[OS X TeX] Configuring LaTeX produced PDF's for a Kindle

[Claus Gerhardt]

Using the iBooks application one can read pdf documents (books, papers) on an iPad very comfortably provided the documents are formatted appropriately.

In case of a pdflatex produced document one has to add the following paper option to the .cls file

  \DeclareOption{paperipad}{\paperheight 196mm\paperwidth 150mm
\textheight 160mm}


(the example uses the terminology of amsart.cls)

and in the preamble one has to add the definition

\usepackage{calc}

\newlength{\oddsidemarginlength}
\newlength{\topmarginlength}

\hoffset=0pt
\voffset=0pt

 \textwidth = 11.7cm%your choice (any dimension is allowed)
\setlength{\textheight}{16cm -\topskip}

\newcounter{numberoflines}
\newcounter{tempcc}
\setcounter{numberoflines}{\textheight}
\setcounter{tempcc}{\baselineskip}
\setcounter{numberoflines}{\value{numberoflines}/\value{tempcc}}
\setlength{\textheight}{\baselineskip*\value{numberoflines}+\topskip}

\setlength{\oddsidemarginlength}{(\paperwidth-\textwidth)/2-1in}
\setlength{\topmarginlength}{(\paperheight-\textheight)/2-1in}

\oddsidemargin=\oddsidemarginlength
\evensidemargin=\oddsidemargin
\topmargin=\topmarginlength
\headsep=20pt

Those interested in viewing an example should have a look at 

http://idisk.me.com/gerhardt-Public/preprints/qfriedman-ym3-ipad.pdf

Claus



On Jan 4, 2011, at 21:06, Louis Talman wrote:

> 
> On Jan 4, 2011, at 7:50 AM, William Adams wrote:
> 
>> How ePub got approved w/o support for MathML I'll never understand.
> 
> Kindle books are .mobi, not ePub.  Amazon does offer Kindle users a free service for converting .pdf to Kindle format---see the documentation for Kindle regarding this.  It works fairly well for text, but it scrambles mathematical symbols, resulting in unreadable chaos.
> 
> The .mobi format is probably robust enough to display mathematics correctly:  Many standard mathematics books are available in Kindle format---but they're almost as expensive as the real books, and I haven't bought any simply to see what they look like...
> 
> Maybe the thing to do is for the TeX community to approach Amazon with a request that they implement a Kindle service for converting .dvi to readable e-text.  (The carrot would be that many TeX-users might then self-publish mathematics via the Kindle Store.)  Or maybe (and to my mind, preferably) one or more of the wizards that frequent this forum will write a .div t0 .mobi conversion program under GNU licensing.  (I would consider it myself, but I flunked out of Hogwarts and so remain a mere muggle.)
> 
> --Lou Talman
>  Department of Mathematical & Computer Sciences
>  Metropolitan State College of Denver
> 
>  <http://rowdy.mscd.edu/%7Etalmanl>
> 
> 
> 
> 
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