Anyone has any idea on this? I'm having the same issues.

thomass · 12-30-2011, 04:51 AM

A possible solution: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...96#post1752496

arnuschky · 01-02-2012, 06:22 AM

Drawing a rectancle around my PDF did not help.

In the end I realized that you just have to change the kindle's zoom from "fit-to-screen" to "actual size"... That's it!

06-20-2011, 04:39 AM	#1
arnuschky Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Kindle 3 auto-cropping PDFs? Hey, I convert my epubs to pdf and read them on my Kindle 3. Quite happy with the result; proper hyphenation etc makes it a much more pleasant read than the reflowed stuff. I have one problem though: the kindle is auto-cropping and centering pages. If pages have different length (i.e., chapter ends), the text shows up in the middle of the screen and not at the top. Additionally to this, font-size slightly changes across pages, and on some pages the last pixels of the last word of each line is not displayed. Can I somehow prevent the kindle from cropping my pdfs? Cheers, Arnuschky

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06-20-2011, 08:25 PM	#3
songer Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: kindle 3	I have the same question. I wonder if we can specify some lines on the file reader.pref to disable the auto-cropping function. However, I have no idea where to find out more information about this. Maybe those who do the jailbreak have some idea about this.

06-21-2011, 05:01 AM	#4
arnuschky Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle 3	@tomsem: I also thought about adding a frame around all pages to prevent autocropping. I am wondering how the kindle is doing it. My PDF has only the MediaBox set, and neither the CropBox nor BoundingBox. Adding either of them does not change anything (the Kindle does not seem to read the boxes' dimensions). I haven't found a tool yet that allows me to automatically to add a frame of the page size to all pages, though. Will need to investigate, if somebody has an idea... (mayby Latex?) Apart from this, it would be great if we could just switch this behavior off in the kindle's config. What is this reader.pref, I've never heard about it before? BTW, is it possible to switch off the bar at the bottom?

12-30-2011, 04:51 AM	#6
thomass Wizard Posts: 1,669 Karma: 2300001 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Türkiye Device: Kindle 5.3.7	A possible solution: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...96#post1752496

01-02-2012, 06:22 AM	#7
arnuschky Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Drawing a rectancle around my PDF did not help. In the end I realized that you just have to change the kindle's zoom from "fit-to-screen" to "actual size"... That's it!

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