The problem is that pdf is not reformat able by nature. Yes, there is reflow mode in Acrobat Reader, but at first Acrobat Reader is not available for most e-book readers (especially for e-ink devices),
and second even with reflow function reading of complex content (technical books, magazines etc.) is not comfortable. Bad formatted pdf’s and wide white spaces make the situation even worse.

The only way how this problem can be solved (at least based on my experience) to cut original pages into smaller pages with removing white spaces.
This is exactly what program do. But comparing with similar software PDFCropper is much more flexible, that allows to prepare books with much better quality in a very short time.

PDFCropper can produce text and image pdf’s.

PDFCropper web-site currently is under construction. But it is already available for downloading:

PDFCropper v1.1 RC1 links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/87491638/PDFCropper1_1RC1Setup.exe.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a07bc5/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JI7CM0N4

Trial version of PDFCropper is fully functional, the only thing – output pages include watermark (which by the way displays registration code that you need for obtaining license).

And you can download and value an example of prepared (cropped) pdf:

This is original one – http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/download/langspec-3.0.pdf

These are links to cropped one:

http://rapidshare.com/files/87301097/The_Java_Language_Specification.pdf.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/252400/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8KW32DJT

And these are links to the one cropped as image pages (only some pages are there, due large file size):

http://rapidshare.com/files/87486857/The_Java_Language_Specification__images__partly_.pdf.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/d02ead/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MJCYT8KH

Also, anyone interesting in software, can send me example pdf, and I will send back resulted pdf prepared via application.

License price per one computer is 20 euro. Payment can be made via PayPal or directly to bank account.

You can ask any questions about using or installing software and details about purchasing the license via e-mail:

vstefanyuk@gmail.com

P.S. Application is implemented by using Java. You have to have installed Java environment version 1.5 or higher.
Also Ghostscript has to be installed. In case if it is not, application will propose you to download.

Change log:
v1.1 RC1 – fixed the bug with adding table of contents (now appropriate menu item in Sony PRS 500/505 display table of contents correctly).
added separate option for adding clickable table of contents pages.
added displaying of table of contents in the left pane.
improved auto-framing functionality – added possiblty to create frames with size proportional to device size (paper size setting in Crop Settings dialog).
improved cropping funcionality – added possibility to remove empty frames in resulting pdf (“Skip empty frames” option in Crop dialog).
improved dialogs input errors displaying, errorness fields are highlighted by red.
fixed bug with deleting last unaccessible project reference from recent projects list.
added pdf restrictions checking during opening pdf. in case if there are no enough rights for pdf manipulating – program will ask pdf user password.
example pdf’s are updated.
simplified trial mode – removed pages shuffling!

The problem is that pdf is not reformat able by nature. Yes, there is reflow mode in Acrobat Reader, but at first Acrobat Reader is not available for most e-book readers (especially for e-ink devices),
and second even with reflow function reading of complex content (technical books, magazines etc.) is not comfortable. Bad formatted pdf’s and wide white spaces make the situation even worse.

The only way how this problem can be solved (at least based on my experience) to cut original pages into smaller pages with removing white spaces.
This is exactly what program do. But comparing with similar software PDFCropper is much more flexible, that allows to prepare books with much better quality in a very short time.

Currently PDFCropper can produce text and image pdf’s. Later additional output formats (lrf, lrs, wolf etc.) will be added.

PDFCropper web-site currently is under construction. But it is already available for downloading:

PDFCropper v1.0 RC2 – http://rapidshare.com/files/79718571/Setup.exe.html

Trial version of PDFCropper is fully functional, but output pages are shuffled and include watermark (which by the way displays registration code that you need for obtaining license).

There are no yet tutorial or help available. But I prepared “How To” demo-video:

http://rapidshare.com/files/79717770/PDFCropper_-_How_To.swf.html

Also, anyone interesting in software, can send me example pdf, and I will send back resulted pdf prepared via application.

You can ask any questions about using or installing software (and details about purchasing the license) via e-mail:
vstefanyuk@gmail.com

P.S. Application is implemented by using Java. You have to have installed Java environment version 1.5 or higher.
Also Ghostscript has to be installed. In case if it is not, application will propose you to download.

Yes, it’s not perfect. But it is a Sony product so people expect proprietary formats from them. It’s what we’ve always gotten from Sony. Yes, it sucks, but that’s just the way it is.

I look forward to seeing what other companies will put out and I’m sure that eventually there will be something for everyone. No one should expect perfection the first time out.

Quite frankly, I haven’t grabbed my ppc (what I used to read my ebooks on) since I got the Reader. I really like the Reader that much.

This may not be the ultimate e book, but, for travelers it is another “MUST HAVE CAUSE I FLY SO MUCH IN FIRST CLASS” tool. I have logged 65,000 airline miles in 3 months. Between my I Pod, my Bose Noise canceling headset, and my E book, I can travel with sanity. I have read 8 or 9 books since Jan on my E reader and love it. I love how light and small it is, but I really love how it feels like a book. I use I connect and buy from Sony. SUre I would like better selections and better software, but the device is the BEST.

Every seatmate I have had has been impressed. And a Ex-Pat friend in China loves that they can get books from anywhere.

No, it is not Ipod Gen 1. But the killer Ipod was really Gen 4 (click wheel). Give this a couple more generations. It will be killer.

However, let me respectfully point out that it does some other reading functions very well, including PDF files where the page size is formatted to the 6″ screen.

I’m very sorry that you weren’t able to find enough info to learn better what you ought to expect from the Reader before you bought it. It doubtless would have saved you a good deal of disappointment and hassle. :(

If anyone else wants a good look at what the Reader does and doesn’t do well, hop on over to the MobileRead.com Sony Reader forum, since MobileRead is a site aimed at discussing reading on mobile platforms, you can find a lot of info there — probably more than you want. :)

I guess the first one is that you *can* re-size PDF files, after a fashion. The Sony Reader allows you to rotate the PDF 90 degrees and read the page in sections, allowing something like a 2X increase in size. Unsecured PDF files will allow you to crop the margins, further increasing the effective size.

HTML — I agree that it would be better if this device supported HTML, but it *does* support several other formats which HTML can be converted to. Not an ideal solution, but workable to an extent…. The other two readers, iRex iLiad (already mentioned in the comments), and the HanLin (also forthcoming) will both handle HTML.

“Other” other formats — I understand and share the frustration with books purchased in none BBeB formats (.Lit, eReader, etc.) not being readable on the Sony, but think about it for a moment: this is a situation of not being able to read other *proprietary format* (possibly DRMed) books on this reader. Is it really reasonable to expect Sony to support eReader’s format which is *also* proprietary? Think what the licensing fees *alone* would do to the price! Also, it’s a bit contradictory to be upset *both* that they have their own proprietary format *and* that they don’t support *someone else’s* proprietary format. :)

The REAL problem (as others here have mentioned) is that we don’t have a “standard” e-book format that can be read by all the extant e-reader devices. (shrug) It’s a huge step for Sony that they support things *other* than BBeB in the first place — they even have an SD card slot! That’s a huge concession, seeing as it’s Sony. :)

Back-Lighting — this comes up a LOT. e-ink is, in fact, opaque. You’d just as well try backlighting a piece of plywood. :) The way it works is by moving black and white particles around inside tiny bubbles, but when a given bubble is white on the *front,* all the little black particles are at the *back* of that bubble. There are, however, a number of ways to light a regular paper book (pbook) that we’re already familiar with that will work for this. The one I want to try is the LightWedge.com approach. But there you go.

DRM — note that the DRM limitations only apply to *books bought from Sony’s Connect store* — if you don’t plan on using that service, then you don’t really care what they do with their DRM, right? I don’t. :)

Somebody mentioned hacking — let me point out that the Sony runs a Linux OS. That alone pretty much *guaranties* it will be hacked. :D Some of the folks over at MobileRead.com started hacking their iLiad Readers before they fully charged the batteries.

MacPuters — the only thing about the Sony Reader that doesn’t work with a Mac is the Sony Connect Store software. You can load your content onto an SD or Memory Stick and transfer it that way, or presumably you can treat it as a USB drive (it isn’t yet clear if that will actually work or not). Again, if you don’t want to buy Sony’s nasty DRMed books (and who can blame you?) then you don’t need the Connect Software. If you don’t need the software to read stuff of your own and from other sources, then what does it matter if it won’t run on your Mac? As far as you’re concerned, Sony can take their XP only software and …. :)

Several folks mentioned a Palm-based reader, I currently read on my Tungsten T3, I’d far rather have an e-ink screen. Increased legibility, decreased eye-strain, battery life in excess of the paltry 3 hours my Palm gives me (with the backlight turned down, thank you)…. Well, you get the idea. :) These benefits will go along with *any* e-ink device, not just Sony, but also the other choices I mentioned above. Check out the MobileRead forums for details. I should also mention here, that I believe all three of these readers allow for font resizing/zooming on the fly. I know the Sony does, and I’m pretty sure the other two are supposed to when they’re software is complete. :)

I suppose here is a good place to comment on the screen. I’ve seen one of these displays for myself on an iRex iLiad — a fellow who lives near me bought one, and was gracious enough to let me buy him coffee and drool over his new toy. I’ve been following e-ink for several years now, I’ve read the hyperbolic descriptions of just how wonderful the screen is. In short, I *expected* it to be amazing. I was *still* just plain *amazed* by how good it is. If you printed something onto very light gray paper with a laser printer and put it inside a sheet protector, you would get a pretty good idea of what an e-ink display looks like.

Somebody mentioned MP3′s — all three of the e-ink readers play (unsecured) MP3 files, it happens that the Sony plays AAC files too. :) Not playing WMA files has more to do with MicroSoft’s licensing practices than anything else, I expect.

The iRex iLiad was mentioned too. Right now, they’re selling those units, but they’re requiring a formal acknowledgement from customers that the OS and Apps are still not finished. The screen refreshes are getting increasingly faster with each OS release — the progress can be followed on iRex’s forum, and also on MobileRead.com’s forum. I’d suggest waiting until they announce that the OS is where they want it to be before making any real evaluations as to how it performs. It’s only fair, right? :)

Refresh rates — e-ink displays *are* a bit slow to refresh. There’s two basic speeds, full and quick, that run 1 second and .5 seconds, respectively. The difference is that the full has less ghosting, but the slow way’s ghosting is supposed to be about like show through on a pbook’s page. Before reacting too much to the refresh rate, consider how long it takes you to flip a paper page (especially when they want to stick together!) — a second really isn’t that egregious. As the iLiad software gets closer to where it is aimed to be, the page turns get closer to the 1 second, range. It comes back to the question of are these drawbacks things I’m willing to deal with to get the benefits? The trade-offs on an e-ink reader seem to be pretty minor from what I can tell. But that’s my perspective. (shrug)

EBookwise/RocketBook reader — I think the best comment I can make on that is that a fair number of the folks over at the MobileRead forums now itching for e-ink are former or current users of EBookwise/RocketBook readers, and others like them. :)

I HATE reading books on the computer and my other option, my Alphasmart Dana sucks. I’m looking to purchase an e-book reader that’s cheap and workable, but I need info along the lines of e-books and e-book readers for dummies.

The OSoft.com website (ThoutReaderâ„¢)is our first iteration of our eBook reader going back three years. The new version is on dotReader.com, which describes the software, user interface, and capabilities.

Think of the dotReader like the Adobe Reader that works on all platforms, reads multiple formats (not just PDF), and has embedded notes, polls, forums, and other collaboration tools. Anyone who has a copy of the e-book can participate in public notes or group notes (public notes by invitation only). Imagine people commenting about THEIR ugly divorces in the book War of the Roses or writing their own ending for a romance novel as part of a contest that could be voted on by other readers.

The dotReader is open source and is free. Unfortunately, publishers would not use it if it did not OFFER DRM. Our DRM option is available here: We don’t like DRM but it is optional at the request of the publisher.

Thanks for the great question.

Mark

“But we romance readers want to spend our time reading books and talking about reading books and talking about the books we read.”

Imagine being to talk to other readers directly from within your book. It’s coming in the next few months.

Mark Carey, President, OSoft

https://www.irexshop.com/product_info.php/products_id/28