A user asked me to make some pictures of programming PDFs for the Sony Reader, well here they are. Some excerpts from the book Elsevier’s C Sharp 2.0 Practical Guide for Programmers (2005)

First set are three pictures of the PDF itself, loaded directly into the reader (no processing) Click to see large pic

The same set, but then rasterized with RasterFarian

As you can see, the letters are much better readable when rasterized, higher contrast too. But even without processing, the PDF is quite readable.

Strange enough though, the rasterizedLRF-file is 5MB big, compared to the original 3.5MB. It’s probably the price to pay for the extra contrast .

Introduction

I’ve bought the reader for three reasons.

1. I want to examine this new technology so I can prepare to develop or design for it.
2. I want to take something to read with me when I’m travelling. This should be lowweight, low energyconsumption and easy to read.
3. But the most important of all (and here comes the connection to our website) I have gigabytes worth of manga scanlations that I never had time to read.

I want to take these mangascanlations with me on a portable reader and read them whenever I have the time.
Granted, I have one of the lightest (and coolest) laptop available on the market, the Samsung Q30, but even with a weight of 1kg, it’s not handy to take it with me on the road. Besides, the energy consumption of the laptop is high. It won’t last a full longhaul flight.
A PDA has the same problems (and the screen is too small), the Sony reader would be perfect.

When I did my initial investigation on the Sony Reader’s manga-capabilities, I didn’t find a finite review. Granted, the examples I’ve seen had pushed me over the edge. But I was still in doubt, that’s why, for my fellow mangareaders, here’s a definitive review on the manga/comic-capabilities of the Sony Reader PRS500

Navigational troubles

I’d bought the Sony Reader and tested it out. Off-the-shelf, it isn’t quite suitable for reading manga or comics. Don’t worry yet, the reader support image files, but putting thousands of image-files in the reader will be a pain to navigate, because the reader does not support folder/directories-collections. You have to throw them all in one folder.

Also, pages that are not in the common resolution (about 800×600) will be resized. This resizing causes the page to be fuzzy to read.

So in order to enhance your reading experience, you need to convert your collection to the Sony Reader’s format.

Luckily, I also had the #1 goal in mind, developping for the reader. I wrote a program which can convert my collections of manga into PDF-files. Although I can use the PDF directly in the reader, I still run the PDF through a rasterfarian, this makes the manga even more readable and easy to navigate. I’ll write a tutorial for this in a next article.

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As written in our previous post, PDF aren’t displayed very well off-the-shelf on the Sony Reader PRS500. I think the same problems would occur to the direct competition of Sony, Irex Iliad.

Luckily for us, there is a tool called RasterFarian which will use several programs to make images out of PDF-files, enhance it and in short, rasterize it for optimal display on the Sony Reader and Iliad. In the final steps, it will create a LRS-fileformat, which in turn gets converted into the BBeB/LRF-fileformat used by Sony Reader.

This is done with the free tool lrs2lrf.exe, a japanese tool made for the predecessor of the PRS500, the Librie. This tool, unfortunately, is very very slow. Especially for larger files (500 pages or higher) the processing time will grow exponantially. For a PDF of 4000 pages, it will take about 8 hours.

If you’re in a hurry, you can do the final conversion step with an improved LRS2LRF parser called MSH_LRSPARSER. This tool is at least a factor 50 faster than lrs2lrf.exe.  You’d need to do some extra work though, as the LRS-format produced by RasterFarian can’t be used directly on the MSH_LRSparser. With the help of the creator of MSH_LRSparser, I’ve used the following steps to make the LRS-format suitable.

1. In the working directory of RasterFarian (C:\Program Files\RasterFarian\temp) you’ll find a temp.lrs and a result-directory, copy the result-directory to another place (for example: C:\result).
2. Copy the temp.lrs to that directory (C:\result) which contains all the images.
3. Open the temp.lrs in a good texteditor which allows you to save the file as UTF (for example ultraedit, but notepad should be able to do it too)
4. In the temp.lrs search for the text blockrule=”horz.adjustable” and replace it with blockrule=”horz-adjustable”
5. (Optional) You can edit the TOC if you like
6. Remove all the paths to the images. IE instead of this C:\Program Files\RasterFarian\\temp\result\0001 make it look like this 0001
7. Go to the end of the file and remove all the linebreaks, tabs after the tag: </BBeBXylog> (the > has to be the last character of the file)
8. Finally, save the temp.lrs as UTF-16 format

After these steps, the lrs-file is good to be used. Go to the directory (C:\result) and run MSH_LRSPARSER like this <pathtoprogram>MSH_LRSPARSER.exe temp.lrs book.lrf

Note: MSH_LRSPARSER does not write metadata like the title or author, so may want to give your LRF-file an appropiate name.

Some owners of the Sony Reader PRS500 might have noticed already, using the Connect Software from Sony, you can transfer books to the Sony Reader. While transferring, the Connect Software will preformat the book so the Sony Reader only needs to load it in.

If you’re using a cardreader and transfer the ebooks directly into a SD-card, it’s much faster. But when loaded into the Sony Reader, the Reader needs to format the book. This could take a very long time if you have a book with thousands of pages.

A very useful tip that I wished I’ve found out sooner (6GB of files transferring sooner to be exact)

If you have a cardreader, throw your card in the cardreader instead of the Sony Reader. Then use the connect-software to throw books directly on the cardreader. The books will be preformatted directly into the card. Yet, it’s much faster than transferring the books directly into the reader with the Connect Software. I guess that’s because a dedicated cardreader is much faster than the Sony Reader’s USB-interface.

Note: this seems only to work on SD-cards. Memorysticks are seen as normal drives (I prefer to use my highspeed SD-cards anyway, memory sticks tend to be slower)

Someone asked me to make a few pictures to review the Sony Reader’s capability to parse PDF-files. He sent me a PDF-version of WOW-rules to review.

When I opened this file I already knew it’s trouble. Not only are the ltters very small, they’re also in a fancy font, and printed on a coloured background. Even the page is not standard A4, but a somewhat square pages. So I ran the file through the free tool RasterFarian which rasterized and optimizes PDF-files for the sony reader, so we can have a comparison.

For the records: the original PDF was 3MB, the converted PDF is 2 MB.

And when testing, my expectations were confirmed. The PDF, without any optimizing is impossible to read. Not only that, turning the page is much slower (5+ seconds )than normal LRF-files (1,5 seconds)

Here are the results. Click for a larger image:

Unprocessed:

Processed:

Unprocessed:

Processed:

Conclusion
As you can see, the processed document is much more readable. So if you’re a PDF-reader you’d want to convert your PDF-files. The reader is not meant for occasional PDF-reading
It takes my workstation (AMD 3800+ (Dual Core), 2GB RAM) about 20 seconds to process 4 pages.

2007 seems to be the year of the dedicated Ebook readers , where in the end of 2006, the Sony Reader got introduced and gained momentum in the beginning of 2007, soon to be followed by the Irex Iliad. Now a new reader, the cybook is on the horizon which incorporates the 2nd generation E-ink technology: Vizplex.

Now we simply can’t ignore this new screen as it’s definately an improvement to the first generation film. And to make our future articles and reviews on readers which incorporates the E-ink technology more understandable, we’re featuring a litlte quote from the creators of this exciting technology:

Introducing Vizplex, the latest generation of E Ink’s microencapsulated ink imaging film. The new Vizplex imaging film is designed for high performance with new black and white electronic ink pigment formulations. Compared with the previous generation active matrix imaging film, it offers key improvements of being brighter and faster response time. In addition, the new Vizplex imaging film can be manufactured in significantly larger volumes, promoting more widespread availability and product variety. At launch, five different FPL sizes will be offered as standard products: 1.9″, 5″, 6″, 8″ and 9.7″, compared with only 6″ available in the previous imaging film generation.

Vizplex leverages the existing infrastructure used in the manufacture of conventional active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs), but the E Ink process flow for display cell assembly is much simpler. The process used to attach the Vizplex imaging film to the TFT panel is similar to polarizer lamination for AMLCDs, and uses similar equipment. Other steps, such as the scribe and break process, are identical to processes for the AMLCDs. The simplified process to assemble electronic ink displays eliminates several steps and costly materials from the AMLCD manufacturing process, including alignment layer deposition and rubbing, cell spacing and filling, polarizer lamination and the integration of optical enhancement films.

There is a new ebook reader coming out. Ebook readers are nothing new anymore, but the fact that this reader is using the newest E Ink® Vizplex screen is something worth noticing. E-ink is a new technology where the pixels on the screen are built up and afterwards won’t need any power to uphold it. Meaning you can read as slow as you want and the battery won’t run out.

A more indepth explanation from wikipedia:

Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. The principal components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule to become visible to the reader. This makes the surface appear white at that spot. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which now makes the surface appear dark at that spot.

To form an E Ink electronic display, the ink is printed onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver. These microcapsules are suspended in a liquid “carrier medium” allowing them to be printed using existing screen printing processes onto virtually any surface, including glass, plastic, fabric and even paper.

Anyway,  here’s what the new reader looks like.

The very interesting specs:

It’s true, I admit it, I’m a geek.
I’m always on the lookout for new (practical) technology and am willing to be one of the first to try it. I was one of the first to buy the bulky 1st generation “portable” one pound MiniDisc-walkman from Sony. I paid big bucks for the first MP3-players.
Now I’ve once again put on my Early Adaptor-costume and bought the Sony Reader PRS500 which incorporates the new electronic paper EINK technology.

Introducing, the sony reader:

The Sony Reader is a handheld device, roughly with the dimensions of a paperback, about the same weight (9oz or 250g), but much thinner; measuring at 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.5 in (17.5 x 12.4 x 1.3 cm). But with 90MB internal memory and an memorystick/SD-cardslot, it can hold up to 4GB and 2GB of ebooks respectively.
Since a textual ebook is roughly 1MB big, this means that you can take an entire library worth of literature with you.

Let’s first make something clear. E-paper or E-ink is a new technology where text and graphics are built up on a screen and do not need power after that.
Unlike traditional LCD/TFT-screens which need a constant source of current to operate; once a page is builtup with E-Ink, it stays that way, no matter how long you leave it. Only if you’re “turning” the page, the screen will be refreshed.
This is comparable to the magna doodle.

Because of this, the internal battery lifetime is not measured in time, instead, it’s measured in page-turns (so it really depends on how long it takes you to read a page).
According to Sony, the reader can read 7500 pageturns. In the week that I had my reader, I recharged it twice though, each time when the battery meter showed that there is only 50% juice left. That is after 3000-4000 page turns.
This means, that the biggest quirk of all electronical devices, the battery usage is really not a problem here!

The resolution is measured at 166 dpi, four-level gray scale at about 800×600.
( portrait: 4.54 x 3.47 in (115.4 x 88.2 mm), 754 x 584 pixels)
( landscape: 6.09 x 4.41 in (154.8 x 112 mm), 1012 x 784 pixels )
For comparison: a dot matrix printer prints at 60-90dpi, while an inkjet printer starts at 360dpi.
However, in practice, the display of the reader is very readable. I’d compare it with the printout on a newspaper (in fact, the greyish colour of the display feels like a newspaper too)

Because of the E-ink technology, the display does not need backlight. In fact, it can not even use backlight, because the display is not translucent. The display is actually built up of tiny capsules. According to the current put into them, they can take a place further away from the surface, or come closer to the surface, resulting to the shade of gray.
If you put a backlight, the screen will probably just be all black, as if you’re holding a small book in front of a lightsource.

This is in fact a double edged sword. Because of the technology, it requires very litle batterypower and is very clear and natural to the eyes to read. But it makes the screen depend on environmental lighting, which means you need a reading light if you want to use the reader in bed. Just like a real book.

The controls are usable. A round joypad-like button in the bottom left-hand corner and two small dotsized buttons on the left side are used for page turning.
A joystick control with a ringed button is used for navigation. The two dot-sized buttons are really small though and are hard to operate if you have large hands. I think it’s designed to be operated with your nail.
Because the “pageturn”-pad is located on the bottom left-hand, it’s not so easy to switch hands for pageturning. At least, it’s not really comfortable.
There are 10 numeric buttons to quickly chose an option of a menu though. And in “reading mode”, you can browse to a percentage of the book. (1=10%, 2=20%, etc).

It is possible to “bookmark” a page with the small button next to the silvery one. A cool blue light will surround the buttons as a form of acknowledgement.

Because of the Eink-technology, the screen refresh is slow. When you press the pageturn, the screen will first turn all black and then white to clear the content. Then finally the new screen will be shown. This means a pagerefresh of about 1 page per 1-2 seconds.
This is also probably the reason for the numeric buttons. Because if you need to use the joystick to navigate through a list, it can take awhile, because each time the “cursor” jumps to another item, the screen needs to be rebuilt.
However, I don’t even notice that this slow page refreshes anymore after awhile. If it’s a real book, you need to flip the pages anyway.

The reader supports Sony’s propieraty-standard BBeB Book (LRF) but also PDF, TXT and RTF for reading.
DOC will be automatic converted in case you use their software.
The DRMed version of BBeB (LRX) is also supported and is in fact the format you can buy at their ebooksstore
Besides textual formats, the Reader also support MP3 and AAC-music files and imageformats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP (Loading an animated GIF will freeze the Reader)

The exact specs:
* Size: 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.5 in (17.5 x 12.4 x 1.3 cm)
* Weight: 9 oz (250 g)
* Display:
o size: 6 in (15.5 cm) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page)
o resolution: 166 dpi, four-level gray scale
o portrait: 4.54 x 3.47 in (115.4 x 88.2 mm), 754 x 584 pixels
o landscape: 6.09 x 4.41 in (154.8 x 112 mm), 1012 x 784 pixels
o minimum font size: 6 pt legible, 7 pt recommended
* Memory: 64 MB standard, Memory stick (Pro Duo High Speed not supported) or SD card expansion
* Rechargeable lithium-ion battery, up to 7500 “page turns” per charge
* PC interface: USB port

This beauty is available in america for 299 dollar. The introduction price was 350, but it dropped recently (a few days after I bought mine). For those who aren’t living in the US (like me), you can get the reader through ebay or at the renowned online store http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

So… after these two weeks, am I still happy with the reader? In conclusion, the reader is a magnificent machine with a great sharp screen and YES, I am very happy with it. But that’s just because I like to read but lack the time to do so. With the reader, I can have a large part of my collection with me all the time (the reader fits in my inside pocket) and because it’s “instant on”, I can read it in the rare moments in between tasks (IE waiting)

However, it is clear that the Reader is a 1st generation E-ink device, so it does what it needs to do, but there are still quirks (gray screen, speed, resolution, user friendlyness and supported formats) that needs to be fixed before it’s suitable for the public.

However, if you like to read non-coloured books, you should be very happy with the Reader. (however, you might want to go for the 2nd generation ebook device like the Cybook)

Is your IBM laptop making a “buzzing” noise and preventing you from doing anything productive? No, it’s not your imagination. Nor is this noise the consequence of listening to earphones for too long (although that does contribute). The noise is coming from your CPU fan.

Some noticeable signs of aging that your laptop gives are:
-It becomes very hot under your laptop
-You can feel the keyboard getting hot
-Your laptop will overheat or freeze
You may have considered taking your laptop to a repair shop, but after you have read this article, you will be able to fix it yourself! Not only will you save hundreds of dollars, but you will almost certainly feel a sense of accomplishment.

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