Kindle Scribe

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

In the end, it doesn't matter. Even after the conversion to KFX from PDF, either from "Send to Kindle" or the manual Kindle Creator→Kindle Previewer→Calibre process, the rendering of the final file is WAY TOO SLOW. The PDF I have that took 30 seconds to do a page turn, now takes 15 seconds. An improvement, but still unacceptable.

If you don't want to annotate or highlight or scribble on top, then a way to vastly improve the performance of reading complicated (difficult to calculate) PDFs is to convert to comic. Comics are very quick. And since it is already prerendered, it doesn't matter how complicated the page is. Only issue is size - a 1000 page PDF converted to comic is roughly 400MB. Give it a try before sending your Scribe back.

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The old Kindle DXG is also 9.7″ @ 150 dpi (1200x824 pixels) with page turn buttons. It's too low resolution for novels and too small for PDF data sheets. I have one, thus I wouldn't be interested in a Pocketbook Inkpad Lite (which seems a nearly identical panel).

I also have an 8″ @ 300 dpi Kobo Sage (1920x1440 pixels) and it manages larger page and smaller text PDFs. It seems an ideal weight and size. The 10.3″ reMarkable and the 10.3″ Kobo Elipsa are too heavy and large to read novels on (both 1872x1404 pixels), I had/have both. The reMarkable is really a PDF viewer and sketch pad, no on device writing to text like on the Sage and Elipsa. I find the 8″ Sage better for notes than the 10.3″ Elipsa due to size and weight, not just that it's more pixels.


No, it's not because the good battery life is due to reading novels has brief page turns (CPU wakes) and longer time CPU sleeping as the page is read. I know from my Android eink tablet that doing "Tabletly" stuff eats battery and Sage/Elipsa/Remarkable much worse on battery consumption using the pen to sketch/handwrite (the reMarkable is worse as it powers the pen; the Wacom system is inefficient compared to NTrig system MS bought that Kobo uses. The Scribe uses the same pen system as the reMarkable).

Also eink has black, white and 14 greys. Using greyscale slows an already very slow display panel compared to Plasma, CRT, LED, OLED, LED, EL etc.

By tablet flexibility, I really meant being able to install other reading apps other than the default ones that come with the device. I dont' want to do "tablety" type stuff like check email, surf the web, social media or videos. I just want to to have an e-reader where I can install a better PDF viewer than the one Amazon gives me.

I really like the large screen for reading books. I may keep it just for that. But for reading, annotating and marking up PDFs, this falls short.

I don't see what the appeal is for taking notes on an eInk device. If I'm going to scribble notes down on an device, I'd rather do it on a tablet, where it's WAY easier to get stuff on and off of it. On my iPad, I can scribble notes in Apple Notes, or OneNote and those notes will Automagically™ sync to my computer, my phone and possibly the web. I bought a matte screen protector for my iPad to make it feel more like a piece of paper when I write on it.

If anyone is using a large format eInk device for note-taking, why are you doing this over using a tablet?

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

If you don't want to annotate or highlight or scribble on top, then a way to vastly improve the performance of reading complicated (difficult to calculate) PDFs is to convert to comic. Comics are very quick. And since it is already pre-rendered, it doesn't matter how complicated the page is. Only issue is size - a 1000 page PDF converted to comic is roughly 400MB. Give it a try before sending your Scribe back.

My understanding is if I do that, then the PDF is no longer searchable.

I'll try one later today and see what happens. I like the idea of highlighting sections. But I'd be willing to give that up to get decent performance out of reading a PDF.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

If you don't want to annotate or highlight or scribble on top, then a way to vastly improve the performance of reading complicated (difficult to calculate) PDFs is to convert to comic. Comics are very quick. And since it is already prerendered, it doesn't matter how complicated the page is. Only issue is size - a 1000 page PDF converted to comic is roughly 400MB. Give it a try before sending your Scribe back.

There is no annotation possible for any of the comic formats. You can only create Bookmarks.

[apastuszak]

I took a "problem" PDF that was taking 5 seconds or longer to do a page turn even when converted to KFX and converted the PDF to a comic book. I loaded it onto the Kindle, and the page turns are very fast now. But it's not searchable any more. The file size also grew from 20 MB to 191 MB.

I was hoping Kindle Create could make a searchable OCR layer.

[dulipishi]

Hi,
Is there any way to share a notebook from one kindle scribe to another kindle scribe signed into a different account? I am talking about the actual notebook and not a pdf export.
My son was using my kindle scribe for class notes. He eventually got his own kindle scribe and would like to edit/read the notebooks he has created. I made a new kindle account for him, but there does not seem to be a way to transfer the notebooks to his device.
I tried opening the kindle scribe as a usb device, transferring the .notebooks folder onto the computer and overwriting the new kindle scribe's .notebooks with the folder saved onto the new device. Did not work!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dulipishi

Did not work!

Please see the MobileRead Posting Guidelines and read item #3 titled Duplication.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

I took a "problem" PDF that was taking 5 seconds or longer to do a page turn even when converted to KFX and converted the PDF to a comic book. I loaded it onto the Kindle, and the page turns are very fast now. But it's not searchable any more. The file size also grew from 20 MB to 191 MB.

I was hoping Kindle Create could make a searchable OCR layer.

Well, that would be nice. Like an option to turn the comic back into a pdf. Not sure if there is a program that will allow you to simplify a PDF into an image, but leaving the text intact.

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Well, that would be nice. Like an option to turn the comic back into a pdf. Not sure if there is a program that will allow you to simplify a PDF into an image, but leaving the text intact.

Well, you could turn a PDF into a bunch of images and run ocrmypdf on it to add a searchable OCR layer.

This is way more effort than it should be.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

Well, you could turn a PDF into a bunch of images and run ocrmypdf on it to add a searchable OCR layer.

This is way more effort than it should be.

Other than a large tablet, there is no such thing as a perfect ereader for PDFs. For novels and less demanding PDF, like user manuals, the Scribe works very well for me. YMMV.

[HLS]

PDFs you really need a real tablet. I love my scribe but I only read and do basic notes on it. BOOX is the most advanced ereader I am aware off but it is horrible for reading, pdfs and everything. I am very disappointed in my Boox Note Air 2 Plus. its good for notes and drawing and not much else. lots of ghosting and lag no mater what setting you use

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

Well, you could turn a PDF into a bunch of images and run ocrmypdf on it to add a searchable OCR layer.

This is way more effort than it should be.

Why? PDF is supposed to be print proof and almost all paper publishing involves PDF. PDF uses a page size of final print. It's electronic distribution of documents (clue in name), not an ebook.

A PDF or the paper print of it is meant to be an end result, not meant to edited. There are indeed many kinds of things that can make up the contents for the same appearance.

[thomasx74]

I am using a scribe, but if I add books in any format supported by calibre, the handwriting notes feature while reading the book is disabled.
I have to email the books as epubs to the Kindle, and then it works.
It could be because the new kf8 format is needed, but I'm not sure.
Sorry if this has already been discussed here somewhere; I could not find it.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by thomasx74

I am using a scribe, but if I add books in any format supported by calibre, the handwriting notes feature while reading the book is disabled.
I have to email the books as epubs to the Kindle, and then it works.
It could be because the new kf8 format is needed, but I'm not sure.
Sorry if this has already been discussed here somewhere; I could not find it.

If you are side loading then you need to convert them to KFX (from ePub, azw3 etc.) and Print Replica KFX if it is a PDF (using Kindle Create and CLI of KFX Output plugin). But if you want to export the pen annotations, you will need to use CLI of KFX Input plugin), and you will not have context included with that as you would by using Amazon's services.

Email may be the most convenient Send To Kindle using calibre, but it is most restricted in terms of size limit and does not give you a chance to edit title/author metadata. I generally use Web Send To Kindle (https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle).

[thomasx74]

Originally Posted by tomsem

If you are side loading then you need to convert them to KFX (from ePub, azw3 etc.) and Print Replica KFX if it is a PDF (using Kindle Create and CLI of KFX Output plugin). But if you want to export the pen annotations, you will need to use CLI of KFX Input plugin), and you will not have context included with that as you would by using Amazon's services.

Email may be the most convenient Send To Kindle using calibre, but it is most restricted in terms of size limit and does not give you a chance to edit title/author metadata. I generally use Web Send To Kindle (https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle).

Thank you! Great reply. /sendtokindle I did not know, and its exact what I was looking for instead of using email. 200MB is fine for me.