09-07-2010, 04:17 PM
Interesting news...
Regular Kindles now support PDF (or at least, gen 2 does). I have no idea when this happened. My Kindle already had the software update required. I guess I don't pay much attention.
I went to Google Books and selected a free book at random, downloaded it in PDF, copied it to the Kindle, disconnected, then opened it up.
If your eyesight is good, you can read it as-is. 1 PDF page = 1 Kindle page, shrunk to fit. The resolution is quite good, it's just that the letters are awfully small when 1 page of PDF is shrunk to a 6" Kindle screen. (If you got the Kindle DX, which is much bigger, this wouldn't be an issue.)
So I set the Kindle to view sideways, then set it to "fit to width" and that's much better. That gives me about 1/3rd of a PDF page at a time and hitting "next page" gives me the next chunk. I can "go to" a page number, as well.
Getting the PDF to the Kindle involved this:
1) Plug in Kindle via USB
2) Kindle comes up as a hard drive (like a thumb drive)
3) Copy the file into the "Documents" folder
4) Safely Remove Hardware
5) Done -- the PDF will show up in your book listing off the main menu like everything else
To change the view settings, just hit the regular Kindle "font resize" button, which is the button that says "Aa" and all the zoom and tilt and fitting options are in there.
Apparently I also could have wirelessly transferred the PDF but I think there's a fee for that if I'm using the 3G network. Not sure what the fee would have been.
Regular Kindles now support PDF (or at least, gen 2 does). I have no idea when this happened. My Kindle already had the software update required. I guess I don't pay much attention.
I went to Google Books and selected a free book at random, downloaded it in PDF, copied it to the Kindle, disconnected, then opened it up.
If your eyesight is good, you can read it as-is. 1 PDF page = 1 Kindle page, shrunk to fit. The resolution is quite good, it's just that the letters are awfully small when 1 page of PDF is shrunk to a 6" Kindle screen. (If you got the Kindle DX, which is much bigger, this wouldn't be an issue.)
So I set the Kindle to view sideways, then set it to "fit to width" and that's much better. That gives me about 1/3rd of a PDF page at a time and hitting "next page" gives me the next chunk. I can "go to" a page number, as well.
Getting the PDF to the Kindle involved this:
1) Plug in Kindle via USB
2) Kindle comes up as a hard drive (like a thumb drive)
3) Copy the file into the "Documents" folder
4) Safely Remove Hardware
5) Done -- the PDF will show up in your book listing off the main menu like everything else
To change the view settings, just hit the regular Kindle "font resize" button, which is the button that says "Aa" and all the zoom and tilt and fitting options are in there.
Apparently I also could have wirelessly transferred the PDF but I think there's a fee for that if I'm using the 3G network. Not sure what the fee would have been.