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19 Aug 2011
Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
I'm excited to start pouring over FOA 2011 and just downloaded it on my Kindle. I just can't figure out a good way to actually read it. At the "Fit to Screen" setting, the two columns of type are too tiny to read and when I start zooming in, it cuts off the columns and forces you to jump around the page in really funny ways.
Are there any other options I'm missing? Or some way to transform the PDF to take out the columns and make it straight text?
I love FOA and am looking forward to this year's book.
10 replies , Last at 25 Aug 2011, 2:47pm by Vince Verhei
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
There is free software out there that will convert PDFs to eBook formats. Just look them up on google.
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
I adapted to the zoom pretty quickly. It's weird at first, but I read the whole thing on Kindle and it didn't bother me. It does seem to be a little less friendly than last year, but still do-able.
I would advise against converting as you will lose most of the tables in a way that makes them readable, and this book is about the tables just as much as about the text. The solution I prefer for reading on Kindle:
-Rotate 270 degrees (should be the last icon in the rotate row on the settings page)
-If you've got ridiculous eyes like me, you should be able to read it on "fit to screen", and can navigate using the next / previous page buttons
-If it is still a little small to make out, go to "actual size"
-From here you can navigate using the 5-way controller, moving down to follow the column and then right to get to the next column, both of which fit on the screen
That would be my suggestion, as done on the Kindle 3. It should work the same on the kindle 1/2, and if you have the DX I'd imagine you wouldn't have this problem.
Good luck.
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
If buy the PDF can I then load my PDF onto a Kindle or do I have to pay twice?
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
You can load PDF on kindle so you don't have to pay twice.
Best way to read PDFs on Kindle is to rotate the screen and then use 'fit to width'. This should allow you to view the entire column width in a good font size.
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
Just tried ePub2Go.com and it says that FOA2011 is copy protected and cannot be converted.
I am currently trying online-convert.com. I will let you know if that works.
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
I've been reading it on my phone*,as I did last year and not had any problems. I have it zoomed it so that one column just about fills the screen, scroll that down slightly as necessary then move across. For the bits in one column (player comments etc.) I just rotate the phone and it fits pretty well to the screen.
*I figure reading on a phone is the same as reading on a Kindle because you hold it closer to your face, so the relative size is the same. Its a HTC desire btw, which is probably marginally smaller than an iPhone. If you had something like a Galaxy II or HTC Incredible it would obviously be a bit bigger, so you could hold it further away from your face!
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
The screen technology for the Kindle is actually really different from a phone. It's not the size, but the fact that you don't have a bright light straining your eyes.
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
ktismael has it. Rotate it sideways.
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
All the software I've tried hasn't done a very good job with the formatting, so I'm just reading it as a pdf and using zoom. I've gotten quite used to it, so it's not a big issue.
As a suggestion for next year, I hope maybe the FO guys consider releasing a Kindle (or even just an ePub) version of the FOA. I know I would be willing to pay a premium price over the .pdf version in order to have a version native to eReaders.
Re: Any Advice for Reading on a Kindle?
An ePub version is definitely a goal for next year.
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