[ExI] Ebooks Formats and ebook readers

[Tomasz Rola]

On Sat, 10 Dec 2011, Anders Sandberg wrote:

> I am considering getting a reader so I donät have to drag so much cellulose
> with me everywhere I travel, but I have one constraint: I must be able to read
> PDFs with equations and diagrams (and ideally djvu too). Since this list
> community knows things, what are your recommendations? Get a general purpose
> pad with PDF reader, or is there some eink solution that actually works?

Perhaps I am in no position to give any advice on this, but I guess you 
don't really need color so much. Most pdf/djvu's I have read either had 
color pictures or equations. In rare cases when both were included, 
pictures were mostly ok in b/w/grey too. In theory, the more grey levels, 
the better picture looks. I think current max is 16 levels of grey.

OTOH, if you plan to read mostly indoors, you may consider color display, 
too. My rule of thumb is this - it the display is backlit and you cannot 
turn the light off, it is rather poor choice for outside use. As I wrote 
previously, transflective LCDs I had been using could work with or without 
light and it was possible to completely turn the light off in preferences. 
This is not the case with IPS LCDs in modern high end readers, I'm afraid. 
So they produce live colours as long as you stay in your room.

OTOH2, since color devices shine their own light, this means you are going 
to look into the light, possibly for many hours on a daily basis. I'm not 
sure how eyes like this kind of play, longterm.

I think you should go to the shop with SD card loaded with some papers 
that you'd like to read (even better, those you already read and remember 
their looks). Insist that the guy lets you try a reader(s) before you buy. 
Myself, I would start with bigger units i.e. 10 inches display. If I am 
right, those are capable of showing normal A4 page with very little 
scaling, so you would - in theory - have it almost like a printed copy.

I would also try to get a device with touchscreen, so that I could make 
notes on it.

When trying them, turn around to see how they look in better light and in 
a shadow.

Since some of them have micro-SD slot, you could also consider buying 
yourself a microSD card (they usually come with special adapter, so they 
are in fact usable in micro/mini/standard slots, but don't assume blindly 
that you get proper adapters with your buy).

About djvu support in readers, I don't know. However, those aimed at 
serious users claim to support pdfs. It is possible to convert from pdf to 
dvju, from djvu->ps->pdf, too. At least on Linux, I don't remember 
problems, even thou I mostly went pdf->djvu rather than the other 
direction. You should probably have on your test SD both djvu's and 
their converted copies (maybe change their names a bit, just in case). In 
case of djvu->pdf conversion, it is possible you end up with bitmapped 
document, which can be significantly slower on slow cpu. I don't know, if 
such conversion makes bitmaps and how often - no time to look at this 
right now.

Other than above, the best advisor should be your eyes.

DISCLAIMER: I am theorist, never used ebook reader produced after 2002.

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
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**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **