[Store Plugin] Standard Ebooks (Updated and Fixed)

[SatanicSaint]

bs2k had created a Store Plugin for Standard Ebooks here. However it had stopped working and was never added to the Index.

I have fixed it (with their blessing) and v1.0.0 is fully working. Now you can search for all your high quality public domain ebooks and download them right from Calibre.

Standard Ebooks:

The Standard Ebooks project is a volunteer driven, not-for-profit effort to produce a collection of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open source, and free public domain ebooks that meet or exceed the quality of commercially produced ebooks.

The Standard Ebooks project differs from Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive etc. in that they aim to make free public domain ebooks that are carefully typeset, cleaned of ancient and irrelevant ephemera, take full advantage of modern ereading technology, are formatted according to a detailed style guide, and that are each held to a standard of quality and internal consistency.

Each Standard Ebook features carefully chosen cover art based on public domain artwork, and is presented in an attractive way in your reading app or device.

Installation Notes:
Download the attached zip file and install the plugin as described in the Introduction to plugins thread.

Special Notes:
Requires Calibre v5.0.1 or later

How to use the plugin:

1. Click on Get Books
2. Make sure Standard Ebooks is selected in the left plane(the list of available stores)
3. Type your search query in the keyword text box and click on Search
4. Double click on the book you want and select which format to download.
5. Enjoy your high quality public domain ebook

Version History:

Spoiler:

Version 1.0.0 - 13th February 2021
Initial Release.

[SatanicSaint]

reserved

[JSWolf]

I have to disagree with the term carefully formatted. There i an error in the CSS and ADE (RMSDK) ignore the entire CSS and that makes the eBooks look not good if you are using RMSDK based reading software.

As for the plugin, you didn't point out what Calibre versions it works with and is it Python 2, 3, or 2/3?

[thiago.eec]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have to disagree with the term carefully formatted. The code is far from hand crafted in the keep it simple style of coding. If it was, there would be no need for the ePub (ePub 2/3) version and the ePub (ePub 3 only version) and there would be just one ePub 2/3 compatible version hand crafted and properly coded.

As for the plugin, you didn't out what Calibre versions it works with and is it Python 2, 3, or 2/3?

Well, after reading your comment, I decided to take a look at a random book (The Count of Monte Cristo). I must say it was very well coded.

Unless this is was a lucky shot (which I doubt, due to their statement about standards), I must disagree with you too.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by thiago.eec

Well, after reading your comment, I decided to take a look at a random book (The Count of Monte Cristo). I must say it was very well coded.

Unless this is was a lucky shot (which I doubt, due to their statement about standards), I must disagree with you too.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=335913

That thread is about Standard Ebooks. Read post #41 from @davidfor. He lays out what's wrong very well.

I've downloaded The Count of Monte Cristo and it does have an error in the CSS that causes it to be ignored with RMSDK. The code is more complex then it needs to be. They came up with a CSS that fails with RMSDK and is much more complicated then it needs to be. That to me is poor coding.

[SatanicSaint]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have to disagree with the term carefully formatted. There i an error in the CSS and ADE (RMSDK) ignore the entire CSS and that makes the eBooks look not good if you are using RMSDK based reading software.

As for the plugin, you didn't point out what Calibre versions it works with and is it Python 2, 3, or 2/3?

Oops sorry about that. It is Python 3 and will work with the latest Calibre and should work with any future versions. That is unless there is a big change in the Get Books functionality or Standard's OPDS feed.

I don't use ADE but the books look perfect in my Kindle. I've been reading their O. Henry collections and haven't encountered any issue so far. Their copy is so much better than just grabbing a random copy off of Gutenberg or /r/freeebooks subreddit. Are there any other good high quality sources for books out there?

Btw it's an open source project so if you find any error you can just do a pull request or tell them about it.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by SatanicSaint

Btw it's an open source project so if you find any error you can just do a pull request or tell them about it.

Just so you know, the community HAS had chats with Standard Ebooks regarding the formatting of their content, and it did not go that well

[SatanicSaint]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Just so you know, the community HAS had chats with Standard Ebooks regarding the formatting of their content, and it did not go that well

Yup just went through the thread JSWolf linked. Oh boy, that was a spicy thread. I see both sides of the argument tbh.

[DNSB]

What I would say is that while the Srandard Ebooks CSS is not perfect, it is a lot better as a starting point than many ebooks I see. Their consistent stylesheets make it easy to have a set of saved search/replaces to correct most of what I see as issues. OTOH, I have not yet found a device or app yet that comes close to full support for their Advanced Epub variant.

I would also say that when I have reported errors, they have acknowledged and corrected the errors.

[BetterRed]

Moderator Notice
@SatanicSaint - thanks for creating a new plugin -- but:

"Source" is not a plugin type known to me, I suggest it is a "Store" plugin. Other's mods might want to chime in.

The plugin won't be added to the Index of plugins automatically. As per the 'Notes for Plugin Developers:' in that thread you need to ask a calibre moderator to do that.

You can't change the thread title, let me know if it should be changed to "Store"

BR

[SatanicSaint]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@SatanicSaint - thanks for creating a new plugin -- but:

"Source" is not a plugin type known to me, I suggest it is a "Store" plugin. Other's mods might want to chime in.

The plugin won't be added to the Index of plugins automatically. As per the 'Notes for Plugin Developers:' in that thread you need to ask a calibre moderator to do that.

You can't change the thread title, let me know if it should be changed to "Store"

BR

Yes it should be a Store Plugin. My bad. Also I have PMed PeterT with the IndexSample so that it can be added to the index.

Also can you tell me how do I edit my post. I want to edit the description and add requirements like JSWolf suggested.

[thiago.eec]

Originally Posted by DNSB

What I would say is that while the Srandard Ebooks CSS is not perfect, it is a lot better as a starting point than many ebooks I see.

That's what I thought when I looked at it. The HTML can have some problems too, like using <hgroup>, which is now deprecated (for HTML5, hence epub3).
But, in general, I think the sample I examined was pretty good. Similarly to what you said: I found it better than many (most?) of the commercially distributed ebooks I have been seeing.

[ownedbycats]

I find it more readable than a random ePub grabbed from Project Gutenberg.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by SatanicSaint

Yes it should be a Store Plugin.

Fixed

Originally Posted by SatanicSaint

Also can you tell me how do I edit my post. I want to edit the description and add requirements like JSWolf suggested.

There's a VBulletin feature that prevents people editing their own posts until they have posted N new replies or threads. AFAIK it can't be overridden, and I have yet to determine the value of N - perhaps for you it's the square root of the Avogadro Constant.

Post replies in the Lounge threads until you can edit one - then you'll know you've found your N

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by thiago.eec

That's what I thought when I looked at it. The HTML can have some problems too, like using <hgroup>, which is now deprecated (for HTML5, hence epub3).
But, in general, I think the sample I examined was pretty good. Similarly to what you said: I found it better than many (most?) of the commercially distributed ebooks I have been seeing.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I find it more readable than a random ePub grabbed from Project Gutenberg.

Take The Count of Monte Cristo and download the ePub version (first one in the list) and view it with Adobe Digital Editions (ADE/RMSDK) and you'll see it's broken because of an error in the CSS that was pointed out to them by @davidfor and hey have yet to fix all of these eBooks. Plus, another issue is that they are coding for the ePub 3.2 standard when there are no Readers that support it and I don't know of any programs that do support ePub 3.2.

The thing is that the eBooks they have do not have complex formatting and simple CSS will work very well. I took one of their books and in the thread I linked above, posted the eBook I cleaned up and the code is very simple and works in many more places then their version does.