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I was just speaking to a friend of mine who is a EE/physicist who had just returned a Kindle DX two days ago. He got it specifically to read IEEE journal papers

I was just speaking to a friend of mine who is a EE/physicist who had just returned a Kindle DX two days ago. He got it specifically to read IEEE journal papers and found that it was unacceptable. His specific beef wasn't with the e-ink or the e-ink page turn speed but rather with the huge delay spent processing PDFs when you turned pages. In other words, page turn delays were no problem when reading a text only document, but when reading a PDF, they were really long, presumably because of the slow processor and an unwillingness to pre-rasterize pages. I love my kindle, but for technical documents, I just print them out.

pmjordan 16y ago
Interesting, thanks. As far as I can tell, it's possible to convert PDFs to the Kindle's native format, any idea if this improves the situation? I've noticed the PDF delay on the iPad as well, although it's not sufficient to bother me. I'm reluctant to use the illuminated screen for extended periods of reading though, especially in the evening.
- MichaelSalib 16y ago
  Sorry, I have no idea.
- kroger 16y ago
  "Interesting, thanks. As far as I can tell, it's possible to convert PDFs to the Kindle's native format, any idea if this improves the situation?" Yes. I use mobipocket creator [1] to convert pdf files to the mobi format. It's free and works pretty well for documents with one column. For papers with multiple columns (like those from journals) I use papercrop [2] to slice the pdf in smaller parts so I can read in my (non-dx) kindle 2. [1] http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailscreator.asp http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailscrea... [2] http://code.google.com/p/papercrop/ http://code.google.com/p/papercrop/ edit: small fixes
  - MichaelSalib 16y ago
    Papercrop looks really intersting...does it store text as text within the output PDF or does it just convert chunks of the page to an image?
    - kroger 16y ago
      It just convert the chunks to an image (the final format is a PDF as well). The result is a little bit hacky, but it works. If your goal is to catch up with your reading pile, so it may work for you. On the other hand, if you need/want to go over every single detail (tables, formulas, etc), it may not work so well. As usual, YMMV. [Actually, mobipocket creator seems to be not too bad at converting multi-column documents. The problems I had converting academic papers were tables and math, and not the fact they had more than one column]
mquander 16y ago
Wow, thanks a lot. I was strongly considering purchasing a DX for exactly this, after trying a Nook and finding the screen to be too small for most PDFs.
- MichaelSalib 16y ago
  I'd actually suggest that you try out a DX and see for yourself. I think they're free to return within the first N days. Or at least see if you can find other opinions by people who read sci/tech papers. For all I know, my friend's particular field has really heavy journal PDFs that other fields might not have. If I was reading a lot of papers, the appeal of a DX would be so great that I'd want a second opinion before ditching it.
  - pmjordan 16y ago
    Returning the Kindle is probably fine if you're in the US, but for us in Europe it would be an expensive experiment. I doubt I'd get a customs & VAT refund, plus the postage is probably steep, too. I still don't get why they only sell it from amazon.com, not amazon.*. I might be able to eBay it off, assuming it's possible to sever the tie to my amazon account.
    - Luc 16y ago
      Thankfully there's no customs fee when you buy a Kindle from Europe, just VAT. Don't know about other territories.
- anateus 16y ago
  I have a DX that I use for just that purpose (reading journals and textbooks). Yes, the two column text runs a bit small, but I haven't had any problems. Check to see how well it works for you. The DX crops out borders on good copies of journal articles (if it's a scanned image sometimes scanning artifacts cause it to miss correct margins). PDF speed has recently improved, though since the person above returned it just a bit ago, that was probably too slow for him. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the PDF speed. I find the speed to be consistent even with very large scanned-image PDF files (e.g. 300 page book with each page being an image, rather than vector text). Journal articles tend to flip pages only a tad slower than native ebooks. The most recent firmware version for the DX (2.5) has finally introduced PDF zooming and panning, which has worked for me pretty decently though I haven't had to use it much (once zoomed in to read fine print on a graph) Aaand that's been my experience.
whyenot 16y ago
found that it was unacceptable That has been my experience as well. Not only is pdf rendering slow on the Kindle, but it doesn't have high enough resolution to display a paper legibly in the common two column format that most journals use. You can jump through some hoops and in some cases reflow the paper. I didn't try it, but it looked like a hassle. The iPad has much better rendering speed, but it also lacks the resolution to legibly display a two column article, as one would see it on paper. It would be wonderful if I could carry around my entire collection of journal articles on a tablet, but the display technology just doesn't seem to be quite there yet.

pmjordan 16y ago

Interesting, thanks. As far as I can tell, it's possible to convert PDFs to the Kindle's native format, any idea if this improves the situation? I've noticed the PDF delay on the iPad as well, although it's not sufficient to bother me. I'm reluctant to use the illuminated screen for extended periods of reading though, especially in the evening.

MichaelSalib 16y ago
Sorry, I have no idea.
kroger 16y ago
"Interesting, thanks. As far as I can tell, it's possible to convert PDFs to the Kindle's native format, any idea if this improves the situation?" Yes. I use mobipocket creator [1] to convert pdf files to the mobi format. It's free and works pretty well for documents with one column. For papers with multiple columns (like those from journals) I use papercrop [2] to slice the pdf in smaller parts so I can read in my (non-dx) kindle 2. [1] http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailscreator.asp http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailscrea... [2] http://code.google.com/p/papercrop/ http://code.google.com/p/papercrop/ edit: small fixes
- MichaelSalib 16y ago
  Papercrop looks really intersting...does it store text as text within the output PDF or does it just convert chunks of the page to an image?
  - kroger 16y ago
    It just convert the chunks to an image (the final format is a PDF as well). The result is a little bit hacky, but it works. If your goal is to catch up with your reading pile, so it may work for you. On the other hand, if you need/want to go over every single detail (tables, formulas, etc), it may not work so well. As usual, YMMV. [Actually, mobipocket creator seems to be not too bad at converting multi-column documents. The problems I had converting academic papers were tables and math, and not the fact they had more than one column]

mquander 16y ago

Wow, thanks a lot. I was strongly considering purchasing a DX for exactly this, after trying a Nook and finding the screen to be too small for most PDFs.

MichaelSalib 16y ago
I'd actually suggest that you try out a DX and see for yourself. I think they're free to return within the first N days. Or at least see if you can find other opinions by people who read sci/tech papers. For all I know, my friend's particular field has really heavy journal PDFs that other fields might not have. If I was reading a lot of papers, the appeal of a DX would be so great that I'd want a second opinion before ditching it.
- pmjordan 16y ago
  Returning the Kindle is probably fine if you're in the US, but for us in Europe it would be an expensive experiment. I doubt I'd get a customs & VAT refund, plus the postage is probably steep, too. I still don't get why they only sell it from amazon.com, not amazon.*. I might be able to eBay it off, assuming it's possible to sever the tie to my amazon account.
  - Luc 16y ago
    Thankfully there's no customs fee when you buy a Kindle from Europe, just VAT. Don't know about other territories.
anateus 16y ago
I have a DX that I use for just that purpose (reading journals and textbooks). Yes, the two column text runs a bit small, but I haven't had any problems. Check to see how well it works for you. The DX crops out borders on good copies of journal articles (if it's a scanned image sometimes scanning artifacts cause it to miss correct margins). PDF speed has recently improved, though since the person above returned it just a bit ago, that was probably too slow for him. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the PDF speed. I find the speed to be consistent even with very large scanned-image PDF files (e.g. 300 page book with each page being an image, rather than vector text). Journal articles tend to flip pages only a tad slower than native ebooks. The most recent firmware version for the DX (2.5) has finally introduced PDF zooming and panning, which has worked for me pretty decently though I haven't had to use it much (once zoomed in to read fine print on a graph) Aaand that's been my experience.

whyenot 16y ago

found that it was unacceptable That has been my experience as well. Not only is pdf rendering slow on the Kindle, but it doesn't have high enough resolution to display a paper legibly in the common two column format that most journals use. You can jump through some hoops and in some cases reflow the paper. I didn't try it, but it looked like a hassle. The iPad has much better rendering speed, but it also lacks the resolution to legibly display a two column article, as one would see it on paper. It would be wonderful if I could carry around my entire collection of journal articles on a tablet, but the display technology just doesn't seem to be quite there yet.