Author:
Hey everyone. I was hoping for some good advice on an eBook reader. Primarily I wish to use this to comfortably read scanned PDF and ePub's on it. I have a lot of books, both school and otherwise, I would like to have on hand without physically lugging them around.
I picked up a cheap Nook but I really dislike the text adjustment options on the the PDF conversion. If I make the text small enough to fit the page it's too small to read and the next size up doesn't really fit the page terribly well.
Any ideas? I had been looking at the JetBook Color for the additional things it's suppose to do given I'm a language student but then I've read about some breaking down sooner than they should.
Please, please could someone here give me some idea. That fixed text thing is bloody horrible.
edit: Oh and suggestions for a good hand scanner wouldn't go amiss, not one with those freaking wheels on it.
Comments
Kobo.
I picked up a Kobo Touch a long while back and have had little trouble with it. It does ePubs and .pdfs, although I did have fun with scrolling and zoom on the .pdfs, as the eink isn't really intended to be refreshed every time the page is redrawn.
In fact, I liked the Kobo so much that when W.H.Smith (in the UK) had a sale with the Kobo Touch at £30, I bought another one! The price has since doubled to £60 but I think they are still a bargain.
The battery lasts about 3 weeks, and I use it a lot. I have to say the newer one doesn't seem to last as long per charge as the old one did, but then that's probably true of almost everything these days. Get off my lawn! :)
Penny
eReaders
PDFs are never going to be easy to read on a small screen so you might think of looking at a Kindle DX
There is I gather a new Sony 13" (DPT-S1) which looks impressive in this video
and I lusted after its specs in case I ever became so rich that for an eReader I would payUS$1100
On a scanner I use my iPad/IPod with a scanner app
Rhona McCloud
I recommend converting PDF files
I simply open PDF files with Calibre and convert them to ePub. Calibre is a a free download and allows reading eBooks of any format on your computer and will convert one format to another with a few simple commands. Then what kind of eReader you have really makes no difference.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
PDF == Bad for Small Screens
The problem with PDF's is they are meant to display print-perfect, and not really intended to be re-drawn for small screens with text-reflow and the sort.
I REALLY DO love the nook eInk line and have had both the original Nook and a Nook Glow.
Don't get me wrong, I've had a kindle Simple Touch also, which was a perfectly fine device, but I prefer the open-ness of the ePub format (hence why I program for it) and so Nook and other ePub readers are my favorite.
Thanks for the explanation
Thanks for the explanation Piper. So as long as I convert a PDF to ePub I should have no problem reading text on any eReader regardless of display size?
Readers
The local library here has readers that can be checked out.
You might try at libraries in your area to see if you can do that there. If so, you can see how well, what models they have, work for your needs.
Also, cheap Android pads have started to show from discounters (Big Lots , etc.) here, so they could be an option, although I personally do not like backlit displays for reading outdoors or in other bright places.
Samsung tab 10.1
My eyesight is failing, so I wanted something with large print, and it has a sort of "page white" mode. They are not cheap, but I like it a lot.
Gwen
Tablets
Yes, they are good, but that's not what was asked. An e-ink display is black text on white and the display is essentially static when it is not being updated - that means very low battery use (no refreshing). I defy anyone to get three weeks use out of a tablet without recharging it!
For the record, my Kobo has the facility to change text size and font both as a default and for each book. You can even override the supplied font if you need to. The drawback from your point of view is that the reader is rather small, with a display roughly 3.5" x 4.75" in size. You'd do a lot of scrolling. Larger eReaders may be available.
Penny
Hi Sarang, I've a Sony
Hi Sarang,
I've a Sony PRS-500, which has a 6" screen. Whether it is eInk or not I'm not sure, because it's rather old, and I thought -then- the 6" was rather small. Though the letter format was ok to read. It has died alas.. :(
But then I thought, I want a big screen, so I bought an Asus DR900 which has a 9" screen. But not eInk, SIPIX instead, which had a slightly greyish background. Mind you, it is okay to read in day light and under well lit circumstances, but reading in bed is rather tiresome. Not to say, without some sort of additional lighting it's damned near impossible.
The 9" screen is nice, but not necessarily better as it's 6" smaller brethren.
Now I'm of a mind to go for the Kobo Aura, with 6" screen, or Kobo Aura HD which has a 6.8" screen, real good black on white. One says it's at least as good as the Kindle Paperwhite, which is touted as very good, almost like reading real (paperback) books.
AND.. What's really interesting is that's equipped with back-lighting so one can read in the dark! While it still runs for weeks, according to reviews I've read. Only I find the Aura HD with it's 6.8 inch screen a little steep, compared to the smaller 'plain' Kobo Aura which has a 6 inch screen. To pay something of half as much for .8 inches..., I don't know if it's worth it.
Oh, and always use Calibre to manage your e-books. It's the most versatile, on all platform, e-book library management tool you'll ever need. Not only is it capable of converting from every format to almost any other, you can edit your e-books in it too!
I hope you can make a choice, and you might want to read here as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers
PDF's
Don't base the performance of any reader on how it handles PDFs. The problem isn't with the reader, its that PDFs were meant for exactly the opposite of what readers accomplish (ie to provide a format for graphics heavy publications that have to present (and ideally be printed) in exactly the right format. The most common use of the format was for magazine and pamphlet layouts in digital form.
Btw... I've had an e-ink based Kindle and vastly prefer by 10" HD Nook tablet. Cost was roughly the same, but I'd never go back to just a reader again.
These aren't the padds you're looking for
But I suppose these aren't the eReaders you're looking for? heehee.
I got one of my guys to look up the available eReaders that use E Ink displays. But he says it's really hard to pick one over the other if you can't specify the features you like, or the budget you have. So, the best he could do for me was list all the readers that use E Ink and you can google them yourself and pick the one you like.
For me, you only really have two lines of readers to choose from: the Kindle readers from Amazon and the Kobo readers. These two are, after all, the leaders in eBooks and readers, and the build quality of their devices are very high and the warranties are better than most.
But if you're open to a suggestion? Why not get a full-blown tablet, so you get an eReader and a lot more. the Samsung Galaxy Note and Apple iPad lines are the best for me, and though they don't have E Ink displays, the full range of their display controls can allow you to set them to emulate E Ink.
Anyway, here's the list of E Ink eReaders.
eReaders by Amazon, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
Kindle
Kindle DX
Kindle Paperwhite
Kindle Touch
Kindle Keyboard (peripheral)
eReaders by Barnes & Noble, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
NOOK, The Simple Touch Reader
NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight
eReaders by Bookeen, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
Cybook Odyssey
Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight
Cybook Opus
eReaders by Hanvon, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
WISEreader N516
Color WISEreader
eReaders by Kobo, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
Kobo Glo
Kobo Mini
Kobo Touch
newly-released - Kobo Aura HD
eReaders by Onyx, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
BOOX A60
BOOX C65HD
BOOX C65ML
BOOX E43
BOOX i62ML
BOOX M92
BOOX T68
BOOX X61S
eReaders by PocketBook, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
360° Plus
PocketBook Basic
PocketBook Basic New
PocketBook CAD Reader
PocketBook CoverReader
PocketBook Color Lux
PocketBook Mini
PocketBook Touch
PocketBook Touch Lux
Pro 603
Pro 902
eReaders by Sony, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
Reader Daily Edition
Reader Digital Book
Reader Pocket Edition
Reader Touch Edition
Reader WiFi
eReaders by Wexler, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
Wexler.Book E5001
Wexler.Book E6001
Wexler.Book E6002
Wexler.Book E7001
Wexler.Flex ONE
eReaders by various other companies, with E Ink Active Matrix Displays:
Newly-released - tolino shine, by Deutsche Telekom
jetBook Color by Ectaco
eDGe by Entourage
Story HD, by iRiver
Hanlin V5 by Jinke
Alex by Spring Design
BookPlace Mono, by Toshiba
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Thank you for all the suggestions and advice.
Piper and Chaos especially for helping clarify the PDF point. I had no idea I might be scanning in my images wrong for PDF display on eReaders.
Chaos I'm a stickler on eReader because I already have a couple of tablets, a Playbook and an Android. I'm looking at eInk specifically to read and avoid eyestrain. I'm not interested so much in watching videos or anything. My goal is to use this to read scanned in textbooks and novels that I own. With what I have I don't want to drag out a book often.