04-08-2009, 02:47 PM | #31 |
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Great mod, Jesse.
Does the new beta image (4-8) do image generation as well, or just text generation? |
04-08-2009, 03:01 PM | #32 |
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It does both text and images. The next thing I want to do to the image generation is to do automatic border trimming. What's the best-current-practice for that that doesn't require a windows excecutable?
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04-08-2009, 04:13 PM | #33 |
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There's the pdfcrop utility (available on Debian in the 'texlive-extra-utils' package, of all places) for cropping PDFs directly. The netpbm pnmcrop will let you do auto-cropping of image files as part of a shell pipeline. HTH.
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04-08-2009, 09:30 PM | #34 |
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Success!
Over the past few days I have tried all three version and finally .08 showed the magic. I noticed that it does a PDF-to-text conversion. So, some information is lost in the process. It does a better job when the PDF if produced in Adobe PDF maker. OSX built-in PDFs are badly mangled. Regards, Gopal PS: Thank you for all your efforts. Hope you continue developing this wonderful utility. |
04-08-2009, 11:27 PM | #35 |
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Ok... maybe I'm a nOOB (ok I am) but I can't get it to work with PDF's. I had installed the .06 version so I did an uninstall. Then I grabbed the .08 version. I don't see an Install BIN file for the .08 so I used the one from the .06 (perhaps my problem?)
It said it had installed the update but I don't know how to check my version (told you I'm a nOOb). Any ideas? Amazing product and I know I'm going to love it when it gets working for me. Keep up the good work! --DB |
04-10-2009, 03:40 PM | #36 |
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Jesse is it possible for you to update your blog page with the most current download. I didn't realize I had installed an older version until I cam here for troubleshooting (Kindle not seeing the pdf files in my documents folder). I'm downloading and installing the newer version.
Thanks. EDIT: BTW, after I ran the removesavory.bin, the savory-image.ext3 file was still in my system folder. Should it have been removed? Last edited by daffy4u; 04-10-2009 at 04:25 PM. |
04-10-2009, 04:45 PM | #37 |
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I've installed the new version. Here are my results so far:
- Savory does not see pdf files I placed in the "documents" folder via drag and drop. - It did allow me to download one with the browser but when I would try to open it, the Kindle told me the file was deleted and removed from my Kindle even though it still showed on my home screen as "Converting nameoffile.pdf". I deleted it since I couldn't open it. - When I reconnected the Kindle via USB, I found a copy of the pdf I downloaded in a folder called "savory-archive". I dragged the pdf from that folder back into "documents". It was recognized (none of the original drag and drop pdf files were). I was able to open it but Savory seems to not like pdfs created by CutePDF. The pdf contained a table (the original source file was nested tables) with text and images. There was no table and the text was separated from the images. There was some gibberish which I think represented the table itself. I was able to zoom the images which is great! - I also see another folder labeled "savory-conversion-temp" which contains a text file with the same name as the recognized pdf (nameoffile.txt). Not sure what else I can try. |
04-10-2009, 11:08 PM | #38 |
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Savory now uses better fonts and crops PDFs for improved display
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04-11-2009, 11:37 AM | #39 |
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This update is a nice improvement! Thank you Jesse!
So, here's a brief review (since every one likes a review now-a-days): Upon installing, the ver0.10 finds the PDF and creates 2 versions of converted PDFs. One is a text-conversion and the other is PNG conversion. The text-version is great for simple text-only PDFs. Loads fast and refreshes fast. However, it loses all the pictures. The PNG conversion is snapshots of each page of the PDF and displays them page-wise. This is the choice if you need to read PDFs with pictures (most scientific papers). Pressing the 'menu' button in PNG-mode reveals a list of options enabling one to move around in the PNG to improve the readability. However, the refresh rates are slow (perhaps due to the limitations of Kindle's processor and built-in RAM? - just a guess). This is a quantum-improvement over previous versions and it makes leap towards making Kindle2 a self-sufficient PDF reader. It covers up some of the deficiencies that Kindle2 came with. I haven't used it enough to know about the long-term stability. If you are adventurous with your Kindle2, I would definitely recommend installing this version of Savory. The risks (as per my experience) are minimal-to-nothing. The installation is completely reversible. That said, YMMV. Suggestions: 1. Perhaps a lower resolution PNG conversion would allow faster refresh rates? 2. Can the 5-way key be enabled to move around the page in PNG mode? That would make it so much more convenient. Regards, Gopal PS: Just in case someone is wondering how to move from 0.06/0.08 to 0.10 (new version): replace the old ext3 file with the new one and restart the kindle. Last edited by Gopal; 04-11-2009 at 08:30 PM. |
04-11-2009, 06:51 PM | #40 |
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@gopal - it's PNG, not PGN. Otherwise, thanks for the writeup
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04-11-2009, 07:35 PM | #41 |
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I started from scratch and added the new image file from April 10. This time it worked.
I added a pdf script that I've been using as a sample with PDFRead with some success in landscape mode. I added the file to my "documents" folder and also downloaded it via the browser. I realized I have confused my results by having 2 copies of the same file on my Kindle. Its hard to tell which is doing what. Here is what I think is happening. - The file I added via USB showed up on my home screen with author listed as "User Windows..." (can't see the whole name). This file split into 2 versions. One with the correct title and one with percent (%) signs where the spaces should be between words. Both of these files lost their formatting. - The file I downloaded via the browser also split into 2 files. Both had percent (%) signs where the spaces should be between words. One of those files has the word "Converting" in front of it. Can't see an author name because the titles are too long. The file without "Converting" in front of the title, looks perfect. All the formatting is intact. The files *with* "Converting" in front of the title, is full of conversion instructions and a list of all the page numbers. If I haven't confused myself too much with the double files, I think it's better to download the file via the browser than to add it to the Kindle via USB. A few things I noticed with the file that converted properly: - I was unable to bookmark any pages - Moving the joystick just causes the top info bar on the screen to blink - Just for fun I tried to see if I could change the font size, the font was disabled and nothing happened. I still have more experimenting to do but so far Savory really rocks! Last edited by daffy4u; 04-11-2009 at 07:37 PM. |
04-11-2009, 08:33 PM | #42 |
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04-11-2009, 09:37 PM | #43 |
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Anyone tried epub yet? I downloaded two epub books from Feedbooks and neither shows up on my home screen.
Edit: The ePub books showed up on my home page. I put the Kindle down for a couple of hours and when I came back the books were there. I guess it just takes a while for them to convert before they show up. They look great! Another thing I noticed is that I was unable to download an epub book via the browser from MobileRead even though Feedbooks worked. See the image below for the error message I received. Last edited by daffy4u; 04-12-2009 at 12:32 AM. |
04-12-2009, 09:24 AM | #44 |
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This looks really cool, but I still can't get it to work. I'm having the same problem as the people above me seem to be having; I put savory-image.ext3 into the 'system' folder, and installed update_Savory-0.06.bin, but my Kindle doesn't seem to be able to recognize PDF's I put in the 'documents' folder. When I go to settings the bottom bar says "Version: Kindle 2.0 (291330095) UNSUPPORTED SAVORY-0.06)".
I've tried both the version on this page http://blog.fsck.com/2009/04/savory.html and "savory-image-2009-04-10.zip" from the Google Code page. Could someone point me in the right direction? Jesse, thank you for your work. Edit: I forgot to mention, I have also tried doing a factory reset and using the Savory uninstaller before updating to the 04-10 version, but to no avail. Last edited by meep!; 04-12-2009 at 09:26 AM. |
04-12-2009, 09:53 AM | #45 | |
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Quote:
When you either download or drag and drop your PDF or ePub files into the "documents" folder, wait. It takes a little while for Savory to recognize and convert the files. I'd give it at least 5-10 minutes (though I haven't put my stopwatch to it yet). |
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Tags |
epub, kindle 2, kindle conversion, savory |
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