6th Edition Books on eReader?

[Super Squirrel]

I have a Sony PRS-700 eReader. I love it. I've been thinking about picking up the 6th Edition books for my eReader but before I do so, I wonder if anyone has used them on the Sony eReader and, if so, how well do they load and display?

[Tasha]

The best e-reader that I saw the 6e books on was the Kindle DX. Even then the display was slow and the ability to zoom in close was lacking. The Nook blows apart the PDF's formatting in favor of showing the text so ends up worthless for the display of PDF's like the 6e books.

I would recommend finding someplace that has a demo of the reader, loading the 6e books on a flash card and see how it performs.

So far the only reader like device that does a good job at Displaying the books is the iPad. The iPad allows gesture based zooming and scrolling of the books. It also switches very quickly to landscape mode for easier reading of the full page width. So far it's the only thing outside of a laptop that makes the PDF books actually usable/readable.

[Zane_Marlowe]

There are going to be a number of android-based tablets in the near future, and the android market has good PDF reading apps as well.

[Beast]

get a tablet PC
you will also be able to use Hero designer

[Tasha]

There are going to be a number of android-based tablets in the near future, and the android market has good PDF reading apps as well.

Nook is android based, but not able to use the Android market. It's PDF support is marginal (Great if the item is text only, sucks for graphics + Text like Hero books are built)

[Super Squirrel]

The issue is that I'm trying to find out how well they load to determine if the .pdf is a good investment or not. If I had a .pdf of one of the books, I could simply plug it in and load it up.

The best e-reader that I saw the 6e books on was the Kindle DX. Even then the display was slow and the ability to zoom in close was lacking. The Nook blows apart the PDF's formatting in favor of showing the text so ends up worthless for the display of PDF's like the 6e books.

I would recommend finding someplace that has a demo of the reader, loading the 6e books on a flash card and see how it performs.

So far the only reader like device that does a good job at Displaying the books is the iPad. The iPad allows gesture based zooming and scrolling of the books. It also switches very quickly to landscape mode for easier reading of the full page width. So far it's the only thing outside of a laptop that makes the PDF books actually usable/readable.

[yamamura]

I also have it on the Kindle DX. It works pretty nice there though my vision is not up to par. Nice thing about the kindle you can either manually rotate the screen or allow it do so manually. While that does not show you the whole page at once, it does make it easier to read.

[Tasha]

The issue is that I'm trying to find out how well they load to determine if the .pdf is a good investment or not. If I had a .pdf of one of the books, I could simply plug it in and load it up.

I thought that you already had the PDF and was asking about the reader.

About the only reader that really makes the PDF books readable is the iPad IMHO. the Kindle DX looked pretty good, but lack of zooming features made it hard to read.


BTW I was just thinking. You could still do the test, just use one of the preview documents that are here on the forums. They are buried a bit, but you could take those and load them up on a demo reader and see what you could see..

[Lightning91]

I have a Kindle 6" US. The new pdf functionality makes the pdf's readable, since you can now rotate the screen manually and there is some zoom functionality. Unfortunately, when zoomed, you move around the page in large chunks. Since the Hero pdfs have 2 columns (or more if you cant the side bars), the level of zoom may be less then optimal if you want to read the entire column with out have to page back and forth. However, it is at least now an option.

I moved all my Hero pdf files to my Kindle. They all open and display reasonably well, with the exception of Champions Powers. The cover shots and the interior title page of Champions Powers (first 3 pages of the pdf) cause my Kindle to run slowly and/or lock up. Additionally, when those pages are displayed, an error box appears which says that not all elements of the page could be rendered. I advise Kindle users, to open the pdf and press the page next and wait patiently until it advances. Repeat until you are at the table of contents. Then never go back to the cover. The remaining portions of the pdf that I have reviewed, seem to work fine.

[KX_Mushashi]

I don't have the Sony reader(went with the iPad instead). The PDFs them selves load fine for me, though to test the display on the Sony I would look to see if you can find any free PDFs (PC games typically ship the manuals on disc now in PDF format and with steam you only get them from the PDF).

[ImperialOne]

Tasha is right. iPad is best way.... using GoodReader: I have every 6E book in hardcopy and PDF. I can comfortably read on the iPad with complete preservation of the pages, one at a time (no scrolling necessarily required with a natural page turning gesture), though zooming in and our is easy. I get color of the books and artwork... and with the bulk of Hero hardbacks, it's convenient.

It sucks not to be able to do Hero Designer on iPad.

[GevatterHein]

And that rises one question: when will we see the hero designer app for the ipad?

Gevatter

[Spence]

I've heard the new Kindle DX handles PDF's better. But I can't state that as fact.

I just don't see the need for the overpriced iPad since I have a 17" laptop. I really like the readability of an e-reader's liquid paper over a computer screen, but I cannot see buying half a product. TXT, DOC and PDF are pretty universal formats and I have a very large number of documents and books in all three formats. I don't really care about being restricted to a specific format for new purchases (amazon, B&N etc), but at a minumum I should be able ot read my existing library natively without paying someone to 'convert them'. Until they make an e-reader I hook up to my computer and load any PDF, TXT or DOC I want to, I won't be buying one.

[Tasha]

And that rises one question: when will we see the hero designer app for the ipad?

Gevatter

Around the time that Hell freezes over. Because that's about when Java will be made part of iOS. Apple doesn't want apps that use interpreted languages like Java on their iOS devices.

I guess someone COULD make a pitch to Dan and Steve that they could make an iOS version of Hero Designer, I doubt that would happen though.

Actually having the ability to open HD characters on an iPhone might be much easier and require less programing and less permission from Hero/DOJ. Perhaps something that would interpret an XML file that is generated by HD (Using an export format) that could be uploaded to the iPhone. Not much reason to be making characters on my iPhone/iPad but it would be nice to view them in a format that fit the screen well.

[Tasha]

I've heard the new Kindle DX handles PDF's better. But I can't state that as fact.

I just don't see the need for the overpriced iPad since I have a 17" laptop. I really like the readability of an e-reader's liquid paper over a computer screen, but I cannot see buying half a product. TXT, DOC and PDF are pretty universal formats and I have a very large number of documents and books in all three formats. I don't really care about being restricted to a specific format for new purchases (amazon, B&N etc), but at a minumum I should be able ot read my existing library natively without paying someone to 'convert them'. Until they make an e-reader I hook up to my computer and load any PDF, TXT or DOC I want to, I won't be buying one.

Like I said above, I have SEEN the output of a Kindle DX. It works pretty well and the document is kind of readable. It becomes more readable by switching to Landscape mode (from Portrait), but it doesn't have any real zooming built in, which makes it's functionality just so so. I have a gaming friend who just sold his because it didn't do a good job of dealing with PDFs (esp after he saw what the iPad can do. The DX runs $359 for the USonly version, for a little over a $140 more I can get an iPad that the PDF's look great on, gives me a ton of choices of PDF readers (I know of 3 including apple's book reader), and has other functionality that the Kindle doesn't have. Also the Screen is much faster rendering on the iPad (not a big deal when reading a novel, but a PITA when one is trying to quickly page though a book looking for something).

Basically the small book readers like the Kindle, nook, Sony readers etc aren't really made for reading stuff bigger than a hard bound novel. That's why the PDF functionality is kind of primative and lacking such goodness as zoom. The larger eBook readers like the DX are significantly more expensive and start to get into the price range of iPads and net books (even some low end Laptops). So it seems silly to buy a $400+ eBook reader when you can get something like an iPad which does far more.