Reading Pdf Screenshot?

[pdfreader]

is reading pdf in zaurus convinient?
does it need to scroll left and right in order to read one line sentence in landscape mode?
is it slow when switching pages?

if it's not too much trouble, will someone post a screenshot how a pdf look like in a landscape mode ?
which zaurus model has the highest resolution and biggest screen by the way...?

I'm looking for a pocket sized device to read pdf comfortably, my pdf files are thousands pages, they are manuals, and I want to know how well zaurus handle pdf

thank you for the advice

[Jon_J]

I read a lot of PDF files on my C3100 with Cacko 1.23 lite.
I use qpdf2
-----------------------------------------------------------
qpdf2_render-freetype-2.3.0-070505a-1_arm.ipk
It has two depends files:
libfreetype
libt1
-----------------------------------------------------------
I don't usually have very large PDF files, but for larger ones, a swap file or partition is recommended.
Last night I was researching information about residential heating boilers, and downloaded the entire library from this page, (all PDF files)
http://www.heatinghelp.com/library.cfm
Needless to say, qpdf2 failed to open a lot of these manuals, tech books, spec sheets, ect.
I have Picsel Browser for Zaurus installed, but since the above manuals totaled above 1.2GB, I copied them to my 2GB SD card.
Picsel Browser requires you to have it's Picsel Browser SD card inserted, in order to use the program. (It's a copy protection thing).
Picsel Browser handles PDF files a LOT better than qpdf2
I just copied a PDF about "residential boilers and their installation", to my hard drive on my Zaurus and it opened in Picsel Browser.
It does have some problems though, some of the pages didn't render.
A lot of these PDF files are scans of old, and very old books/manuals.
The 2 main drawbacks of Picsel Browser are:
1. it is very expensive, probably one of the most expensive softs for a Zaurus.
2. it is tied to the SD card using the "Secure Digital" technology and you must have your original Picsel Browser SD card inserted to use this software.
If I had a CF to SD adapter, I would try opening some of the other 340 heating & boiler related PDF files.
I don't want to copy all of these to my internal HDD on my C3100.
I decided to use my USB SD pocket drive and I am able to open several of these files in Picsel Browser, that wouldn't open with qpdf2
qpdf2 just bawks at a lot of these scans, and shows a blank white page.
Another note on qpdf2. Someone here, that has a lot more experience with PDF and Zaurus, told me awhile back that qpdf2 doesn't handle graphic intensive PDF files very well.
It is well suited for text only and has many zoom levels.
I have read several large text only books in qpdf2 with no problems.
I don't know about the other distros, such as Open Zaurus, pdaXrom, openBSD. I'm sure these distros have their own PDF reading software.
Picsel Browser was designed for Sharp rom (this includes Cacko).
I have been told it won't run in pdaXrom.
I don't know about the other distros.
I hope this helps somewhat.

Jon

[Jon_J]

opps, I forgot the screenshots.
1. qpdf2
2. Picsel Browser
EDIT: I forgot to mention, Picsel Browser has many zoom levels, but unlike qpdf2, where you select a soom level with a number, Picsel has gradual zoom level where you click/drag to make it smaller/larger.

[pdfreader]

Jon_J: thank you for the info and screenshot

any screenshot that shows how many words can fit in the landscape mode without scrolling left and right?
my worry is that I  have to scroll left and right a lot just to read one line of sentence

I have dell axim x30 and I had to scroll left and right a lot, and my eyes get dizzy easily from watching the text being scrolled left and right too much..

Can I please have a screenshot of http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/topic/co...sqlug/sqlug.pdf
page 68 ?

also how does the page scroll work ? is it like using PgUp PgDn or like using arrows in the desktop computer's acrobat reader?
I'd love it if it can scroll millimeter by millimeter of the pdf page without using stylus, so I can do it with just one hand

and I came accross this snapshot from internet
http://zaurus.xavierxeon.de/main/c750/qpdf.png
is that real? is that how good zaurus display pdf text? to me that is a lot of words to read in the screen without scrolling left and right
that's just too good to be true

thank you for the advice

[nilch]

Here is page 68 screen shots - onbe in normal screen and the other is fullscreen mode

Note - is the first screenshot - the header is off the page, but the actual page contents are fitting in landscape mode totally.

Also I converted the .BPM formats to a JPEG format top save space somewhat.
Edit : Included the 1st .BMP file also, since the JPEG loses quality somewhat.

[tml]

I assume you use sharp rom: Using pdaxqtrom + x server + xpdf should be considered as an option too.

[desertrat]

any screenshot that shows how many words can fit in the landscape mode without scrolling left and right?

That depends on (i) the page size of the pdf (ii) the font size the pdf uses. If your pdf is A5 then usually you can fit the whole width of the page when using Z in landscape mode and still be able to see the text clearly. If pdf is A4 then there's no way to view width of page AND be able to read the text (unless it uses large fonts and has large left/right margins).

Some pdf readers will reformat the text and hence will always show the max amount of text for whatever level of zoom (or font size) you choose, but I'm not sure whether these are available for the Z.

[pdfreader]

wow thank you
it really does fit a lot of words in the screen

how does the page scroll work ? is it like using PgUp PgDn or like using arrows in the desktop computer's acrobat reader?

can zaurus scroll the pdf page inch by inch of the pdf page without using stylus ? (by only using one hand)

[Jon_J]

Yes you can. Use the up/down arrows on the keyboard.
This works for both Picsel Browser and qpdf2
Note: Side arrows will scroll sideways when you encounter a document that needs sideways scrolling.