Best PDF reader for N900
 

can someone recommend the best PDF reader available for the N900? Have a load of books in pdf format that I'd like to read while travelling etc.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

The built-in PDF reader does a good job. What specific feature are you looking for?

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

In devel so Warning apply:
http://maemo.org/packages/view/evince/
http://maemo.org/packages/view/epdfview/

@Manavas
Probably at least some of these
Bugzilla pdf-reder enchantments

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

There unfortunately aren't many choices yet. The stock browser works, but it's very minimal, and slow. Evince is half-ported, and available from -devel (standard caveats apply), but while it has much better performance than the stock reader, and some other nice features, it still kills kittens from time to time, so I wouldn't recommend you use it unless you have to (I use it for reading digital textbooks so I can leave the heavy dead-tree ones in my room, and for that sort of thing, the performance is needed). If you do use Evince, note that Ctrl+Enter toggles Fullscreen - being only half-ported, it doesn't yet have the nice hidden thumb-button to get you out of fullscreen mode.
If there are any others available, I haven't tried them. Depending on what your content is like, you could always run them through a PDF->HTML converter (such as the command-line pdf2html app on Linux (I have no idea what else is out there, but probably lots)) for the mean time.
I seem to recall there being at least one other PDF reader available for Maemo 4/N8x0, so you could always try to convince someone to port it for you, or finish up the Evince port. Offering tangible forms of "encouragement" (read: bounty) is always an option, if it's worth it to you.
Sorry that I couldn't be of more help.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Aha! Yes, ePDFView was the other one I was thinking of. I haven't tried it.

Enchantments? You mean we need magic to make the PDF reader work? ...Figures. ;)
*ducks and apologizes*

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Well I personally am missing the ability to open more then one pdf at a time, that the viewer doesn't remember where I was when I open a file, and (dear god how was this missing) no search!!
I have tried epdf but it was not really ported to a touch friendly interface, is evince any better?

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Yes. Sometimes when i read bugzilla or brainstorm I think that lvl 14 mage could do some magic to stuff. :P

.edit
And yes it´s typo :)

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Ok, it's able to open pdf files, but:
1) It's not easy to move inside a 1000 pages document.
2) It's not possible to make "search" of words.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

evince is wonderful and has kinetic scrolling. What was it that you consider it so badly ported? I usually read heavy stuff in it and I have no complaints.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Evince's GUI is still very messy on Maemo, and not particularly finger-friendly. The scrolling kinetics are a bit off, too. That said, it's quite fast, and reasonably featureful. As I stated in my previous post, you probably shouldn't use it currently unless you need its features, and don't mind dealing with its flaws. Evince on the desktop was pretty good last time I tried (which was quite a while ago), and it would be nice to see the Maemo port get some love.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Can you view PDFs in portrait mode with Evinnce?

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

I have few complaints about its functionality, but it's rather ugly, requires a stylus for some operations, and generally doesn't fit in. Also, as mentioned above, it lacks a discoverable fullscreen exit method, which means it would confuse the heck out of many new users. Mostly things like that. Maemo being reasonably close to mainstream distributions, a large amount of Linux apps will run with just a recompile, but their usability and level of integration will vary widely, and may not be suitable for mobile use without modifications. That's the issue with Evince right now.

EDIT: Hmm... I just looked down and realized I had Evince open, and furthermore that I was thinking of an older version of it when I wrote this. It's actually not as bad as I made it sound, but it still could use some work.

UPDATE:
@imperiallight: Yes, it has Rotate Left/Right options, and the operations are tolerably fast.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Ah, thanks for pointing this out.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Any idea if anyone is working on "hildonizing" evince or if its just gonna stay this way?

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

I've been switching between the built in pdf reader and evince.

Both honestly are ok but nothing great.

1) Zoom is clunky in both - no twist to zoom etc
2) On large PDFs page turns are slow on the built-in reader
3) Both aren't really finger friendly - I end up using the keyboard arrows
4) No search
5) No highlight or annotation
6) No wrap

I've ended up converting lots of them to html -but some scans don't work too well (all images).

Evince on the n800 actually works better.

My other complaint is the n800's screen was slightly larger which made reading a bit easier. The pdf reader is better than the ones available for android though if that is any consolation.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Can't you just use fbreader to read ebook in PDF format ?

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

I wasn't aware that FBReader could read PDF. Please feel free to prove me wrong.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Yeah, sorry. I put ePDFviewer up as an option, but it's not a very good one. I ended up not using that code for my own project so i don't expect to spend time fixing any of its problems. Evince is probably the best bet for a robust reader.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

do these support portrait mode???

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Is anyone working towards a robust pdf reader, whether it be evince or other?

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

I'm not sure about the others, but the build in one doesn't.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Hey is there any way to get custom zoom on this I would like to change zoom to somewhere between 125 - 150 percent. Is there any config file I can play around with. For me 135 percent or so seems to be a sweet spot in my pdf docs.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Not that I know, the built in reader is very limited and a bit glitchy if you manage to get it to rotate.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

evince running on Easy Debian does the job for me whenever I need to do something the default PDF reader can't.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

all I wanted was a stable pdf reader that remembered what page I last viewed for each individual ebook

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

All I want in a pdf reader is custom zoom :p

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Thread moved to Applications.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

+1 for custom zoom levels. I need a zoom level in between 300 and 400% so that I can fit my pdf document perfectly on the N900 screen.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

The default pdf reader has much more legible rendering of text at smaller magnifications than Evince does.

However, the default pdf reader doesn't rotate, making it often less useful. So it's often a matter of picking the reader you can make do best.

If the default pdf reader had rotation & full portrait mode compatibility, it would probably be the one I'd use all the time.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Custom zoom please :p

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

I agree, the default reader more smoothly renders documents plus scrolling is nicer.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

They had a bug reported about this issue at https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2704

There is even a patch submitted as a solution. Now the question is where the sources for the default pdf reader is or who should we bug to get it recompiled.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

I use goodreader on my ipod touch, would love to get a viewer on the n900 that works as good.

http://www.goodiware.com/goodreader.html

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

If only the default reader would remember the page...
paai

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Word-wrapping would be a great feature to have on the default pdf reader.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

xpdf in Easy Debian gives lots of zooming beyond 400%. The only annoyance with that is it doesn't high-zoom in full-screen mode :(

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

It would make my life so much better if we have Word wrapping in n900.
And chapter list!

I even send a e-mail to the people on good reader asking if they have any plan of making a n900 port of it, but still no reply.

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

I've been using the default n900 PDF Reader and had no problems with any ebooks, however, the application does not remember what page I last viewed when I reopen the ebook. I have to write down what page I was on which is an annoyance.

I just tried evince and it has a few nice things. I noticed loading the next page now happens almost instantly where as with the default reader, loading the next page would take around 4 seconds. Evince also remembers what page I was on which is the feature I want most. Evince however is not useable to me because as soon as I move about the page, I see multiple instances of the page content for several seconds before it settles down. I think I will go back to the default reader but like others here, I am saying the n900 community needs a decent PDF reader!

Re: Best PDF reader for N900
 

Is there a way or other PDF reader options which when zoomed wraps the words or sentence on the N900 Screen, Just like the Page view option on Anroid.
The Stock PDF and Evince cant do this and its a shame, the writing is so small can read it unless we strain our eyes