V3 EPUB and PDF Zoom Levels

[RootlessAgrarian]

I'm not happy with the zoom feature on my v3 and am wondering if someone else's firmware (other than Jinke's which I have been updating as new versions appear) would offer better.

When reading EPUB docs Jinke supports 5 zoom levels. Level 1 is so tiny you almost need glasses to read it. Level 2 is a bit too large (not enough text to make a page really worth reading), and levels 3, 4, 5 are insanely large, suitable only for flashcards or signage.

I'd like zoom levels corresponding to normal font sizes in real books, like -- for example -- 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 point or maybe 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 point for those who need big text (vision impaired). Better yet would be for the user to be able to *configure* font sizes for the 5 zoom levels.

Does any firmware or hack offer improvement in this area?

I'm also not happy with the page turn speed. Is anyone's firmware faster than Jinke on this? and has anyone implemented "half page at a time" page turn so that you can start reading the top of the next page immediately while the bottom half refreshes just a few tenths of a second later?

Forgive me if these topics are old hat. I am new to EPUB format (have used the device mostly for plain text files of a more technical/reference nature) and am just starting to engage with my V3 as a *book* reading device.

de

[RootlessAgrarian]

I note that there is a new firmware release from Jinke that promises "9x" zoom, which I think really means 9 zoom levels. I'll give that a try.

meanwhile, the page turn performance issue continues to bug me...

and I'm fascinated by the idea of being able to use different firmware releases for the platform. how many are available and how do they compare? is there any feature table on someone's hobby page?

[RootlessAgrarian]

Originally Posted by RootlessAgrarian

I note that there is a new firmware release from Jinke that promises "9x" zoom, which I think really means 9 zoom levels. I'll give that a try.

Yes indeedy, there are now 9 zoom levels of which perhaps 2 are actually useful :-) zoom levels 2 and 3 seem to work OK for the epubs I am playing with now (from Project Gutenberg and other free sources). Above zoom level 3, the amount of text per page is risibly small.

At high zoom levels it would sure be nice to have a panning function; I've suggested to Jinke that a thumbwheel would be a good feature for future versions of their reader. (Have been drooling over early photos of Plastic Logic's Que, but that won't be affordable by anyone outside the business aristocracy for a long time to come.)

Page refresh time is still sloooow with this firmware rev.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by RootlessAgrarian

Yes indeedy, there are now 9 zoom levels of which perhaps 2 are actually useful :-) zoom levels 2 and 3 seem to work OK for the epubs I am playing with now (from Project Gutenberg and other free sources). Above zoom level 3, the amount of text per page is risibly small.

OpenInkpot will let you fiddle with the font size directly.

Oops. my bad. Not for PDF it doesn't.

[RootlessAgrarian]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

OpenInkpot will let you fiddle with the font size directly.

Oops. my bad. Not for PDF it doesn't.

That's OK, I'm mostly interested in epub format.

I have read a chunk of the OI site and have stopped dead at the part where I'm warned that installing their V3update.bin will cause the Hanlin's internal disk to be reformatted (to ext3 maybe?) -- and that to recover from this, should I wish to revert to the Jinke kernel, I'll have to "connect to a PC and format as FAT."

I don't have a PC, I have a Mac.

also, I have not found the Hanlin to be at all happy about being connected as a USB drive, and therefore have little confidence that I'd be able to reformat it. can anyone else speak from experience about the perils and rewards of playing with OI with a Hanlin v3 in the OSX environment? I'm intrigued by OI's features and would like to try them out, but fear of breaking my reader is holding me back.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by RootlessAgrarian

can anyone else speak from experience about the perils and rewards of playing with OI with a Hanlin v3 in the OSX environment? I'm intrigued by OI's features and would like to try them out, but fear of breaking my reader is holding me back.

I can't speak for V3s and Macs, so I'll leave that to someone else, but you could try the live version and boot from SD card. That won't touch your flash. The install version formats your internal flash to JFFS2.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by RootlessAgrarian

and I'm fascinated by the idea of being able to use different firmware releases for the platform. how many are available and how do they compare? is there any feature table on someone's hobby page?

There is this thread on this forum.

A very interesting one is Tirwal: the guys responsible for it succeeded in getting it to support both EPUB & Mobi DRM at the same time.

[RootlessAgrarian]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

There is this thread on this forum.

A very interesting one is Tirwal: the guys responsible for it succeeded in getting it to support both EPUB & Mobi DRM at the same time.

I have downloaded the Tirwal kernel (or whatever V3update.bin really is) and feel more confident about trying that first.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by RootlessAgrarian

I have downloaded the Tirwal kernel (or whatever V3update.bin really is) and feel more confident about trying that first.

Tirwal is probably indeed the best firmware for the V3 based on the original Hanlin FW, especially since it can do both EPUB & MobiPocket DRM at the same time. No other Hanlin firmware can do that; actually no other ebook reader can do that, period, as Amazon forces exclusivity.

I'm using OI because I routinely strip DRM off all ebooks I buy, so DRM support isn't all that important to me, and I like the flexibility the OI FBReader implementation gives you in tweaking the look of the text (margins, font size, line spacing are all configurable). And I like the fact it's open source

[RootlessAgrarian]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Tirwal is probably indeed the best firmware for the V3 based on the original Hanlin FW, especially since it can do both EPUB & MobiPocket DRM at the same time. No other Hanlin firmware can do that; actually no other ebook reader can do that, period, as Amazon forces exclusivity.

I'm using OI because I routinely strip DRM off all ebooks I buy, so DRM support isn't all that important to me, and I like the flexibility the OI FBReader implementation gives you in tweaking the look of the text (margins, font size, line spacing are all configurable). And I like the fact it's open source

I am still looking at OI thoughtfully and am considering a test drive of the "live" version. However, I am puzzled by this language in the Installation Guide: Insert the SD card and run the boot-OI-v3.exe file

How does one run an .exe file from (say) the Tirwal firmware GUI? So far I have not seen any cmd line or even pointy-clicky kind of access to the raw SD card contents.

I like open source too :-)

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by RootlessAgrarian

How does one run an .exe file from (say) the Tirwal firmware GUI? So far I have not seen any cmd line or even pointy-clicky kind of access to the raw SD card contents.

That's right, there isn't. But if you look at the SD card on your computer, you'll see a boot-OI-v3.exe.fb2 on it. That will show up in the normal GUI as boot-OI-v3.exe (as it has a .fb2 extension that isn't shown) and you run it by selecting it like you would a normal book.

[RootlessAgrarian]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

That's right, there isn't. But if you look at the SD card on your computer, you'll see a boot-OI-v3.exe.fb2 on it. That will show up in the normal GUI as boot-OI-v3.exe (as it has a .fb2 extension that isn't shown) and you run it by selecting it like you would a normal book.

And this will not brick my internal storage? Just want to be very sure what I'm getting into before I [cue manic laughter, bwaa-hahaha] Destroy the World :-)

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by RootlessAgrarian

And this will not brick my internal storage? Just want to be very sure what I'm getting into before I [cue manic laughter, bwaa-hahaha] Destroy the World :-)

No, not any more :-). There was a bug in a pre-0.2 release candidate that did that, but the 0.2 doesn't.

[RootlessAgrarian]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

No, not any more :-). There was a bug in a pre-0.2 release candidate that did that, but the 0.2 doesn't.

Sounds Mostly Harmless then. I'll give it a try. There's nothing on the SD card that can't be replaced, anyway... so as long as the internal storage doesn't get toasted, it's all recoverable. Good rainy night project (and ohboy are we getting some rainy nights here in coastal BC this week).

Thanks again for your courtesy and patience.

[RootlessAgrarian]

Originally Posted by RootlessAgrarian

Sounds Mostly Harmless then. I'll give it a try.

No joy. I installed the openinkpot dir at top of SD card.

I ran the openinkpot exe.

There was a very slow boot with a lot of screen blinking, then "Openinkpot" logo in big friendly letters :-) I was prompted to set the time/date, and I got a rather nice looking main menu.

But...

When I selected Library, nothing happened. Nothing happened for any of the media items (Library, Audio, Images). Games got me a list of puzzle-type games. Applications got me a blank screen. Apparently there is no Library.

I'm not sure how to get OI to *see* the book files already on the SD card. The OI web site says something obscure about a Disk Menu, but I cannot get any such menu to pop up from the main menu. Eventually I hit the wrong button and got to a plaintext version of the main menu, which seems to have killed the device for the moment -- no buttons have any effect any more, not even the keyboard lock.

Is this really a stable release? :-)

The GUI sure is nice looking though. If I can make it work I prefer the looknfeel to either Basic Jinke or Tirwal... I think.

Any clues? I'm going to reboot and do a little googling.