Using Mac OS X to "print" PDFs to ebooks...

[kf6gpe]

I've been experimenting with the best way to get academic papers from the likes of the ACM on my Sony eReader with a minimum of fuss. After some fooling around, I've come up with a script and Folder Action that lets me print documents to PDF using CUPS-PDF and then automatically transfer them to the eReader whenever it's plugged in.

I've got a comprehensive writeup on my blog, although the idea behind it is simple:

1. Install CUPS-PDF to streamline PDF generation.
2. Have CUPS-PDF dump its output in a working directory.
3. Use a Folder Action to detect when the Macintosh mounts eReader volumes.
4. Have the Folder Action move the PDFs from the working directory to the eReader.

Oddly, the Mac OS X specific part of the work (making a Folder Action trigger on the /Volumes folder) was the peskiest for me to figure out.

While I'm using the approach with the Sony eReader specifically, the basic idea behind tying CUPS-PDF to a folder action triggered when the hardware is mounted is probably useful to others, so I thought I'd pass it along. I suspect it could be easily adapted to other formats besides PDF, too.