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Stegger (Pathfinder Chronicles Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Fiction Subscriber), Thu, Aug 6, 2009, 01:26 AM

Hi,
I just got hold of an Iphone and was looking at different pdf readers to read some Paizo pdfs without having to bring my laptop around. I have so far only bought the PDF Reader Pro Edition program, but it is not working really well.
So, do any of you have experience with other pdf apps that you could recommend such as "PDF expert" by Readdly or "Good Reader"?

Thanks!

taig (Paizo Superscriber), Thu, Aug 6, 2009, 07:17 AM

I use "Good Reader" and it's good 98% of the time for Paizo PDFs. The only problem I've had is with major headings containing the letter "A". For some reason, the program gets confused and makes the heading incomprehensible. I can usually figure out what the major heading is from the context, or I just grab the book when I'm done. The latest update made it a lot faster to render pages with illos (which look surprisingly great on the screen), and I've not had a crash yet.

Stegger (Pathfinder Chronicles Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Fiction Subscriber), Thu, Aug 6, 2009, 12:21 PM

Thank you! Just the information I needed.

Mairkurion {tm} (Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Fiction, Planet Stories Subscriber), Thu, Aug 6, 2009, 12:21 PM

I'd really like to hear about people's success with books in pdf format on the iPhone using these and other apps.

Vic Wertz (Technical Director), Thu, Aug 6, 2009, 09:55 PM

taig wrote:

I use "Good Reader" and it's good 98% of the time for Paizo PDFs. The only problem I've had is with major headings containing the letter "A". For some reason, the program gets confused and makes the heading incomprehensible. I can usually figure out what the major heading is from the context, or I just grab the book when I'm done. The latest update made it a lot faster to render pages with illos (which look surprisingly great on the screen), and I've not had a crash yet.

Huh. I wonder if that app uses old code. A bunch of Linux folks used to tell us that their Poppler-based PDF readers would drop that A as well; fortunately, the open source library that had the problem was updated, so Linux readers work again.

Stegger (Pathfinder Chronicles Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Fiction Subscriber), Fri, Aug 7, 2009, 01:45 AM

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

I'd really like to hear about people's success with books in pdf format on the iPhone using these and other apps.

I bought the "Good Reader" yesterday and it work really well. An immense difference compared to the cheaper PDF Reader Pro Edition. Thanks Taig!

So far the biggest file I have tried is an AP pdf of about 20 mb but it had no problem handling that at all. Now, I will get back to you once I test the RPG pdf next week.

Forgot to add that controlling the directory and folders of your files is also ready well made and a breeze to use....

Stegger (Pathfinder Chronicles Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Fiction Subscriber), Fri, Aug 7, 2009, 01:52 AM

Vic Wertz wrote:

Huh. I wonder if that app uses old code. A bunch of Linux folks used to tell us that their Poppler-based PDF readers would drop that A as well; fortunately, the open source library that had the problem was updated, so Linux readers work again.

For your information, I just forwarded both Taigs problem and your possible solution to their support team to help nail the problem of an otherwise nice program.

KaeYoss (Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Chronicles, Pathfinder Companion, Pathfinder Fiction, Planet Stories Subscriber), Fri, Aug 7, 2009, 02:14 AM

Vic Wertz wrote:

taig wrote:

I use "Good Reader" and it's good 98% of the time for Paizo PDFs. The only problem I've had is with major headings containing the letter "A". For some reason, the program gets confused and makes the heading incomprehensible. I can usually figure out what the major heading is from the context, or I just grab the book when I'm done. The latest update made it a lot faster to render pages with illos (which look surprisingly great on the screen), and I've not had a crash yet.

Huh. I wonder if that app uses old code. A bunch of Linux folks used to tell us that their Poppler-based PDF readers would drop that A as well; fortunately, the open source library that had the problem was updated, so Linux readers work again.

The standard Reader for the LG Arena (Picsel something something) also has some problems with your PDFs:I think I saw the capital A error, and the pictures have black backrounds that overlay the text.

brock (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Chronicles, Pathfinder Companion, Pathfinder Fiction Subscriber), Fri, Aug 7, 2009, 05:34 AM

Since we are heading off topic anyway, there are current PDF problems using Preview or Skim on a Mac, that don't happen with Adobe Acrobat Reader. There are some comments on it here.

taig (Paizo Superscriber), Fri, Aug 7, 2009, 04:06 PM

Stegger wrote:

Vic Wertz wrote:

Huh. I wonder if that app uses old code. A bunch of Linux folks used to tell us that their Poppler-based PDF readers would drop that A as well; fortunately, the open source library that had the problem was updated, so Linux readers work again.

For your information, I just forwarded both Taigs problem and your possible solution to their support team to help nail the problem of an otherwise nice program.

Cool! Thanks for passing on the issue. They seemed to be updating the software pretty regularly, so I hope they can fix it.

Mairkurion {tm} (Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Fiction, Planet Stories Subscriber), Fri, Aug 7, 2009, 04:21 PM

Great! More Pf for the iPhone! Thanks, guys. Perhaps other iPhone users will find their way to this thread.

Stegger (Pathfinder Chronicles Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Fiction Subscriber), Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 03:39 AM

Vic Wertz wrote:

Huh. I wonder if that app uses old code. A bunch of Linux folks used to tell us that their Poppler-based PDF readers would drop that A as well; fortunately, the open source library that had the problem was updated, so Linux readers work again.

Vic, can I take out a single page from an AP and email it directly to them? They are asking to see a file where the problem occur...

Stegger (Pathfinder Chronicles Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Fiction Subscriber), Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 06:03 AM

Stegger wrote:

Vic, can I take out a single page from an AP and email it directly to them? They are asking to see a file where the problem occur...

I see the problem also exist in the free PFRPG conversion guide..... perhaps it is better to forward that document?

Vic Wertz (Technical Director), Wed, Sep 23, 2009, 03:22 PM

Stegger wrote:

Stegger wrote:

Vic, can I take out a single page from an AP and email it directly to them? They are asking to see a file where the problem occur...

I see the problem also exist in the free PFRPG conversion guide..... perhaps it is better to forward that document?

Sorry I missed this post before... that would be fine. You can also tell them that the problem is likely to be with embedded fonts that use CID 0.

taig (Paizo Superscriber), Wed, Sep 23, 2009, 03:27 PM

Oh, yeah. I forgot about this. Stegger, have you heard anything?

Stegger (Pathfinder Chronicles Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Fiction Subscriber), Mon, Sep 28, 2009, 04:53 AM

I dont have access to the actual email reply, will see if I can find that on my other computer tonight - but reply was in the lines of that it had to do with the Iphone software and that none of the pdf readers on the Iphone currently can renders them correctly. They have put forward a request to Apple to update to current standards but so far unsuccesful.

Sketchpad, Sun, Oct 4, 2009, 08:16 PM

Has anyone tried the FileAid free reader for the iPod Touch?