Related
After trying all sorts of pdf readers, I come close to the conclusion that reading pdf documents on a PDA is not practical at all and even irrealistic.
Due mainly to the fact that one cannot view an entire page with a readable font size without having to scroll sideways.
I end up converting pdf to lit.
Please, give opinion and eventually solutions.
Thanks all, and take care
Come on folks, just a few words about your experience with pdf...
donno i read a book as pdf once
on my pda
only had to scroll down not sideways
depend on the doc in question really i suppose
pref lit though because of bookmarks and cleartype
and not being as much a res hog as acrobat reader which i used at the time
VGA a requirement
I use an older version of Adobe reader on a VGA screen. My eyes are still good enough that I can zoom out, get a full page on the screen, and still read it. I have read an entire book this way. I am sure there are better ways to do it on a PDA. But my goal is to be able to grab a document off of the web and read it as I travel. If there is going to be conversion between formats, it would have to take place on the PDA.
That being said, it is still easier to read a word or text document than a PDF. But if you have the screen resolution and size to work with, PDF's are not impossible.
Thanks folks, that was my impression.
Answers
There are ways to improve PDF experiance. Using reflow when creating PDFs (available as an option when saving PDFs from OpenOffice, for example) greatly improves things.
Anothr good option is Repligo - you can print / convert PDFs to that format. It uses less space, documents open faster and look better (less jagged fonts).
Believe me, PDFs are annoying even in actual, desktop environments. >_>
That said, I'm using Foxit for the PPC. It loads 15MB++ files faster than Adobe, follows the original PDF format faithfully (doesn't try to rearrange like idiotic Clearvue), yet it is a standalone program that requires no installation.
That said, PDF reading is only for devices with a big screen. Definitely bigger than a Mini, let alone an Atom. Otherwise, at a big enough text to be legible, scrolling to the side is necessary - and that tends to lag a bit with bigger PDFs for devices with only 64MB of RAM or less.
I have train skeds and the Tokyo Metro Map plus a crap load more pdf files
that I use on my X01HT and yes you do have to scroll both ways but I mean
have you seen the detail of the Tokyo Metro Map?!?
It works for me. I actually like it.
Plus I get 'really cool' nods from Japanese when they see me looking
through the Tokyo Metro map on my X01HT because most of them
use the low tech pocket paper fold out.
Yes, I am a gaijin otaku and proud of it!!!
imexp then big pictures makes pdf useless on pda's as they can move the text to scale but in there is a picture in the middle they cant really handle scaling the picture down to match the width of the pda screen
I think converting to repligo is the most elegant solution since images are conserved...but it is not free
Otherwise, if pics are not important, converting to text then to lit and using microsoft reader is an acceptable free solution.
To "AquiEsta!": why don't you use the excellent "metro" freeware?
You can use the free xpdf (pocketpdf). It at least has better zoom functions then adobe and it has the option to read pdf as text files with associated functions. You lose pictures but pure textfiles are a breaze to read...
elio said:
I think converting to repligo is the most elegant solution since images are conserved...but it is not free
Otherwise, if pics are not important, converting to text then to lit and using microsoft reader is an acceptable free solution.
To "AquiEsta!": why don't you use the excellent "metro" freeware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't know such a thing existed. Where would I find that? In English
would be great too!
Thanks
AquiEsta! said:
I didn't know such a thing existed. Where would I find that? In English
would be great too!
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://nanika.net/Metro/
You will love it
elio said:
http://nanika.net/Metro/
You will love it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"more than 350 cities covered now"... I'm already in love with it because
I travel a lot and this hopefully will save me time and advils.
THANK YOU!!!
off I go to set it up...
Adobe Reader for PPC 2 works with my HTC Athena/Advantage VGA screen without legibility problems using its reflow function which wraps the text to your screen - no sideways scrolling needed.
Even if your documents were not prepared specifically for this Active Sync will do the necessary conversion when you transfer the docs from your PC (turn it on in file settings). If you bypass ActiveSync your reflow button gets greyed out.
For documents like maps you can switch to sideways scrolling whenever you want.
My only gripe is that the characters are a little fuzzy, so I'm looking for a fix for this.
UPDATE: fuzzy characters fixed:
Switch resolution to 95 dpi using RealVGA before opening Adobe Reader. Now works as it was meant to. Only downside is the the resolution switch involves a reset.
For reading articles and such offline I use ScrapBook (a Firefox extension) to capture the page/selection and delete ads/sidebars and then 'Save Page as...' and copy the html and corresponding images folder to my SD card. It's a pain but it's the best solution that I could find.
I use Mobipocket Reader to do the conversion and reading, it's free and works well for me www.mobipocket.com
For PDFs Picel Browser, and Foxit Reader for Windows Mobile are pretty good.
I second the picsel reader. http://www.picselpowered.com
Don't let the number of Cons over Pros put you off.
Even with these problems I still use it on a daily basis, and preferred to buy it over using free alternatives like Adobe.
Proof that mobile apps don't have to look like clunky old windows apps.
Pro
Excellent rendering of PDF files
Fine control over zoom, can use a gesture (tap & drag)
Cons
Out of memory errors with just a few other apps running
Remembers last document opened, but not page
No Search
No way of jumping to a page
pdemoore said:
I second the picsel reader. http://www.picselpowered.com
Don't let the number of Cons over Pros put you off.
Even with these problems I still use it on a daily basis, and preferred to buy it over using free alternatives like Adobe.
Proof that mobile apps don't have to look like clunky old windows apps.
Pro
Excellent rendering of PDF files
Fine control over zoom, can use a gesture (tap & drag)
Cons
Out of memory errors with just a few other apps running
Remembers last document opened, but not page
No Search
No way of jumping to a page
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I back this as well, it is bar far, THEE most impressive on a PDA.
It has no rendering lag, making it the fastest PDF reader on WM.
I would only recommend that VGA users view PDFs, QVGA isn't practical.
Dear All
Is there a good PDF reader for Android? I have tried almost all available, and they all seem to have one deficiency or another. Some cannot reflow text, some don't remember their settings, some are fiddly and slow, the clown prince of them all being Adobe Reader.
One thing they ALL are missing is an ability to place bookmarks. See, I'd like to read some PDF books on my Desire but I haven't found one which enables me to place a bookmark.
Any help?
I totally agree. And those reader that do exist do not get any updates - as if they were sufficient.
have you tried Repligo PDF reader.........better than beam reader ( a good 2nd choice)
ThinkFree Office that came preloaded on my Vibrant seems to do it all just fine for me on PDFs.
+1 for RepliGo.
It does not support bookmarks but it remembers when you stopped reading. I've also tried tons of PDF readers and RepliGo seems like the best option.
repligo is great, the fastest at rendering a page out there, and i've tried them all
The real problem isn't the reader software, it's with the PDF format. It was never designed to be "portable". It was designed to represent a PRINTED page, and as such features such as text reflow are not even possible with some PDF's which are essentially image files. Even when it is possible, so much fluff behind the scenes formatting-wise makes reflowed text difficult to render correctly, as images often lose their relevance.
Fact is, PDF is a HORRIBLE format for mobile devices at the very base, it is nothing like HTML or CSS which is designed to be screen/device agnostic to some extent. The best readers can do is try.
I would really like to find a great ePub reader app and wondered if anyone here might know of one I haven't found, or have the skills to build one that will beat all the competition by including what I'll explain below.
As an author, I am very conscious of how books will look when read using different eReaders and different reader apps (FBReader, Aldiko, Laputa, etc.). There are two major issues I see so far with how the current stock of apps display the text content, and how they display images inside ebooks. Other than the iPad, I haven't found a single Android app that does both in a way that works for me (and I'm not sure even the iPad does it perfectly yet).
On text/content handling-- it boils down to whether the app actually uses the internal style that the author or publisher designed, meaning, does it read and use the .css stylesheet correctly or does it ignore it for the most part. In my case, the book looks perfect in ADE and Calibre on my laptop, meaning it displays exactly as it should look based on xhtml and the internal stylesheet. It also looks perfect on Aldiko both on my EVO and my rooted Nook color. But other than Aldiko, I have not seen one other app that correctly displays the book based on the styles and formatting stipulated in the .css file. Maybe the developers didn't think it mattered, or didn't know how to do it, but the .css file is part of the ePub standard.
As for image display--the iPad allows a double-tap to pop the picture off the page and view it enlarged (though I don't think you can pinch-to-zoom even then). The other day I was told the the latest version of FBReader for Android now lets you 'long-press' on a picture to optionally see a full-screen version of it in their image viewer (also excellent, though you still can't pinch-to-zoom on that larger image either). No other reader app I've found--even Aldiko--has the tap or press functionality to see a larger version of an embedded picture. So far I've had to do hyperlinks from the text to a larger version, or have thumbnails in the text linked to the larger picture, though still no pinch-to-zoom.
(Fwiw, the zoom function is a capability of the hardware apparently. On my EVO the internal viewer allows that--but the ES Image Viewer does not..so maybe it has to be built into the app. Pictures on an ePub book page are apparently limited by the page size unless you can view them separately, but getting them displayed with a viewer that also allows pinch-to-zoom hasn't been done yet I guess.)
So, not to drag this out any further, does anyone know of an existing reader app, or a new one under development, that has it all? I'd even donate some money if someone here wanted to look into making a reader app that combines the Aldiko stylesheet capability with the FBReader 'long-press' image view capability.
Personally, I have illustrations and pictures that need to be seen full-screen (better yet, zoomed to see the detail) so the image handling issue is a huge deal for me. The text handling using the .css stylesheet is for reading esthetics so that indentation, quotes, text and paragraph alignment and spacing, look good, as they would in a typical book--not all jammed together in the same size with no differentiation from one section to the next.
Any help, information, or ideas, will be appreciated. Thanks.
-JTT
Don't know if it will do it, but I have tried both Laputa and i think it was moon+ reader, they might do what you are looking for
With all due respect, I don't have time to read such a long post however Moon+ is pretty excellent
I'll try not to write as long a post next time since some people don't have time to read before they reply, though if they'd read the initial post they would have realized their response was pointless. But I'll let it slide and just say that Moon+ is very nice (I already have it) and I especially like the way it displays the Table of Contents. Unfortunately, it also ignores the .css file and style specifications, which is what was being explained in the long post...if you'd taken the time to read it.
Pickx said:
With all due respect, I don't have time to read such a long post however Moon+ is pretty excellent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually use Laputa for most of my reading, which is a vote for that app, though I do have Moon+ as well since I've been testing all the reader apps I could find. But neither Laputa or Moon+ seem to use the .css styles when displaying the book content like Aldiko does, and neither allows any functionality to tap or press to enlarge images like FBReader does. So back to square one...but thanks for mentioning them.
This is more of a "non-answer" to your question.
I've read your entire post and I actually like your idea. So my idea is just to send your suggestion to the devs of the ePub reader (I use Moon+). They'll probably answer and give you an idea if they plan to implement the feature or what's holding them back from doing so.
Have you tried to write to Cool Reader's application (which supports epub also) author?
I dont know if when you posted this fbreader would ignore css, but i installed it today and it has CSS settings (txt alignment and font size only) plus the image tap to view
i had to delete everything on my sd card which was run up with pirated apps (about 8 gb worth of them)
i lost my pdf annotators with the pen and would like to start this thread to discuss how to view multiple pdfs(e if there is a way to run two pdf viewers at once) or if it is a case of running two different pdf applications rather than waiting a minute to open a second large pdf.
could people please post their pdf annotators they're using with the pen . i lost myn thanks
im alos looking forward to iannotate, althoug i believe the best pen pdf annotator app does have a very similar name to the one on the sasmgun site that says coming soon
Look at the ebook reader thread,
I use repligo and adiko
Just a quick question I'm hoping one of you guys can help me with.
I've seen a lot of videos of using the Note to create documents using the S-Pen, which all look great. However I'm wondering how well it works with annotating pre-made power point and PDF documents (basically for University lecture notes). Does anyone have any experience with this, any videos around?
Can you just open any office package and annotate through it, or are there ones specifically designed to work with the S-Pen?
Thanks all!
Dan1909 said:
Just a quick question I'm hoping one of you guys can help me with.
I've seen a lot of videos of using the Note to create documents using the S-Pen, which all look great. However I'm wondering how well it works with annotating pre-made power point and PDF documents (basically for University lecture notes). Does anyone have any experience with this, any videos around?
Can you just open any office package and annotate through it, or are there ones specifically designed to work with the S-Pen?
Thanks all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use dedicated apps for Best results on pda documents I.e. ezpdf, Repligo or even Adobe PDF reader all available in google Play. Not sure about Powerpoints unlessyou convert them to PDF's.
How well do those apps work with the S-Pen though? Do you get all the normal drawing/handwriting features you can get in S-Note?
Dan1909 said:
How well do those apps work with the S-Pen though? Do you get all the normal drawing/handwriting features you can get in S-Note?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They work really well,you can annotate in freehand or use the handwriting panel of the note which will convert your handwritinginto text on the fly. They all work really nicely with the S-pen.
HasC said:
They work really well,you can annotate in freehand or use the handwriting panel of the note which will convert your handwritinginto text on the fly. They all work really nicely with the S-pen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's good to know!
One last question: Lets say I've got a PDF document that's got 4 powerpoint-style slides on it, is it possible to zoom in and annotate them so that the annotated text comes out the same sort of size that it would if you were writing on A4 paper?
Hopefully that makes sense!
Dan1909 said:
Thanks, that's good to know!
One last question: Lets say I've got a PDF document that's got 4 powerpoint-style slides on it, is it possible to zoom in and annotate them so that the annotated text comes out the same sort of size that it would if you were writing on A4 paper?
Hopefully that makes sense!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, if my memory serves me correct, EZPDF allows You to change the font size of the text so that you can make it a similar size.
Dan1909 said:
Thanks, that's good to know!
One last question: Lets say I've got a PDF document that's got 4 powerpoint-style slides on it, is it possible to zoom in and annotate them so that the annotated text comes out the same sort of size that it would if you were writing on A4 paper?
Hopefully that makes sense!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the attached tell you what you need to know? The handwritten "annotate"s in the left margin were added to this .pdf file using the iAnnotate app,, a Samsung recommended app. I've generally used EZPDF, but am trialing iAnnotate given Samsung's recommendation. So far so good.
The .pdf file, by the way, was created from the Polaris Office Suite ppt app and is one page from their ppt guide, which shows you can do the same in ppt.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1839363