I assume also that if you buy the paper versions somewhere other than straight from pazio you won't be able to get the pdfs for free from pazio. (Buying print is easier from other places just because of international shipping costs and I would like the pdfs for when I wanted to print out little bits or maybe play and online game and use the maps etc.)
Mir, free PDFs are only included for subscription purchases. If you buy the print edition of a Paizo product as a single purchase (for example, the new People of the North Player Companion), there is no accompanying PDF.. to get the PDF would be a separate purchase.
Here's a few things that may help:
- Download the 'Lite' versions of any rulebooks you want to use as they will run faster. (Sadly there are not lite versions of the APs and modules.)
- Make use of the bookmarks and other document navigation tools to skip around to relevant portions of the PDF.
- Try a PDF viewer other than Adobe's. Personally I find that Foxit works somewhat better for those times when I need to consult multiple PDFs at once since I can simply switch tabs between documents rather than having to switch windows.
- Research which tablet environment works best for you and use it to supplement your hardcopies.
Personally, I love my Droid/Nexus combo, because I make heavy use of Google's offerings. For me I'd have to leave behind all the things I most use if I moved to a different environment. That and my familiarity with Android were the deciding factors me for me, and it's considerations like that which you should give precedence to.
Talk to your friends, see what gadgets they have, and see if they'll let you test drive theirs for an afternoon. You can head to a shopping mall or electronics store to try out the devices there too, but unless you're the sort of person who can judge a shoe's comfort by walking up and down an aisle for 30 seconds, you'll probably need more time than that to pick what's best. ;)
One final option that just occurred to me is Amazon's Kindle, but unlike the other three, it is a much more restricted platform, so it may not be quite the do-all device that the others might be.
Hope this helps!
A quick side note: Foxit is less of a memory hog than Adobe and IMO much better for general PDF browsing, but it's inferior for reading heavily hyperlinked PDFs or interactive maps for APs. I always use Adobe Reader for the maps - they really don't work otherwise.
It's something you get used to, trust me. Some columns are still frustrating, but for the most part it's easy to use after a while.
If you're using a tablet, Goodreader is totally 100% worth it for PDF annotations and notes.
Since you are concerned about screen size but are also thinking about Android, I can give you some personal feedback.
The tablet I use is the Google Nexus 10. Like yourself, I was apprehensive about the seemingly small screen sizes of tablets, so I decided to go with the biggest that's commonly available (i.e. 10" diagonal). As a point of reference, the size of the screen I'm talking about is about 8.5×5.3 inches — slightly smaller than taking a sheet of paper from your printer and fold in half, or about the size of a page from a hardbound novel.
Now the nice thing about the Nexus 10 is that it has a very high screen resolution (higher than the newest iPad actually). We're talking 300dpi (2560×1600) — the same as the standard output setting on most printers, and far greater than a 1080p tv/monitor. This means that when I'm reading something on the tablet, it is just as clear and sharp as if I was reading it from a printed book, it also means I can read it at a smaller size than on my monitor because the pixels are so much finer and more densely arrayed.
The other thing to consider about reading on a tablet is that you can zoom in and pan around. So, if the text is too small to read, just zoom in on one of the two columns and pan down it, then over to the other. In this way, the text will be as large as, or even larger than, what you would find in a hardcopy rulebook. Of course, that's not quite the same as reading a magazine, but then magazines can't access the PRD and other resources.
Personally I'm more apt to sit down and read a hardcopy whereas the tablet is great for referencing things I've already perused without having to lug my entire library of rulebooks around.
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If you're using a tablet, Goodreader is totally 100% worth it for PDF annotations and notes.
Let me second (or third) this, especially for the feature that allows you to set up crops for a document. So you can chop the PDF down to just the part of the page that contains the text. This, on my iPad, makes the PDFs as legible as reading them in print.
Let me second (or third) this, especially for the feature that allows you to set up crops for a document. So you can chop the PDF down to just the part of the page that contains the text. This, on my iPad, makes the PDFs as legible as reading them in print.
4thed
Especially for the non-distructive cropping. But so many other things.
On Android a quick search brings up ezPDF Reader which seems to have similar cropping feature. If its good for fitting legal documents to size it should be good for RPG products.
Definitely go with ezPDF for Android. It's my default PDF browser on my tablet.