6th Edition Books on eReader?

[Spence]

Like I said above, I have SEEN the output of a Kindle DX.

Wow snarky.

Of course you could have just said "I saw one of the Kindle DX 3rd Generation that features an all new E-ink screen with 50% better contrast and a free 3G and was released in the US on 7 July 10” and it was great" or "I was meaning the new Kindle DX", or "yes, the new DX was the one I was talking about".

But since you were speaking with authority I was assuming you had been reading the 6e books on one of the previous versions. Of course I may have been wrong.

I’ll just take my slightly retarded and mentally slow self right out of here so I don’t contaminate the gene pool.

You all have fun now

[Tasha]

Wow snarky.

Of course you could have just said "I saw one of the Kindle DX 3rd Generation that features an all new E-ink screen with 50% better contrast and a free 3G and was released in the US on 7 July 10” and it was great" or "I was meaning the new Kindle DX", or "yes, the new DX was the one I was talking about".

But since you were speaking with authority I was assuming you had been reading the 6e books on one of the previous versions. Of course I may have been wrong.

I’ll just take my slightly retarded and mentally slow self right out of here so I don’t contaminate the gene pool.

You all have fun now

Sorry I was completely out of line with the first line of my post. I must have been a bad mood and somehow took your post personally. Please accept my apology for my bad behavior, I never meant to scare someone out of the discussion.

Tasha

[phookz]

I have the Kindle 2 - it's great for reading novels and does have PDF support. They recently updated the firmware with better PDF support, and now it does a passable job for the 6E ruleset because of the zoom feature. I can't speak for the sony reader, the only thing I can suggest is download a sample of the PDF from 6E - I think Steve posted a few pages in the sneak peak forums, and take a look for yourself.

As to getting content on the Kindle - it's actually very easy and cost free for PDF and TXT files - just plug it into your computer and copy them over. I'm not sure why they don't advertise this more, as it's very simple. DOC files need to be converted to a Kindle friendly format - I haven't played with the MOBI converters that are out there but I know there are some free tools for doing this. Another alternative is to print to PDF using CutePDF or another freeware PDF converter.

I've played with the iPad - it's a sleek device but still a little pricey IMO for a device that doesn't even give me all of the web. Like Flash or hate it, I'd rather be the one deciding if I can view it rather than Apple. Having said that, I have an iPod touch and GoodReader on it does a fine job with PDFs, including the 6E rules. Very easy to zoom in and out, but tough to really read the whole page without zooming so some tables are difficult to read.

[Keldon]

I just got my Kindle Dx today, the main reason for its purchase was RPG PDFs

Hero looks great on it and while you can zoom in the fit to screen option is fine!

Some books I have tried, world of darkness stuff, are not as easy to read that way but then I just zoom in!

I think its a great invention for rpgs and it means my players can have all the hardcopy books and I just need the reader!

Also the new DX contrast is much better than before but as has been mentioned they are very expensive, IMHO, and for £350 I could have bought alot of books!

[Wizard]

I just got my Kindle Dx today, the main reason for its purchase was RPG PDFs

Same here, I purchased the Kindle DX (the old white model) a few months ago just to read RPG PDFs. Since I sit in front of a computer all day the last thing I need to do is sit in front of another monitor (iPad or netbook) to do my reading. Way to much strain for my eyes .

I find the Kindle does not strain my eyes since it's screen is passive and basically acts like a real book (you need an external light source to read it). Plus an added bonus is that it is still readable in sunlight.

I have tried some novels as well and basically now spend my train trips to and from work reading HERO for the first half and a novel for the second. Easy to do as it is all in one nice compact slate. The need to charge it only every 2 weeks adds to its usability. The ability to share novels on the same account is also great, it lets other family members read the same novel at the same time. Yeah, I purchased one of the smaller Kindles for the lovely wife and she enjoys reading novels on it as well.

The one downside I see to it is that it may be a bit slow as a reference at the gaming table, but for reading it's great .

[Keldon]

The one downside I see to it is that it may be a bit slow as a reference at the gaming table, but for reading it's great .

Totally agree, you cant "flip through" the book with the reader like you can with a physical copy, that's why I buy reference books like Champions Universe solely on PDF but something like the core books I got in both formats.

Reading for me is a way to relax so sitting at the PC for hours reading massive PDFs wasnt any fun!

[moquif]

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.

Thanks. I was thinking about asking for a Kindle for my birthday/Christmas (the two are 9 days apart) for reading the Hero Books (like Broken Kingdoms), small press sci-fi, free PDFs from Gutenburg, etc. My main problem with the Kindle is that it doesn't support ePub, the PDF format that public libraries use. I see what you're saying. It looks like the Kindle will involve a lot of scrolling. It would be fun to try it for a while.

My problem with the iPad is that it's the iPad. It's got a short battery life, the screen can cause glare, I already stare at a screen most of the time anyway, and worst of all you need iTunes to manage the software. (Sorry, but I've had bad experiences with iTunes on my earlier computers.) Do you know of any good alternatives to the iPad?

Thanks!

[Karmakaze]

Here's a link that includes how various e-readers handle PDFs:
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

[ghost-angel]

The latest software update for the Barnes & Noble Nook actually renders PDFs correctly, at Small Text size. Though it still has issues with Text at larger sizes and breaks formatting so the 'zoom' feature leaves a lot to be desired. I wouldn't actually recommend anything with an eInk screen for PDFs, none I've seen actually seem to be useful with them.

[Kaze9999]

I have a Sony PRS 600 'Touch' reader and read hero system PDF's from the store on it all the time with no issues; I believe Sony's PDF support to be the best, at least it seemed so to me when I was shopping around.

NOTE: Pages with large illustrations--including maps and charts--do not 'flow' well, however as the screen is only 6" diagonally. I have no trouble--for example--with Fred or Dark Champions but have difficulty with Beastiary and Predators and Conquerors, Killers and Crooks due to all the large illustrations. I tend to go to the computer to read those.

[JohnTaber]

The latest software update for the Barnes & Noble Nook actually renders PDFs correctly, at Small Text size. Though it still has issues with Text at larger sizes and breaks formatting so the 'zoom' feature leaves a lot to be desired. I wouldn't actually recommend anything with an eInk screen for PDFs, none I've seen actually seem to be useful with them.

Just wanted to say that I agree with Ghost Angel on the Nook. My wife has a regular Nook (i.e. not a color one) and it really breaks the formatting badly on the Hero 6th PDF files.