PDFRead - reading PDFs on the 1100/1150/1200 eBook Readers

ashkulz · 03-29-2007, 01:41 PM

UPDATE: PDFRead is now hosted at SourceForge.

I have a REB1100 and all other things being fine, I disliked not being able to read PDFs on it. I then watched the development of PDFRasterFarian for the Sony Reader, and thought that the same logic could be applied to the REB 1100/1150/1200 family.

So, the tool has the following features:

support for PDF and DJVU documents
works on Windows, Linux and OS X
supports creating images for any ebook reader device
out of the box profiles for the 1100/1150/1200 and PRS-500.
fast and very accurate autocropping
image dilation for more "thicker" text enabled by default
automatically splitting into multiple pages for landscape mode
generate image will fit the screen size exactly in potrait mode
rotation of image for devices that don't support landscape mode
option for reducing the number of colors to reduce image size
output formats supported: currently html, rb, lrf, imp1, and imp2.

See the sample PDF input and the sample output generated with the REB1100 profile.

For Windows, download the PDFRead v5 installer. For Linux and OS X, download the PDFRead v5 source code. Please read the README in the source or windows installations for further details.

Changes since v4

added a README
add DJVU input support
allow specifying custom options in the Windows GUI
OS X support fixes (based on sammykrupa's input)
tweaks in the EB-1150 and REB-1200 profile
do not split page if the generated image width/height is less than the device parameters. This caused too many blank pages to be created.

Thanks to alex_d, Falstaff, Liviu_5 and sammykrupa for helping me and providing me inspiration.

Enjoy.....

nekokami · 03-29-2007, 02:14 PM

Wow.

This should work for the eBookwise 1150, too, right?

ashkulz · 03-29-2007, 02:24 PM

Yep. Just use the eb1150 profile, and you're ready to go!

Shake · 03-31-2007, 12:21 PM

Thank you very much for your work!!! This is *very* useful (I also use Ubuntu).

I have one suggestion for the UI: Could you add a crop function? This step has to be done for nearly every pdf...

ashkulz · 03-31-2007, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shake

Thank you very much for your work!!! This is *very* useful (I also use Ubuntu).

I have one suggestion for the UI: Could you add a crop function? This step has to be done for nearly every pdf...

Autocropping is already built into the code. If you mean manual cropping, that's a whole new kettle of fish ... If you do manual cropping with Acrobat or set the CropBox via Ghostscript, then PDFRead should respect it.

If you have a PDF which is not being cropped properly, please post it here and I will look into it.

ashkulz · 03-31-2007, 09:06 PM

Added a GUI and automatic creation of LRFs via PyLRS.

Please note that I don't have the Sony Reader, so I haven't really tested the LRF output. However, as I'm using PyLRS for the generation I'm reasonably sure it should work out of the box. Let me know if you have any problems.

sammykrupa · 03-31-2007, 10:32 PM

Any word if the Sony Reader support works on OS X?

obelix · 04-01-2007, 01:58 AM

I was not able to make it working on Windows XP. It crashes immideately after pushing the "Convert" button independent on profile settings.

sputnik · 04-01-2007, 02:01 AM

This is great. Support for the imp format would be fantastic, as I have an 1150 and I won't have to make any additional conversion.

By the way, is there any way of putting rb files on a 1150? I think I read somewhere that if you just change the extension of the file from .rb to .imp, the ebookwise 1150 will recognize it. Is it true? Has anyone tried it?

sputnik · 04-01-2007, 02:30 AM

I don't know what am I doing wrong, but it does not work for me. When I right-click on any pdf the first option is Read. I click on it and the Acrobat opens it. Then go to Program Files and I launch PDFRead (i.e., pdfread-gui.exe) and fill in the required information, with the exception of Output ebook, where I don't know what am I supposed to put. Then I click convert, a MS DOS black windows appears and quickly disapears and nothing else happens. It must be something that I did wrong, but what?

P.S. I use eb1150

ashkulz · 04-01-2007, 02:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sputnik

I don't know what am I doing wrong, but it does not work for me. When I right-click on any pdf the first option is Read. I click on it and the Acrobat opens it. Then go to Program Files and I launch PDFRead (i.e., pdfread-gui.exe) and fill in the required information, with the exception of Output ebook, where I don't know what am I supposed to put. Then I click convert, a MS DOS black windows appears and quickly disapears and nothing else happens. It must be something that I did wrong, but what?

P.S. I use eb1150

Ok, I discovered the problem. There are two workarounds:

Install to a location with no spaces (eg. C:\PDFRead)
Open up the file C:\Program Files\PDFRead\pdfread-run.cmd and change
Code:
```
%~dp0bin\pdfread %*
```
to
Code:
```
"%~dp0bin\pdfread" %*
```
(i.e. add quotes around the command)

ashkulz · 04-01-2007, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by obelix

I was not able to make it working on Windows XP. It crashes immideately after pushing the "Convert" button independent on profile settings.

Could you elaborate on that? Does it do a Windows crash? If you could attach a screenshot of that it would be helpful.

sputnik · 04-01-2007, 03:02 AM

it's a windows xp legal copy; the machine is fine; no windows crash, no error; it's just that nothing happens after that dos window flickers for a milisecond

ashkulz · 04-01-2007, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammykrupa

Any word if the Sony Reader support works on OS X?

I don't really have access to an OS X machine, but it should work. If you have Fink installed, try installing the packages below and then trying the command-line version:

Hope that helps.

ashkulz · 04-01-2007, 03:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sputnik

it's a windows xp legal copy; the machine is fine; no windows crash, no error; it's just that nothing happens after that dos window flickers for a milisecond

Did you try that workaround I mentioned? The crash comments were directed to obleix, not you. Scroll up to see the workaround.

I will release a new version on monday with the fix and IMP format support.

03-31-2007, 09:06 PM	#6
ashkulz Addict Posts: 350 Karma: 705 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Kindle 1/REB 1200	Added a GUI and automatic creation of LRFs via PyLRS. Please note that I don't have the Sony Reader, so I haven't really tested the LRF output. However, as I'm using PyLRS for the generation I'm reasonably sure it should work out of the box. Let me know if you have any problems. Last edited by ashkulz; 03-31-2007 at 09:16 PM.

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03-29-2007, 02:14 PM	#2
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	Wow. This should work for the eBookwise 1150, too, right?

03-29-2007, 02:24 PM	#3
ashkulz Addict Posts: 350 Karma: 705 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Kindle 1/REB 1200	Yep. Just use the eb1150 profile, and you're ready to go!

03-31-2007, 12:21 PM	#4
Shake Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2006	Thank you very much for your work!!! This is very useful (I also use Ubuntu). I have one suggestion for the UI: Could you add a crop function? This step has to be done for nearly every pdf...

03-31-2007, 10:32 PM	#7
sammykrupa Reader of the Reader Posts: 103 Karma: 107 Join Date: Apr 2006 Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	Any word if the Sony Reader support works on OS X?

04-01-2007, 01:58 AM	#8
obelix Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 1695 Join Date: Oct 2006	I was not able to make it working on Windows XP. It crashes immideately after pushing the "Convert" button independent on profile settings.

04-01-2007, 02:01 AM	#9
sputnik Enthusiast Posts: 46 Karma: 133388 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: London, Ontario Device: EB 1150, iLiad	This is great. Support for the imp format would be fantastic, as I have an 1150 and I won't have to make any additional conversion. By the way, is there any way of putting rb files on a 1150? I think I read somewhere that if you just change the extension of the file from .rb to .imp, the ebookwise 1150 will recognize it. Is it true? Has anyone tried it?

04-01-2007, 02:30 AM	#10
sputnik Enthusiast Posts: 46 Karma: 133388 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: London, Ontario Device: EB 1150, iLiad	I don't know what am I doing wrong, but it does not work for me. When I right-click on any pdf the first option is Read. I click on it and the Acrobat opens it. Then go to Program Files and I launch PDFRead (i.e., pdfread-gui.exe) and fill in the required information, with the exception of Output ebook, where I don't know what am I supposed to put. Then I click convert, a MS DOS black windows appears and quickly disapears and nothing else happens. It must be something that I did wrong, but what? P.S. I use eb1150

04-01-2007, 03:02 AM	#13
sputnik Enthusiast Posts: 46 Karma: 133388 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: London, Ontario Device: EB 1150, iLiad	it's a windows xp legal copy; the machine is fine; no windows crash, no error; it's just that nothing happens after that dos window flickers for a milisecond

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