paper size question

[timezone]

Everything I have read, if I am remembering correctly, has associated A4 with the DR1000S. I would think A5 is closer to the screen size of the DR. Am I wrong?

A4 8.3 x 11.7
A5 5.8 x 8.3

[Grimulkan]

You're right, the screen size is more like A5, but you if you chop the margins off most A4 pages, you should be able to get close to a 1:1 fit. Most importantly, double column pages are actually readable, although a tad bit smaller than 1:1. Frankly, I prefer this size as a nice balance between readability and comfort - an actual A4 screen size would mean a much larger device.

The reason so many people associate the DR with A4 reading is because it is actually possible to read something that was meant to be on an A4/letter page, unlike anything else out there.

[timezone]

Thanks for the answer and confirming I am not completely crazy. I can see what you mean because I have PDF files that are that size.

I have notes that I entered in Word and converted to PDF for the Iliad. I want to alter the page size for the DR. It makes things easier to just set things as A4 in Word but was curious as to why people didn't just pick A5. I guess I will experiment to see how things appear for me on the DR.

[E.M.]

I had problem when I underline PDF file other than A4, so I had to change all my files to A4 to be able to take notes and underline on the PDF... please see my post in this forum "Help with PDF merging" for more details and solution to this problem...

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41180

I hope this is helpful...

[omro]

Originally Posted by Grimulkan

an actual A4 screen size would mean a much larger device.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with you there, much of what makes up the size of the DR is the plastic surrounding the screen. I think you could easily use the same screen on a much smaller device.

Equally the device itself isn't that much smaller than a proper sheet of A4, so again with a smaller amount of plastic surrounding an actual A4 screen, you would get that much bigger a device.

[Grimulkan]

Originally Posted by omro

I'm not entirely sure I agree with you there, much of what makes up the size of the DR is the plastic surrounding the screen. I think you could easily use the same screen on a much smaller device.

True, but there has to be some plastic surrounding the screen, at least for the buttons and for hand-holding space. I think the current casing of the DR is actually fairly tight on the sides and the top. I don't think I'd want there to be less space to grab and hold, or fewer physical buttons, although the bottom edge may be a little larger than it needs to be. I agree that an actual A4-screen-size DR need not be a perfectly scaled up version of this one, but there will probably be about 3/4ths of an inch of plastic on each side, which means its going to be larger than most textbooks or writing pads.

Of course, you could go the no-buttons-only-stylus way (like Plastic Logic might do), but thats a matter of preference.

[timezone]

Even though A5 appears, at first glance, in my mind to be the better choice it isn't. I took a Word doc and saved two copies. One in A4 and the other A5. I converted them to PDF using Nitro. The difference between the two is enormous. With A5 I get black margins and fewer lines per screen than A4. With A4 I get 44 lines on a page and no large margins. A5 only has 31 lines. That is with A5 zoomed to full page. A4 just looks better. Someone looking for a larger font might want to consider A5 but for me A4 is perfect.

[Grimulkan]

The actual size of the screen is neither A4 nor A5, so there are bound to be blank spaces. In general, there is no difference between an A4 or A5 page in a digital medium like the DR, as they are both the same aspect ratio (A5 is just A4 with 50% zoom). The only thing you need to worry about is the display font size, because you can't change this (as of now) with a pdf file. So you can print something with a larger font onto an A1, and it will look the same as something with a smaller font on an A7. The paper size itself is irrelevant.

Of course, if you don't have access to changing the font size (or don't feel like doing this), you can pick any size that displays an acceptable number of lines in your specific font size. The reason your word doc looked right on an A4 is probably because it was an A4 (or letter) to begin with.

Also, Word modifies the flow of your document to account for the paper size. If you were printing a full-page image or a scalable object, the paper size would not matter.