displaying 2 pages on kindle like a REAL book

[vugtitan]

anyone know if will be possible to display 2 pages like in a ordinary spread out book?

has anyone every done this on the previous kindles?

Is there any software which could enable this?

since small fonts are available it should be quite easy to do this via software.

especially in landscape mode it could behave like a real book.

i urge someone to please write this software as the requirements seem small.


if not could we petition amazon for this?

[nachtxeule]

why do you want 2 pages, do you read both on a pbook? i doubt it...

[jupstin]

Not that this is a great option, but you could create custom formatted pdf's - it would be a pain, but it would work. Out of curiosity, are you reading on a 6 inch Kindle or on a DX? I couldn't imagine seeing 2 pages at once on the smaller screen

[mdovell]

No offense but I read one page at a time. If you can read two at the same time that is odd.

vugtitan, sorry for the jerks who as you can see are new to this forum and have not learned that MR people try to be respectful. As far as I know there is no way to show two pages in a MOBI book on a Kindle.

For the jerks, this is a very legitimate question. Especially if you own a DX as landscape is so big that two pages would be a great option. Even on a 7" screen like the Sony PRS-900 two page display is nice. I had one and it made landscape mode much better. For some people it might be a good option on a 6" screen too. Perhaps you narrowminded jerks should enlighten your horizons.

[susan_cassidy]

You can do this on an iPad in iBooks, but not in a Mobipocket-format book.

I don't like it, because I can only read one page at a time, anyway, and I want to use the screen real estate to display more of one page.

[rcuadro]

I have the DX and I dont think that 2 pages would fit even in landscape more unless the writing was tiny tiny... and then I think my eyes would hurt trying to read it.

Currently there is no way to do it and I dont see Amazon doing anything about it. As for someone writing a program to do it, well, I am sure that someone would be able to figure it out but I dont really see it being something people would really demand

[JSWolf]

The 900 did it with a 7" screen. No reason why a 9.7" screen could not do it well.

[rcuadro]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The 900 did it with a 7" screen. No reason why a 9.7" screen could not do it well.

Really? Perhaps it is something that I need to experience to see the benefits/drawbacks

[Zanshin]

Originally Posted by jswinden

For the jerks, this is a very legitimate question. Especially if you own a DX as landscape is so big that two pages would be a great option. Even on a 7" screen like the Sony PRS-900 two page display is nice. I had one and it made landscape mode much better. For some people it might be a good option on a 6" screen too. Perhaps you narrowminded jerks should enlighten your horizons.

It is a legitimate question. I don't think asking it makes anyone a jerk.
You talk about enlightenment, so how about you enlighten us by actually answering the question instead of insulting us?
It's like, if I were a kid asking "why does fire burn?" and you would tell me "oh, what an idiot, don't you know anything?!". I really fail to see how that helps.

Yeah, I'm not one of those who posted before but reading this, I can't help but wonder: why display two pages when you read only one?
Can anyone who actually knows answer this, please?
Is it because there's too much text per line when reading in landscape mode?
Is it because some people are too used to reading physical books, so they absolutely have to see two pages?

I did a test with the attached mock image (smallest font size on my DX). It's certainly doable on the DX, the text is readable (on the 6", it would indeed be too small), but I don't see the reason for reading like this.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

It is a legitimate question. I don't think asking it makes anyone a jerk.
You talk about enlightenment, so how about you enlighten us by actually answering the question instead of insulting us?
It's like, if I were a kid asking "why does fire burn?" and you would tell me "oh, what an idiot, don't you know anything?!". I really fail to see how that helps.

Yeah, I'm not one of those who posted before but reading this, I can't help but wonder: why display two pages when you read only one?
Can anyone who actually knows answer this, please?
Is it because there's too much text per line when reading in landscape mode?
Is it because some people are too used to reading physical books, so they absolutely have to see two pages?

I did a test with the attached mock image (smallest font size on my DX). It's certainly doable on the DX, the text is readable (on the 6", it would indeed be too small), but I don't see the reason for reading like this.

This is an old question here at MR. They're not asking for 2 pages, they're asking for 2 columns. Why have 2 columns? Well, why do you see multiple columns in large books like encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc?

My guess is that it's easier to read. But whatever the reason, multiple columns are the rule, not the exception.

BTW, I did some screen shots of my 10" tablet last year:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/album.php?albumid=198

[6charlong]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

This is an old question here at MR. They're not asking for 2 pages, they're asking for 2 columns. Why have 2 columns? Well, why do you see multiple columns in large books like encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc?

My guess is that it's easier to read. But whatever the reason, multiple columns are the rule, not the exception.

BTW, I did some screen shots of my 10" tablet last year:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/album.php?albumid=198

We studied this in journalism classes a long time ago. The question is why do newspapers and magazines--which have book sized pages--still print the text in columns. The answer presented to us, is that it's cheaper that way.

People can read the material faster and easier with columns because every time the reader's eye gets to the end of a line they have to find the start of the next line. If the lines are long it's harder to find the next line quickly given how the text is typically printed.

The reason it's cheaper is that the publishers squeeze the lines together to use less paper for a given amount of text. With Mobi this isn't so much of a problem because the eBook lets you to set the line spacing. That said, I like the two column pages in the iPad. It seems to make reading easier.

[trekchick]

When I read e-books on my computer screen, I almost always use 2-page view (it just feels natural to display them that way), but I didn't like the 2-column mode on the Sony 900. I think it's the vertical:horizontal ratio of the columns. They're not the rectangular shape that my brain expects; I felt like I was reading a folded paper, and I had the desperate, uncontrollable urge to somehow unfold it. Maybe that's just part of my weirdly-wired dyslexic brain, but it was a distracting and uncomfortable way for me to read.

That said, I'm all for anything that allows users to customize their reading experience to best suit them. You should contact kindle-feedback@amazon.com (and/or kindledx-feedback@amazon.com) with a suggestion to add a two-colum display option - it could be a new justification selection.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by rcuadro

Really? Perhaps it is something that I need to experience to see the benefits/drawbacks

It is a standard feature of several firmwares on the Hanlin V3 clones (6").

It works surprisingly well for devices, like the Sonys, that have bottom-mounted paging buttons, because in landscape mode, they turn into side-mounted paging buttons. (Duh, right? )

The Sony 900 with its extra-tall screen and bottom buttons is particularly good in this mode.

Do consider that a lot of people are used to tiny text on their smartphones and PDAs so the small size on a dual-page landscape 6" is plenty large and two side-by-side pages allows a more comfortable scan width at those sizes and half the paging.

It's a matter of preference, like everything else.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

People can read the material faster and easier with columns because every time the reader's eye gets to the end of a line they have to find the start of the next line. If the lines are long it's harder to find the next line quickly given how the text is typically printed.

I thought that was the case.