Kobo

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39371179

I want to produce a PDF that looks good on the screen in color. Of course if I do that well with color backgrounds and all, the same document will look lousy when printed on a monochrome laser printer. E.g. consider a text box with color background. The background will go through a dithering algorithm which often enshitifies the text layer on top of that. Likewise on mono e-readers.

In principle, the doc needs two different representations. One for color and one for mono. As rich as the PDF standard is, I don’t think I have ever seen a PDF with multiple modes. So LaTeX aside, does the PDF standard even support this?

I can think of a hack using PDF layers which is supported by the ocgx2 LaTeX package. Color backgrounds could be isolated to a switchable layer. This is not great though because the end user needs to be aware of the layer and must take a manual action to turn off the background layer before printing as black and white. And still, non-black foreground text will print as gray unless foreground text is in a layer too (yikes).

Am I S.O.L?

I haven’t tried to connect to it yet. But I see that there is a “Kobo Desktop” which is the official way to manage the Kobo. But that app is not linux and hacks to make it work on linux are apparently gone?

But then I find this thread saying that it simply attaches as a mass storage device. I’m glad to hear I can expect that to work. So is there any reason to want to get the Kobo Desktop working, which I assume would entail emulating Windows?

Some Kobos can be liberated to run PostmarketOS, but looks scary for the Aura, which apparently does not even boot.

In cases where a Kobo can be liberated, someone mentions that you have a choice between staying with the vendor kernal or switching to the mainline. But you lose the ability to run some of the vendor apps if you go mainline. So I wonder what it means in the end to liberate it but to keep the vendor’s kernel.

Has anyone fiddled with liberating the Kobo Aura, w/PostmarketOS or others?

The Kobo Elipsa 2E is our favorite note-taking e-reader.

Kobo is discounting two of its best e-readers. The Kobo Elipsa 2E, a competitor to the Kindle Scribe, is available for an all-time low of $349.99 ($50 off) from Rakuten Kobo and Target. Meanwhile, the Kobo Libra Colour is available for $209.99 ($20 off) from Amazon, Target, and Rakuten Kobo. The sale runs through July 10th.

The Kobo Elipsa 2E is my top pick for taking notes while reading. Its spacious 10.3-inch display lets you write directly on ebook pages — whether in margins, between lines, or wherever inspiration strikes — giving you a natural, paper-like experience. While Amazon’s Kindle Scribe supports on-page writing, its tools are far more limited; you can’t freely annotate, circle text, or mark up pages with the same ease. For anyone wanting an e-reader that doubles as a digital notebook, the Elipsa 2E offers a more intuitive and versatile experience.

Kobo Elipsa 2E

The Kobo Elipsa 2E is an ad-free 10.3-inch e-reader you can write on with the included stylus. It offers a whole host of useful features, like the ability to convert handwriting to typed text and a great selection of pen types.

Where to Buy:

$399.99 $349.99 at Target $399.99 $349.99 at Rakuten Kobo

Meanwhile, the Kobo Libra Colour is worth a look if you want something smaller but still feature-packed. Like the Kindle Colorsoft, it features a compact 7-inch color display that makes highlights, annotations, and comics pop compared to monochrome screens. Although the Colorsoft’s hues are slightly more vibrant, the Libra Colour provides a pleasant, easy-on-the-eyes experience. It also includes physical page-turn buttons and stylus compatibility (sold separately), allowing you to mark up text or jot notes — features that the Colorsoft lacks despite costing more.

Kobo’s main drawback is the lack of native Kindle book support, but it makes up for this with broader file format compatibility and support for direct borrowing from public libraries through OverDrive. Plus, if you don’t mind a few extra steps, you can always convert Kindle books for use on Kobo devices.

Read our review of the Kobo Libra Colour.

Kobo Libra Colour

The Libra Colour is one of the newest e-readers from Kobo and one of the first with color. With both OverDrive and Pocket support, it gives readers considerably more options than e-readers from bigger brands like Amazon.

Where to Buy:

$229 at Amazon $219.99 $209.99 at Target $219.99 $209.99 at Rakuten Kobo

Three more deals to kickstart your weekend

The Belkin BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand with Qi2 15W is on sale for $99.99 ($20 off) at Amazon after clipping the on-page coupon, matching its all-time low price. The sleek stand delivers up to 15W of fast wireless charging to MagSafe-compatible iPhones and includes a 5W Qi pad for charging other Qi-enabled devices, like Android phones or your AirPods. It also features a dedicated 5W charging puck for the Apple Watch, and supports fast charging for models starting with the Series 7.Anker’s 511 Charger is on sale for $12.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, which isits all-time low price. Anker’s also offering the same deal when you apply the code WS7DV2X0GGLZ at checkout. Despite its compact, travel-friendly design — with foldable prongs for easy storage — the charger delivers up to 30 watts of power via USB-C, making it fast and powerful enough to charge everything from smartphones and wireless earbuds to tablets and even some laptops.You can buy the Yeedi Cube robot vacuum for a new all-time low price of $199.99, down from $470, from Amazon as part of a limited-time lightning deal. The self-emptying, self-cleaning robovac offers solid 5,100Pa suction for picking up dirt and debris. While it skips high-end features like AI-powered obstacle avoidance, it can reliably map multiple rooms and lets you designate no-clean zones for more targeted cleaning.

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