Homebrew Is anybody working on any new PDF readers for the DS/DSi?

[Mugcake]

So I’m in Uni rn and I tend to use Ands-PDF on my DSi XL, since my phone is pretty bad storage wise (deleting apps/files doesn’t necessarily help).

The main issue though is that Ands-PDF just doesn’t work a lot of the time. When it does work, it’s fine and more than decent, but it can run into several memory error issues:

• App runs out of memory when switching to new page (or switching back to a previous one).
• The PDF loads, but due to memory limits nothing is displayed on the page.
• Pages with images can sometimes only be displayed in alternate text mode (basically text generated directly on the DSi screen rather than using a specific font), and the app will crash if you exit that mode on any page after it.
• Entire app crashes on opening a PDF.

Every crash means manually reloading the app, and it can make it a bit of a hassle to try and read something on there.

The main reason for this though is its age. Ands-PDF hasn’t been updated since 2009 and is based purely on the OG DS hardware. It was never developed to take advantage of the DSi’s expanded capabilities due to it coming out around the same time as it.

So, it’s long overdue for another PDF reader to be made for the DS, especially considering the advancements in DS/DSi homebrewing that have happened in the last 15 years.

Is anybody working on anything at all like this?

 

[mrparrot2]

Back when I had a DSLite there was no solution other than convert each page to jpg. Even there the low resolution made things reallh difficult. But I guess you are in better luck using your phone or getting an old Android 4 tablet.

 

[86houdini]

I really doubt it would be worth the investment in time and programming to make this happen with there's already two well-made and functional ebook reader applications on the Nintendo DS, my 200 dollar Kobo still sucks for PDF files. Ever use a Kindle from 2011 for a PDF? It's ass. I can't imagine even with a proper dev team, this would be worthwhile.

 

[Trevor_2012]

Another option is using the dstwo with the iReader.

 

[86houdini]

Native support for something like Ikureader in Twilight Menu would be a worthwhile thing perhaps, being able to launch an epub file from the menu, give it a nice little icon, etc.

 

[signer-ink-beast]

I really doubt it would be worth the investment in time and programming to make this happen with there's already two well-made and functional ebook reader applications on the Nintendo DS, my 200 dollar Kobo still sucks for PDF files. Ever use a Kindle from 2011 for a PDF? It's ass. I can't imagine even with a proper dev team, this would be worthwhile.

Spoiler: Off Topic, Kobo

I agree. I find KOreader helps a lot for reading PDFs on my Libra 2 versus what it does with PDFs out-of-the-box with Nickel. Worth a look to make it a bit better, if you haven't looked into that already ofc.

More on topic, it probably doesn't help that historically, PDFs are a WYSIWYG format. I wonder if text reflowing capabilities might be useful on portables for PDFs in the same way, potentially. Even on phones. Seems like a tough task though. Besides KOreader, I don't know if that exists. And that's just mostly text documents. Picture-heavy PDFs are probably a mess of zoom-and-pan.

And on NDS, well... Hard to say if it would be worthwhile or not. Probably not for most people at this point.

 

[Violet23]

So I’m in Uni rn and I tend to use Ands-PDF on my DSi XL, since my phone is pretty bad storage wise (deleting apps/files doesn’t necessarily help).

The main issue though is that Ands-PDF just doesn’t work a lot of the time. When it does work, it’s fine and more than decent, but it can run into several memory error issues:

• App runs out of memory when switching to new page (or switching back to a previous one).
• The PDF loads, but due to memory limits nothing is displayed on the page.
• Pages with images can sometimes only be displayed in alternate text mode (basically text generated directly on the DSi screen rather than using a specific font), and the app will crash if you exit that mode on any page after it.
• Entire app crashes on opening a PDF.

Every crash means manually reloading the app, and it can make it a bit of a hassle to try and read something on there.

The main reason for this though is its age. Ands-PDF hasn’t been updated since 2009 and is based purely on the OG DS hardware. It was never developed to take advantage of the DSi’s expanded capabilities due to it coming out around the same time as it.

So, it’s long overdue for another PDF reader to be made for the DS, especially considering the advancements in DS/DSi homebrewing that have happened in the last 15 years.
Sounds frustrating! It seems like Ands-PDF is hitting a lot of limits, especially with the DSi's memory. Unfortunately, since the app hasn't been updated in so long, it’s unlikely it’ll be optimized for the DSi at this point. I haven't heard of any new PDF readers specifically for DS/DSi recently, but a good workaround could be converting your PDFs into lighter formats. For example, if file size is the issue, you could try converting to a more compatible format with smaller file sizes, like MOBI or ePub, and then use a tool to convert back to PDF when needed. You can check this site for conversion: https://pdfguru.com/blog/how-to-split-pdf It might not fix everything, but it could help a bit!
Is anybody working on anything at all like this?

Sounds frustrating! It seems like Ands-PDF is hitting a lot of limits, especially with the DSi's memory. Unfortunately, since the app hasn't been updated in so long, it’s unlikely it’ll be optimized for the DSi at this point. I haven't heard of any new PDF readers specifically for DS/DSi recently, but a good workaround could be converting your PDFs into lighter formats. For example, if file size is the issue, you could try converting to a more compatible format with smaller file sizes, like MOBI or ePub, and then use a tool to convert back to PDF when needed.

 

[Mugcake]

Sounds frustrating! It seems like Ands-PDF is hitting a lot of limits, especially with the DSi's memory. Unfortunately, since the app hasn't been updated in so long, it’s unlikely it’ll be optimized for the DSi at this point. I haven't heard of any new PDF readers specifically for DS/DSi recently, but a good workaround could be converting your PDFs into lighter formats. For example, if file size is the issue, you could try converting to a more compatible format with smaller file sizes, like MOBI or ePub, and then use a tool to convert back to PDF when needed.

Thanks for the advice! Luckily now I have a new old phone with better storage, so I don’t rely as much on Ands-PDF as I used to.

Still, if I ever need to use my DS for this stuff again perhaps it could be a good solution. Overall I really do wish the original dev would come back to update the memory buffer for DSi users though. It’s limited to 4mb of RAM while the DSi has 16, if it was just allowed to use that amount it probably would get past at least some of the issues we’ve seen.