GuteBook - the Project Gutenberg eBook Maker/Front-end

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

In future, once the experimental nature of PG .mobi and .epub offerings become more standard, I can switch to using those as input instead of the HTML versions.

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Just idea off top of head: Gutenberg already produce (computer generated) EPUB files. Might it be possible to 'insert' a improved CSS sheet into these EPUB files to improve their viewability? Seemed more straightforward than regenerating a whole new EPUB file from source..

I had the same idea to use the Gutenberg epub as the input to GuteBook, but since, for the time being, GuteBook can only deal with a single input file (be it .html or .epub) it was easier to use .html and then regenerate all the other ebook formats, if and when required.

To just substitute a revised/improved CSS can easily be done manually via editing the .epub (it just a .zip file) and re-saving one's changes. The Guteberg .epub's unfortunately incorporate the same underlying problems with their included .html, that is, they also need to be "edited" to remove pages numbers, insert proper pagebreaks, strip PG legalese and copyright notices, ...

In that case, starting with just the .html is simpler and more useful.

[locomouse]

As a newbie to all things eBook, I was rather confused as to how one could create .imp files from the thousands of titles housed on Project Gutenberg. I was pretty much resigned to simply reading the books while sitting at the computer until I was enlightened to the existence of GuteBook.

With a little bit of guidance (thank you, Nick!) I'm now creating eBooks for my EBW1150 at the speed of light!

This is such an awesome program and so easy to use ... even for me.

High-fives and many kudos to you, Nick!

And, again...

Helen

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by locomouse

With a little bit of guidance (thank you, Nick!) I'm now creating eBooks for my EBW1150 at the speed of light!

You're quite welcome, Helen!

As an avid ebook creator at heart, I have a queue of ebooks to read thiiiiissss looooonnnngggggg (like sooooo many here ), but there's satisfaction in knowing that if you really want to read something that has been made available by Project Gutenberg, it's just a few mouse clicks away with GuteBook. That is, if our own tireless ebook creators that upload to the Mobileread.com haven't already done so for you.

I hope you don't wear out the 'page turn' button on your EBW1150 prematurely!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

You're quite welcome, Helen!

As an avid ebook creator at heart, I have a queue of ebooks to read thiiiiissss looooonnnngggggg (like sooooo many here ), but there's satisfaction in knowing that if you really want to read something that has been made available by Project Gutenberg, it's just a few mouse clicks away with GuteBook. That is, if our own tireless ebook creators that upload to the Mobileread.com haven't already done so for you.

I hope you don't wear out the 'page turn' button on your EBW1150 prematurely!

If it wears out just turn the device around and use the other one!

Dale

[Laurentiu]

... nevermind. I found the answer to my problem!

Laurentiu

[nrapallo]

Etext-No.'s below 10,000 are sometimes problematic as many of the earlier etext no.'s don't follow the current/normal filenaming pattern of http://www.gutenberg.org/files/EXTEXTNO/EXTEXTNO-h.zip.

Let's say you've entered the number 7471 as the book listed on PG (it's a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse).

But GuteBook fails to find, download and convert the file. It's nothing you've done wrong, it's just that this ebook doesn't follow the normal filename pattern and needs to be overridden by placing the following link in the Input File box: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/2left10.zip. Just so that you know, I got that link from the Gutenberg ebook page for Etext-No. 7471 and copying the link to the .zip text (or html) version.

Also, since that ebook is just available as text, you will need GutenMark (GUItenMark) installed and selected on the first page (see attached GUI screenshot). This ebook needs to be converted internally to html using GutenMark so that GuteBook can produce an ebook version.

Try it again, as before, but just override the Input File, in this case.

Happy Reading!

p.s. thanks go out to locomouse for your continual use and exploration of this program!

[locomouse]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

p.s. thanks go out to locomouse for your continual use and exploration of this program!

I surely do appreciate your willingness to share and teach, Nick. Your instructions open up a whole new world of books which would otherwise have remained on the 'shelves' at PG.

Plus... this is so much fun!

Many thanks for all your time and patience. You ROCK!!

Helen

[nrapallo]

Just wanted to post that when using newer versions of calibre, the GuteBook conversion program's rebuild DOS batch file requires you to edit it & prefix any line with "ebook-convert.exe" with "start /w ". Otherwise, the first time "ebook-convert.exe" is invoked is the LAST time it's run...

I've successfully used this revised code within that DOS batch file, namely:

rem Convert .htm to Sony .epub
start /w ebook-convert "28700-h\28700-h.htm" "Paul Creswick - Robin Hood.epub" --title "Robin Hood" --authors "Paul Creswick" --publisher="Project Gutenberg" --chapter "//*[name()='h2']" --output-profile=sony

rem Convert .htm to Sony .lrf
start /w ebook-convert "28700-h\28700-h.htm" "Paul Creswick - Robin Hood.lrf" --title "Robin Hood" --authors "Paul Creswick" --publisher="Project Gutenberg"