Request: Picture of Letter/A4 PDF on the Reader

bhaggerty · 09-30-2006, 02:59 PM

Hi all,

Could I trouble any of you folks lucky enough to have received your Reader to post a picture / scan of what an A4 or Letter sized PDF document looks like on the Sony Reader's screen? If it's possible to post pictures of both the portrait and landscape rotated screen that'd be terrific.

I know it'll be small, and I've read postings that indicate it's too small to be usable, but I just wanted to see it for myself. I usually read in the 2up (sometimes even 4up) format, so i'm used to eye-straining text.

By way of background, I work in the finance industry and would love to have a way to carry research reports, etc. around. Most of those are formatted for an 8.5x11 printer and I have no control over the authors.

Also, I came across this program that looked like it could be useful for squeezing the most out of the limited screen real estate by ditching the extra wide PDF margins: http://www.verypdf.com/pdfinfoeditor...help/help.html

Thanks very much
Bruce

Paul Moews · 09-30-2006, 04:22 PM

I'm not sure a picture would help as a picture at a reasonable resolution can be blown
up enough to read. I find that most letter size documents can be read by using the
landscape mode and holding the reader an inch or two from your nose. As well the
size button, switches between "fit width" and "fit visible", sometimes helps if there is
white space at the top or bottom of the page. I'm not sure what Sony means by
"fit width" and "fit visible", it doesn't seem to know about margins? or does it ? maybe
it knows where type starts and ends. If it does work the page is shown at a higher
magnification - works in landscape or portrait.

bhaggerty · 09-30-2006, 04:32 PM

Thanks for the quick reply and the helpful description.

That's good to know about the fit width/fit visible function. Sounds like the installed pdf reader has at least some degree of sophistication, which is a good sign.

I understand what you mean about the photograph but I'd still be extremely grateful for a picture of the Reader displaying a 8.5x11 document in portrait or landscape mode ... it'd give me some sense of scale at least.

NatCh · 09-30-2006, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhaggerty

Sounds like the installed pdf reader has at least some degree of sophistication, which is a good sign.

I'm pretty sure the PDF reader software is acutally from Adobe, which may be why it's a bit more sophisticated.

Bob Russell · 09-30-2006, 06:40 PM

You might actually be able to read many letter sized pdfs in landscape mode if you are used to eye-straining text. I tried a few docs I had and they looked readable to me, but I just considered it more of a novelty than useful as I could never read much of anything that size! I someone can post some sample pdfs and pics on the Sony landscape (2 screens per page mode), you'll see what I mean better.

Paul Moews · 09-30-2006, 07:05 PM

Here are four pictures of letter size pdf's - a typical page of
type from adobe - portrait + the same page as top and bottom
of landscape - also a page from an irs manual -
maybe readable but not in comfort.

bhaggerty · 10-01-2006, 07:02 AM

Awesome! Thank you very much! Seriously appreciate this... That's very helpful. I'll scale it to size and print it out tomorrow but on a first glance it looks workable.

Maybe one of these days Sony (or someone else) will come out with an 8.5x11/A4 unit. Not ideal for novels, but it seems like it would make a lot of sense for the academic/professional market. I know I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Bruce

raluke · 10-01-2006, 09:06 AM

Yes, that looks okay to me, too. Maybe I'm not taking into account the physical screen size so I won't know for sure until my reader arrives. I compulsively "print" interesting web pages to PDF files and have quite a library built up.

If nothing else, the suggestion I saw somewhere in the forums about cutting and pasting from PDF to MS Word seems like it will work nicely.

-Robert

bhaggerty · 10-01-2006, 11:03 AM

Pasting to word or rtf might work. Just two concerns with that:

- I saw in another thread that the Reader's rtf implementation doesn't support embedded pictures, which would be difficult for a lot of the things that I read

- A few (admittedly a minority) of the PDF documents I get have the no-copy bit enabled.

Still, it's another good workaround.

Bruce

Bob Russell · 10-01-2006, 11:25 AM

One caution about the copy paste from pdf to another format... in the past I've had problems with that using Adobe Acrobat Reader. The headers get mixed in, and other formatting mixed up the text order I think (maybe columns?). I don't have details, but I just remember that copying text from a pdf document wasn't nearly as nice as I hoped it would be.

nerys · 12-29-2006, 10:35 PM

Its actually annoying that I can not read magazine pdf's on this. (that would have been nice) whats so odd is that the screen is supposed to be 800x600 and I also have a tablet with an 800x600 screen. I can read it on the tablet but not on the sony reader.

so I figured the 10" screen was why so I put it on my 2300 (7" 800x600 screen) and I could still read it fine.

I am starting to think it has to do with RENDERING ie the sony reader tries to render it in "shades" and the text for whatever reason always gets rendered in GREY instead of BLACK on top of that there seems to be a dithering problem (again lack of shades)

I think if they could somehow make it display the text portions or what it thought were text portions as 100% solid black that magazines would be quite readable.

Even horizontally I can not read (some are ALMOST legible) here is a picture of PC magazine jan 2007

goto http://www.nerys.com/stuff and click on the sony reader folder.

portrait and landscape as well as normal text at the smallest size. I find this more than readable so the pdf should also be readable. I am 99% certain that the mag is not readable not because of SIZE but because of the rendering engine.

they are uploading now give it 5 minutes or so

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

airlik · 12-30-2006, 12:37 AM

Check out this thread - the tool looks promising for making "standard" pdfs much more legible:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9106

nerys · 12-30-2006, 11:33 AM

Yes I found that later last night VERY IMPRESSIVE alas they don't really work for my purposes. The tools are fantastic and do an amazing job but they only "really" work on files that are already legible and just are "hard" to read. if you simply can not read it it does not seem to be able to make it legible (alllllmost in landscape and some of it IS legible in landscape but I so hate landscape)

I am experimenting with aggressive cropping and then using his quite wonderful little program and it might work. but acrobat makes me manually crop each page seperately (no "fast" way to graphically crop) which kind of makes it more sensible to just read it on the computer since it would be faster than acrobat's method of cropping :-(

Grrrr :-)

ALL TEXT pdf's with lots of white space however come out FANTASTIC with his program. they are technically no more readable than without but SO much easier on the eyes !! I ran a whole bunch of files through it last night and its a very nice improvement alas it also has a bug. it keeps swapping the 1st and 2nd pages making page 2 page 1 :-( grrr :-)

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

09-30-2006, 02:59 PM	#1
bhaggerty Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006	Request: Picture of Letter/A4 PDF on the Reader Hi all, Could I trouble any of you folks lucky enough to have received your Reader to post a picture / scan of what an A4 or Letter sized PDF document looks like on the Sony Reader's screen? If it's possible to post pictures of both the portrait and landscape rotated screen that'd be terrific. I know it'll be small, and I've read postings that indicate it's too small to be usable, but I just wanted to see it for myself. I usually read in the 2up (sometimes even 4up) format, so i'm used to eye-straining text. By way of background, I work in the finance industry and would love to have a way to carry research reports, etc. around. Most of those are formatted for an 8.5x11 printer and I have no control over the authors. Also, I came across this program that looked like it could be useful for squeezing the most out of the limited screen real estate by ditching the extra wide PDF margins: http://www.verypdf.com/pdfinfoeditor...help/help.html Thanks very much Bruce

09-30-2006, 07:05 PM	#6
Paul Moews Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 12 Join Date: Jul 2006	letter size pdf on the reader - pics Here are four pictures of letter size pdf's - a typical page of type from adobe - portrait + the same page as top and bottom of landscape - also a page from an irs manual - maybe readable but not in comfort. Attached Thumbnails

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Best pdf/picture reader	Storklind	Which one should I buy?	8	06-27-2010 05:06 AM
pdf with missing picture	reamo	Apple Devices	8	05-29-2010 08:04 PM
Hi, free animated picture books for kids and a request for feedback	Jeanette	Self-Promotions by Authors and Publishers	0	02-02-2010 01:35 PM
The Crooked Letter, by Sean Williams : free in pdf	FixB	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	9	03-16-2009 06:09 PM
Kindle and A4/Letter sized PDF	timmins	Amazon Kindle	8	11-20-2007 02:49 PM

09-30-2006, 04:22 PM	#2
Paul Moews Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 12 Join Date: Jul 2006	I'm not sure a picture would help as a picture at a reasonable resolution can be blown up enough to read. I find that most letter size documents can be read by using the landscape mode and holding the reader an inch or two from your nose. As well the size button, switches between "fit width" and "fit visible", sometimes helps if there is white space at the top or bottom of the page. I'm not sure what Sony means by "fit width" and "fit visible", it doesn't seem to know about margins? or does it ? maybe it knows where type starts and ends. If it does work the page is shown at a higher magnification - works in landscape or portrait.

09-30-2006, 04:32 PM	#3
bhaggerty Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006	Thanks for the quick reply and the helpful description. That's good to know about the fit width/fit visible function. Sounds like the installed pdf reader has at least some degree of sophistication, which is a good sign. I understand what you mean about the photograph but I'd still be extremely grateful for a picture of the Reader displaying a 8.5x11 document in portrait or landscape mode ... it'd give me some sense of scale at least.

09-30-2006, 06:40 PM	#5
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	You might actually be able to read many letter sized pdfs in landscape mode if you are used to eye-straining text. I tried a few docs I had and they looked readable to me, but I just considered it more of a novelty than useful as I could never read much of anything that size! I someone can post some sample pdfs and pics on the Sony landscape (2 screens per page mode), you'll see what I mean better.

10-01-2006, 07:02 AM	#7
bhaggerty Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006	Awesome! Thank you very much! Seriously appreciate this... That's very helpful. I'll scale it to size and print it out tomorrow but on a first glance it looks workable. Maybe one of these days Sony (or someone else) will come out with an 8.5x11/A4 unit. Not ideal for novels, but it seems like it would make a lot of sense for the academic/professional market. I know I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Bruce

10-01-2006, 09:06 AM	#8
raluke Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Maryland, USA	Yes, that looks okay to me, too. Maybe I'm not taking into account the physical screen size so I won't know for sure until my reader arrives. I compulsively "print" interesting web pages to PDF files and have quite a library built up. If nothing else, the suggestion I saw somewhere in the forums about cutting and pasting from PDF to MS Word seems like it will work nicely. -Robert

10-01-2006, 11:03 AM	#9
bhaggerty Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006	Pasting to word or rtf might work. Just two concerns with that: - I saw in another thread that the Reader's rtf implementation doesn't support embedded pictures, which would be difficult for a lot of the things that I read - A few (admittedly a minority) of the PDF documents I get have the no-copy bit enabled. Still, it's another good workaround. Bruce

10-01-2006, 11:25 AM	#10
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	One caution about the copy paste from pdf to another format... in the past I've had problems with that using Adobe Acrobat Reader. The headers get mixed in, and other formatting mixed up the text order I think (maybe columns?). I don't have details, but I just remember that copying text from a pdf document wasn't nearly as nice as I hoped it would be.

12-29-2006, 10:35 PM	#11
nerys Addict Posts: 243 Karma: 48 Join Date: Dec 2006 Device: PRS 500 - REB 1200	Its actually annoying that I can not read magazine pdf's on this. (that would have been nice) whats so odd is that the screen is supposed to be 800x600 and I also have a tablet with an 800x600 screen. I can read it on the tablet but not on the sony reader. so I figured the 10" screen was why so I put it on my 2300 (7" 800x600 screen) and I could still read it fine. I am starting to think it has to do with RENDERING ie the sony reader tries to render it in "shades" and the text for whatever reason always gets rendered in GREY instead of BLACK on top of that there seems to be a dithering problem (again lack of shades) I think if they could somehow make it display the text portions or what it thought were text portions as 100% solid black that magazines would be quite readable. Even horizontally I can not read (some are ALMOST legible) here is a picture of PC magazine jan 2007 goto http://www.nerys.com/stuff and click on the sony reader folder. portrait and landscape as well as normal text at the smallest size. I find this more than readable so the pdf should also be readable. I am 99% certain that the mag is not readable not because of SIZE but because of the rendering engine. they are uploading now give it 5 minutes or so Chris Taylor http://www.nerys.com/

12-30-2006, 12:37 AM	#12
airlik Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 15 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Sony Reader	Check out this thread - the tool looks promising for making "standard" pdfs much more legible: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9106

12-30-2006, 11:33 AM	#13
nerys Addict Posts: 243 Karma: 48 Join Date: Dec 2006 Device: PRS 500 - REB 1200	Yes I found that later last night VERY IMPRESSIVE alas they don't really work for my purposes. The tools are fantastic and do an amazing job but they only "really" work on files that are already legible and just are "hard" to read. if you simply can not read it it does not seem to be able to make it legible (alllllmost in landscape and some of it IS legible in landscape but I so hate landscape) I am experimenting with aggressive cropping and then using his quite wonderful little program and it might work. but acrobat makes me manually crop each page seperately (no "fast" way to graphically crop) which kind of makes it more sensible to just read it on the computer since it would be faster than acrobat's method of cropping :-( Grrrr :-) ALL TEXT pdf's with lots of white space however come out FANTASTIC with his program. they are technically no more readable than without but SO much easier on the eyes !! I ran a whole bunch of files through it last night and its a very nice improvement alas it also has a bug. it keeps swapping the 1st and 2nd pages making page 2 page 1 :-( grrr :-) Chris Taylor http://www.nerys.com/

Advert

Advert