How Practical is a Kindle for Reading Photography Books?
Why I bought a Kindle
A couple of months ago I took the plunge and bought a WiFi only Kindle. As a self-confessed geek and gadget freak the Kindle had been on my radar for a while, but the release of the third generation was enough to coax me to open my wallet and purchase one. What made the decision for me? The price drop and native PDF support.
As an amateur photographer I was hoping I could use my new Kindle to catch up on my ever increasing backlog of photography ebooks and electronic editions of my paper books. My research into its suitability for this purpose didn’t find much to confirm its usefulness one way or the other so it was hard to make an informed decision. But at that price I only had to buy a few books electronically instead of physically and it would have paid for itself so the gadget lust eventually won out.
I’m sharing my experiences here to help others make a more informed decision when considering purchasing a Kindle. I’ve included plenty of photos so you can see for yourself the points being made and decide how important they are given your reading habits. Just click on a thumbnail to see a much larger version of the image.
What makes photography books different?
Kindles are great ebook readers. The E-Ink screen is perfect for extended reading sessions because the underlying technology mimics how we read paper, via reflected light bouncing off the screen (page) rather than using a backlight to transmit through the screen and directly into our eye. The result is a screen that works better in varied lighting conditions and reduces the user’s eye strain when reading for extended periods of time.
That doesn’t automatically mean they will be suitable for reading about photography.
What makes the reading requirements of photography books different from the typical Kindle fare?
- Significance of design and layout: Photography is inherently a visual medium. When writing about photographic composition, techniques, and other factors the authors invariably use the layout of the work and a number of (usually large) images to help make their points. Visit your nearest bookstore (or bookshelf) and pick up any title about photography and you will see what I mean.
- Colour: Unless your enjoy reading purely about black and white photography there will be large amounts of colour used to help embellish the design and layout.
- Form factor: Photography books tend to be larger than novels. As an example the “Vision and Voice”
book I have sitting next to me is 9 x 8 inches in size, larger than the screen of any readily available ebook reader or tablet device.
- Available document formats: Most books related to photography are available electronically in PDF format rather than native ebook document formats.
The average Kindle is intended to read books or newspapers with few (or no) images, natively in black and white, and delivered in document formats that can smoothly adjust their layout to suit the limitations of the device. This is a far cry from most photography books and it would be unwise to simply assume the Kindle will be suitable for reading that type of material.
There will obviously be some compromises required. The real question is are those compromises workable or will readers resort to more familiar modes of reading the heavily graphical material?
How much of an impact is the Kindle’s novel sized screen?
The base Kindle resembles the size of a small novel, which is significantly smaller than the average photography book. To get a sense of the difference compare the size of my copy of “Vision and Voice” with its ebook equivalent (40% discount code: EBOOKA-PP) .
When viewing the ebook in portrait orientation the screen is much too small to be usable, at around a quarter of the size of the physical page. Pictures give a reasonable impression of the original material but the text is too small to be readable.
Viewed in landscape orientation the situation is much improved. “Vision and Voice” is wider than most books and yet the Kindle’s screen still manages to cover almost two thirds of the page width. The display shrinks the text size to compensate but I still found the results quite readable even though my eye sight is far from perfect. As most ebooks available online (e.g. Craft and Vision, ProPhotoPublishing) are laid out according to standard paper sizes (A4 or letter), viewing in landscape orientation brings the screen width even closer to the intended page width. This improves readability even further and allows text and images to be displayed at close to original size.
The trade off of using landscape orientation is a single page is displayed in two or three fragments. From a navigation point of view this is fairly transparent but it does impact how the content is experienced by the user. More on that later.
More intricate images will require magnification to be able to interpret their finer detail. Unfortunately viewing the screen at anything larger than the “fit-to-width” setting does significantly impact navigation on the Kindle. Multiple key presses (Aa key, then the 5 way navigation pad to activate “Actual Size”) are required to enable magnification, and once in this mode you navigate within the current page using the 5 way navigation pad. On the images below you can see a shaded area on each of the scrollbars indicating the current viewable area. For this particular book viewing at “Actual Size” means there are eight separate viewing areas per page. When reading left to right, from the top of the page to the bottom, that means we require at least 10 navigation controller presses (right, down, left, then repeat…) to navigate a full sized screen. At this point the user interface is no longer transparent to the end user and noticeably impacts the reading experience. Personally I would find it unworkable to read a book this way.
The verdict? As long as the text size remains readable in landscape orientation, and the file doesn’t contain too many detailed images that require close examination, the Kindle’s form factor didn’t overly impact the reading experience.
How does the Kindle cope with graphical layouts?
Photography books tend to make heavy use of graphics and page layout to support their points. This layout can be maintained on the Kindle by using the Portable Document Format (PDF) to store the document, as PDF is purpose built for maintain integrity of the displayed content regardless of the device rendering it. The problem here is the interaction of form factor and layout, and more specifically how much of the page layout must be seen at once to help support the overall message.
Take the “The Magic of Black and White Part I – Vision” ebook from Craft and Vision as an example. The content is designed to be viewed a whole page at a time, or preferably a two page spread at a time, and so uses a one and a half page image to help demonstrate its point. When zoomed out to view a full page at a time in portrait orientation you can make some sense of the image, but when viewing in landscape orientation with “fit-to-width” enabled the image loses much of its impact. The reader will need to assemble in their mind’s eye four screens into a single image to fully understand how the image supports the concepts described in text. Part of the message being conveyed by the layout is lost or impeded due to the limitations of the technology.
Textual photography ebooks with supporting images, such as the “Lightroom 3 Mini-guide ” from X-equals, tend to be more forgiving. In this example the text size is almost large enough to read in portrait orientation, but the layout is equally acceptable when viewed in landscape as the images are less than a single page in size. In addition the image detail is sufficient when viewed in landscape to not require magnification beyond the “fit-to-width” display mode.
In some cases layout does not necessarily contribute to the underlying message but can still impact readability. A case in point are ebooks that use a multi-column layout and the example I’ve used here is Ken Rockwell’s “Nikon D90 User’s Guide”. The document needs to be viewed in landscape orientation for the text to be readable, but thanks to the multi-column layout you need to navigate down the page to read the first column then return to the top of the page to begin the next column. This visual flourish does little for the content but does impact its usability when viewed on a smaller screen. This issue does not lessen the value of the ebook content, and I personally own copies of useful multi-column ebooks from Ken Rockwell, Craft and Vision and others, but serves as a reminder to view a sample online before purchasing content to be read on your Kindle.
In rare cases the design is such that the display device doesn’t impact the message at all. The only case I’ve come across is the "101 Inspiring Poses" by Christopher Grey. What makes this book different? It contains no text, and the images themselves don’t need to be interpreted in detail so viewing these in portrait orientation, a full page at a time, is perfectly adequate.
The verdict? Graphical layouts can be acceptable on the Kindle provided the reader is comfortable mentally reassembling larger images viewed a piece at a time. In my experience this only became a problem where books use full page (or larger) images which can tend to lose their impact when viewed on the small screen. Books that use multi-column layouts are too tedious to navigate on the Kindle and should be read elsewhere.
Is PDF a suitable document format for the Kindle?
Given photography books rely heavily upon graphical layouts they are usually supplied as PDF to maintain the integrity of the displayed content. PDF support is a relatively new feature introduced in the latest generation of Kindles and prior to that documents had to be converted to a native document format to be readable on the device. Would photography books be easier to view on the Kindle if they were available in a native format rather than PDF?
Ebook formats, such as the mobi format often used for distributing material for Kindles, tend to assume the content is primarily textual. They are designed to allow resizing of display fonts and reflowing of the text to suit the size of the current screen. This is important for typical Kindle content but it is near impossible to support both the design intent of a heavily graphical layout and this type of device display flexibility in a single document format. Referring back to the earlier ”The Magic of Black and White” ebook example and its one and a half page image spread, how should this be resized and the text flow adjusted to cater for the display size of different ebook reader screens? There is no simple answer and it would be difficult for any ebook reader to make intelligent decisions about what the author would consider most important to retain from the original design.
Some authors are providing ebook reader friendly versions of their documents in addition to the more graphical PDF version. Victoria Bampton’s “Adobe Lightroom 3 – The Missing FAQ” is one such example, and comparing the two versions demonstrates some of the trade offs required to take full advantage of the display device’s capabilities. In this case the loss of some visual flourishes does not overly impact the FAQ content, and the increased usability (and ability to read in portrait orientation) more than makes up for the trade offs.
One limitation of native ebook reader document formats is you have less control over displaying (or magnifying) images. This may be partly due to authors choosing to drop image resolution to reduce the size of the document, but regardless of the cause it makes more detailed images harder to view than with PDF versions of the documents.
There are products available that will let you attempt your own conversion from PDF to ebook reader native formats. Calibre is one of the better known solutions for this. In my own attempts I found the conversion of graphical layout intensive books problematic and ultimately futile. There were two main causes for this:
- Large images, whether background or standalone, were difficult for the software to intelligently place
- Using PDF as the source format for a conversion reduces the quality of the result. PDF is focussed upon the display of the content, and not the semantics of the content (paragraph structure, etc), so results are better if a Word document, HTML, or similar source format is used.
The verdict? Displaying PDFs on an ebook reader may not be ideal, but ebook reader native formats cannot maintain the graphical layout of photography books so normally PDF is the better choice. Only consider using ebook reader native formats for books with fewer (and smaller) supporting images. It is not recommended to attempt conversion of a photography ebook to a native document format unless you have something other than a PDF format to use as input to the process.
The verdict: How practical is a Kindle for reading photography books?
The Kindle can be quite practical for reading photography books, as long as you adhere to a few do’s and don’ts:
Do:
- Use the author provided ebook reader version, if available
- Check for samples ebook pages online before purchasing a book, to ensure you will be comfortable reading it on your Kindle
- Use PDF format for viewing books with a graphical layout
- Read documents in landscape orientation
Don’t:
- Try to view documents with multi-column pages
- Try to view documents where viewing multi-page images are crucial to understanding the content
- Try to view documents where you will need to frequently zoom into actual size to view image details
It will require some effort by the reader to work around the limitations of the device, and it will not be suitable for reading every book in you photography library, but it is still practical if you are willing to work within the device constraints.
Ultimately the decision comes down to personal preference, whether the user’s reading habits are compatible with the guidelines provided above, and whether your budget could extend to one of the alternatives below that provide a larger viewing area and a less constrained viewing experience. I’m willing to work within the Kindle’s constraints for now, but will keep an eye on the alternatives and may reconsider my position in another year or so.
How would I expect other ebook readers or tablets to compare?
The base Kindle isn’t the only ebook reader on the market, and there are alternatives (namely tablet devices) that are also useful for reading books. Based upon my experience with the Kindle, and the publicly available technical specifications for some alternatives, I’ve made observations about how I’d expect a representative sample of the competition to relate to my experiences described above.
In summary the physically larger Kindle DX and iPad
Ebook Readers
All alternative ebook readers listed below are physically larger than the Kindle used for this article, and also have a higher resolution vertically though only the Kindle DX has a higher resolution horizontally. That means the text being read will be larger provided the 7 inch screens are being used in landscape orientation. The trade off is the 7 inch screens will require you to read a single page in smaller fragments (e.g. three to four fragments, instead of the Kindle’s two to three fragments) because the horizontal resolution has not increased to match the vertical resolution. So it is possible the 7 inch screens will make the photography book reading experience more difficult because of excessive page turning and less of the page being displayed at any given time.
The Kindle DX has a 50% larger screen in addition to the larger horizontal and vertical resolutions. This may make the ebook text readable in portrait orientation, and if so this would significantly improve its usability with photography books. Multi-column documents could be read without constantly navigating around the screen. Double page image spreads could be viewed with a single page turn. This would make a much wider range of ebook content usable on the device and would resolve most of the qualifications made when recommending the smaller Kindle.
The NOOKcolor is the only colour ebook reader device included in this list. It has obvious benefits when reading heavily graphical photography books, but at the expense of being usable in fewer lighting conditions (e.g. LCD screens are difficult to use in full sunlight) and less suitable than E-Ink screens for longer reading sessions.
| Product | Price * | Screen size (diagonal) |
Screen Resolution (pixel) |
Screen Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kindle (Wi-Fi) (included as baseline for comparison) |
$139 |
6 inch | 600 x 800 | E-Ink, b&w |
Kindle DX (3G) |
$379 | 9.7 inch | 1200 x 824 | E-Ink, b&w |
| NOOKcolor | $249 | 7 inch | 1024 x 600 | LCD, colour |
Sony Reader Daily Edition |
$259.99 | 7 inch | 1024 x 600 | E-Ink, b&w |
Tablets
One of the main attractions of a tablet is it is not a single purpose device like the average ebook reader. This increased utility means the user is more likely to have it with them when a reading opportunity presents itself, and the greater usage can make it easier to justify the additional upfront expense. For photographers they can even serve as a legitimate business tool to display their portfolio, amongst other tasks.
The iPad, as with the Kindle DX above, has the potential to be usable for a much wider range of photography ebook content than the 6 and 7 inch screen devices it is being compared with. The physically larger screen and pixel resolution should support reading in portrait orientation and be suitable for the types of photography books not recommended for use on the Kindle evaluated in the main article. The iPad also is able to display the books in full colour, though with the same reading trade offs as with other LCD screens. It will be usable in fewer lighting conditions (e.g. can’t be used in full sunlight) and is less suitable than an E-Ink screen for longer reading sessions.
The Galaxy Tab, and other 7 inch and smaller tablets, will suffer from the same issues as the remainder of the smaller ebook reader and tablet devices being considered here. It should not be purchased solely as an ebook reader, but it should be usable as an ebook reader if you purchased it for its general tablet capabilities.
| Product | Price * | Screen size (diagonal) |
Screen Resolution (pixel) |
Screen Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPad (16GB, Wifi) |
$562.98 | 9.7 inch | 1024 x 768 | LCD, colour |
Samsung Galaxy Tab (T-Mobile) |
$869.95 | 7 inch | 1024 x 600 | LCD, colour |
* All prices are indicative and were recorded on December 9, 2010
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In: Equipment, Review · Tagged with: book, education, kindle, photography
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Thanks for a great article and I completely agree. I have gone down just the same path as you, and for the same reasons.
I rejected the iPad and other tablets both on the grounds of budget and size.
I wanted my reader to be light and portable and the Kindle 3 delivers on all counts.
The other great use I have discovered is using the “Read it later” plugin for Firefox which works along-side Calibre to deliver webpages, that I have marked during the course of the day, to my Kindle for reading in more comfort later.
As a plus, I have also found it great to take travelling to keep up to date with emails – something I never had anticipated doing with it. I am looking forward to the basic browsing capabilities being expanded.
Again, thanks for a great post!
@Kiff Backhouse, Thanks for the feedback! The “read it later” plugin sounds interesting and I’m going to have to look that one up. Thanks for the tip!
What a great review, thanks for the detail and thought that went into thos post. I also recomment Instapaper for flagging content to read later on the Kindle – works from any browser and gets the content delivered automatically to your kindle too, no need for Calibre (and free is you use wifi).
@Ewan, Thanks for the feedback. I tend to use my Kindle only for reading (e)books at the moment but if I ever end up commuting again I’ll be sure to give Instapaper a look.
I was surprised at how popular photo ebooks are. Even with Kindle for PC I find that the books are lacking compared to paperback. However I’m sure that there are reasons that some people prefer them. In my experience about 25% of sales are ebook. Perhaps the portability makes them ready reference? I’d like to see some surveys of book readers and their opinions for choosing one format over another.
@A. K., I think one of the main factors that can contribute to ebook sales is the low cost. If an ebook version of a title is similarly priced to a paper copy most would prefer to spend a little more for the physical book experience. If the ebook is half the price (or less) of the paper copy it is a more compelling argument for going digital. The trade offs in usability are offset by the cost and portability benefits. Something to consider.
Wow, impressive summary.
As an author of an ebook with photographs I have to say I had to put a lot of work into the title; I mean – the conversion of every photo to make it looks good in BW displays (these are still most popular, as far as I know), some compromises to formatting (I published the ebook in almost every possible format, but had in my mind that Kindle version would be most wanted), etc…
Anyway, I think the result is quite satisfactory and for Kindle or Nook users, I wouldn’t recommend PDF version; the native formats – in my opinion that’s the most convenient way to read.
@Rudolf, Thanks for the comments. I completely agree that the native format should be used whenever possible as it allows the author to decide how best to present the material within the device’s limitations. When the author hasn’t done this you need to resort to PDFs and thus make your own decisions re whether the PDF will work on your particular device. Now that larger (~10in) tablets are becoming more popular this issue might go away, but until they become more prevalent the eBook reader/6in screen form factor will remain an issue for this class of eBook.
Curious how you feel about this now if you read on the Kindle web reader or the Kindle Fire, or a Kindle app for Android or iOS.
@Nick, The Kindle software wasn’t really the limiting factor here. Screen size limited the usability of different types of PDFs so you had to carefully pick your reading material to work within the device’s capabilities. I now have access to an iPad and Android Tablet (Asus Transformer) and want to write a follow up based upon that experience. Both are much more suitable for reading PDFs a full page at a time so work around many of the limitations highlighted in the post. In fact the recent review of the Craft & Vision eBook (~70 pages) was read entirely on the Android tablet.
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Thanks for a great article. I’m going to get one of the new Kindles for Christmas and I read a lot of photo books so this article is perfect.
@Jules75, Thanks for the feedback. I’ve been meaning to do a followup now I have used a Kindle, iPad (Gen 1) and Android tablets (both 7 and 10.1 inch) to read photography books. Short version: 6 to 7 inch devices need to be used in landscape mode (sideways) to keep text big enough to be easily readable and this becomes painful when authors use two or more columns of text. I’m unsure how these slightly larger devices (iPad Mini, Kindle HD 8.9) will fare and whether they will allow one page to be viewed at a time. If your budget can stretch, I’d suggest getting a full sized tablet (iPad or Android or Kindle DX) if you are planning to do a lot of eBook or PDF reading on the device. Either that or prepare to be selective about which eBooks/PDFs you can read on the device.