On 2 December 2013 17:40, Malcolm Greene <[email protected]> wrote: > As part of the process of downsizing and reorganizing[4], I'm looking > for advice on purchasing an e-reader for technical content. By > technical content I mean your standard bible-sized tomes published by > SAMS, O'Reilly, Apress, etc. I've purchased a few e-books (PDF) for > reading on my Windows laptop and iPad and found the process of reading > on these devices less than optimal. > > I'm considering the "Kindle Paperwhite, 6" High Resolution Display with > Next-Gen Built-in Light, Wi-Fi" (about $120 US)[1].
I have the older Kindle Keyboard. It is awesome for reading novels. I read for an hour a day and still get a months worth of usage before needing a recharge. The display is very easy on the eyes. > 1. How well does large book content with illustrations and screenshots > translate to a much smaller display? PDFs *do not* scale well on e-reader devices. PDF are designed for printing (A4/Letter etc) and really do not work on a slow 7" monochrome display. A kindle will show PDFs but it's not going to be a nice experience. Lots of zooming/panning required. It is possible that you can use software like Calibre to convert the PDF into something an e-reader can handle but I wouldn't bet on it. For example, I've seen PDFs that are just scanned images of the pages. > 2. How easy is it move and read PDF content to these proprietary > advices and is the PDF reading experience acceptable? Kindle is just drag and drop, but as I said above PDFs really do not work well. > 3. I understand that choosing an e-book reader also somewhat marries > you to a book buying eco-system. How good or bad is Amazon's e-book > infrastructure compared to other alternatives? Amazon's e-book store works well. My Kindle has (free!) 3G connectivity so I can even download a book on the go. There is plenty of out of copyright material available for free (classics etc). There's a limited web browser that has come in handy when I'm travelling abroad (did I say it's free!) and need to look up something. I've needed to return an e-book due to poor formatting and had no problems getting a refund. > 4. How well do e-book loaner services like Safari [2] work on today's > e-books? It sounds like Safari support for e-books is disappointingly > weak [3]? Sorry, no idea. > 5. Are there any books you are staying with paper for? Nope! Gave up on paper long ago. I don't even have a bookshelf anymore. All my books are stored in the loft (attic). A tablet (probably a 10") is probably the best medium for PDFs, but as you have found out it's not great. It's time we ditched PDFs to be honest. -- Paul _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/CADwx0+JPULuWckXo3uyr75GZ1rOTnWL9R=0hxpu76fbdqo1...@mail.gmail.com ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
