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Comment by espeed | Hacker News Reader

Unless Google has a magic PDF reader, reading PDFs on it is going to suck. Other than that, I think the 7 pads work.

I wonder about a 7.7" screen vs 7" screen for PDFs. Here is the same Google Books PDF (they are image scans of books, so no reflow) on a 7.7" and 7" screen:

Galaxy Tab 7.7 (1280x800): http://mikecanex.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/techfondle04121...

NookColor 7" (1024x600): http://mikecanex.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/gbpdfs002.jpg

I don't own either of those -- or any. I'm still undecided on which would be best. [typo edit]

I tried using my Nook Color as a PDF reader for textbooks and other technical publications. In short, it didn't work very well. For an illustration & diagram heavy text, the Nook Color was too slow (the Tab 7 would probably be fine) in rendering pages, and the screen was too small to show much of a page. So I upgraded to a 10" Transformer and had a much better experience.

So depends on what your PDF is like. For basic text, the 7 inch screen was fine. For technical papers, you'll probably want something bigger.

What's wrong with ezPDF? IMO the best pdf reader out there on mobile, beating the now overbloated GoodReader on ios

I think OP is trying to say that 7 inch tablets are less than optimal for reading PDFs, not that the software isn't there.

I think I'd have to agree with OP on that one because for a month, I had to read a 2 column PDF on a 10 inch tablet and that strained my eyes to do. Would a one-column PDF have worked? Yeah, it would have, but I think just barely. I can't imagine reading a one-column PDF on a 7 inch tablet (I hate scrolling unless it's to change pages), much less a two-column one.

Have you tried RepliGo Reader? I bought it back in the day for my G1 and have been using it ever since. It's magic enough to be able to get CS papers to be mostly-readable on my phone (with their special "Reading View"), so I'd expect it to do well on a 7-inch tablet.

I've actually never heard of that! I'll look into it right now, thanks!

I was looking for PDF solutions months ago, but if this works well, it could come in handy in the future.

Are you talking about the size? Both Adobe Reader and ezPDF Reader have text reflow, though.

Does Chrome not open PDFs?

I read PDFs on my Xoom tablet all the time with QuickOffice Lite. It works fine.

yes, but the Xoom is a 10 inch device.

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