I noticed that my library carries way more books is Adobe format (DRM of course) than mobi...

Is there any similar method I can use to read those books on my Kindle? (I tried to quickly search the forums but didn't see anything obvious).

Thanks for you patience with silly posts from a newbie :rolleyes:

I noticed that my library carries way more books is Adobe format (DRM of course) than mobi...

Is there any similar method I can use to read those books on my Kindle? (I tried to quickly search the forums but didn't see anything obvious).

Thanks for you patience with silly posts from a newbie :rolleyes:


I found the same thing while browsing my Library here in Phoenix. Mobipocket books are scarce. Wonder why?

There do seem to be more Adobe library ebooks than MOBI. I don't know why, particularly since MOBI is supported on many more kinds of devices.

Unfortunately, Adobe DRM has not been cracked so there is no way to read these ebooks except with Adobe Digital Editions.

My guess is that most library patrons read books on their PCs -- and thus the Adobe format is just fine for them. Us folks using dedicated readers are new folks on the block.

I tried doing that when I first realized I could.....just could not get comfortable, and the eye strain was enormous....

Wonder why?

I actually wrote the contacts for the two library systems I can get ebooks from. The one for my local library has pretty much said they're not buying any more Mobipocket format, since the demand is just so much higher for Adobe.

You do have to wonder if it's a self-fulfilling prophesy, though...I pretty much stopped visiting there, because I can't get Mobipocket. (And they do - very rarely - still get the occasional ebook in Mobipocket). So demand remains high for Adobe, yeah?

The other library system has more Adobe that Mobipocket, but still is purchasing new books in Mobipocket. I try to borrow heavily there just to stress that Mobipocket is a desired format for at least some of its patrons!

There are programs out there that allow you to open the document in Digital Editions and the program then copies the document page by page and puts it into an unsecured pdf. However, you lose all hyperlinks.

There are programs out there that allow you to open the document in Digital Editions and the program then copies the document page by page and puts it into an unsecured pdf. However, you lose all hyperlinks.

Where can I find these programs? My library has tons of Adobe files too, but I can't read them; I need LRF (for my Sony PRS-500) or Mobipocket (for my Windows Mobile phone). I could read the Adobe files on my phone, but there seems to be no support whatsoever for text reflowing and whatnot. It's just horrible.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Where can I find these programs? My library has tons of Adobe files too, but I can't read them; I need LRF (for my Sony PRS-500) or Mobipocket (for my Windows Mobile phone). I could read the Adobe files on my phone, but there seems to be no support whatsoever for text reflowing and whatnot. It's just horrible.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.
Could you take advantage of the $100 trade in and get a SONY 505? They can read adobe ebooks from the library. I do that all the time now since the firmware upgrade.

Could you take advantage of the $100 trade in and get a SONY 505? They can read adobe ebooks from the library. I do that all the time now since the firmware upgrade.

Eventually I probably can, but I just lost my job a month ago, so right now I have pretty much nothing to spare. That's why I'm checking ebooks out from the library instead of buying them from Fictionwise or maybe just buying a Kindle so I can take advantage of all those Amazon e-books. ;)

Where can I find these programs? My library has tons of Adobe files too, but I can't read them; I need LRF (for my Sony PRS-500) or Mobipocket (for my Windows Mobile phone). I could read the Adobe files on my phone, but there seems to be no support whatsoever for text reflowing and whatnot. It's just horrible.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.


*cough* copistar *cough*

I soooo want to buy copistar (the demo worked GREAT) and I'm ready to pony up the $30 without a second thought.

Their homepage's links all point to the homepage. Some buttons don't work. I got some links through Google (copistar.com/buy.html) that are broken.

Can someone find out how to buy it? I tried the demo and I'm sold.

Same here. What's the deal with their site? Have they been forced out of business or something? The demo looks like exactly what I need. It even scrolls horizontally, so I can zoom in to whatever level I want, thus enabling decent OCR.

This is a lot easier than the way I was doing it. Well worth the $30, if I could figure out how to buy it!

Well, I was able to buy it! I first got the Whois registration info for copistar.com and sent an email late last night, so maybe they'll reply. But then I remembered The Wayback Machine, a website that saves webpages for posterity, and found it at archive.org. So by going to what copistar.com/buy.html looked like several months ago, I got to the correct SWREG link bypassing the third party merchant and was able to buy it.

I was all ecstatic until I realized it doesn't work Most of the PDFs I tried didn't even "load" and most of them got through just one page. The three that "finished" were all deficient - one book had the Notes section missing (which was a very interesting section in this case), the other had about 40 pages missing (last few chapters) and the third had most of the pictures missing (and the pictures were half the book).


Sooooo... VERY disappointed. Tried it on both XP and VISTA with the same results.

If they answer I'll reply with these things and maybe they'll fix them with a future version, and hopefully one day I'll get my money's worth! I ended up paying $33.90 because the site selling it has a mandatory $3.85 1-year registration information backup fee.

Here's the direct link to buy it (although I don't recommend the product):

https://usd.swreg.org/cgi-bin/s.cgi?r=1&s=47451&db_key=29950229&x=0&lang=&lnk=

Thanks to chorpler who suggested I use Adobe Reader 7.0 instead of the digital editions stand-alone reader (which it seems is flash-based)... it now works PERFECTLY and FLAWLESSLY. I already got my money's worth. It is AWESOME. So hunt the net and get 7.0 and use that instead. The picture book didn't work but it's constructed in a weird way with layers of images so I'm not faulting that on the software. Regular books with images now and then translate perfectly.

If you're having trouble with the link above, try this one:
https://usd.swreg.org/cgi-bin/s.cgi?s=47451&p=47451CS&v=0&d=0&q=1&t=


Now if anyone knows how to liberate lrf ... :D

Now I can buy more Adobe-protected ebooks !!

Awesome! I don't know why Adobe thought it was a good idea to remove Digital Editions support from Acrobat 8 (and presumably 9) and switch over to a horrible flash-based reader.

Time for me to purchase that puppy too. ;)

So you can read protected adobe books on your PC...but still not on your Kindle, right?

Well, I'm using Copistar to do the following:


Create a new unprotected high-resolution PDF file (just images of the text)
Export that PDF file's pages to lossless images (like PNG files)
Import those images into OmniPage Pro 16 (any OCR program should work, but I've found OmniPage to be pretty nice)
OCR the images back into text (that's why I specified "high-resolution" in step 1)
Save the file as a Word 2003 document or an HTML file or whatever
Convert file to Mobipocket using Mobipocket Creator (or to LRF using Calibre) to read on cell phone or Sony Reader


And I believe the Kindle will read Mobipocket files. So in that case, you could eventually read the Adobe e-book on the Kindle. But it's a rather involved process.

I found the same thing while browsing my Library here in Phoenix. Mobipocket books are scarce. Wonder why?


I really, really dislike PDF.
My library has the same problem.
I downloaded 'The Book of Counted Sorrows' by Dean Koontz. It has an ebx.etd extension (what on earth!!!)
Then tried using Mobipocket Creator. Needless to say, no joy.
How I wish that we had some sort of magic like the mobidedrm.py

I really, really dislike PDF.
My library has the same problem.
I downloaded 'The Book of Counted Sorrows' by Dean Koontz. It has an ebx.etd extension (what on earth!!!)
Then tried using Mobipocket Creator. Needless to say, no joy.
How I wish that we had some sort of magic like the mobidedrm.py

ETD is the file that has to be opened by either Acrobat Reader 7 or the digital editions standalone program. THAT downloads the book to the computer. The ETD file is not the book, it's a transfer protocol.

ETD is the file that has to be opened by either Acrobat Reader 7 or the digital editions standalone program. THAT downloads the book to the computer. The ETD file is not the book, it's a transfer protocol.

Ok. Now I am truly lost.
What are the steps which I need to do to be able to change the files to .prc,
which I can then convert for my Kindle.
I used to read on an iPaq, but even with Laser surgery on both eyes, it's still a strain, and therefore the Kindle.
Help.(pretty please).:bookworm:

Ok. Now I am truly lost.
What are the steps which I need to do to be able to change the files to .prc,
which I can then convert for my Kindle.
I used to read on an iPaq, but even with Laser surgery on both eyes, it's still a strain, and therefore the Kindle.
Help.(pretty please).:bookworm:

Sorry, I cannot tell you how to liberate PDFs that you haven't purchased.

To read them on the PC, do the following:

1. Click on the book download link. It downloads the ETD file.
2. Open the ETD file with Acrobat Reader 7 or the standalone digital edition viewer.

What are the steps which I need to do to be able to change the files to .prc The copistar program uses what are essentially images of the screen, to build a "scan" of the ebook. In post #18 (above) chorpler lays out one approach to get this to text and then to MOBI. As you can see it is complicated, and OCR isn't perfect (although these will be very good scans).

This probably only makes sense for ebooks you already own, or that are only available as Secure Adobe PDF ebooks, since otherwise buying LIT or MOBI or eReader versions provides a much simpler path to a DRM-free MOBI.

thanks for the info....its an option but doesn't seem to be worth the money I'd save from buying over borrowing from the public library. Besides, I'm really lazy :rolleyes:

I really, really dislike PDF.
My library has the same problem.
I downloaded 'The Book of Counted Sorrows' by Dean Koontz. It has an ebx.etd extension (what on earth!!!)
Then tried using Mobipocket Creator. Needless to say, no joy.
How I wish that we had some sort of magic like the mobidedrm.py

EBX.ETD is an ebook file that points Acrobat Reader 7.0 or Digital Editions to an Internet address to download a PDF file that has been protected by Adobe's DRM, which appears to be some form of 128-bit encryption scheme.

That PDF file can then be saved as a standalone PDF using the "Save a copy" function of Acrobat 7.0, but it's still an encrypted PDF file that can only be viewed on a computer that has been "activated" by the purchaser or borrower of the Adobe ebook.

Presumably somebody is working on a way to break the Adobe DRM, but it'll be illegal to use that software under the DMCA in the United States and probably similar laws in other countries, even if you're only using it for legitimate format-shifting purposes, to read books you already own (or are otherwise allowed to read, for example, because you checked it out from your library and have the right to read it for the next three weeks, or whatever) on a reader that doesn't support DRM-protected PDF.

But was it a good idea for Adobe to make Acrobat Reader 8.0 not view encrypted PDF and then have 7.0 say there's an update without telling anyone that 8.0 doesn't view encrypted PDF so all those people who upgraded then lost the ability to view their legally purchased content. So anytime DRM can be broken, that's a blow for comanies who really don't care about customers.

Oh, I definitely agree; the fact that they took the Digital Editions functionality out of Acrobat 8.0 (and 9.0, I presume) so they could create a separate, off-the-charts-horrible Flash-based viewer makes them pure evil, and I'll personally cheer when Adobe's DRM is broken (hopefully soon; does anybody know if there's been any progress at all?). But it'll still be illegal, even when it's only used for format-shifting of legally-owned content. Which, to my mind, just shows the absurdity of those provisions in the DMCA, but what can you do?

Sorry, I cannot tell you how to liberate PDFs that you haven't purchased.

To read them on the PC, do the following:

1. Click on the book download link. It downloads the ETD file.
2. Open the ETD file with Acrobat Reader 7 or the standalone digital edition viewer.

:thanks:

Hmmm.....and if I buy a book in PDF would I be able to liberate it to read on the Kindle?:chinscratch:
:thanks:

:thanks:

Hmmm.....and if I buy a book in PDF would I be able to liberate it to read on the Kindle?:chinscratch:
:thanks:

Not if it is a secure PDF, no.

BOb

BOb, that's what this whole thread is about, liberating PDF books you buy, and yes you can using copistar :)

Now copistar liberates it into images, not text. All you need is a good OCR program to convert it to text and then PRC.

More trouble than it's worth. But it IS doable.

BOb, that's what this whole thread is about, liberating PDF books you buy, and yes you can using copistar :)

Now copistar liberates it into images, not text. All you need is a good OCR program to convert it to text and then PRC.

More trouble than it's worth. But it IS doable.

:thanks:
Methinks that this whole PDF is too much of a hassle unless it's books which are required for learning or teaching.
I guess that i will stick to what little I do know, which is mobi.
Many thanks for taking the time to reply.:bookworm:

Cool, I'm glad I found this thread. Anyone have a solution to myscribe? I go to an online school that has texts through myscribe and digital editions, but copistar wouldn't read it. I'd buy copistar in a second if it'd also solve the myscribe problem, but don't feel like doing it since only half my classes are in digital editions. I believe these are still pdf's, but they're even more specially encoded?

I don't want to have to take a huge laptop when I want to study in the car or train or whatever.

Does myscribe have any free books to see how the system works? The CopiStar people have been really cool -- they've answered my questions in great detail, and so far all the feature requests I've made have been added to the next version that's supposed to come out in December. I've been talking to them for a couple weeks now. I bet they'd take a look at myscribe and see what they can do if there's a way for them to look at a free file.

Really? That's interesting. Could you ask them about it or should I write them an email? You can import pdf files into it, just can't export them, so I'm sure they could do it that way if they needed a sample or something.

Wrote them, I noticed they said that the software supports all digital books, so maybe they'll be inclined to add myscribe. lol