For those who have an imac 5k and use it often for reading ebooks... would you say it is comparable to reading a printed book in terms of clarity? How about a kindle paperwhite?
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Imac 5k as an ereader - better than paper or kindle?
- Thread starter TheCopywriter
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Clarity the iMac 5k would be fantastic, but for an ebook it's impracticable compared to a true ebook device (Kindle, iPad, etc....)
Books come in many sizes-- there's the mass market paperbook that you might "curl up with" or read on the train. Those are approximately the size of a large phone or kindle. Then there are large books-- atlases, art books, books such as Audubon's Birds of America and what are popularly known as "coffee table books". The iMac 5K does a good job of displaying those sorts of works-- if you enjoy looking at illuminated manuscripts, the printed page looks amazing.
But most digital sources don't have the ultra high resolution to look their best on the imac screen. You can sometimes turn off resolution scaling to force remote image servers to give you the best copy-- I'v had to do this with the new yorker archive, but in many cases, the full 5K resolution exceeds what's been digitized.
You can also read text on the imac screen, and it will look amazing. If you have to be sitting down at a desk, there's nothing wrong with reading text on a imac screen. But if you don't have to be sitting down at a desk, an ipad or ereader are sometimes more comfortable to use for pure text.
But most digital sources don't have the ultra high resolution to look their best on the imac screen. You can sometimes turn off resolution scaling to force remote image servers to give you the best copy-- I'v had to do this with the new yorker archive, but in many cases, the full 5K resolution exceeds what's been digitized.
You can also read text on the imac screen, and it will look amazing. If you have to be sitting down at a desk, there's nothing wrong with reading text on a imac screen. But if you don't have to be sitting down at a desk, an ipad or ereader are sometimes more comfortable to use for pure text.
Nothing beats the latest hi res (300ppi) e-ink for my eyes if I'm reading longer form stuff. Once the resolution is sufficient, the type of backlighting (or lack of it) is what makes the difference in strain.
Latest Paperwhite's are excellent also, but I went for a Kobo as I don't care for Amazon lock down & the Kobo does 2 way sync with my Pocket account...which is totally awesome to have.
(I use Amazon, but don't care for the lockdown routine they do on the Kindle's)
Latest Paperwhite's are excellent also, but I went for a Kobo as I don't care for Amazon lock down & the Kobo does 2 way sync with my Pocket account...which is totally awesome to have.
(I use Amazon, but don't care for the lockdown routine they do on the Kindle's)
The only thing is, you're stuck reading at your desk, where as a kindle, you can take anywhere, like your living room, while commuting, etc.
