What's a good simple e-reader with a back light?
August 30, 2024 11:40 AM Subscribe
Yeah that's what I' m looking for.
Currently I'm using my partner's old kindle with no backlight. My partner got a Kobo but wasn't happy with it because he tends to read .pdf's and says most e-readers aren't good at that (he can't make the font large enough on those, for example). I often get reading material in .pdf form too but it's not that important to me. I guess most of my stuff is in .epub format.
I'm not interested in being on the internet on this device. I just want to put books on it. So nothing TOO fancy but needs a good light and simple controls. Would be nice if it showed how much battery was left (my current old kindle doesn't).
Currently I'm using my partner's old kindle with no backlight. My partner got a Kobo but wasn't happy with it because he tends to read .pdf's and says most e-readers aren't good at that (he can't make the font large enough on those, for example). I often get reading material in .pdf form too but it's not that important to me. I guess most of my stuff is in .epub format.
I'm not interested in being on the internet on this device. I just want to put books on it. So nothing TOO fancy but needs a good light and simple controls. Would be nice if it showed how much battery was left (my current old kindle doesn't).
Best answer: I think the PDF problem is almost intractable unless you're looking at the very highest-end e-readers that simply have a screen large enough/high enough resolution to display your PDFs' pages at full size; an iPad Pro is kind of the best option. PDF, while it's kind of an all-purpose document format these days, is historically print-derived and in practice frequently has features like page size, font size, margins, pagination, etc. baked in. This means any attempt to extract and reflow the text dynamically (as would be required to change the font size on an e-reader) will be kludgy at best and may not work at all. And many PDFs simply contain images--no text at all--possibly with an invisible, error-filled OCR text layer to provide a modicum of searchability.
The epub format works great on Kobos, and unlike your partner I think they're fine, but I don't try to make it work for PDFs unless they contain something like scanned pages from a paperback book, which actually works surprisingly well. Look for a newer model with the warm backlight, which is a lot more pleasant than the older cool white version.
posted by pullayup at 11:52 AM on August 30 [1 favorite]
The epub format works great on Kobos, and unlike your partner I think they're fine, but I don't try to make it work for PDFs unless they contain something like scanned pages from a paperback book, which actually works surprisingly well. Look for a newer model with the warm backlight, which is a lot more pleasant than the older cool white version.
posted by pullayup at 11:52 AM on August 30 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: phunniemee, thank you for the Kindle Paperwhite suggestion. As for Calibre, are you saying to put the material on my PC first, open in Calibre, convert to an e-reader format and THEN transfer the file to the e-reader device?
posted by DMelanogaster at 11:53 AM on August 30
posted by DMelanogaster at 11:53 AM on August 30
a good light
There are a lot of readers with front lighting - which I think is what you mean, right? Back lighting is what computer monitors and the screens of regular tablets like the iPad have: the light beams out from the screens themselves. Front lighting is what e-ink readers have, where the light actually comes from tiny LEDs on top of the screen, and it reflects off the the screen the same way it would reflect off paper.
Anyway, lots of eink readers have front lighting, but do you care about color temperature? Some readers let you have varying degrees of white or warm light, while others (the cheaper ones) only have white light.
posted by trig at 11:54 AM on August 30 [1 favorite]
There are a lot of readers with front lighting - which I think is what you mean, right? Back lighting is what computer monitors and the screens of regular tablets like the iPad have: the light beams out from the screens themselves. Front lighting is what e-ink readers have, where the light actually comes from tiny LEDs on top of the screen, and it reflects off the the screen the same way it would reflect off paper.
Anyway, lots of eink readers have front lighting, but do you care about color temperature? Some readers let you have varying degrees of white or warm light, while others (the cheaper ones) only have white light.
posted by trig at 11:54 AM on August 30 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: yes, FRONT lighting! I don't know what I want. Maybe I need to go to an actual store and take a look. Would there be a problem with only white light?
posted by DMelanogaster at 11:56 AM on August 30
posted by DMelanogaster at 11:56 AM on August 30
As for Calibre, are you saying to put the material on my PC first, open in Calibre, convert to an e-reader format and THEN transfer the file to the e-reader device?
Yup it works incredibly well. With kindle you can email files to [username]@kindle.com and they'll just show up.
I've loaded so much crap onto my kindle this way, it's great. Like, you want to read an entire Wikipedia page later on an airplane? Copy and paste the whole text into Calibre, turn it into an epub, and email it to your kindle. Done. It's one of the few tech things that just seems to consistently work.
posted by phunniemee at 11:59 AM on August 30 [2 favorites]
Yup it works incredibly well. With kindle you can email files to [username]@kindle.com and they'll just show up.
I've loaded so much crap onto my kindle this way, it's great. Like, you want to read an entire Wikipedia page later on an airplane? Copy and paste the whole text into Calibre, turn it into an epub, and email it to your kindle. Done. It's one of the few tech things that just seems to consistently work.
posted by phunniemee at 11:59 AM on August 30 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: GREAT! I already have Calibre on my PC , so even better. Thanks!
posted by DMelanogaster at 12:00 PM on August 30
posted by DMelanogaster at 12:00 PM on August 30
Best answer: Would there be a problem with only white light?
For me, I'd want warm light, because I'd only be using the light at night and I don't want fluorescent-white lighting at night. But that's a personal preference. Does looking at bright computer screens at night bother you? If not, adjustable color temperature might not be so important to you.
Going to a store to try out some models is a good idea to get a sense of what the UI is like and what they feel like in the hand. However, there'll be a limited selection of models, and I think it'll be hard to get a sense of how you feel about the lighting given that the lighting in the store itself is likely to be super bright.
These days there are walk-throughs on youtube of pretty much any model, so you can see what the interface is like that way, if that helps.
posted by trig at 12:00 PM on August 30
For me, I'd want warm light, because I'd only be using the light at night and I don't want fluorescent-white lighting at night. But that's a personal preference. Does looking at bright computer screens at night bother you? If not, adjustable color temperature might not be so important to you.
Going to a store to try out some models is a good idea to get a sense of what the UI is like and what they feel like in the hand. However, there'll be a limited selection of models, and I think it'll be hard to get a sense of how you feel about the lighting given that the lighting in the store itself is likely to be super bright.
These days there are walk-throughs on youtube of pretty much any model, so you can see what the interface is like that way, if that helps.
posted by trig at 12:00 PM on August 30
By the way, I've had mixed experience converting PDFs to ebook formats. That's because not every PDF is encoded in an extractor-friendly way. There are PDFs that will work okay, while others convert to nonsense strings, or randomly omit every instance spaces between words or the letter "f", or insert random characters everywhere, or what have you. (See this Ask from today.) PDF is a strange format and a mixed bag as far as conversion goes.
But as I understand it, reading PDFs is not what you're planning to be using this for, right?
Calibre will convert anything that can be straightforwardly converted into any ebook format, so if you get a kobo and want to buy books from the kindle store (for example) you can do that and use Calibre to remove the DRM (a good idea in any case) and convert the kindle book to a kobo-friendly format if necessary. And as mentioned above it can convert a lot of online content pretty easily.
One more note: if you're planning to read books with lots of images, be prepared for that to suck on eink screens - both in terms of image quality, rendering speed, and easy zoom-ability.
posted by trig at 12:07 PM on August 30 [1 favorite]
But as I understand it, reading PDFs is not what you're planning to be using this for, right?
Calibre will convert anything that can be straightforwardly converted into any ebook format, so if you get a kobo and want to buy books from the kindle store (for example) you can do that and use Calibre to remove the DRM (a good idea in any case) and convert the kindle book to a kobo-friendly format if necessary. And as mentioned above it can convert a lot of online content pretty easily.
One more note: if you're planning to read books with lots of images, be prepared for that to suck on eink screens - both in terms of image quality, rendering speed, and easy zoom-ability.
posted by trig at 12:07 PM on August 30 [1 favorite]
Newer Paperwhites do have adaptive lighting - mine is set to switch to warm light at 8pm and back in the morning. Much as I've detached from the Amazon ecosystem, the actual hardware is hard to beat. And the email trick lets you easily add epubs from any bookstore.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:14 PM on August 30 [1 favorite]
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:14 PM on August 30 [1 favorite]
I have a paperwhite. One of the settings allows for black background and white text. The kindle apps for my Apple devices also allow for this. Makes my night time reading very pleasant.
posted by kabong the wiser at 1:09 PM on August 30
posted by kabong the wiser at 1:09 PM on August 30
I am pretty happy with my kobo sage. It integrates well with Dropbox. All I have to do is put my ebooks in a designated Dropbox folder and I have easy access on the kobo.
posted by jknx at 1:22 PM on August 30
posted by jknx at 1:22 PM on August 30
I love the Kobo Sage as well, and the Dropbox integration is *almost* a proper replacement for being able to email files straight to the ereader as you can with a Kindle. The lighting is great and it plays nicely with Calibre if you have a use for that.
posted by Stacey at 1:44 PM on August 30
posted by Stacey at 1:44 PM on August 30
Earlier this month I purchased an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3rd (7th Generation) 300ppi, 4gb, 6" [Grade C] from eBay for around $25. Took it on a trip and it worked fine for me. The lighting was just right for me and I loaded my Kindle library on it.
When I say "Kindle library" I mean books purchased from Amazon, books purchased through Humble Bundle in epub format (that I emailed to my Paperwhite's account), articles I saved and sent to myself, and other items I've collected over the years. I agree with the Calibre suggestion; I found some of the books on web pages, saved them off, and reformatted into epub. Also agree about images; some of the books were comics and viewing them was challenging.
Getting a used model meant I wasn't directly rewarding Amazon (though I did purchase the ad free option when registering it) and I'm too cheap to spend a lot. This thing just functioned as expected and I'm glad I brought it on my journey. Paired it with a $5 protector (not a folio) and it fits in my back pocket.
posted by bacalao_y_betun at 1:47 PM on August 30 [1 favorite]
When I say "Kindle library" I mean books purchased from Amazon, books purchased through Humble Bundle in epub format (that I emailed to my Paperwhite's account), articles I saved and sent to myself, and other items I've collected over the years. I agree with the Calibre suggestion; I found some of the books on web pages, saved them off, and reformatted into epub. Also agree about images; some of the books were comics and viewing them was challenging.
Getting a used model meant I wasn't directly rewarding Amazon (though I did purchase the ad free option when registering it) and I'm too cheap to spend a lot. This thing just functioned as expected and I'm glad I brought it on my journey. Paired it with a $5 protector (not a folio) and it fits in my back pocket.
posted by bacalao_y_betun at 1:47 PM on August 30 [1 favorite]
I just got an old Kindle Paperwhite 3 - they're around $20-$25 on eBay. It has the features you want.
posted by zippy at 2:52 PM on August 30
posted by zippy at 2:52 PM on August 30
+1 for Kindle Paperwhite. The lighting brightness and temperature will change according to ambient lighting where you're reading, so it's great for nighttime reading that won't disturb anybody.
posted by emelenjr at 3:20 PM on August 30
posted by emelenjr at 3:20 PM on August 30
Best answer: If at some point you or your partner really wants something that uses PDF directly, it's the e-Ink/e-Paper tablets that are set up to deal well with those: ReMarkable, Onyx Boox, Kindle Scribe, and similar.
No matter which device you end up using to read on, I highly recommend making friends with Calibre and using it for conversions and backup.
posted by stormyteal at 6:12 PM on August 30
No matter which device you end up using to read on, I highly recommend making friends with Calibre and using it for conversions and backup.
posted by stormyteal at 6:12 PM on August 30
I will also nth the Paperwhite; I haven't gotten into Calibre a lot but when I _have_ used it, it worked great. That said, if you might want to carry _just_ your e-reader somewhere, some non-Amazon e-ink e-readers use Android (not the latest version, usually) and could theoretically run Android apps that you might want to use.
posted by TimHare at 6:42 PM on August 30
posted by TimHare at 6:42 PM on August 30
Piling on to kindle paper-white. Never needs internet. Has various level backlighting. Shows battery %. New they're cheap. Used they're sooo cheap.
posted by chasles at 5:56 AM on August 31
posted by chasles at 5:56 AM on August 31
I love my old Kindle paper white that I've had for 6+ years and is still going strong!!
posted by starpoint at 8:16 PM on August 31
posted by starpoint at 8:16 PM on August 31
Response by poster: Thanks for all the input --- a follow-up question:
What does it mean to buy the Kindle Paperwhite on Amazon with 3 months free Kindle Books? I understand that I would have to be careful and cancel before I'm billed (I do this every time I get a free week or month of Amazon Prime) -- BUT what are they "giving" me? does it mean that at the end of the 3 months the books I've "bought" (for free)(?) are removed??? Or do I "own" them "forever"? How does that work?
posted by DMelanogaster at 12:12 PM on September 7
What does it mean to buy the Kindle Paperwhite on Amazon with 3 months free Kindle Books? I understand that I would have to be careful and cancel before I'm billed (I do this every time I get a free week or month of Amazon Prime) -- BUT what are they "giving" me? does it mean that at the end of the 3 months the books I've "bought" (for free)(?) are removed??? Or do I "own" them "forever"? How does that work?
posted by DMelanogaster at 12:12 PM on September 7
Best answer: It looks to me like it's three months of the "Kindle Unlimited" service - think of that as basically Netflix for ebooks. A subset of Kindle books will be available to you for free during that time. When your three months are up, if you don't renew, you will no longer have access to those books, same as if you cancel a streaming TV service.
posted by Stacey at 12:56 PM on September 7
posted by Stacey at 12:56 PM on September 7
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For reading docs that aren't intentionally formatted as ebooks, I highly recommend Calibre. Unless those PDFs are scanned images, Calibre should be able to format them into a friendly e-reader format with no trouble.
posted by phunniemee at 11:51 AM on August 30 [8 favorites]