Kindle DX PDF Support Limitations

[sirbruce]

Just collecting them all in one place:

Some notes about the limitations of the Kindle DX PDF viewer:

PDF Table of Contents is not supported.

The dictionary function is not available.

The text to speech function is not available.

The highlight function is not available.

The annotate function is not available.

Hyperlinks in a PDF are not accessible.

You can't change the font size (although tilting the DX to landscape mode does enlarge the images and text).

You can't zoom in (although tilting the DX to landscape mode does enlarge the images and text).

You can't move the 5-way controller to acess the cursor when viewing a PDF at all.

All PDFs are shown under "Personal Docs", not Books.

You cannot directly download PDF files to the device wirelessly like you can with MOBI; you have to transfer them via USB.

Basically it's just a PDF viewer, not integrated into the Kindle software at all.

However, I'm hopeful in the future that these issues will be addressed.

[yingwu]

Does anybody think the above issues can be improved? It seems slow that Amazon release a new firmware...Is this true on Kindle 2????

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

PDF Table of Contents is not supported.

This one most clearly demonstrates that Amazon has not taken the time to do PDFs right. We know that mobile Adobe Digital Editions (which is what Amazon is using for PDFs) supports PDF TOC's via a separate interface than PDF displaying, because Sony takes advantage of this on its Windows viewer (see the screenshot). This is exactly what Amazon needs to add the TOC to the KDX's PDF menu, but they decided to rush out the product without even this basic capability.

Originally Posted by sirbruce

The dictionary function is not available.
The highlight function is not available.
The annotate function is not available.
Hyperlinks in a PDF are not accessible.
You can't move the 5-way controller to acess the cursor when viewing a PDF at all.

I think these may all be related to the missing 5-way capability. However, for annotation and highlighting there is the additional issue of how to specify a location in the PDF accurately. Annotations at the page level should be easy to do though. Dictionary access may need more than just being able to select a word, but, on the other hand, the iRex DR1000S allows MobiPocket dictionaries to be used in PDFs.

Originally Posted by sirbruce

You can't change the font size (although tilting the DX to landscape mode does enlarge the images and text).

You can't zoom in (although tilting the DX to landscape mode does enlarge the images and text).

Changing font size implies "reflow", which mobile ADE is capable of doing (so Amazon chose not to implement this). I am not convinced that reflow of letter/A4 PDFs is needed on a 9.7" screen, so Amazon may have got this right. I would like to have seen some kind of zoom for images and for 2 column documents. A general zoom may again be difficult without 5-way support. Splitting the page into quarters for 2-columns seems doable and helpful.

Originally Posted by sirbruce

The text to speech function is not available.

Adobe Desktop Reader has "read out loud", but reading order isn't necessarily obvious for a PDF. If a PDF can be reflowed then it is suitable to be read out loud.

Originally Posted by sirbruce

All PDFs are shown under "Personal Docs", not Books.

All PDFs are currently "Personal Docs", at least in the sense that you did not buy them from Amazon. Do you want a separate category for PDFs? This would seem in part to be a metadata issue (what metadata is needed for a PDF to be a "book"?).

Originally Posted by sirbruce

You cannot directly download PDF files to the device wirelessly like you can with MOBI; you have to transfer them via USB.

I wonder why not. I assumed the $0.15 per MB charge was instigated precisely because KDX PDFs could be large. This one can probably be fixed at the server level.

Or do you mean:

Can't download PDFs with the web browser.

[sirbruce]

Previously, "Personal Docs" was a flag set on MOBI files. Unless you manually set this yourself in the metadata, the only way for a file to be a "Personal Doc" was if it passed through Amazon's email conversion. MOBI or TXT files you copied manaully onto the Kindle would show up under "Books". (Also, the Archived Items directory showed up under Personal Docs.)

On the DX, PDF files you copy manually onto the Kindle show up under "Books". This breaks the previously established paradigm. Unless Amazon adds a way to "tag" a book on the Kindle as either Personal Doc or Book, then you're also going to have some items miscategorized. But I really don't like all PDFs being considered Personal Docs; I'd be happier confining that label to Amazon-converted files until they implement a way to tag the books from the Kindle.

As to downloading PDFs, yes I mean in the web browser. It has nothing to do with the email conversion process. It's just an assumption that was made for previous Kindles about what sort of files the Kindle can natively read and thus download. It's just another indication that the PDF viewer was just slapped onto the Kindle without any integration with other software.

[jxh11215]

You forgot searching. You can search within a document if the text has been optimized, but those results will not appear in a global search.

[Studio717]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

J
...

All PDFs are shown under "Personal Docs", not Books.

...

Until we get some sort of file management, I see the above as a good thing.

I would very much love to have many of the shortcomings listed, but to me, it's wonderful just to be able to read PDFs on the DX. Stacks and stacks (and binders and binders) of printouts reduced to a slim device... I am so not giving it up!

[wallcraft]

Another limitation:

Can't read password-protected PDFs.

See Does Kindle DX Support password-protected PDFs?.

[Blog Kindle]

Here's a Kindle DX PDF support breakdown by PDF features.

[ProfCrash]

I think these may all be related to the missing 5-way capability. However, for annotation and highlighting there is the additional issue of how to specify a location in the PDF accurately. Annotations at the page level should be easy to do though. Dictionary access may need more than just being able to select a word, but, on the other hand, the iRex DR1000S allows MobiPocket dictionaries to be used in PDFs.

The DXG has a 5 way controller. It is a little joystick instead of the D Pad on the K3 but it has 5 way capability. That is how you identify words for the dictionary and start highlights and the like in a regular book.

[Mark Rehorst]

I don't know why you are reviving this long-dead thread and the article you referenced is hopelessly out of date. The DX now does pan and zoom on pdf files.