All OS Device for reading technical books/PDFs

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@red-devil
If the pdfs you want to read are heavy in diagrams use tablet(android/ipad). If it is text heavy, which seeing the pdf you attached above was of Java, may or may not be the case, go for kindle. Or better yet get a used kindle for around 4k and try it out first. Kindles are awesome for reading text heavy things, but not very good when zooming in and zooming out is required. Tablets can be used for text heavy and diagram heavy files, kindles will give you relatively strain free reading experience.
 
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I'm not sure what exactly so funny in the above screen shots, people are talking about? :rolleyes:
This photograph shows there was no issue in that pdf. How can it show there is no issue in all pdfs?

@red-devil
If the pdfs you want to read are heavy in diagrams use tablet(android/ipad). If it is text heavy, which seeing the pdf you attached above was of Java, may or may not be the case, go for kindle. Or better yet get a used kindle for around 4k and try it out first. Kindles are awesome for reading text heavy things, but not very good when zooming in and zooming out is required. Tablets can be used for text heavy and diagram heavy files, kindles will give you relatively strain free reading experience.
Exactly. Some pdfs will come out terrible. Zooming in doesnt adjust page fitment automatically which happens perfect on case of mobi files. The best way out is to get one and try out.

In my mind there are two big advantages of the kindle- low eye strain, not being able to do other stupid things to distract myself the way i would do on a tablet.

I would end up browsing the net every 2 mins instead of reading. Kindle solves that.
 
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That appears to be a LaTex formatted/generated document. I suppose it only has line diagrams. If you are looking to read only such LaTex generated technical documents with grayscale images or line diagrams, most of them should render fine in Kindle.
I was going to suggest using Kindle Previewer to test out some of the ebooks you were looking to read but I see that it does not support PDF natively.
As others have already suggested, try to get hold of a Kindle from a friend and try it out with the PDFs, you intend to read.
 
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This photograph shows there was no issue in that pdf.

Quoting your earlier post below,

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

where you clearly mentioned, the file OP attached will be so funny and wont be readable at all... And now you say that pdf is fine... Seriously mate? How did you make that comment? that it will be funny? then now you say, that all pdfs wont be fine :D

Nevertheless, good that i've not got opinion from TE before buying my kindle, otherwise i should have never bought by reading comments here! So far whatever pdfs(mostly its coding /technical books) was absolutely fine and it was so easy for eyes(considering ipad, note9, MBA and xps laptops).
I struggled with a similar 400 MB
Could be it was due to low spec'ed nature of kindle to handle such big pdfs, rather than its rendering capability!
 
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Could be it was due to low spec'ed nature of kindle to handle such big pdfs, rather than its rendering capability!
That could be the reason. As far as I recall the text / image layout was badly messed up. I cannot share it here as it is purchased and comes only as a secured digitally signed PDF.
 
I have also tried PDFs (kids books) on my Kindle paperwhite (sold now) and it was terrible experience.
i rather say it was terrible choice for your use case, kids loves colorful/jazzy.. so it was obvious to go for some other devices for kids books/comics.
 
i rather say it was terrible choice for your use case, kids loves colorful/jazzy.. so it was obvious to go for some other devices for kids books/comics.

I was just trying. Didn't get the Kindle for that purpose. Infact got only because I had got a refurb from US for like $30 or so and it was like brand new. But never actually used it. Thought wife would use as she likes books. But she has moved onto tv shows now.
 
Quoting your earlier post below,



where you clearly mentioned, the file OP attached will be so funny and wont be readable at all... And now you say that pdf is fine... Seriously mate? How did you make that comment? that it will be funny? then now you say, that all pdfs wont be fine :D
should have clarified that it was what i feel. It is entirely possible that OP’s files come out well
 
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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?
You need to understand where e-Ink readers excel.
They excel in free flow text dominant files. Like epub, mobi, azw, or even something like a html. This means that the text can reposition to next line, next space etc based on the reader's boundaries.

Your PDF file might be text dominant, but it is not free flow. It has set boundaries. And unless you use extra large font, you will need to zoom to read.
Once you do zooming, you will need to pan left, right, top, bottom etc. Zoom and Pan are absolute irritating on e-Ink readers. Very very slow.
We can't make out whether this is epub/mobi/azw or pdf.
If it is pdf, then I am surprised to see the font size. Or perhaps you have 15" screen :)
 
I read lot of software and devops programming books. My kindle paper white is lying in one corner and I have switched to iPad. I do read some novels on kindle. It is very good if you get mobi or epub. Pdfs are a headache. As others mentioned, text will not reorganize when you zoom in. Get used to reading them on iPad. This is what I am doing now.
 
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i have been using kindle since 2012-2013. I am yet to face the issues people are talking about. If your experience is from scanned documents or comics, yes it is a bad choice. I have seen some scanned books (not sure of format) from Amazon not opening in kindle. Textbook size complex diagrams (unlike the document shared) are inconvenient due zooming in and out.

If the bad experience if from memory then it might be because of above cases.

Infact my preferred format for download is pdf since it is very convenient to sent them via mail. No caliber or cable required
 
I have been using Kindles since 2009-10 (Got it first from US via Amarbir). And I routinely try to read pdf's on it, either directly, or after converting to native format. Kindle rarely works well for PDFs. The problem is that PDFs are a post-script format, and doesn't adjust (or reflow) itself for the screen size. Inherently only zooming in and out is available. The worst are the scans of some diagram heavy books (personal documents or ahem books). There is no way around the smaller screen size of Kindle which can't render a much larger page.
In my view, the best option for distraction free study sessions would be larger ebook readers (like Onyx Boox Note Air 2, but you will have to research this).
But I would buy this over an 10" iPad only if I have trouble focusing on iPad (because I start doing other things), or because eInk readers provide better overall experience.
 
We can't make out whether this is epub/mobi/azw or pdf.
If it is pdf, then I am surprised to see the font size. Or perhaps you have 15" screen :)
The OP gave the link which I downloaded and mailed to my Kindle, which I asked him a few posts above. How should I have clicked a picture to convince TE of : Kindle Basic + pdf + original screen size ?
 
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