Off-topic > Off-off-topic
What do you use for reading ShadowRun pdf files? Do you like it?
Beta:
Wouldn't it be great if Drivethrurpg offered books in epub format?
All the reasons that you just mentioned (the reading for long stretches, non blue light, etc) are the exact reasons I've been hoping to use an e-reader for these books, I just didn't want to buy one for this if everyone agreed that they were garbage for the purpose (although I'm seeing more authors putting out some books and a lot of novellas and short stories purely electronically, so had been thinking about getting one for those purposes anyway)
Thanks for all the input, and more view points are always welcome!
PMárk:
--- Quote from: Beta on ---Wouldn't it be great if Drivethrurpg offered books in epub format?
--- End quote ---
Yes it would. I hope more companies will use the format as time goes. I think Chaosium has the Cthulhu 7e books in epub and maybe FAITH has them too. Onyx Path currently does research about adding that option to their books.
--- Quote ---All the reasons that you just mentioned (the reading for long stretches, non blue light, etc) are the exact reasons I've been hoping to use an e-reader for these books,
--- End quote ---
I think it's the best for that. I bought mine for exactly that reason and I love it. Honestly, before I bought it, I thought it'd be more different to read it than reading a hardcopy, but it wasn't, it's 90% the same (and I imagine a paperwhite model would be even better). The reader is even more convenient, light, easier to hold, don't closing up, etc. I still like hardcopies, but for emotional reasons and because I think some kinds of books are just the best in that (rulebooks, art books, etc.). For simple reading, the ereader is a perfect alternative to me.
--- Quote ---I just didn't want to buy one for this if everyone agreed that they were garbage for the purpose
--- End quote ---
As I said, it's suboptimal for in-game rules-referencing. Tablets, or laptops are better for that, although I my solution for a time (for monetary reasons) is buying the pdfs, reading them on kindle, then printing out and binding the important rules parts for dirt cheap, because I like physical books even more for in-game referencing than pdfs.
--- Quote ---(although I'm seeing more authors putting out some books and a lot of novellas and short stories purely electronically, so had been thinking about getting one for those purposes anyway)
--- End quote ---
Yeah, it's more and more a thing, so for the price, I think a Kindle is wothy. Amazon sells it for a more cheaper price than other companies their approximately similar readers, because they don't want to make big money on the kindle itself, but on the books.
Thanks for all the input, and more view points are always welcome!
I hope it helped! :)
Beta:
I thought I should report back to this thread with my experience.
After the discussions above and a bunch of research, earlier this week I took a chance and bought a Kobo Aura One e-reader. It is 30% bigger than most e-readers (diagonal of 7.8" instead of 6"), with top end resolution (300dpi), and I hoped that would be enough to make the SR pdf readable if I zoomed in to the print area.
I'm happy to report that it has exceeded my expectations. I find the pdf quite readable without magnification. I have terrible eyes and am getting old, so have to wear fragging tri-focal lense glasses, so I assure you that the readability is not because of my amazing eyesight. Reading with no zoom leaves my eyes a little tired after an hour or so, but I can't go much longer than that reading physical copy without fatigue either.
I did install the KOReader 3rd party software (along with the associated 3rd party start menu for kobo, which lets you switch between the standard operating system and KOReader). It makes .pdf much more responsive, with faster rendering when turning pages or moving the page or even zooming. (I'm still playing with zoom options to try and find something I like -- unfortunately the easiest zoom modes in KOReader adjust to content size, but due to the dark footer across the bottom of the page this doesn't adjust to just the print size. But as I said, I don't find the zoom to be essential).
With this I've finally made it through most of Market Panic, finding it far, far, easier going than on a laptop.
And speaking of Market Panic, I was able to plug the Kobo into my laptop and just copy across my library of .pdf files like to any external drive, and use them right away.
As a side bonus, it comes built in with software that lets you very easily interact with public libraries for which you have a card (or at least, with a lot of public libraries -- mine is on the list, I don't know how complete that list is). So when I look up a book it finds it in their on-line bookstore, but also gives me an option to sign out the e-book from my local library if they have it (don't have to do two separate searches), and I've grabbed my first e-book and found reading it to be delightful.
On the downside? So far not a lot. It is a black-and-white screen, so the art doesn't come through great, but I can live with that. Bringing up menus so that you can go back to the table of contents or jump to another page is a bit slower than I'd like, as in it isn't near-instant but takes a few seconds. It does have a built in web browser but that seems pretty terrible and very slow, so most likely I'll do future drivethrurpg downloads onto a computer then transfer them over.
In short, I've been really happy with this one so far. Not the cheapest, but being just big enough to handle full page pdf was worth it to me.
YMMV and all of that, but I hope this helps someone else find an easier way to handle their books, too!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version