Archives for 2009

If you could physically remove your laptop screen and hold it vertically, it would be the perfect size for reading a script. That’s the hope behind the mythical Apple tablet that always seems six months away.

But until Mr. Jobs decides we’re ready for the future, reader [Douglas](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/reading-scripts-on-the-kindle#comment-174771) has a suggestion that is surprisingly close. Turn your laptop on its side, and hold it like a hardcover book.

No, really. It works much better than you’d think, particularly with one of the unibody MacBooks.

I suspect there’s a way to get the screen rotated in the proper direction on almost any laptop. But on a Mac running Snow Leopard, it’s pretty easy to get a .pdf turned the right way.

1. Open the .pdf in Preview.
2. Click on one of the pages, then Select All (⌘-A) to highlight all the pages.
3. Choose Rotate Right (⌘-R) or Rotate Left (⌘-L).
4. Choose Full Screen (Shift-⌘-F).
5. Click the zoom-to-fit button.

I’ve found it more comfortable to read with the screen on the left-hand side, using my right hand to advance pages with the arrow keys. But experiment to see what works best for you.

**Update:** Several readers have pointed to a free utility called [ReadRight](http://www.twilightedge.com/mac/readright/) which basically does steps 1-6 all at once, with some other handy options thrown in. I particularly like being able to advance pages with a click on the trackpad.

Since Preview is already included on every Mac, I’ll keep it as the general-case solution.

Ever since I got my Kindle, ((I started with the original model, and later replaced it with the Kindle 2
.)) I’ve been looking for a good way to read scripts on it.

Emailing a .pdf would result in mangled margins and bizarre gaps. Converting to a .doc format with a very specific template would give me something almost acceptable, but meant a lot of extra labor, and wouldn’t work for .pdfs of existing scripts.

So it was with great anticipation that I installed the free [2.3 software update](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200324680) that finally gave my little Kindle the option of using honest-to-goodness .pdfs.

It works just as I had hoped, except for the fact that the type is pretty damn small. Like, list-of-ingredients small. My friend Cort pointed out that the Kindle screen is only as wide as a buck slip, so there’s only so much real estate available.

After all this wishing and hoping, I’m not sure I’ll be reading many scripts on my Kindle. (The upcoming Nook from Barnes and Noble has essentially the same size screen, and will likely have the same kind of problem.)

The update gives you the option of rotating the screen, so you can see it much closer to full size, but then you have to read half a page at a time. The update is also supposed to increase battery life dramatically.

Bottom line: if you have a small Kindle, install the update. You might be willing to live with the tiny type (or half-pages) for reading screenplays.

If you’re thinking about buying a Kindle, take a second look at the bigger Kindle DX, which has a screen better suited for scripts. I know a lot of people who are using it daily to read screenplays.