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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Reading and Readability in iOS Devices

Reading PDFs in iOS devices like iPhone and iPod Touch is not easy, because the text is too little and the screen is too small. Zooming-in may require scrolling the page horizontally back and forth. This is because the text in PDF cannot be subjected to word wrapping. The ePub format has gained popularity because unlike PDF it is designed for reflowable content. Meaning, the long lines will eventually move down (reflow) without creating horizontal scroll bars. What tools can we use to convert PDF or webpages to ePub?

Calibre is a software that allows you to convert PDF to ePub. I tried converting some free ebooks to ePub using this tool, and it really make reading easier. However, the headers and footers (page numbers) in PDFs are converted as text also in the resulting ePub file. DotEPub is a web service that allows exporting a web page as ePub.

For reading in iOS, Stanza is the perfect app that can load ePub files. I customized the settings and tapping the corners will proceed to the next page. Apple's IBooks appear attractive, but it lacks the customization features Stanza has.

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