All OS Device for reading technical books/PDFs

[red-devil]

I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook and a HP laptop- and yet recently my heart fell for the “deal” on Amazon for Kindle Paperwhite. They reduced the price of 10th gen PW to 10k and my heart and mind both wanted it for the sole purpose of reading books - not fiction but technical books - primarily PDFs of text books that I managed to “source” from the internet.

Unfortunately based on what I read online, the Kindle and such PDFs aren’t exactly the best combo. I read about software like Caliber but even they aren’t very good at converting text books/technical books to a Kindle friendly format.

I am now looking for suggestions for a device that I can use to read these PDFs. I’d love to have minimal distractions and be able to just read for a couple of hours at a stretch. Budget is approx 10k. Needless to say, cheaper the better.

Any suggestions?

 

[seshu]

I'd suggest to try using comicRack software / app

(though its development stopped few years ago,
it is still my favorite for windows. not checked its app.)

 

[dissel]

Just one quick OT;

Is it worth to get - Kindle Paper White 10th Gen (9,999/-) over normal Kindle 10th Gen (7,999/-) ?

Usage will be Text Base Reading of Kindle Books.

 

[red-devil]

I'd suggest to try using comicRack software / app

(though its development stopped few years ago,
it is still my favorite for windows. not checked its app.)

Thanks but I don’t think I want to read the pdf on my laptop.

Just one quick OT;

Is it worth to get - Kindle Paper White 10th Gen (9,999/-) over normal Kindle 10th Gen (7,999/-) ?

Usage will be Text Base Reading of Kindle Books.

Normal Kindle 10th gen for 8k has 160ppi over the PW 10th gen which is 10k at 330ppi. So yes, the 10k 10th gen is better purchase.

Also note that 10k is now the regular price because they launched the PW 11th gen at 14k. That is 6.8 inch screen over the current 10th gen which has a 6 inch screen.
So the 9,999 is not really a “deal”

 

[jiith77]

I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook and a HP laptop- and yet recently my heart fell for the “deal” on Amazon for Kindle Paperwhite. They reduced the price of 10th gen PW to 10k and my heart and mind both wanted it for the sole purpose of reading books - not fiction but technical books - primarily PDFs of text books that I managed to “source” from the internet.

Unfortunately based on what I read online, the Kindle and such PDFs aren’t exactly the best combo. I read about software like Caliber but even they aren’t very good at converting text books/technical books to a Kindle friendly format.

I am now looking for suggestions for a device that I can use to read these PDFs. I’d love to have minimal distractions and be able to just read for a couple of hours at a stretch. Budget is approx 10k. Needless to say, cheaper the better.

Any suggestions?

Kindle will be good in majority cases unless the pdf is not a text and is an image scan.

Only bottleneck in text pdf will be reading large images with lots of markings. (Due to screen size). But you can get used to it unless every other pages have such diagrams.

Recommended to read textbooks in landscape.

 

[soulweaver]

If you are reading a lot of PDFs, then iPad/Tablets are your best bet. I read a lot, and I definitely veer towards the tablets while reading PDFs and Magazines. Also, that they have larger screens is definitely a boon.

So I would say, either get another tablet or use some version of app control which restricts use of internet while using selected apps or flight mode to keep it distraction free.

Buying another tablet might only add to the device clutter. If you feel reading on the iPad is a strain, the matte screen protector can do wonders too! Just find the right app (How good is books for you) that has a good black white variation (I love the colour balance of Books app) that will keep your eyes strain free. (Not to mention saving you the 10k, which, I am always happy to receive a donation of... )

 

[JMak]

I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook and a HP laptop- and yet recently my heart fell for the “deal” on Amazon for Kindle Paperwhite. They reduced the price of 10th gen PW to 10k and my heart and mind both wanted it for the sole purpose of reading books - not fiction but technical books - primarily PDFs of text books that I managed to “source” from the internet.

Unfortunately based on what I read online, the Kindle and such PDFs aren’t exactly the best combo. I read about software like Caliber but even they aren’t very good at converting text books/technical books to a Kindle friendly format.

I am now looking for suggestions for a device that I can use to read these PDFs. I’d love to have minimal distractions and be able to just read for a couple of hours at a stretch. Budget is approx 10k. Needless to say, cheaper the better.

Any suggestions?

I own kindles, android tablets, ipad, laptop and big screen phones.
Kindles aren't worth at all for reading pdf.

The best option would be too open the pdf in iBooks and it soul look and feel great.
Or
Use kindle app for ipad(after converting the pdf) or any decent third party app and that's all you need.

Simple books are great on kindles but pdf ain't a native format for it and to read them on thev kindle you ll need to convert the pdfs to mobi format and the result will be disappointing tbh and size would be huge.

 

[buzz88]

What JMak said.

I owned both kindle PW and android tabs. Kindle PW is good for Mobi books or native AZW format books. But PDF rendering is somewhat wonky and they sometimes a lag a lot if your PDF is huge. For PDF an iPad or android tab should be much better experience.

 

[red-devil]

ipad somehow feels way too big for reading PDFs. Besides, I tried to load PDF (and also convert them to mobi using Caliber) and read that from the Kindle app on ipad - but to me personally, the results were neither here nor there. Thus the quest for an alternate reader.
I looked around a bit today and I see there's one Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite on Amazon for 12k. Does anyone know how good/bad this device is?

 

[asingh]

I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook and a HP laptop- and yet recently my heart fell for the “deal” on Amazon for Kindle Paperwhite. They reduced the price of 10th gen PW to 10k and my heart and mind both wanted it for the sole purpose of reading books - not fiction but technical books - primarily PDFs of text books that I managed to “source” from the internet.

Unfortunately based on what I read online, the Kindle and such PDFs aren’t exactly the best combo. I read about software like Caliber but even they aren’t very good at converting text books/technical books to a Kindle friendly format.

I am now looking for suggestions for a device that I can use to read these PDFs. I’d love to have minimal distractions and be able to just read for a couple of hours at a stretch. Budget is approx 10k. Needless to say, cheaper the better.

Any suggestions?

I have the 10th G Kindle. Below are samples of two PDF documents. It depends on the nature of your PDFs.

Below are two PDFs on my Kindle. Unconverted.

 

[raksrules]

Any good 4:3 aspect ration would be great for reading magazines and PDFs. I occasionally download PDF magazines on iPad and open in iBook and have a very nice way to read them and flip pages. I have tried reading the PDFs in Fire HD 10 which has more of 16:10 or so aspect ratio and It does not feel nice at all. I even have posted pic somewhere on TE itself. Will see if I can find.
Edit: Found it..

https://techenclave.com/threads/tablet-to-read-books-magazines-and-pdfs.196941/post-2252191

 

[red-devil]

Thanks for the pictures @asingh I see that the PDF with a lot of text appears pretty normal in your 2nd image. This ideally means that PDF with a lot of text renders absolutely fine.

@raksrules - I was reading that and a couple of other threads, but for whatever reason, they all turn into Apple vs others and I just couldn't understand what the final recommendation of the forum members was, unfortunately

On the side, I did a small experiment. I downloaded a epub file and then used Caliber to convert to mobi and copied that over to the Kindle app on my ipad. The text looked pretty good, but some of the parts like code examples were well off. I'm guessing that will be how the Kindle device would render it as well. If so, then that's another "con" in the Kindle list.

 

[asingh]

^^
Mail me a pdf. I can render on my Kindle and show here, or pm you back. Less then 25 MB.

 

[raksrules]

I was reading that and a couple of other threads, but for whatever reason, they all turn into Apple vs others and I just couldn't understand what the final recommendation of the forum members was, unfortunately

As a primarily apple user, let me tell you that watching videos is better on the android tablets due to their aspect ratio. I have Fire HD 10 and Samsung Tab A7, both 10+ inches. But they aren't so good for magazines and PDFs and general web browsing. I personally feel the iPad aspect ratio is more towards everything but yes watching videos does leave a lot to be desired as we see thicker bars but still I utilize iPad for videos because I don't want to bother with multiple devices.

 

[smnrock]

if you prefer paper based book, kindle is great. personally whenever I decide to read, it is always kindle and it's pdf. undoubtedly easy on eyes and comfortable when lying in bed.

 

[red-devil]

^^
Mail me a pdf. I can render on my Kindle and show here, or pm you back. Less then 25 MB.

Here is a typical PDF I’m interested in. If you can check this PDF out and see how pages 28 or 158 looks like and also how readable the document is by default (without zooming in for instance), that will be very helpful. I’m posting here instead of PM, so that it is helpful to others in a similar boat. Also I’m attaching a few screenshots for reference.

https://www.iitk.ac.in/esc101/share/downloads/javanotes5.pdf

Screenshots from my phone:
As you can see, the font is slightly small - and I have to zoom in a bit to read comfortably.



Edit-
@raksrules - understood. However my primary use case for Kindle or any other PDF reader is to read PDFs and watching content is a distant second use case.

@smnrock - yes, readability is why I was eyeing Kindle but like I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m skeptical of the Kindle’a ability to render PDFs accurately (things like text books or technical or coding related books)

 

[smnrock]

coding related books

I mainly use for this kind of pdfs only, but of-course everything in black . Regarding zooming need, i had to use some app to crop the pages. Basically it will take the pdf and crop all the pages to the set margin. After this step, it was fine for me. As of now i dont remember exact app name for that .

Edit: https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/ this is the app i was using.

 

[icysmoke]

The pdf rendering on kindle is terrible and is simply unreadable. Only buy if you plan to read mobi or azw3 files

The files that you have attached will come out so funny that you wont be able to read at all. I tried reading the economist pdf on the kindle once, that was the last time i tried

 

[ibose]

I think the iPad you already have is likely to provide best experience when reading technical documents especially if there are complex figures, diagrams, tables etc. or colors are involved.
Kindles struggle in rendering and formatting PDFs and Calibre conversions will always be a struggle. Besides the colors will be replaced with various shades of gray. I gave up. I would have thought that they would have come up with decent reasonably priced color e-ink displays by now but ..
I use the 2021 FireHD 10 Plus for all my reading and while it will never compete with an iPad, it is infinitely better than the Kindle. I use the free Xodo PDF Reader app which works really great. It is highly configurable, supports annotation, editing and even PDF reflow which is very handy for text only documents. I see it is available for iPad as well although have no idea if it is equally good.

 

[asingh]

Judge..