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All iPads which one for reading journal papers?

D

dljor

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 3, 2013
292
32
9.7 or 7.9?

Which one is better for reading journal papers?

I have a mini in my hands. Single column papers look great on it. Double column ones not so much. I am not sure if it's caused by the tiny texts or the fuzziness due to a non-retina display.

Anyone else use his iPad for reading journal papers?

Thanks.
 
dljor said:
9.7 or 7.9?

Which one is better for reading journal papers?

I have a mini in my hands. Single column papers look great on it. Double column ones not so much. I am not sure if it's caused by the tiny texts or the fuzziness due to a non-retina display.

Anyone else use his iPad for reading journal papers?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Looks like you answered your own question. :)

It comes down to whether or not you want to zoom in and out on each column. The text size wont change with the Retina, but it may be sharper.
 
I am a PhD student. Definitely the Air.

I have tried endnote with my mini and it is cramped. Readable, but a little small for comfort.

I much preferred my ipad 3 for journal/research articles.
 
Go with the larger.

Especially if the papers are PDFs

I read/highlighted/annotated many case studies and papers on my ipad3 and it was already a little tight since the source documents were typeset for 8.5x11".
 
sounds like the bigger one will be better in this case?

i do have an iPhone and a rMBP 13". Will the iPad Air be too close in size to the rMBP?

----------
deeddawg said:
Go with the larger.

Especially if the papers are PDFs

I read/highlighted/annotated many case studies and papers on my ipad3 and it was already a little tight since the source documents were typeset for 8.5x11".
Click to expand...

ok.

Thanks.
 
dljor said:
sounds like the bigger one will be better in this case?

i do have an iPhone and a rMBP 13". Will the iPad Air be too close in size to the rMBP?
Click to expand...


Not directly comparable, IMO. You will use an iPad in ways that you would never be able to use your rMBP, by virtue of the different form factors. I think you'll find reading journal papers and that sort of a thing a pleasure on an iPad Air.
 
Amplelink said:
Not directly comparable, IMO. You will use an iPad in ways that you would never be able to use your rMBP, by virtue of the different form factors. I think you'll find reading journal papers and that sort of a thing a pleasure on an iPad Air.
Click to expand...

nice. thanks.
 
Amplelink said:
Not directly comparable, IMO. You will use an iPad in ways that you would never be able to use your rMBP, by virtue of the different form factors. I think you'll find reading journal papers and that sort of a thing a pleasure on an iPad Air.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Can't hold a MacBook in portrait. Can't detach the keyboard, either.
 
dljor said:
i do have an iPhone and a rMBP 13". Will the iPad Air be too close in size to the rMBP?
Click to expand...

No - I had a 13" Macbook Air at the same time and the usage is different.

Much easier to highlight stuff with a stylus directly on the ipad than to do the same task on the MBA.

and as Night Spring mentions, for reading journals/papers the ipad in portait is much nicer than the landscape format on the MBA.
 
I am a PhD student and I was in your situation. Finally last saturday I decided to buy an Air. It is light enough you don't feel your arms tired holding it and the bigger screen make it more suitable for reading papers/understanding images.
I am pretty impressed even by the battery, now I am 50% after 11 hours usage and 2 days standby.... crazy!
Another thing you may consider is the fact that to carry an iPad you should always have to consider a backpack or a bag... you can't put a mini in your jeans pocket! so dimensions are no brain for me... even holding it normally is like carrying a light book!
 
It all depends on what's more important to you: having a larger possibly more readable screen, or having a smaller possibly more flexible portable device.

I use the mini for reading technical books in mathematics. For me having such an an unobtrusive device always at hand in my jacket pocket is more important than the larger screen, but no one answer is going to be right for everyone.
 
RickTaylor said:
It all depends on what's more important to you: having a larger possibly more readable screen, or having a smaller possibly more flexible portable device.

I use the mini for reading technical books in mathematics. For me having such an an unobtrusive device always at hand in my jacket pocket is more important than the larger screen, but no one answer is going to be right for everyone.
Click to expand...

i probably won't take it out with me.

my commute is 10 min drive to work. in my office, i use a desktop. the ipad is probably just for reading at home on a couch.

i am using a mini right now (my parents'). it's light, but fuzzy. reading papers with two columns is challenging. i have to put it right against my face. then i see each of the pixels. so i had to zoom in.
 
dljor said:
i probably won't take it out with me.

my commute is 10 min drive to work. in my office, i use a desktop. the ipad is probably just for reading at home on a couch.

i am using a mini right now (my parents'). it's light, but fuzzy. reading papers with two columns is challenging. i have to put it right against my face. then i see each of the pixels. so i had to zoom in.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the Air is the right one for you.
 
Definitely the iPad Air. I have to read journal articles a lot, and many times they show up as PDFs. In that case, the iPad Air is closest to letter/A4 screen size, and that makes it naturally easy to read the document without having to zoom in and move the page around.

Usually with an iPad air, you can take a PDF and zoom in so that the margins around the page layout are cropped out of the view. In that setup, the text is pretty much print size.
 
If you just want to read the papers, I would say the Mini is okay, but I would prefer the Air.

If you also want to highlight and annotate the papers with Sente or something similar, I would strongly suggest the Air.

One big thing to keep in mind is that journal papers are distributed as PDF, not epub format. Therefore the page size and what content is on each page is fixed. That's not the case with ebooks, which I think work fine with the Mini.
 
I'm a law student and have been reading all of my casebooks on my iPad mini this semester.

Works well for me. I can understand screen size with the Air, but the mini is just easier for me hold in one hand and markup my notes with a stylus in the other hand.
 
Benny P said:
I'm a law student and have been reading all of my casebooks on my iPad mini this semester.

Works well for me. I can understand screen size with the Air, but the mini is just easier for me hold in one hand and markup my notes with a stylus in the other hand.
Click to expand...

How have you been getting your case books on to the iPad?
 
thelookingglass said:
How have you been getting your case books on to the iPad?
Click to expand...


My library has the most current casebooks on file. When I get the assignment either via professor or syllabus I simply head to the library and scan them using a scanner app. I'm able to annotate them thru another app and voila.

Scanning a reading usually takes me like 10 minutes. Not too bad!
 
The iPad air is perfect for that. I have to read 3-4 research articles a week for my senior seminar, and I've been been reading them on my ipad air for the past 2 weeks. Some are single column, and some are double. I can read either of them just fine on the iPad air without having to zoom in.
 
red321red321 said:
If you mainly read PDF you would be crazy not to get a Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
Click to expand...

Why?

The rMBP 15" is my main computer. I have a Galaxy Note 2. After hearing from advice from several people, if I get the iPad, I choose the Air over rMini. Now, I have to decide between the Air and whatever Samsung can offer.
 
red321red321 said:
If you mainly read PDF you would be crazy not to get a Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
Click to expand...

The S-Pen is nice, but I really dislike the Note 2014's 16:10 form factor for reading. The iPad's 4:3 is better.

Also, scrolling PDFs is faster and smoother on an iPad (despite the fact that the Note 2014 has better hardware). And PDF annotation apps are better on iOS than Android.
 
Naramis said:
The S-Pen is nice, but I really dislike the Note 2014's 16:10 form factor for reading. The iPad's 4:3 is better.

Also, scrolling PDFs is faster and smoother on an iPad (despite the fact that the Note 2014 has better hardware). And PDF annotation apps are better on iOS than Android.
Click to expand...

Sorry I am not familiar with those form factor and aspect ratio terms. Could you please let me know how that could affect the reading?

Watcom offers some pen for the iPad. For example, the Bamboo Stylus series. How are they compared with the S-Pen?
 
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