ebook, pdf, e-readerI'm looking for an ebook reader which can read epub files and has a a good PDF support.
The reason is simple: currently my university, and not just them most on-site too, only supply the electronic versions of its books and supplementary materials in PDF and trying to convert them to a more flexible format like epub via calibre has more downsides than advantages like the loosing the format during conversion.
Just for those who are going to suggest iPad: i'm looking for an e-ink device
EDIT: A secondary motivation for ePub is because Spanish editors chose to use a common platform called Libranda, which uses Adobe Digital Editions -i will ommit my DRM-hate speech here- which is in an early stage, acts as a middleman between sellers&editors and they don't plan speaking to "international agents" like Google/Apple/Amazon/B&N yet, so that discards both iPad and Kindle.
Any particular reason for the e-ink requirement? The usual touted advantages of e-ink devices were
Of these, the only one that the iPad doesn't have is #4. It has a pretty epic 10+ hour battery life, only 35 PPI fewer than the Kindle, and the IPS display has incredibly wide viewing angles.
For eBooks (like ePub) e-ink devices and the iPad are pretty much neck and neck, but when it comes to PDFs the iPad is way ahead. By having an LCD, the iPad can display full color PDFs and has multitouch for simple and quick zooming in and out of sections with small text.
I realize that this answer is exactly what you said you didn't want, but I just wanted to make sure you didn't harbor any misinformation about e-ink or the iPad's screen.
There are many good devices out there, here is an excellent site which will give you a good idea http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix of feature support.
From my research into eReaders recently, I'd say the iRiver Story and the Foxit (Eslick? I forget) reader have the best PDF support from the e-Ink devices.
The iRiver also has ePub support, expandable storage, and note-taking abilities with it's keyboard.
It's worth thinking about the Kindle DX - the larger screen size here will more closely match the page formatting of your PDF files, so you'll be less likely to need to zoom into the PDF pages & will avoid text reflowing issues. Additionally, if your textbooks have diagrams or pictures, they will be clearer on a larger screen.
Here is what you want to avoid: I tried hard to read PDF on Sony PRS 500 and 505 and it is not great experience.
The new Kobo reader from B&N (in Canada sold by Chapters) does pretty decent job with ePub, I did not try PDF.
If you are willing consider iPad, best reading experience with PDF (so far) had for me GoodReader. The cropping ability and locking to vertical scroll only are very valuable.
You can read ePub on iPad with e.g. iBooks, and there are few other free readers - Stanza.
If you wanted to wait till closer to the end of the year there will be a few colour e-ink style display units out. such as the innoversal pixelQ (technically a backlit-free colour LCD ofr outdoor).
The latest version of iBooks has excellent support for PDFs. You can drag ePub or PDF files into your iTunes Library.
The B&N Nook has pretty good pdf reading, the only thing that can throw things off is the font size you have set. Though changing it will normally fix the problem. It also supports ePub.
Also I believe that it supports Adobe's Digital Editions as well, but I haven't had a chance to try it myself.
iPad - the support for PDFs in the latest version of iBooks is great! Other than that there a heaps of other PDF reader apps for the iPad such as GoodReader - but I've found iBooks to be sufficient.
I have a Sony PRS-505 which does support PDFs but I don't recommend it at any zoom level other than default - the "reflow" ruins the layout and I find is rarely useful. Also, the device is quite slow changing pages.
I want something else, in addition to the Sony reader, that has the horsepower to read PDFs in colour, zoomable without reflow, etc. Something like the iPad would do (although I vow to never by Apple again - until a suitable Android device is out I haven't solved this).
Any new device would, for me, be a general purpose reader/browser but WOULD NOT replace the Sony ebook-reader. eInk is just so nice to read outside, in bright sunlight - for novels only!
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