So currently we'd need to publish to the official IDS in order for iLiad users to download the newsletter, right?

What I was thinking for instance is a specially prepared PDF file with a weekly report of what's been going on at MobileRead (for instance, latest threads, hottest threads, with/without posts, polls, etc).

Thats correct and actually if the PDF file is supported by the iLiad, we could do this. Let me know if you are interested to do this.

Thank you for joining Karel!
Now we have two official iRex guys as members here...:-)

This sounds really positive - I'm looking forward to having a use for the silver round button other that software downloads!

So I guess we need volunteer journalists now.

So I guess we need volunteer journalists now.
... good idea ;) Any volunteers? ;)

In addition we could deliver an automated weekly/daily service that pulls content from MobileRead. This way you could use your iLiad to stay up-to-date with what's going on here.

PS: Welcome on board, Karel!

What about a Newsletter like this ? (no real content yet :-) )


... good idea ;) Any volunteers? ;)

In addition we could deliver an automated weekly/daily service that pulls content from MobileRead. This way you could use your iLiad to stay up-to-date with what's going on here.

PS: Welcome on board, Karel!

What about a Newsletter like this ? (no real content yet :-) )

Er, a blue typeface for links? in a black white device???

Thanks to your positive feedback and iRex's friendly involvement we'll be definitely doing a newsletter for the iLiad.

I'll have to study a few basics about proper PDF formatting for the iLiad (if someone could summarize the important steps, I'd appreciate it) and also write the code to pull and convert the information from our database.

@Alexander

I can't help you with any database work, but the Iliad likes PDF files with a 12x15cm size, I use 0.2cm margins on all sides. I create all files with the Adobe PDF printer right now and set them up as Greyscale right away (smaller files that way) without reflowing and security. Apart from that, I can't really say there is a lot of special stuff to take into consideration. If you have a testfile that you would like me to try, then just send it my way...you have the address...^^

@Alexander

I can't help you with any database work, but the Iliad likes PDF files with a 12x15cm size, I use 0.2cm margins on all sides. I create all files with the Adobe PDF printer right now and set them up as Greyscale right away (smaller files that way) without reflowing and security. Apart from that, I can't really say there is a lot of special stuff to take into consideration. If you have a testfile that you would like me to try, then just send it my way...you have the address...^^
Thanks the measurement specifics are exactly what I need (margins). Also font-type, font-size, etc. would be helpful. Regarding conversion I am currently looking at various libraries that we can add to our webserver. One solution would be PDFLib.

Fontisize is a difficult one...I use 11 most of the time but sometimes also went with 12 (fontsize 12 is very comfortable to read, but it limits the amount of information per page more than I like) . Fonts are also rather difficult to decide. I don't really like hte way the Iliad displays Times New Roman. Arial is ok, but not really great...

A Font that I found very nice on the Iliad is Berling Antiqua. I'n not sure how well it would look for the "newsletter" thing though...

A Font that I found very nice on the Iliad is Berling Antiqua. I'n not sure how well it would look for the "newsletter" thing though...
We can decide together on the content of the newsletter. The way I would do it is to automate the process and to allow for manual content if needed. For automated content we could add the following items (to name a few):

New Threads of the last x days (with/without replies?, iRex-only forum/all forums?)
New Polls (summary)
Most Active Threads (summary)

I am open for your suggestions.

iRex has a pdf named How to make content for your iLiad on their website;

It is quite detailed and shows and explains every step of the process.

http://www.irextechnologies.com/files/How%20to%20make%20content%20for%20your%20iLiad_0.p df

BTW...its great that another irex official has joined the forum.

Welcome to MB Karel!

We can decide together on the content of the newsletter. The way I would do it is to automate the process and to allow for manual content if needed. For automated content we could add the following items (to name a few):

Well... Isn't this a job for RSS...? At the moment I'm updating my RSS Illiad Aggregator to PDF, and its currently doing a very good job of Mobilereads html... :D

Well... Isn't this a job for RSS...? At the moment I'm updating my RSS Illiad Aggregator to PDF, and its currently doing a very good job of Mobilereads html... :D
True, but we'd have more control this way. For instance, our feeds don't include replies at the moment.

If you want to make PDFs on the fly for cheap, use http://www.fpdf.org/
and http://fpdi.setasign.de to make it easily look nice :)

Thanks for the pointers, tribble. FPDF looks interesting and it doesn't rely on PDFLib which I considered installing (it's a PECL extension). I found another interesting PDF convertor called dompdf (http://www.digitaljunkies.ca/dompdf/) which can directly convert from a HTML template to PDF. Unfortunately it requires PHP 5.x, but we're still running 4.x (I haven't had the guts to upgrade yet).

Also, the html side of the iLiad includes a strange Zoom function intended to simulate journals.