e-reader or tablet for reading academic paper
I'm reading a lot papers after I switched positions in my job. I felt reading on my display annoying. I can't draw on the PDF easily nor able to read while I code (not without switching windows). And printing papers is annoying too. I can't search and the physical paper pile up quickly.
Is an e-reader a good choice for me? Or should I get a tablet instead?
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I absolutely and utterly swear by my reMarkable 2.
Large enough to display pdf's without having to scale down (which always messes up the page readability), can take notes right on the pages, even in multiple layers if I want, can draw on top, include overlays, export my notes as text or even save them within the pdf itself, etc. etc. etc.
Can confirm, am using the remarkable tablet to read a lot of academic papers. The only thing to keep in mind though is that the best experience is that apparently you need good enough vision to be able to read the article without zooming, some people I know struggled with this. However with normal sight, I basically only zoom to note something in the article if there is not enough space to note it down otherwise.
Yep exactly. I hardly ever need to zoom, unless maybe to read some very small tables or annotations.
When I was in grad school we got a lot of potato quality third generation photocopy PDFs. I used an iPad but this was also back when the iPad was basically the only viable tablet option.
I didn't even know about that thing.
It looks pretty great on paper.
I've had it for about a year now and it's just plain awesome. I use it every day.
I currently live the remarkable 2 and also had the first one. Wouldn't want to live without it, but the software is still not really there...
There are some patched versions on GitHub with more functionality, but never tried it.
Company itself argues, they want to be as near to paper as possible. so not many features, which is a fair design choice, but the software still feels sluggish and unoptimized imho
How do you get your documents on the device? Is there a syncing mechanism?
There's a companion app (Android and iOS) and a client software (Windows and Mac). They sync the reading progress as well as notes, so you can always take the version from your PC and print it with all your notes in place if needed.
The software only works as a reader though, so you can't edit anything there. If you do use it to read on, it syncs the current page you're on back to the device though, so at least you can read continuously.