Ask HN: Best solution for comfortably reading papers and other PDFs | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best solution for comfortably reading papers and other PDFs

5 pointssubstation1313 comments

I often find myself reading academic papers and other PDF articles on a desktop screen and it hurts my eyes.

HN, how do you like to read academic papers and other PDFs?

I have two displays. The horizontal one lets me read two pages at once. The vertical one lets me focus on the one page. The brand names are Dell, Lenovo.

Philips has a two in one display. One of them is E-Ink. If I were shopping I'd look for something like that in E-Ink color.

    https://www.yankodesign.com/2022/10/24/philips-2-in-1-monitor-adds-an-adjustable-e-ink-display-for-your-reading-comfort/
    
    The Philips 24B1D5600 has a 23.3-inch 2560×1440 LCD monitor that you
    can use for regular stuff, and attached to its right side is a
    13.3-inch E INK Carta HD display.

One last thing, monitor screens have buried in their control panel a setting for the display "profile" which you can set to "paper" and there is a tech jargon keyword for automatically dimming the display when much of it is white background color.

Thanks!

Just switched my (portrait) monitor to "paper" to try it out!

Your PDF viewer may also have the option to tune the white color to your liking, for example, change it from 0xFFFFFF to 0xECECEC .

I have just set myself up a portrait-oriented external monitor to see if that helps. I prefer HTML a single-column format version for papers (rather than typical 2-column PDFs) as that reduces annoying back and forth vertical scrolling...

I use a remarkable e-ink tablet, though I'm also looking longingly at the PineNote. Don't tell the whole class, but sometimes I print papers out and read the paper version.

I could not know what is best for you. Depends greatly on monitor / lighting situation / work area or reading area.

My eyesight has got ratty even with glasses, I'm due a check up probably two years ago, so if once I used to prefer paper, now a bright monitor works better for myself. I don't read as much as a result but when I do hunt though any pdfs it's via STDU viewer, as it is my go as it opens a good range of document types - I use a portable version.

can we get rid of that incredibly stupid columnar format?

They're hard enough to read on hardcopy ... but nearly useless on a screen!

I primarily read on my phone. I decided to get a Samsung Fold. That gives me a portable ebook reader with a big enough screen and a lot of control over the visuals. Expensive but worth it imo.

I can't read effectively for a long time on a screen, especially academic papers. I have a laser printer and print everything out to read.

I read PDF's on a touch device.

Sometimes, when that doesn't work, I print it.

And plastic frame +2.0 reading glasses from DollarTree...I've got pairs lying around all over my space.

iPad + Notability app. This is how read PDFs, whether research papers or books. Except not able to flip back and forth like with printed copy, it allows me to write notes, highlight, underline.

I wish Apple new app Freeform had ability to import PDF, but it only inserts a shortcut to PDF file, pretty much useless for my note taking/reading purposes.

e-reader + KOReader in pdf reflow mode [1]

[1] https://github.com/koreader/koreader

For me it's iPad Air.

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