Sony Reader and Google Books

Stoneneedle · 08-21-2007, 08:47 AM

It seems like any PDF I download from Google books doesn't work. This seems like an arbitrary thing to exclude, as I've tried other kinds of PDFs (with images) that work just fine. Yet in this instance I get only the first page of the PDF (a Google Books disclaimer message) and then blank pages, on both the Reader and the CONNECT program that previews files (though the PDFs work just fine, of course, in Adobe Reader). Is this a licensing issue? The books are free and legal, downloaded via Google Books (I've only tried it with a few 19th century editors of Catullus and Shakespeare, basically dead guys who've edited the works of dead guys, so there're few copyright infringement issues that could be at stake).

Help?

yvanleterrible · 08-21-2007, 08:59 AM

Just to make sure you have the whole file, just click on the properties of the document for file size. Is it complete?

Stoneneedle · 08-21-2007, 09:11 PM

Yes, I have verified that the file size is around 5 MB. I have tried running PDFs in the reader of over 50 MB in size and they run fine, but this turns up blank. It seems to do this only with PDFs from Google Books--yet the PDFs are free.

yvanleterrible · 08-22-2007, 08:51 AM

Sounds like this file is protected, you'll have to unlock it.

Anais9000 · 08-22-2007, 08:10 PM

It's not a question of protection. It's that the Google PDFs are images -- sometimes you can even see the hands of the guy "digitizing" the book.

So you can't export as text because your computer can't read. One thing you can do is to print the pdf to a Microsoft Office Document Image Writer (instead of to an actual printer). This creates an .mdi file, which separates the pages nicely into individual images. Then you can import them page-by-page into an image handler, for instance Paint Shop Pro. Even better, you can write a script to page down, grab the page as an image, paste it into your image handler, save it off, clear memory, page down and start again...

Then you can import the whole folder of images into the Connect Reader. Their image size scroll bar makes it pretty easy to get a readable image, but if you want to read it on the Reader itself, you have to generally experiment a bit with size and add some resizing steps into the script that saves off the images as jpegs or tiffs.

Liviu_5 · 08-22-2007, 08:36 PM

The images used in Google books are made with some new jpg converter that very few pdf readers outside Adobe can handle. You have to print them with some software to regular image pdf's first.

ricdiogo · 08-22-2007, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anais9000

One thing you can do is to print the pdf to a Microsoft Office Document Image Writer (instead of to an actual printer). This creates an .mdi file, which separates the pages nicely into individual images.

You can also use the trial version of Abbyy Finereader (an OCR package) which allows you to import a Google PDF and save individual pages as PNG/JPEG etc.
If you decide doing this, you might also consider making the OCR itself and sending it to Distributed Proofreaders folks.

08-21-2007, 08:47 AM	#1
Stoneneedle Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Sony CONNECT Reader	Sony Reader and Google Books It seems like any PDF I download from Google books doesn't work. This seems like an arbitrary thing to exclude, as I've tried other kinds of PDFs (with images) that work just fine. Yet in this instance I get only the first page of the PDF (a Google Books disclaimer message) and then blank pages, on both the Reader and the CONNECT program that previews files (though the PDFs work just fine, of course, in Adobe Reader). Is this a licensing issue? The books are free and legal, downloaded via Google Books (I've only tried it with a few 19th century editors of Catullus and Shakespeare, basically dead guys who've edited the works of dead guys, so there're few copyright infringement issues that could be at stake). Help?

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08-21-2007, 08:59 AM	#2
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	Just to make sure you have the whole file, just click on the properties of the document for file size. Is it complete?

08-21-2007, 09:11 PM	#3
Stoneneedle Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Sony CONNECT Reader	Yes, I have verified that the file size is around 5 MB. I have tried running PDFs in the reader of over 50 MB in size and they run fine, but this turns up blank. It seems to do this only with PDFs from Google Books--yet the PDFs are free.

08-22-2007, 08:51 AM	#4
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	Sounds like this file is protected, you'll have to unlock it.

08-22-2007, 08:10 PM	#5
Anais9000 Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 326 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: PRS-500	It's not a question of protection. It's that the Google PDFs are images -- sometimes you can even see the hands of the guy "digitizing" the book. So you can't export as text because your computer can't read. One thing you can do is to print the pdf to a Microsoft Office Document Image Writer (instead of to an actual printer). This creates an .mdi file, which separates the pages nicely into individual images. Then you can import them page-by-page into an image handler, for instance Paint Shop Pro. Even better, you can write a script to page down, grab the page as an image, paste it into your image handler, save it off, clear memory, page down and start again... Then you can import the whole folder of images into the Connect Reader. Their image size scroll bar makes it pretty easy to get a readable image, but if you want to read it on the Reader itself, you have to generally experiment a bit with size and add some resizing steps into the script that saves off the images as jpegs or tiffs.

08-22-2007, 08:36 PM	#6
Liviu_5 Books and more books Posts: 917 Karma: 69499 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: White Plains, NY, USA Device: Nook Color, Itouch, Nokia770, Sony 650, Sony 700(dead), Ebk(given)	The images used in Google books are made with some new jpg converter that very few pdf readers outside Adobe can handle. You have to print them with some software to regular image pdf's first.

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