Archive for the ‘pdf and ereaders’ tag
PDF on the iPad – iAnnotate Review – Annotations! no comments
Probably the most well known app for reading PDF documents on the iPad is 
GoodReader which does work quite well. The problem with GoodReader is that if you need to make notes or annotations you are pretty much SOL.
Enter iAnnotate. This app is from Aji and lets you bookmark and make text notes as well as supporting markup annotations such as highlighting, underlining and strikeouts. Freeform drawing is also supported – and you can choose multiple colors for all of these functions to use.
This is probably one app that could benefit from the use of a stylus that will work with the iPad rather than resorting to finger painting when precision drawing is called for.
iAnnotate uses toolbars for the various annotation and navigation functions. You can customize each toolbar by adding and removing individual tools and moving the toolbars to different positions on the screen. The size and opacity of the toolbars can also be adjusted.
Documents that you have loaded into iAnnotate are displayed as tabs at the top of the screen which allows you to switch between them quickly. Page locations are remembered when you switch between documents. You also can perform searches in your document and search through your annotations. All of the standard iPad gestures are supported so that pan and zoom, etc. work well.
Search functions allow you to search through your entire PDF library.
Getting Your Documents Into iAnnotate
You will need to download and install the Aji PDF Service for either your Mac or PC so that your iPad can connect to and retrieve PDF documents from your desktop. The Aji PDF Service not only is used to transfer documents but also processes and extracts the metadata of your PDF docs, so while you can transfer files from other iPad apps such as Goodreader you probably won’t be able to use the annotating tools if you do so. The documentation indicates that it may be possible to bypass the Aji Service in the future, but at any rate it is a free download and worked fine for me.
Sharing Your Annotated Documents
Your annotated documents can be shared using standard PDF annotations and can be viewed in a standard PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader. There are plans to allow email of annotated documents and text-only annotation summaries in future updates. At the moment you can upload your annotated documents to your computer via Aji Reader Service.
The iAnnotate app gives you lots of tools to work with in lots of colors. Currently you can purchase the iAnnotate app for $6.99 from iTunes, but Aji says that the price will go up to $9.99 when version 1.1 update is released, which will probably be in the next week or two (it has already been submitted to Apple for review). Version 1.1 will include iTunes/USB transfer, Web downloads, ability to attach annotated PDFs to emails, brightness control slider and other fixes.
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PDF on the iPad Using GoodReader no comments
GoodReader is one of the most popular apps for reading PDF files on the iPad, and at only $.99 is a good value (presuming, of course, that you have already spent $500+ for an iPad).
GoodReader not only handles PDF files but also MS Office, iWork documents, images, video and audio. The current version also supports Apple’s Document Sharing.
The iPad’s color screen is great for viewing graphic-rich documents, and its speed and responsive touchscreen make it quite adept at doing things like panning and zooming. The downside is that you cannot scribble or make annotations on your documents with GoodReader. This fits pretty well with my overall impression of the iPad so far – great for viewing content, but less well suited for authoring and editing. You can get the GoodReader app from iTunes.
Below is a video I made with the GoodReader iPad app.
Transferring PDF Files From Your Computer to Your iPad
Before you can read your PDF files using GoodReader, you will need to get them onto your iPad. GoodReader lets you search on your iPad for files, browse the Net for files to download, or connect to a local Wi-Fi network.
You can of course also connect your iPad to your computer using the dock connector to USB cable and download files. This is quite easy using iTunes. The following shows how to transfer files using the USB connection.
First connect your iPad to your computer using the dock connector to USB cable and start iTunes.
- Click on your iPad in iTunes.
- Click on the Apps tab at the top.
- Scroll down and you will find the File Sharing section. Click on the GoodReader app.
- You can either drag and drop your PDF files into the GoodReader Documents section or click on the Add button at the bottom to browse for the desired files. If you elect to browse for your files just click on Open when you have selected the files you want to add to your iPad.
- When you have finished adding the PDF files that you want to transfer click on the Sync button in the bottom right corner of the iTunes window – don’t forget to do this!
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Reading PDF Files on the Sony PRS 600 no comments
I’ve been experimenting with several PDF documents on the Sony Touch Edition ereader, and I have to report mixed results.
The default display mode for PDF pages on Sony’s new ereader is to display the whole page on the screen. This makes the font so small that it is impractical to read on the PRS 600′s 6″ screen. You can zoom, of course, but this worked a little differently on each of the three documents I’ve tried so far.
First of all I tried a text only PDF. As should be expected, reflow worked fine on this: I could use the font size keys to enlarge the text and there were no chopped off words, etc. Reading this file was pretty much like reading an ebook in any other format.
Things were not so easy when I moved on to an aeronautics text with schematics, charts and equations. First of all, if I used the font size keys on this document most diagrams and equations where not shown at all or were Sony PRS600 Touch Edittion PDF Zoom and Panmessed up. Also words were chopped off at the right margin and unceremoniously finished on the next line. The best results were acheived with this file when I used the
zoom-in feature with the screen in landscape mode. You can see this in the short video I made.
In the zoomed-in mode diagrams and equations were shown as intended, and being able to use your finger on the touch screen to pan around is quite cool. Being able use the stylus to annotate PDF’s on the Sony Touch makes for a great study tool; but you cannot annotate or make notes while you are zoomed in. Another annoyance is that when you turn the page your zoomed in setting is reset and you have to zoom in all over again for each new page. This will probably work fine for a limited number of pages, but I cannot imagine having to read a whole book like this without the process becoming exceedingly tedious.
The last PDF I tried was a Google scanned book with drawings. The font zoom keys had no effect whatsoever on this file. The only way to enlarge this one was to use the zoom-in feature, which worked fine, but again you have to redo the zoom for each new page.
I think that the PRS 600 ereader just has a screen that is too small to work with a lot of PDF files that are filled with diagrams, etc. It is, however, fine for text only files where you can use the font zoom keys, or if you just need to view a few pages with schematics, etc. at a time. On the other hand if you need a portable device to view your PDF files while on the go, then this ereader may well be a good choice for you. If the feature set stays the same, the Daily Edition will be somewhat more practical for graphic rich PDF files because of its larger 7″ screen. The Daily Edition will purportedly cost around the same amount as the upcoming iRex DR800SG and a little less than the Kindle DX though, so it will remain to be seen how those three ereaders will compare when it comes to working with PDF documents. The Kindle DX has a 9.7″ screen and also has 16 gray scales, which means that graphics look better than with the Sony’s 8 gray scales. The iRex DR800SG will come with an 8.1″ display.
