e-book reader question

[DrZoidberg]

I have a very practical question on A4 e-book readers. My wife reads a lot of technical engineering material and the stuff she gets is most often PDF's formatted in A4 and if she opens them on my Sony Reader all the pictures and diagrams get messed up. She doesn't like reading on her laptop, and she reads too much for it to be practical to print everything on paper. So she wants an e-book reader to suit her needs more closely. Even though she'd prefer e-ink it's not the most critical factor.

The most important thing is the formats it can take. Which seems to be rule out Kindle DX. She won't be buying any books from their service. The Sony reader with a large screen isn't A4. It's still a bit small. Samsung Galaxy looks good. But we haven't tried it. Does anybody here know if it'll work? Ipad is another option, but Apple gives me the Big Brother shivers. But it seems to do what she wants. Does anybody know?

[Anne Lyle]

The Galaxy Tab has a 7" screen, same as the Sony "Daily Edition" ereader. The iPad's 9.7" screen will be much better for technical PDFs.

I have an iPad and use PDF Reader Pro (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-reader-pro/id300298606?mt=8), which is very good and costs all of $0.99! I can annotate PDF files (e.g. for critiquing my writing buddies' work) and then sync them back to my laptop, using either iTunes or a WiFi connection, with all the annotation preserved.

Re "Big Brother shivers", I'd be much more worried about Amazon and Kindle - Apple can't delete the PDFs off your iPad without your permission!

[citymouse]

I have a Kindle, and it's okay for 'normal' stuff.
However, I've been eyeing Apple's iPad since it came out, and am 99% sure it will be my next reader.
C

[Terie]

Are you sure that the Kindle DX can't read PDFs? That would really shock me, since the 'regular' size Kindle can.

[DrZoidberg]

The Galaxy Tab has a 7" screen, same as the Sony "Daily Edition" ereader. The iPad's 9.7" screen will be much better for technical PDFs.

I have an iPad and use PDF Reader Pro (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-reader-pro/id300298606?mt=8), which is very good and costs all of $0.99! I can annotate PDF files (e.g. for critiquing my writing buddies' work) and then sync them back to my laptop, using either iTunes or a WiFi connection, with all the annotation preserved.

Re "Big Brother shivers", I'd be much more worried about Amazon and Kindle - Apple can't delete the PDFs off your iPad without your permission!

Thanks. I'm now leaning toward the iPad. Thanks.

[DrZoidberg]

Are you sure that the Kindle DX can't read PDFs? That would really shock me, since the 'regular' size Kindle can.

Don't you need to convert them somehow? What about the DRM system, doesn't that make problems?

[Terie]

Don't you need to convert them somehow? What about the DRM system, doesn't that make problems?

Are you sure the PDFs are 'DRMed'? DRM is applied to a file, not to an e-reader. Maybe you can find a friend who owns a Kindle and ask if you could pop one of the files onto it to see if it can be read.

If your wife's PDFs are DRMed and also are legitimately owned by her, all she'd need to do is reregister the file for the Kindle instead of the Sony. (Similar, I imagine, to when I bought a new MP3 player and had to reregister my DRMed audiobook files to the new device and cancel the registration to the old device.)

[kuwisdelu]

I'm pretty sure the Kindle and most eInk readers can take a PDF.

But for that, I think an iPad or Nook Color or some other tablet would be a better choice, if you can afford it. A touch screen will give you many more options for annotating and navigating the PDF's.

[Tirjasdyn]

I'm pretty sure the Kindle and most eInk readers can take a PDF.

But for that, I think an iPad or Nook Color or some other tablet would be a better choice, if you can afford it. A touch screen will give you many more options for annotating and navigating the PDF's.

That's if the PDF was actually put together well in the first place and not a print to pdf gathering of images which wreaks havoc on our iPad, and our computers (Lots of gaming books and academic books are done this way, unfortunately.) and they are unreadable on a kindle.

{mini rant coming}
There is no way to know unless you open it. Fonts must be embedded, text must actually be text and images must be in their own box which can all be done in any desktop publishing software (what you would do a book layout in, NOT Word or a word processor, NOT photoshop or other graphics software). Drives me nuts when a purchased PDF is put together like crap, making it unusable.

Having said that...The Kindle DX can read PDFs. However I wouldn't bother unless you know its not a bunch of images printed to PDF. So take a look at the iPad, Galaxy, or the color Nook.