Advice for getting PDF's to be formatted correctly on PRS-505?

[wesker]

Hello all,

I own a PRS-505. I've been searching on google and this forum looking for a simple process and/or software that easily formats PDF (or coverts them to another file format prior to cleaning up the layout) so I can easily read them on the PRS-505.

I know there's something called Savory that does this on the Kindle (or so I've read online). I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction or share what they've been doing. FYI, I am on a Mac running Snow Leopard.

I'm sick of PDF files with half pages and overall bad formatting.

Thank you for your time.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by wesker

Hello all,

I own a PRS-505. I've been searching on google and this forum looking for a simple process and/or software that easily formats PDF (or coverts them to another file format prior to cleaning up the layout) so I can easily read them on the PRS-505.

I know there's something called Savory that does this on the Kindle (or so I've read online). I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction or share what they've been doing. FYI, I am on a Mac running Snow Leopard.

I'm sick of PDF files with half pages and overall bad formatting.

Thank you for your time.

I can't help you with converting PDFs to another format. However, as far as formatting documents for your Sony Reader, OpenOffice.org (a free-open source office suite) will save documents as PDFs and it's very easy to format them for the Sony Reader.

To format a document for the Sony Reader, I open the document in OpenOffice.org, set the page size to 3.5" by 4.75" / 8.9 cm by 12.1 cm (the same size as my reader's screen), format my ebook, save it, and then export it to PDF.

One advantage the OpenOffice.org offers when formatting ebooks is that when I do a page preview the document looks on my screen exactly as it will look on my reader. This includes fonts, line spacing, line breaks and page breaks. This allows me to identify and correct any formatting problems in my ebooks.

I hope that helps.

[wesker]

@Solitaire1

Thank you for this info. I will try it and report back on my results.

Take care.

[Mike_73]

Depending on the document I do one of the following:
1. If the document is mainly text, I copy the text to a text editor, do whatever I want with it and then convert it back to pdf. I did this with the last book I read because I didn't like the font.
2. If the document is "format"-heavy with pictures and tables, I extract jpgs from the pdfs. This means you'll have to "scroll" around one page, but at least you keep the formatting. And the reader handles pictures better in this case than if it is the pdf. I had to reset the reader several times when I tried to open more complex pdfs. You have to be careful with the resolution settings for the jpgs though. If it's not enough, you'll get nice small files that load fast, but they're almost unreadable, even when magnified.
I don't know if all image editing programs open up pdfs, but some do and they offer anti aliasing which provides smoother text when converted to jpg.

I'm not sure if this helps, but maybe it does.

[chainring]

If your source pdf has bad formatting, the other suggestions would be a good start. However, if the source is good, but just looking bad when viewed on your 505, you may want to start with a simple margin crop. I know you're on Snow Leopard (same here), but if you can get hold of a Windows machine (Bootcamp or Fusion?), then soPDF is fantastic for the cropping. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32066 Further in the soPDF thread are some GUI apps created for it.

[Mike_73]

I agree to chainring. Cropping will help a lot for the reasons named.