Ask Slashdot: Ebook Reader for Scientific Papers? 254
An anonymous reader writes "I love the idea of getting an ebook reader primarily for reading research journal papers. However I've heard bad things about the handling of PDFs on the major ones. I don't particularly care for color, but having an e-ink display and the ability to handle PDF/PS docs without conversion would be a major plus. I'd even be open to a hacked Kindle running Linux if it were practical. Does any good solution exist?"
A few months ago I found the Asus Eee Note (some folks even figured out how the software works and got it to run other Qt apps), but my hopes were dashed when I learned they had killed it before it even arrived in the U.S. It seems right now that this particular niche is not being served: or is it?
Kindle DX (Score:3)
Kindle DX and read the articles sideways
Re:Kindle DX (Score:4, Interesting)
Two words describe a problem with that: vertical panning... although I'm not so lazy that I'm unwilling to pan a page, it's still roughly as detaching from the experience of actually absorbing the content as flipping a physical page is, and creates a discontinuous impression of a single page that would otherwise have been seamless if you could see it all at once.
Simply put, for some types of content, you need to see a whole page at a time... and you need it to be presented large enough that you will be able to see all the text clearly.
The DX doesn't do that.
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Take a look at the Brother SV-100B. A4 size so you get a whole page on screen at once. 9.7 inch LCD rather than eInk but 80+ hours battery life. Not cheap.
Otherwise the only other option is a large tablet. If you get an Android one it integrates nicely with Google Docs so you can just upload everything to there (it accepts PDFs) for wireless access.
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The DX screen is only 6". The iPad has a screen size of 9.7". Hardly about the same size... The iPad is *almost* large enough to comfortably view a full page (albeit slightly shrunk from full size). For comparison, a full-sized letter or A4 page has a diagonal of about 14".
Given the recent trend of increasing resolutions and display sizes, another viable choice would be to simply wait until an A4 or letter-sized unit actually becomes commercially available.
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My bad. I was misinformed.
As I said, however... that display is *almost* large enough to comfortably view a full page of content at once such that all of it is legible.
Push that up to about 12", and as long as the dpi wasn't actually reduced, even though that diagonal is still about 15% smaller than A4/Letter, the display would probably be quite adequate for displaying such content.
I have several issues with the Kindle, some technical, some philosophical, which is why I do not expect to ever be gett
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So you don't know that the DX is a 9" display but you're still making comments about the PDF reading experience on it? Something doesn't add up here.
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I have a Kindle DX and an iPad. I love the idea of ePaper, but in practice the rendering is too slow if you need to flip a few pages back to get a definition, the screen isn't quite big enough, and reading sideways is a bitch when you hit a two-column paper. Oh, and zoom is a joke.
The DX now gathers dust.
The iPad LCD isn't ideal but it's functional in all the ways that the DX is not. Try GoodReader.
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It's a good suggestion, and it works well. I have tried Science (AAAS), Scientific American, and The Scientist. One of them didn't work, I don't remember which. It showed "Some content on this page could not be displayed" at the bottom of a blank page.
Papers themselves should be fine. PDF reading in general is pretty good as long as it's not the one scientific journal I couldn't read.
I play guitar, and use it to display Lilypond typeset output, and it looks wonderful. I can't even say it's a photoshop,
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How does the DX handle links embedded in the PDF? I read a lot of planning documents (housing development, etc) and those can have embedded links that I'd like to have access to.
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You should be able to follow the links. The 3rd gen Kindles have a Webkit-based browser built in. I've never tried a PDF, but it certainly works for books in Amazon's Mobi format, so it should work with PDF as well.
Don't use a default Kindle (Score:3, Interesting)
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I own a Kindle (2e) and love it, but I agree with the above sentiment. When it comes down to it, e-ink in general isn't very good for any paper with lots of diagrams or schematics. You want something that can pan and zoom without refreshing the screen, which means you want an LCD screen. So far I haven't heard of any top notch Android tablets, so that leaves the iPad as the frontrunner for this particular application.
What's wrong with the Kindle? (Score:2)
I've had no issues with PDFs on the Kindle, whether the DX (which is the right form factor), or the 3 (which is conveniently portable). It's not a perfect solution, but it works.
IMO, the optimal solution would be a hybrid display (like Pixel Qi make), a form factor halfway between the DX and the 3 (i.e. roughly the screen size of a normal book), and running an Android OS so apps can be written to support things like DJVU. I had high hopes for the Adam (Notion Ink, http://www.notionink.com/ [notionink.com]), but they're a l
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Somehow for me the Kindle DX is a terrible pdf reader. The fonts that look sensible on paper just look really light on Kindle. And the search on Kindle is horrible: AFAICT no partial word search no control of case-match/not and so on. Even translating the source to an ebook format only helps with the character visibility (while kind of making the really long tables in the doc I want on Kindle into a mess), using Calibre as the transformer.
Been reading a few books a day for a week now, recovering fro
Nook Color handles 99% of my PDFs (Score:2)
The built-in PDF reader on the Nook Color is decent. It drains the battery faster (maybe 2x or 3x?) than reading epub files but is still quite usable. I've only ever had trouble with one PDF: there was one page with a TON of overlaid vector images and it wouldn't render correctly; all pages after that page were missing images entirely. Otherwise it's been a fine machine.
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Calibre seems pretty good at format shifting pdf to epub which is a lot less of a strain for an ereader , android device to cope with.
I haven't tried calibre on complicated pdfs but so far it has handled everything i have given it.
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I have used it; it works well when there are no headers or footers. But with heathers / foothers (i.e., all technical manuals), the headers get in the text and disrupt it.
Anyone has tried some software that does not have this problem?
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I own a Sony PRS-900 and use it *only* to read PDFs (mainly Comp. Science papers). So far what have worked for me is using Briss [sourceforge.net] to automagically crop all the headers, footers and margins from all the pages.
For multicolumn papers the PRS-900 has a great multi-column reading mode (dividing the page in 4 quadrants, zooming in the first one and as you select "next page" going into the adequate next quadrant).
I installed Calibre some time ago but deleted it as it was a huge beast (it really made my computer cra
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There may be a way to set it to exclude margins, or ignore that text - I've only played with Calibre a little, but I found that there are some pretty advanced options for conversion. Some versions of Acrobat might export to Word & you could clean it up there. I've found that pdf conversion is usually a pain whatever you do, but if it's something you're doing a lot of, might be worth looking into.
Re:Nook Color handles 99% of my PDFs (Score:4, Informative)
I bought the Nook Color for the same reason. The Nook Color PDF reader is a very capable viewer. I didn't want the Nook version of Android so I bought one that was already rooted with CyanogenMod.
I'm mostly happy with it for reading PDFs. Like any tablet-sized reader you will have to pan. You can view the pages in portrait mode fully zoomed out but it's hard to read that way. I read in landscape and just pan the document a bit. I'm finding more authors are publishing to PDF using one column. In those cases it just work. Pinch-zooming works but the text rarely (if ever) re-flows the way web pages do in Chrome.
I don't like the Adobe file browser on Android, though. It adds every PDF on the SD card to the master list. It's a giant scrollable list with each folder path as a section separator. I would like the option to toggle between hierarchical folder view and list.
I tried using Calibre to convert some PDFs to ePub. Two-column PDFs have been a disaster. I rarely get anything that's usable. YMMV. I decided to stick with PDFs (or .ps files I convert to PDF).
Using Chrome to read web pages is mostly workable. Strangely, clicking an HTML file in the file manager doesn't launch the regular Chrome browser. Rather you get the "HTML Viewer". It's mostly Chrome but has no open dialog or access to bookmarks (AFAICT).
As an Android device it's quite functional. Most market applications install without a problem. The one I have problems with are those for which the Download button doesn't appear. I haven't chased the issue down yet. Not sure whether it's a Cyanogen issue.
Google Books works great but you have to have internet access to read the books. Just goes to prove Android is really designed to be an always-connected OS. FBReader, on the other hand, just works.
As you can tell, it's no iPad in terms of "It Just Works". In sum, as a PDF reader I'm mostly happy with it. All the other features are bonuses. The issues are mostly irrelevant.
Lastly, if you check E-Bay or B&N's website they sell refurbed Nook Color's for $199. For an extra $50 you can get the extended warranty (if you're into those). For the same $249 for a new one with 1-year warranty you get a unit with a 2-year warranty.
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I found reading programming books on the nook color doesn't work so well. I am not sure if it was the fixed width font or something, but the code examples would often scroll off the page, which made things very difficult to learn.
My nook is about a year old though, maybe later revisions are better.
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I'm finding more authors are publishing to PDF using one column. In those cases it just work. Pinch-zooming works but the text rarely (if ever) re-flows the way web pages do in Chrome.
To my understanding, PDF is not designed for reflow. It is designed for a fixed page size, not a variable one. Reflow is an exclusively web-centric idea.
As someone who has typeset thousands of pages of scientific documents to professional standards as well as has designed a handful of web sites, designing documents for prop
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easy (Score:2)
Non-touch screen eReaders are annoying (Score:5, Interesting)
eInk (Score:2)
The slow page change in an inherent limitation in current eInk technology, as it has to apply an electric charge to cause small colored balls to move through a viscous fluid to display the image.
LCD screens, be they transmissive (like the iPad), reflective (like the Eee Note), or tranflective (like OLPC one) don't have this problem, and the later two are almost as nice to read on as eInk.
Barnes & Noble Nook Touch (Score:2, Informative)
The Barnes & Nobel Nook Touch is a touchscreen e-ink reader running Android 2.1 Eclair. It has been rooted with Google Apps installed: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1132693 . You can download ezPDF or Acrobat reader through Google market. I have a Nook Color, the color LCD version of this running Android 2.2 Froyo. It renders scientific papers quite well. I don't have direct experience with the Nook Touch, but I imagine the experience would be similar.
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I dunno, my Android devices (1st gen Snapdragon and a Ti OMAP 800MHz) are pretty slow at rendering big scientific documents. My 300-page EE PDFs take ages to load and scrolling farther than half a page per second gives me blank spaces that take a few seconds to load up...
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Umm, eInk readers don't run Android. Maybe the LCD Nook does. But it isn't an eInk reader.
None Currently are Perfect (Score:2)
I don't know what your discipline is, but I think it'll depend on what journals you typically read.
I'm a chemist, so a lot of what I read is from the American Chemical Society. Most of the articles are formatted for a big (bigger than letter size) with two column format. It's a big of a squeeze down to letter paper, but you can still read it.
I've got a Kindle DX and I find the ACS journals are just too small when fitted to the Kindle DX's viewable area. It's suppose to be able to show a letter-sized documen
Skim on Mac (but not e-book per se) (Score:2)
This doesn't specifically respond to your e-book specification, but Skim on the Mac is amazingly useful for reading PDFs. It has extensive notation and mark-up abilities. I use it exclusively to read technical papers and also use it exclusively to review journal manuscripts that are sent to me.
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Does Skim work well on the small MacBook Air, or is the resolution too low?
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If all you need to have at hand is a single 700 page book, then portable electronic readers probably won't have anything to offer you.
If, however, you need to have at hand the equivalent of 10,000 pages worth of information (or more), then that's where an e-reader can probably be of help. Paper is heavy... ebooks are weightless... and the reader itself is generally only a few ounces.
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I assume you're referring to Amazon remotely deleting/modifying books on the Kindle - I agree, I wouldn't buy from them if there's another option. If, however, you load on your own content (scientific pdfs), they have no control over that and it's just another viewing device. E-ink and books are never going to be indistinguishable, you just need to weigh the advantages of each format. I've been reading books on devices from my first (non-backlit) Palm Pilot, and I really like the e-ink screens. Pdfs are a p
Biig screen (Score:3)
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While that is certainly true in part, the other issue is that 'reflowing' anything but the simplest pdf's is fraught with peril. Two column scientific papers in particular are hopeless because the PDF format is locked into a specific document size when the pdf is created.
One option which might help but does involve some know how and initial work is to grab the original TeX of the paper if it is available and switch from two col to one col output and then generate the pdf. You can also trim the margins too.
Take a look at the current crop of Android Tablets (Score:3)
I have the Galaxy Tab myself, and really like it, but I've also played with an Eee Transformer and was very impressed. I previously had the Xoom, and it was okay, but it's screen wasn't as good as the former two. The 10.1" Android Tablets have higher resolution screens than the current crop of iPads (1200x800 vs 1024x768), meaning a slightly higher DPI, meaning slightly easier on the eyes for reading.
Honeycomb gives you lots of flexibility as to how you get PDFs on to the device (e.g. via Dropbox, local file transfer, etc) combined with the freedom to then view those PDFs with the app of your choice. Android has a version of Adobe Reader, which while feature light, is pretty much guaranteed to correctly render any PDF you throw at it. For my own purposes though, I typically use RepliGo, which handles most things, is notably faster, and lets you view and add notes in PDFs.
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What is it with the word "niche"?? (Score:3)
FTA: It seems right now that this particular niché is not being served: or is it?
Why do so many people have a problem with this word? I can put up with the US pronunciation (i.e. "nitch") though I grew up in Ireland and England pronouncing it what I presume to be a slightly French way - i.e. "neeesh"
But how in heavens did we arrive at "niché "??
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That was me being a dolt (does anyone want some habañero dip while we're at it?). Move along, nothing to see here.
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Kindle with Duokan firmware (Score:2)
I am currently using a Kindle 3 with the Duokan [netzbeben.de] firmware and find the PDF readability much better in terms of the interface. It can also handle ePub, HTML, and DjVU. Possibly more formats, but I haven't tried those.
It has a rudimentary column splitting feature that lets you read the common two-column document format easily without having to continually zoom and pan.
I particularly like that it actually uses the filesystem to browse for documents, so I can organize the files my own way.
It also can play
WeTab (Score:2)
Depending on your preferences, you might want to have a look at the WeTab [wetab.mobi]. Since it's based on MeeGo you can install basically any PDF viewer you like (xpdf or evince for a slick experience, Okular if you want to make annotations). And no need to hack it, root access is just one sudo away.
I have tried a lot of them (Score:5, Informative)
I am in the same boat as you. I wanted an ideal portable device for reading PDF documents. Here is what I have tried so far:
1. Barnes and Noble Nook B&W e-ink device. PDFs simply do not look right on this device.
2. Barnes and Noble Nook Color. Slow processor and small screen. Some squinting and patience is required to read PDFs on this device.
3. ipad (1 & 2). Really good PDF rendering and pages turn fast. Downsides are: a) No easy way to transfer documents. Some may consider iTunes easy to work. I do not. b) Lower resolutio and physical size of the display when compared to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other similar Android devices.
4. Samsung Galaxy Tab 7". Very portable and reasonably fast processor. Downsides are: a) Battery drains faster than other modern tablets. b) Small and low resolution screen when compared to its big brother.
5. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is my current PDF reading device. I use it quite frequently. Display is excellent. Battery performance is outstanding. There are many ways to transfer documents. I just mount a share over the network and drag and drop content. Messing with cables and another computer etc. for doing this is stupid and Steve Jobs should know it. The only downside is that the PDF reader options on Android are not as good. The built-in reader on ipad is really really good. On Android, you have Adobe reader, that is missing some really critical functionality. For example you cannot bookmark a page. I currently use Aldiko. It is OK. It is a bit slow. And appears to render PDFs not as sharp. Also it acts utterly dumb if you switch to landscape mode. There is no way to tell it to fill the width of the screen. So I mostly read my docs in portrait mode and for that it is quite good. I really like the ability to change brightness level without using menus and moving my finger up and down.
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3. you can transfer to the iPad very easily either by mailing or dropbox or downloading directly (I think... haven't done that recently). No need to use iTunes. As several others have recommended, read and annotate easily with iAnnotate PDF.
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the subject of this discussion is scientific papers, which are commonly already 'uploaded' and available for download (not true for manuscripts but that is where email or dropbox work great).
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GoodReader is a fantastic iPad PDF viewer that includes the capability to mount a share on the network and transfer files that way.
did you actually try an iPad? (Score:4, Informative)
3. ipad (1 & 2). Really good PDF rendering and pages turn fast. Downsides are: a) No easy way to transfer documents. Some may consider iTunes easy to work. I do not. b) Lower resolutio and physical size of the display when compared to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other similar Android devices.
You don't need to use iTunes to transfer PDFs. There are several hundred PDF readers written specifically for the iPad. I've only tried a few of them but my favorites are Papers, GoodReader and AirSharing, none of which require you to use iTunes for transferring files. Direct access to servers, including mail servers and dropbox, is common. Did you actually try an iPad?
Try ezPDF Reader (Score:3)
I picked up ezPDF Reader from Amazon's AppStore as a free app (normally $2 in Market), but it pretty much just kicks ass. It recognizes links, allows you to display in either text-only or full page rendering, navigates well, and just generally wins
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You may not be aware you don't have to use iTunes to transfer files to iOS devices - and you've never had to. There have always been other options.
Since nowadays most everyone has a Dropbox account, and there are free Dropbox apps for iOS (as well as most every other mobile OS out there)... I'm not sure why transferring files should be a problem for anyone. And, if you don't like Dropbox, the Briefcase app has existed on the iOS for years - that lets you easily transfer files from another computer over ssh.
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Steve does know it, which is why that's all being fixed in iOS5 (re: messing with cables, needing iTunes as a base etc etc) - and about time. It was one of the annoying things about iOS that I was hoping would be changed. Android had that right from the start.
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I did a little more research into various PDF option for Android after posting my earlier comment. And I think I have found a really good one. APV PDF Viewer. It is considerably better than any of the other PDF readers I have tried. Including the ones on ipad. It has a lot of useful features. What's more, it is completely opensource. So if I develop a minor itch, I can scratch without too much fuss.
I cannot recommend this reader enough.
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I'd definitely recommend grabbing the Transformer if your primary purpose is reading pdf's. I can't really comment on anything else because that's what I use it for and I'm very happy with it. I still need to pick up the dock/keyboard for mine and once I have it maybe I'll use it for chatting, email etc. but I don't really like typing on a touchscreen so I generally avoid anything tha
Apple solution ... (Score:2)
iRiver Story HD Google Ebook Reader ( resolution) (Score:2)
You want resolution, so I recommend iRiver Story HD Google Ebook Reader
check out the review(/comparison to kindle) with some info about electronics documentation in PDF format
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXWKOoy20Rs [youtube.com]
Don't do it. (Score:5, Informative)
Kindle DX or a tablet (Score:2)
The only thing that comes close to an eInk eReader that can handle PDFs well is the Kindle DX ($380). Do not go with a smaller format reader and think you can convert PDF articles to ePub. It turns out really badly - unreadable.
Back when eReaders were the big new thing, many companies were going to come out with a large format reader. PlasticLogic was going to come out with their Que reader, but it was delayed multiple times and cost something like $600. It was dealt a quick and merciful death.
The only sens
Pocketbook, iliad or tablet (Score:2)
Found myself in the same boat a while back. Small-screen ereaders are cheap but rather awful for reading regular PDFs, large-screen ereaders are pricey but you can fit a single page on it.
In the end I went for a Pocketbook 902. They're cheaper than the other 10" ereaders and handle PDF/PS very well, together with a host of other formats and supports wifi+bluetooth. I've read a bundle of papers and a few ebooks on it over the summer and haven't regretted it, in spite of the manufacturer being unknown and the
Sony (Score:2)
The largest size Sony should do it for you - although perhaps only barely...
It's not cheap.
Not e-ink (Score:2)
I played with the Sony E-reader with the idea that I'd use it for bringing papers to read (yes, it's a Sony, but despite that the e-reader is quite open and format-agnostic).
In some ways it could work quite well: it has a mode that shows you one quarter of the page at a time, which fits very neatly with the typical two-column format. And the touch screen makes it natural to swipe around in the text.
But it has two downsides: it doesn't do color, which makes many illustrations unreadable. And there's no way t
Kindle DX (Score:2)
As other posters have poin
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My wife uses her iPad (Score:2)
My wife is writing her PhD dissertation and uses her iPad for this. She loves it. The screen is nice, it renders the PDFs very nicely, and she doesn't have to carry around a stack of 80 odd journal articles when she's writing.
YMMV of course, but she says it's made her life a lot easier.
I had exactly the very same problem (Score:2)
My solution (Score:2)
(I'm not aware of any specific issues relating to scientific journals- my reading is predominantly legal journal articles (usually in .pdf), PDF prints of web articles (converted via Readability), and legislation, cases and the like.)
I used a couple of eReaders (COOL-ER (no longer trading) and Sony), but, whilst these were great for reading novels, or for casual reading, I did not find them of use for reading academic materials - I wanted to make notes, to highlight sections and the like, which neither o
screen width vs columns (Score:2)
We tried pocketbook and kindle at our lab (Score:2)
The pocketbook is quite nice, and is also a very open device (it's linux and you can run scripts on it etc), and it has WIFI. Other than that, the readers ar
not e-ink but... (Score:2)
I've been using an ipad + goodreader to view pdfs, and so far it's the single best solution I've been able to find. iPad is a big screen, and goodreader allows you to non-destructively crop empty borders in pages, so you maximize your reading area.
I wanted an e-reader for the longest time, but thought the current ones were way too overpriced. They still are IMO. I almost went with Notion Ink but I read about people having issues with it. Then the ipad 2 came out, and a reseller was selling original ipad
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I forgot to mention that Goodreader also has amazing annotation capabilities. It's the single most powerful pdf viewer I've seen that runs on a gadget.
I'll get tons of hate for this... (Score:2)
Best one is iPad. I tried everything else and the PDF reader on the ipad works fantastically. Good reader is nice but the one built into iBooks renders fast and correct every time.
I did not like the choices on Android, but I have not checked for any new ones in 3 months since I switched to an iPad.
It's not about the hardware, it's about the apps and quality of the apps. and nothing else has goodreader or a better pdf and all other format readers right now.
Now unleash the foaming at the mouth apple hat
iPAD + Papers (Score:2)
iPad, in combination with the app Papers [mekentosj.com], is an excellent portable platform for reading scientific PDFs.
I use an iRex iLiad (Score:2)
I have an iRex iLiad from 2007 that I use mainly for just that, scientific papers. It's great:
- PDF's look great.
- It's eInk. Much better for the eyes than a tablet if you ask me.
- You can zoom to whichever part you want.
- The screen is larger than in most of the latest ereaders.
- There is a third-party reader that you can install for PDF's with column layout, letting you read in column order.
- The device is free and can work as an USB drive, you can copy the PDF's directly to it or you can plug an USB stic
FYI - background color (Score:2)
If you are stuck on a PC or laptop, Acrobat now allows you to change the background color of a document you are reading.
It isn't as nice as an ebook reader, but changing the background color from white to gray helps to reduce ( not eliminate ) eye strain.
FYI, if you still want to print those PDFs out you can be much kinder to the environment by printing with less white space in the margins and of course, doing duplex.
Get a tablet with a stylus! (Score:2)
If you just want to read a scientific paper then any color ebook reader with a decet size would do the trick. But my experience with scientific paper is that I want to write on it and I want to draw on it. So somtehing like a nook won't really do it, you do need surface to write. and you need a stylus. If the screen is not at least 80% of a letter, it won't be useful. I tried an iPad and found it too small.
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Not much is known about him, except that he's unknown, and a lamer.
Ob. topic, I've only tried a Kindle and a Sony something. The Sony could display PDFs remarkably well for its tiny size (there are bigger ones from Sony, though), and had a touch screen with a stylus you could use for scribbling. E-ink is far better for reading than any traditional screen.
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Ditto on the iPad.
I paid for Papers (Both on the Mac and iPad), and while it's passable, I really find their workflow disagrees with me. It just seems really hard to get CS to work in it properly (developed by Biological Sciences people, and it feels like the workflow for databases like the ACM DL and IEEE are a bit.. rushed)
Final word: Use the trial for Papers on the Mac for sure. Papers on the iPad is perhaps easier to justify, though, I don't know if it'll run stand alone (can you import/export w
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iAnnotate PDF on the iPad is a great way to read, bookmark, and annotate pdfs. You can highlight, draw, add notes, etc. It is great for conferences and meetings with a lot of documentation; all fits easily on even the 16GB iPad (of course, and much more beside). For heavier duty note taking, I copy from iAnnotate and paste into Pages.
Yow, expensive! (Score:2)
Great farking zarquon! I just took at look at those iPad PDF apps -- $10-$20!!!
When the main purposes are (1) saving your position/bookmarking, (2) annotating, and (3) sending pages/annotations to others, it's a bit hard to justify spending $10-$20 in a $0-$5 app world. The iPad's built-in PDF viewer works just fine, as long as you don't need position saving or annotating (the free Evernote app is decent for saving/viewing PDFs, if you don't need much in terms of features).
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Good point darrylo, iAnnotate was much cheaper - like $1 - a year or so ago, and it's updated gratis so far. Though $10 is not so bad if you know an app will be just what you need. I would also hesitate to buy a more expensive app with so many alternatives unless I knew it was what I wanted. Too bad iTunes doesn't permit try/buy... I've bought a number of apps I never use after the first couple tries.
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I own papers but I took it off after getting iAnnotate Pro. Tags and your own arbitrary folder structure, plus excellent searchable annotation that you can share and dropbox support. And I find the actual PDF reader, locking zoom, etc. nicer. It lacks the pubmed integration but with the ability for Safari to transfer PDFs that's okay.
For the story poster, consider an iPad. I tried ebook readers and the inability to scroll smoothly and the flashing when they updated the screen really annoyed me. I prefer to
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I have found the Kobo surprisingly good. And since Borders is gone, you can find Kobos for around $50. I would definitely take a look at one before you decide.
My wife's a mathematician and reads a lot of journal articles on her Kobo. Don't use the Kobo software, though. Just regular old Calibre.
I've got a different problem. I want to be able to read sheet music on my eReader. I finally got a nice 10" An
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I use a USB foot pedal to turn pages.
oh? Forward and back? Mapped to key sequences? Have you hacked up automatic note tracking yet?
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Naw, it's just really a momentary switch. I'm not very smart when it comes to wires and all that physical stuff.
Well, know that's an idea. It would work when using my midi keyboard, but it would have to track audio for my chromatic harp, which is possible, but I could see it having a lot of false turns in a piece that repeats phrases, which is most Western music.
I'm considering hiring an attractive young woman to turn pages for me, but I
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I'm considering hiring an attractive young woman to turn pages for me, but I'm still waiting for my wife to approve the proposal I submitted.
I suggest you revise the proposal, where you let your your wife turn the pages.
Perhaps this arrangement will be acceptable to your wife?
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I wish I could come up with a foot pedal for my tablet, though
Have you tried one of the Bluetooth ones like PageFlip or AirTurn?
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Screen too small (Score:5, Insightful)
If they ever release an affordable A4/letter e-ink device which displays PDFs then I'd go for that but until then tablets seem to be the best for scientific papers.
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Seconded - I thought I'd be able to read papers on my Kindle as well but the print is just way too small.
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Does the kindle not let you switch the view to landscape? That should allow you to see half of a PDF page at a time, with full formatting and good size fonts. The Sony readers let you do that and most PDFs I tried are very readable that way, save for a few with fonts that aren't too legible even on a computer screen.
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Mod +1. My feelings exactly. eInk screens are too small for papers and don't update anything like fast enough. What's more, a lot of papers come with colour figures, which eInk screens will currently mangle into 16 shades of grey, removing all meaning from the plot. Use a tablet or stick to a screen for now - the time for papers on eBook readers will come in a good few years.
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Never heard of Briss, thanks for that. I tried using my Sony Reader for papers a few years ago and it was such an unenjoyable experience that I quit right away.
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Looks cool, but I really have no inkling to look at myself in a mirror while reading :/