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econofan · 09-12-2026, 02:30 PM

Hello,

I've created a script that builds a Kindle version of The Economist. It requires a paid subscription (after all, I would like the magazine to stay alive), and uses some Python in addition to an adaptation to Kovid's recipe.
You will need Playwright, Pillow and Image installed in Python. Tested on 3.11.

https://github.com/pdestefanis/EconomistKindle

Please use this any way you like. Maybe Kovid could find it useful to adapt it further for Calibre.

I did not try to create a version that would bypass login in The Economist. I may have benefited from free versions in the past, but I do think that this is good content worth supporting.

1) Create a new profile for Playwright in Chrome: Open_Chrome_for_Economist.cmd This creates a profile in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Economist-Calibre-Profile. Close that Chrome window after you are done with the capture.
2) Create your venv for Python: py -3 -m venv .venv
3) Call the capture script: .\.venv\Scripts\python.exe .\economist_capture.py --date 2026-08-29

Do not touch that Chrome session as the extraction proceeds. If you want to wipe it, you can find it at

--date is optional. If omitted it will fetch the latest issue. See the .py file for other switches.
You will need to have Economist_local.recipe in the same folder.

09-12-2026, 02:30 PM	#79
econofan Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 204 Join Date: Sep 2026 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	Hello, I've created a script that builds a Kindle version of The Economist. It requires a paid subscription (after all, I would like the magazine to stay alive), and uses some Python in addition to an adaptation to Kovid's recipe. You will need Playwright, Pillow and Image installed in Python. Tested on 3.11. https://github.com/pdestefanis/EconomistKindle Please use this any way you like. Maybe Kovid could find it useful to adapt it further for Calibre. I did not try to create a version that would bypass login in The Economist. I may have benefited from free versions in the past, but I do think that this is good content worth supporting. 1) Create a new profile for Playwright in Chrome: Open_Chrome_for_Economist.cmd This creates a profile in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Economist-Calibre-Profile. Close that Chrome window after you are done with the capture. 2) Create your venv for Python: py -3 -m venv .venv 3) Call the capture script: .\.venv\Scripts\python.exe .\economist_capture.py --date 2026-08-29 Do not touch that Chrome session as the extraction proceeds. If you want to wipe it, you can find it at --date is optional. If omitted it will fetch the latest issue. See the .py file for other switches. You will need to have Economist_local.recipe in the same folder.