PRS-600 prs-600 notes to printing

[cedricp]

Maybe I missed the attachment...

[llreader]

Thanks! I will give this a whirl this weekend. It needs to be used with the database created after syncing using the Sony software, no?

[cedricp]

I don't think so. I never use the sony software as I find it utterly useless...

[llreader]

Oh, excellent! It hasn't done much but crash for me.

[luqmaninbmore]

Any hope for a java script to extract the text annotations, so this can be used on the 700 too?

[cedricp]

I guess it really depends on the format of the text annotations. On the 700, do you also have a xml file that contains all the annotations? Can you post an example of such annotation?

Best

[luqmaninbmore]

Annotation for Epub or PDF files are stored in this way. Annotation for LRF, I'm not sure about. I'll post an example when I get home and I have access to my 700.

[cedricp]

For reference, on the PRS600, overlined text is stored like that:

With a free-hand comment attached:
<annotation date="Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:17:40 GMT" name="123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP Line 5" page="0" pageOffset="0" pages="1" part="0" scale="0" synced="true" dpi="167" width="584" height="754" layoutVersion="1">

<start>I3BkZmxvYyg1OTBlLDAsNDEsMCwwLDAsMCwxKQA=</start>
<end>I3BkZmxvYyg1OTBlLDAsNDEsMTgsMSwwLDEsMSkA</end>
<svgFile width="446" height="315">1256300260258.742.svg</svgFile>
<comment></comment>

</annotation>

With a text comment attached:
<annotation date="Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:18:07 GMT" name="123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP Line 6" page="0" pageOffset="0" pages="1" part="0" scale="0" synced="true" dpi="167" width="584" height="754" layoutVersion="1">

<start>I3BkZmxvYyg1OTBlLDAsNDksMCwwLDAsMCwxKQA=</start> <end>I3BkZmxvYyg1OTBlLDAsNDksMTgsMSwwLDEsMSkA</end>
<comment>jolly good</comment>

</annotation>


With none of the above:
<annotation date="Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:24:19 GMT" name="23456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP Line 7" page="0" pageOffset="0" pages="1" part="0" scale="0" synced="true" dpi="167" width="584" height="754" layoutVersion="1">

<start>I3BkZmxvYyg1OTBlLDAsNTcsMCwwLDAsMSwxKQA=</start>
<end>I3BkZmxvYyg1OTBlLDAsNTcsMTgsMSwwLDEsMSkA</end>
<comment></comment>

</annotation>

The weird text between the start and end tags is just the "pdfloc" reference, in base64 encoding. I don't understand why someone would want to encrypt this kind of thing, and why with this kind of encryption.

[NightWhistler]

I did some testing with this earlier: created the same document as ePub and as PDF and selected the same text in both.

For PDF it uses the same pdfloc style to indicate start and end point. I couldn't find a way to reliably trace a pdfloc back to a specific point in the text though.

For the epub it used a different format, indicating the line and position on the line. Again: a start and end point... this does make me think that we'd need a seperate decoder per format... though with ePub, PDF and LRF covered we should have the most important ones covered.

If you want I could upload my sample files including annotations. From what I've seen so far the process would be:

1. Find the annotation for a specific document
2. Decode the start- and end-positions
3. Extract the text between those positions from the original document
4. Add any annotations entered by the user
5. Output it all in some kind of readable format.

[cedricp]

It should pretty easy to do that from my python file. However, I will not be able to do it in the next few days. If someone wants to modify the script, please help yourself.

Best

[cedricp]

If someone is so inclined, I think the JPedal library could help to recover the annotated text: http://www.jpedal.org/support_egCE.php

The coordinate system should even be consistent the the #pdfloc tab....

[leafy]

thought you might like Sony's take on this issue. This is part of a transcript from online help:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Problem : export of highlighted text cuts off everything after about 100 characters

George_ > Thanks for waiting, Grant. I'm sorry that the exporting the highlighted text cuts off about 100 characters in the Reader. I’ll be glad to assist you with this.

Grant > thanks - how do I fix it as 100 characters is rarely a whole sentence, yet alone enough for a quote from a journal article

George_ > I understand that about 100 characters are cutting down while exproting the highlighted text. Is that correct?

Grant > fromt he highlighted passage, only the first 100 characters are actually exported. the balance of the highlighted passage is left off

...

Grant > I assume there is a setting somewhere that needs to be altered as it is too absurd to be a limitation on the program itself

George_ > Does it happen with all the eBooks?

...

Grant > happens with all types of files

Grant > can you open your copy of the reader software, choose a book, highlight a passage and then hit the export button and see if it happens for you

George_ > Please give me a moment while I get this information for you.

...

George_ > Grant, this is a normal operation in the Reader.

Grant > what do you mean 'normal'?

George_ > Only 100 characters can be highlighted and can be exported in the Reader.

Grant > Are you saying it was designed to have this bizarre limitation

George_ > If more than 100 characters are highlighted, only the first 100 characters will be exported.

George_ > Yes, Grant.

Grant > so it was designed to have this bizare limitation

George_ > Yes, Grant.

Grant > will it be fixed in the future as it makes the function unusable

...

George_ > I'm sorry, Grant. We are not aware of this being an issue.

Grant > how do I make sony aware of this issue?

George_ > Customer input and response is valuable in the continued support and development of our products.

....

[llreader]

Thanks leafy. Sony is afraid of problems from content owners. Still, even with that, 100 characters is absurd. 100 words, maybe.

[bjrnfrdnnd]

Hi Cedricp,

i see that you are trying to use the device exactly the way I intend to.
Can you tell me whether it is possible to search for words in a pdf file?
I ask this questions because (astonishing to me) there actually _are_ readers that advertise search/annotate functions, but when you ask for details, it turns out that these functions are _not_ implemented for pdfs (Hanvon n518).
So I have to ask the question this precisely.
Also, I did not fully understand your comment on non-zoomed pdfs.
Can you only make your hand-written annotations in unzoom mode?
If you have a full-fledged two-column technical a4 pdf, you will not even be able to _read_ the thing in non-zoom mode, let alone make useful annotation on it; or can you?

Your program idea looks nice; if I am to buy a prs-600, I most definitely would like to use this program, so thank you already for having written a nice script like that!

[zimmerleut]

hi everybody... did anyone succesfully decipher the pdfloc coordinates? Seems to be a bit different from what's been described above.
After all, Adobe uses the same tags, but according to a 2-year old entry in their forum they don't document this.