Now that high capacity memory sticks are getting cheaper and people use it for all kind of apparels like digicams, phones or even ebook readers, they often find that these higher capacity (more than 4GB) memorysticks seems slower than the lower capacity ones (up to 2GB).

This is because the higher capacities memorysticks are formatted in FAT32  by default. Although this format is better than the old FAT16 in the sense of disk slack and filesize limits, it’s slower for read and writes. Especially for the gadgets with lower processingpower than a PC.

If you’re experiencing this problem, you might want to format the stick to FAT16. This will speed up the read and write process tremendously.

If you’re using XP, just open command prompt (XP-explorer won’t allow you to format to FAT16 on higher capacity cards) and type in:

format z: /q /FS:FAT /x

Where z is your memorystick driveletter.

You will be asked some confirmation questions. Answer as appropriate and try it out.

If you’re using a Mac or running Linux, you should be smart enough to know how to format a simple stick, so I won’t even bother explaining.

While we’re waiting for the new Bookeen reader to emerge, Sony seems to have been busy. Lately, the current Sony Reader PRS500 has been on sale. Could it be that it’s making way for the new model?

One online store has leaked out the first view on the new Sony Reader, codenamed PRS505 SC for a suggested price of 299 dollar.

The improvements?

• Better ergonomics
• USB2.0 (PRS500 USB-transfer is SLOOOOW)
• Slim : “Old” Reader: 175.6mm x 123.6mm x 13.8mm New Reader: 175mm x 122mm x 8mm
• More memory (160 books instead of 80. The old reader has about 90MB of RAM, this one about 200?) which should speeding up rendering.

ETA October 2007 (Bookeen ETA’s September 2007)

Here’s how it looks like.

it seems that the new sony reader is going to be in two colors. Silver and blue. PRS505sc for the silver, prs505lc for our familiar metallic blue/black

This reader would probably be using the new vizplex screen, but exact details were not given. According to the description on the product page, it seems that the on-board memory has doubled, as it’s specced to be able to hold 160 books instead of 80.

I’m not sure I like the move on the numeric buttons. It makes the reader seems bulky…

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The history: RasterFarian got removed from mobileread because it was using a licensed tool, pdcat.exe from pdf-tools.com. There was a whole ruckus about it.

Ironicly, that tool was doing nothing more than “copying” (cat) the original PDF to another location, so it was not even needed…

Alex_D once gave me the green light to release a patched/debugged version of RasterFarian, so I’ve taken my freedom to just patching it to NOT use the licensed tool anymore.

I’ve removed the pdcat.exe from the package, and instead I’m merely using windows builtin “copy”-command to do the things.

Download rasterfarian (patched)

PS. as far as I know, only the pdcat-too was licensed, the rest are opensource or free tools.

PS2. This patched version is released “as is”. I haven’t tested it extensively, but on a few PDF-files i’ve made, it seems to work without probs. If you found bugs, report here and I’ll see what I can do, but can’t promise anything. I’m not the original author, and I don’t like shellprogramming, so I rather dislike giving support.

PS3. A “thank you”-comment is appreciated.

At the moment of writing there are a few rasterizing-tools available to create LRF files from PDF. I’ve made a comparison of these three products.

The chose settings:

Rasterfarian: settings as described here

PDFread: no cropping, dilation 300, edge level: 5, optimize PNGs

pdflrf: simply nosplitpage, nosmartcut, no cropping, rotation=0.

Converting a file with pdfread creates the smallest lrf, namely 266KB. However, the image quality is very bad. The lines aren’t smooth, and the text in the bubbles are hard to read.

pdflrf is better. The images are clear and readable, but lacks contrast. The size of the resulting LRF is 604KB though. Chosing 4 colors produces smaller size (285KB) but it produces less sharp and more washed out images compared to rasterfarian.

The same PDF-file converted with Rasterfarian result in a 300KB-lrf and the image quality as loaded in the reader has the highest contrast as well as clearity. Text are smooth and many details remains.

So… it’s obvious for me, Rasterfarian is a true winner for the creation of imagebased-lrffiles. Not only does it create the best quality images, it’s filesize is great too.

However, PDFread and PDFLRF both have a nice windows userinterface. Rasterfarian might be somewhat more complicated to use.

The pdf-files and the resulting LRF-files are attached to this article

Original PDF-file for rasterization

PDFlrf converted manga

PDFlrf converted manga 4 colors

PDFread converted manga

Manga converted with rasterfaran

Here’s the promised, but majorly delayed tutorial on how to use Manga2Ebook and rasterfarian to create PDF-files.

The first step is to Manga2Ebook to convert a collection of manga-books into PDF-form. The program itself has a usage-explanation, and the default values are optimzed for creating manga-pdfs for the Sony Reader already, so I’m not going to explain that.

Just select the directory where you have your manga, type in a title and chose start to create portrait manga.

(if you want to create comics like this:

Chose “resize based on width” and disable rotate. It’ll fit all the comic strips into a page)

When the PDF is done, start rasterfarian by rightclicking on the PDF-file in windows and chose “rasterfarian”, then follow these steps:

1. Chose advanced interface
2. Chose priority belownormal (so you can do other things)
3. Autocrop the file: no
4. Arrange as: 1)whole pages per screen
5. Level of post-processing: full
6. Level of boldness: 6
7. Level of edge enhancement: 7
8. Preview page: Skip (takes too long and result on a monitor is poor anyways)
9. Number of threads: your CPU-core times 2. I have a QuadCore CPU, so I chose 4×2=8
10. Enter a title/author: whatever you want

Now it will create the lrf-file you want.

The long awaited firmware-upgrade finally came this morning, I’ve arrived late at work because I wanted to test it, especially because it says to speeds up the transfer to 4GB memory sticks (which weren’t even working at all!)

With a quick test it seems that the 2GB-limit on SD-cards is still standing, however it seems that this firmware fixed the 2GB limit for memorysticks. I did a quicktest on my 4GB stick which was filled up to 3GB with programs already. I threw an lrf-file in it and the reader could find it. In the previous firmware, the reader would just crash.

I’m now transferring 3,5GB worth of lrf’s to the stick and see if it truely works.

Here’s the official release

This update (dated 7/31/2007) will do the following:

Improvements over system software version 1.0.02.01300

* Resolves an issue where, under certain conditions, the battery meter may not correctly indicate the proper charge level
* Resolves an issue where the reader may not successfully return from sleep mode

Improvements over the original system software

* Longer Battery life during audio playback (NOTE: Actual battery life may vary based on usage pattern, product settings, battery and environmental conditions.)
* Faster transfer speeds when using 4GB or larger Memory Stick® media
* Improved handling of white bands on the audio playback screen
* Addresses security vulnerabilities
* Enhances system stability

The key issues addressed are the battery charge indicator fix and system stability (although I’m not sure that we’ve really seen any instability issues… this device has been pretty rock solid for most of us).

See the Sony download page for more instructions and details. The upgrade should take only a few minutes to complete.

If it operates like the previous upgrade, you will probably be prompted for it when you dock your Reader with the desktop Connect software.

*update

Unfortunately… 4GB sticks still not working. Only first 2GB are accessable, beyond that are simply ignored.

Like: I put 2GB through the Connect-software. It will simply stop after 2GB.
If I put in another book through a standalone reader, the new book will be ignored.

If I put in >2GB of files through a standalone reader, the reader will detect up to 2GB of files, but when it tries to open of them, it will crash.

Also.. the “speedup for sticks” is probably merely the fact that it will format the files later. You can see the bok-menu, but the “total pages” and other info are filled up later. As a memory stick seems to be some kind of serial format, this can be done…. it’s still merely a trick. Actual loading of a large book is still the same…

limited support for 4GB SD-cards and memorysticks

According to the specs given by Sony, the Sony Reader PRS500 is supposed to only support SD-cards up to 2GB. Suggesting that 4GB cards won’t work.
As for memorysticks, according to their compatibility charts, the reader is supposed to be able to handle 4GB or higher memory sticks.

Since I have the needed solid memory media available and the reader itself, I’ve put them on a test. I’m using the reader with the newest firmware version at the moment of writing (1.0.02.01300).

For memorysticks, i’m using a 2GB and a 4GB Memory Stick PRO from Sony itself.
For SD-cards, i’ll be using a 2GB 133x Corsair SD-card and a 4GB 150x Transcend SD-card (non-HSDC)

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A small but very handy trick that I found out when testing out SD-cards and memorysticks.

If you have a a cardreader for your computer and you want to transfer books to it, remember to use the Connect Reader software to do so. Just open the Connect Reader Software, it will detect the SD-card in the reader and you can simply drag and drop your books in it.

What’s the advantage? Connect Reader will preformat your book so the Sony Reader could simply open it up and read it. If you simply drop the book in the sd-card without the Connect-software, the Sony Reader needs to format the book first. This could take a couple of minutes.

With this trick, you can let your computer do the tough job and save some juice on your Sony Reader. You could also connect your reader to your computer and add books that way, but the transfer speed will be far below that of a normal cardreader.

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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