First ereader----> Help!

[arctos89]

Hello everyone!

As you can read in the title, I'm trying to decide which will be my first ereader but I feel kind of lost at the moment and good advices would be much appreciated.
I apologize already for my English and I hope it will be understandable, if you need clarifications just ask me

I'll try to explain what I'm looking for:
I read lots of pdfs on the computer, both for university and for fun (for example chess books) but I'm sick-tired of it as it strains my eyes a lot.
I reckon buying an ereader would be a good solution, at least for my eyes, even if ereaders are not regarded as the best device when it comes to pdf handling.
As a workaround I was planning to convert pdfs into epub using calibre, would it be an effective solution?

Mostly, I'll be uploading pdfs from my computer and I won't be using online stores that much, at least at the beginning. I usually take lots of notes as well, so a fully functional keyboard with an easy manageable notation system would be great.

I'm going to carry the ereader with me everywhere during the day and I'll be using it a lot, so the "sturdier" and less buggier, the merrier.
I don't care about the design and the front-illumination would make a nice addition but not necessarily required.

As I'm a jobless student, I don't want to spend more than 150€ (200$) for an ereader.

I have to exclude the 2 Nooks as in Italy they're not available at the moment. Today I had the possibility to try directly the two kindles: although great in the other aspects, It felt strange taking notes using the buttons of the kindle 4 and liked definitely more the paperwhite touchscreen.
Still, I haven't tried the other brands, particularly Kobo which seems more interesting than Kindle for some aspects (the epub support and the memory slots).

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated! looking forward to hearing your opinions, cheers!

Nicola

[eschwartz]

PDF conversion to ebook formats is very bad, here is a thread detailing some of the problems -- as well as possible solutions: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118605

So you will optimally want a device that has good support for PDFs, rather than just converting them. Tablets are the best for this, really, but since that is out, I believe the Sony and Kobo readers both have better PDF readers than the Kindle does.

Here is the PDF forum, which has some useful tools for dealing with PDFs: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=184

KOReader, an alternative PDF reader for Kindle (requires jailbreak): https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=209276

[tidegirl]

Sony readers will rewrap PDF text, so you can read without having to slide the screen around.

I have also converted PDFs to epub and read on a Sony without difficulty- maybe it depends on what is in the book? Maybe I just got lucky.

I have had 2 Sony readers and been very happy with them. I am now waiting on my first Kindle- the PW2- because the light became more important to me.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by tidegirl

Sony readers will rewrap PDF text, so you can read without having to slide the screen around.

So I've heard.

I have also converted PDFs to epub and read on a Sony without difficulty- maybe it depends on what is in the book? Maybe I just got lucky.

That would be luck -- calibre has a bunch of complicated settings for PDF conversion, specifically here I am thinking of the line unwrap setting. Often needs to be tweaked, and depending on the PDF, half the lines will be missed anyway. It tends to be the kind of thing where your goal is to cut out the majority of the errors, so that it will be faster to fix manually.

But again, it's all in how the PDF was formed. Some will magically convert in a beautiful manner, and aren't those readers lucky!

[meeera]

Honestly, I'd suggest you take a long hard second (third, fourth) look at a tablet. PDF handling is vastly superior, and their glass screens are also sturdier than e-ink. If you manage the brightness/colours appropriately, eyestrain is likely to be minimal.

Dealbreakers might include a lot of time reading in direct bright sunlight, or a need for weeks of battery life without access to power. If those aren't present, really, think again.

[arctos89]

Thank you very much for the advices!

Indeed yesterday I tried to convert a pdf scientific article using Calibre and it didn't go well, especially the formulas were totally uncomprehensible. Although I just used the basic settings as I don't know how to configure it properly, it seems unlikely that it'll be able to handle graphs and diagrams (and there's plenty of them in the articles and chess books as well).

It's a pity, as I really liked the e-ink "feeling", but buying something that in the end would be more troublesome than my computer isn't a wise choice.

do you have any suggestions for a cheap tablet then? :-)

Thanks again for your replies, they're really helpful!

[markom]

Originally Posted by arctos89

Hello everyone!

...

I'll try to explain what I'm looking for:
I read lots of pdfs on the computer, both for university and for fun (for example chess books) but I'm sick-tired of it as it strains my eyes a lot.
I reckon buying an ereader would be a good solution, at least for my eyes, even if ereaders are not regarded as the best device when it comes to pdf handling.
As a workaround I was planning to convert pdfs into epub using calibre, would it be an effective solution?

...
Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated! looking forward to hearing your opinions, cheers!

Nicola

Instead of converting pdfs to epub you can also use k2pdfopt to optimize pdfs beforehand for 6" e-ink readers e.g. automatically crop the margins and turn to landscape A5 sized pdfs or reflow A4 sized pdfs (both scanned pdf images with or without ocr layer or textual vectors).

http://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...9&postcount=11

You can also use tablet and e-ink reader simultaneously for the tasks that are not available on e-ink or are just not quick or easy enough to accomplish thereon e.g. you can just read pdf on e-ink screen while using tablet for handwriting, annotation, color recognition, quicker page flipping, quicker cross referencing, quicker txt search, better dictionaries, txt to speech, audio recording etc.

Tablets and e-ink readers are getting lighter and smaller each day, so simultaneous usage should not pose a big problem anymore, just affix e-ink or tablet on another device leather cover and you can hold both in one hand, resting it partially on the body if/when necessary.

[arctos89]

Originally Posted by markom

Instead of converting pdfs to epub you can also use k2pdfopt to optimize pdfs beforehand for 6" e-ink readers e.g. automatically crop the margins and turn to landscape A5 sized pdfs or reflow A4 sized pdfs (both scanned pdf images with or without ocr layer or textual vectors).

http://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...9&postcount=11

You can also use tablet and e-ink reader simultaneously for the tasks that are not available on e-ink or are just not quick or easy enough to accomplish thereon e.g. you can just read pdf on e-ink screen while using tablet for handwriting, annotation, color recognition, quicker page flipping, quicker cross referencing, quicker txt search, better dictionaries, txt to speech, audio recording etc.

Tablets and e-ink readers are getting lighter and smaller each day, so simultaneous usage should not pose a big problem anymore, just affix e-ink or tablet on another device leather cover and you can hold both in one hand, resting it partially on the body if/when necessary.

Hi markom!

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't know that such a tool existed!
I tried it out and it works perfectly, I just have one question though:
I see that the output pdf weights much more than the original (3.31 mb to 441 kb for a 10 pages article). If I were to convert a whole book, wouldn't it slow down the reading experience as the device has to handle a huge pdf?

Thanks again :-)

[markom]

Originally Posted by arctos89

Hi markom!

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't know that such a tool existed!
I tried it out and it works perfectly, I just have one question though:
I see that the output pdf weights much more than the original (3.31 mb to 441 kb for a 10 pages article). If I were to convert a whole book, wouldn't it slow down the reading experience as the device has to handle a huge pdf?

Thanks again :-)

You can choose native mode in k2pdfopt so that optimized pdf will have original layout i.e similar size.

If native mode is turned off optimized pdf will be saved as bitmap, meaning that it will be a lot bigger than original pdf if original pdf was also not bitmap(scanned image).

Bigger pdf doesn't mean that it will be slower on e-ink readers, on the contrary, I use bitmap mode to flip through pdfs a lot quicker on e-ink readers and iPad 1 when original pdf used more complex compression that asks for powerful processors e.g. pdfs from archive.org.

[arctos89]

ok, thanks for the explanation markom!
this turns the tide a little bit, in the next days I'll go to one of the stores and see if they let me try the pdf article, both original and resized, on the kobos and sony ereaders.
Depending on the outcome of the "test", I'll make my decision!

But thanks again to all of you, you have been all very helpful!!
Cheers,

Nicola

[susan_cassidy]

"I see that the output pdf weights much more than the original (3.31 mb to 441 kb for a 10 pages article)"

I don't understand; 441 kb is a lot less than 3.31 mb. Now, if you meant 441kb to 3.31 mb, I could see your point.

[arctos89]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

"I see that the output pdf weights much more than the original (3.31 mb to 441 kb for a 10 pages article)"

I don't understand; 441 kb is a lot less than 3.31 mb. Now, if you meant 441kb to 3.31 mb, I could see your point.

ops, I phrased that badly, sorry! English is not my first language so I tend to make some mistakes

[Rizla]

The most important feature is that the e-reader can display the pdf in landscape mode so it cuts the pdf in half and makes it big enough to read.

If you're confident about rooting, you could install a 3rd party Android reading app on a rooted e-reader like a Nook / Kobo / Shine. As you're in Europe, you could get an Onyx which comes already rooted.

Also from what I read, I think the kindles also have a good community-made tool for reading pdfs, but I you will have to jail-break the kindle.

[arctos89]

Hi Rizla!

Thanks for the suggestion! unfortunately I don't know what "rooting" means, but I think I can get acquainted with it easily by searching the forum and google :-)

Last saturday I had the possibility to try directly the kobo aura and I literally fell in love with it. I tried the pdfs as well, both original and resized, and the result was not a miracle (also because I'm not an expert in resizing pdfs).

I was still quite undecided but then one decisive factor tipped the scales: my bedside lamp suddenly committed suicide and I needed a comfort light to ease the grief....
And here I am reading game of thrones with my new Aura! :-D

I really love to read ebooks on it, and for the pdfs, I'll definitely study more in depth the solutions that you suggested. I thank you all again for the advices!
Cheers!

Nicola