Crappy pdf readers for the 770

[abdu]

I tried both the built pdf viewer and eVince and my pdf reading experience
just sucks. They are very slow in getting the next page up. I have to wait for at least 30 seconds for the next page to show up. Sometimes it takes a lot longer. That's even after splitting a pdf file to smaller pdf files of no more than 100 pages.

Are there any other pdf readers which cache pages in the background for fast paging? What about xpdf.. is there a verion for the 770 out there?

Abdu

[Wooky]

Having tried Xpdf in a Dell X50v running at 600Mhz, I can say the following:

There no crappy PDF viewers.

PDF is a crappy format for PDA and Mobile devices.

Question is, we tend to use pdfs as a format for viewing text *onscreen*, where it is (was?) intended to be a format to ease the exchange of documents meant to be *printed*. When you are reading an ebook or a manual in a PDA you are not concerned with a 1:1 relationship to the printed layout. Until recently I had to cope with a 233MHz Pentium I MMX at work (yeah, it sucks badly). Opening a pdf file took minutes. The format isn't suited for low specs devices.

That said, among all the implementations of PDF readers for mobile device, I consider the N770 to be the best. It is much quicker than opening (native) pdf files in any other mobile platform. I could actually read Frank Herbert's Dune on it and it is a 600+ pages book, well over 2MB file. Sure, there is a considerable delay as you turn pages. But believe me, it is much better than any mobile solution. Adobe pdf reader for Palm cheats by converting the file, so they are not native pdfs.

[champ]

The pdf reader that came with the Nokia 770 works fine for me. I don't have any lag inbetween changing pages, especially a 30 second lag.

[Dirk]

You could try to use the pdftohtml program to convert pdf in css styled pages. I use this to convert my newspaper's pdf files to an easily readable format. This allows me to read my newspaper on the road with my 770. This works ok for me, although scaling it in Opera sucks.

[Wooky]

FBreader also reads HTML files. And Plucker files as well. FBReader is a decente ebook viewer, but it lacks bookmarks and the ability to select text in order to paste in another app.
But sometmes you just need to be able to view pdf files, without conversion. Also, pdftohtml doesn't always produces nice outputs, sometimes there are extra <br> tags and you have to fire up your l33t genexp sk1llz to track and get rid of them.

[maxilogan]

I consider the N770 to be the best. It is much quicker than opening (native) pdf files in any other mobile platform. I could actually read Frank Herbert's Dune on it and it is a 600+ pages book, well over 2MB file. Sure, there is a considerable delay as you turn pages. But believe me, it is much better than any mobile solution. Adobe pdf reader for Palm cheats by converting the file, so they are not native pdfs.

I agree that Adobe for palm really sucke because there is no really matching between original document and the one you're viewing. In fact this doesn't matter until you read your PC Magazine last year reviews in PDF :-)

My opinion is that the best PDF reader (and, above all, it reads lots of other formats) for the Palm platform is Picsel Viewer!

[abdu]

Having tried Xpdf in a Dell X50v running at 600Mhz, I can say the following:

There no crappy PDF viewers.

PDF is a crappy format for PDA and Mobile devices.



I don't mind reading pdf files in their original format. I just need a zippy reader. One that can buffer pages in the background so I can read quickly.

Did you try any pdf readers on Windows Mobile 5.0?

abdu

[yan]

Reading pdf files is essential for an handheld device, of course in my opinion.
I always wanted to read pdf files not as their default layout but in a comfortably
manner that is like html files. Adobe introduced for this scope "tagged pdf" file
which add metadata informations to pdf files to support accessability.

In Windows Mobile 5.0 un-tagged pdf file are converted to the tagged version
via the ActiveSync, but the result is often not very good. Files that came originally
in tagged pdf format are read very very well by the Pocket Acrobat Reader, but
the characters are not anti-aliased like "xpdf" rendering. Pocker AcroRead is very
fast. On my Axim x51v I use AcroRead in portrait mode because in landscape mode the screen is not comfortable.

I would to ask, there is any pdf reader on the Nokia 770 that recognize tags on
pdf file and which allow to adapt the page on the screen width independently from
the char size without the need to scroll from left to right and viceversa?

Thank in advance.

Y

[ziggamon]

I can just say that with swap enabled, the latest version of evince is very snippy for me!
I spent two months reading lecture notes during the lectures, and it worked just fine!

[abdu]

I can just say that with swap enabled, the latest version of evince is very snippy for me!
I spent two months reading lecture notes during the lectures, and it worked just fine!

What is "swap enabled"? How did you do it?

A

[maxilogan]

I would to ask, there is any pdf reader on the Nokia 770 that recognize tags on
pdf file and which allow to adapt the page on the screen width independently from
the char size without the need to scroll from left to right and viceversa?


The matter is that: pdf is born to be a portable *printing* format, so it keeps the formatting of the page, no matter which is the screen size. You'll need to scroll it L-R. Why do not converting to HTML or Plucker?

[ziggamon]

What is "swap enabled"? How did you do it?

A
http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HowTo_CreateSwap

[yan]

The matter is that: pdf is born to be a portable *printing* format, so it keeps the formatting of the page, no matter which is the screen size. You'll need to scroll it L-R. Why do not converting to HTML or Plucker?

pdf WAS born to be a portable *printing* format and to keep the formatting of the page. But later Adobe introduced "Accessibility", that is text can be adapted to any screen size and also adapted to people with disabilities (more informations
on http://www.webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/ ).

Tagged PDF file are rendered in Pocket Acrobat like HTML pages, so there is
no need to scroll the page left and right. This is a very useful option that
probably on the Nokia 770 pdf reader is not considered. I would to ask if
there are some apps on the Nokia, which have a better screen than today
Pocket PCs, that allows to render correctly tagged pdf. Pdf to HTML conversion
is not a good option, in particular in documents that uses formulas,
images, etc.

Y.

[kutibah]

There are free programs out there that can convert the PDF to a Picture (jpg and more). That way you can easily read MUCH faster.

[abdu]

There are free programs out there that can convert the PDF to a Picture (jpg and more). That way you can easily read MUCH faster.

Not practical for pdf's with many pages. The output file will be huge and if it's huge, I doubt scrolling will be fast.

Also you can't resize without pixelation.
I tried that solution.

abdu

[kutibah]

Not practical for pdf's with many pages. The output file will be huge and if it's huge, I doubt scrolling will be fast.

Also you can't resize without pixelation.
I tried that solution.

abdu
They are seperate Images. And it IS fast and I know personally because I wanted to read the 6th Harry Potter Book last summer on my PSP but it doesn't read PDF's. So I ended up converting the pages to images and putting it in one folder. The whole 800 page book was only about 100mb and I was able to read it with ease and SPEED. And the PSP's processor is only 233mhz so it shouldn't be different with the 770 ;)

[yan]

To be sincere, I don't appreciate very well these type of tricks, when
in Windows Mobile (WM) world reading tagged pdf files is well supported.

What an user want, in my opinion, is read tagged pdf files in a more
comfortable way (thank also to the high quality screen characteristics
of the 770) compared to WM world. The first use of the 770 is "reading web
pages". I expect that the second use is "reading documents".

Does someone tried to execute Linux acroread on the 770?

[chill633]

Does someone tried to execute Linux acroread on the 770?

Adobe Acroread is closed source, proprietary software and thus we're at the mercy of Adobe. The Linux version only supports 32-bit x86 processors, not other architectures so it isn't possible to try that on the 770. You try asking Adobe.

Charles

[maxilogan]

The whole 800 page book was only about 100mb and I was able to read it with ease and SPEED. And the PSP's processor is only 233mhz so it shouldn't be different with the 770 ;)

Are you kidding?!? "only" 100MB? The first six Harry potter (not only the sixth!) are far less than 10MB altogether, in PDF format! :eek:

[debernardis]

My experience with the integrated pdf viewer and with evince is spoiled by that with a proprietary program for symbian-operated smartphones, i.e. picsel previewer (or proviewer, I can't remind now). Never seen such a quick page rendering - at least on my nokia 9500. I'd love something like it on the 770.

[TA-t3]

PalmPDF for Palm platforms works reasonably well -- it's based on xpdf (but behaves quite differently from the desktop version), so I imagine it should be possible to adapt xpdf to other mobile platforms as well.