Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

eBook readers

<< < (2/7) > >>

Paul Keith:
I see...

Thanks for the detailed explanation. If you don't mind me asking, what is the best suited way to read pdfs?

I constantly hear they are for printing but I rarely encountered problems with printing with the usual word processor formats so I had always assumed they are more of a viewer format but reading your reply, this doesn't seem to be the case.

CWuestefeld:
I've been using portable devices to read eBooks for many years now. I started way-back-when on a Palm, and have been through a few generations of PocketPC devices. I'm currently using a Dell Axim x51v which, with its VGA display, is absolutely gorgeous to read from. And while these don't have the battery life of your eink device, they're much more flexible.
eBook readers

I despise the way that most ebook readers carry the limitations of pagination into the digital world. Pages are evil. They interrupt the flow, preventing you from smoothly scanning through the whole book. At the end of a page you must remember the first half of the sentence without being able to see the rest of the context, then flip the page to complete it without being able to see the start.

PDF files give you the absolute worst of this world. Since their raison d'etre is to duplicate the look of printed output, and you're displaying on a device that doesn't match the attributes of paper, you're guaranteed to be disappointed in one way or another. When faced with a PDF I usually say "forget it", in the few cases where I can't stand to I'll use a PDF2TXT or PDF2HTML converter to try and get the content out of the file.

For my whole ebook experience I've been using a single piece of software, iSilo. It's been ported to pretty much everywhere, so any device you like it should run on. It's a fair reader in all respects, having all the normal features of bookmarks, hyperlinking, etc. But to me, its compelling feature is that it's not bound by page breaks. It allows continuous reading throughout the document. I've got it configured so that it scrolls by 1/2 screen at a time, so I can always see an unbroken sentence (or paragraph, for that matter).
eBook readers

Dormouse:
what is the best suited way to read pdfs?

I constantly hear they are for printing -Paul Keith (January 10, 2009, 07:30 AM)
--- End quote ---

... paper   :)

Mark0:
I agree too! :)

About pages vs stream of text... I think it's a matter of tastes, and probably also depend on the content.
For documentation & references, I too prefer not having to do with pages. Here hi-res palmtop, or an iPhone / iPod Touch can be great.

But for books / novel, I like reading a page after another. For this, an eInk reader is perfect, IMHO. It really recreate the book experience, within a more practical device. The visibility is also great outdoor, in full sunlight.

Bye!

gwynevans:
Any other eInk users here?-Mark0 (January 08, 2009, 07:40 AM)
--- End quote ---
I've had my Sony 505 for a bit over a year now, which I got via mail-order from B&H in New York.  I considered the Cybook, but the Sony seemed to be better suited to what I needed (e.g. instant on),  while it's disadvantages compared to the Cybook (no dictionary, no easily changeable fonts) weren't significant to me.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page