Opinions on Archive.org as free ebook source?

[jackm8]

I'm finding that I'm relying more and more on them compared to other sources. Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks.... They don't go with reflowable text, they just offer scans of original books in as high quality as possible. They do offer epubs, in some cases, but they're often poorly formatted. There's flawed ocr, and no custom proofreading, then again, none of that is needed. Proofreading is often a must, and a problem on epubs. Corrupted pages, ink splats, or just ocr that misbehaved, all that can cause text errors that then drag across various commercial or free ebooks for years. In a scanned page, mistakes are plainly visible, so the reader can see and often deduce what the word that's corrupted was.

Then there's another benefit. Illustrations. You rarely see them even in commercial ebooks. And when they are available, they're often of low quality. On archive.org, you can choose from various editions, compare which looks the best and go with it.

There is size and availability concern, though. Some books can't be downloaded, and when they are files tend to be quite big. Massive compared to epubs. Likewise, pdfs can be of worse quality than processed jpegs, so I often download them instead and convert them into pdfs on my own.

[Sirtel]

I only read reflowable ebooks, PDF is out of the question for me. Too clumsy and uncomfortable even on a computer, let alone ereader. And I couldn't care less about illustrations. Give me pure text any day.

[j.p.s]

I think of the (public domain) scans on archive.org as valuable raw material for ebook producers that can't or don't want to do the scanning themselves. (Just as Project Gutenberg can be a starting point for someone wanting to produce high quality formatting.)

[Quoth]

Archive Org is only good for PDF scans. You need to check they are really PD and do your own clean up / OCR / Proof. Their OCR is almost enough just for search.

You need a decent QHD screen, better than basic HD anyway, to read them.

Often the quality is poor.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I think of the (public domain) scans on archive.org as valuable raw material for ebook producers that can't or don't want to do the scanning themselves. (Just as Project Gutenberg can be a starting point for someone wanting to produce high quality formatting.)

Yes, definitely agree.

[ZodWallop]

I personally wouldn't enjoy reading one of those Archive.org (or OpenLibrary) book scans on my reader. They are a mess.

But they can serve as valuable raw material and I'm glad they are doing what they are doing (even the scans of in copyright stuff).

[tomsem]

While a lot of it available for ePub download, PDF is almost always better in the end. Some of the scans are pretty good, for example the ones you have to check out an hour at a time.

I've been sufficiently motivated to clean a few up and re-OCR, but it is a lot of work and difficult to automate any part of the workflow for doing so.

[ownedbycats]

The PDFs scanned by the Internet Archive itself use a Luratech layering/transparency for compression reasons. I've had issues with them on my Kobo devices.

The OCR'd ePubs I consider a lost cause.

[Comfy.n]

Sometimes I see very low "brightness" in Archive.org scans.

Then, a while ago, when looking at one of those, I found an awesome Windows program that allows adjusting all images in a PDF file, in just one click:
https://www.naps2.com/

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

... I found an awesome Windows program that allows adjusting all images in a PDF file, in just one click:
https://www.naps2.com/

I use that also. It is a great little program.
I don't use it for the pdf adjustment, but I do us the batch scanning mode which works really well.

=edit=
Thanks for the reminder. I see I am a bit out of date using v6.1. Best upgrade to the latest version.

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Thanks for the reminder. I see I am a bit out of date using v6.1. Best upgrade to the latest version.

yes, and I thought it was Windows only. Just now I found it's cross-platform

[Dr. Drib]

I just do this in calibre:

VIEW (open the PDF file)
FILE
EXPORT
QUARTZ FILTER (change to BLACK & WHITE)
SAVE

I then take the saved file from Documents (Macbook Air) and load the file onto calibre and then transfer it to my Kindle Scribe. Beautiful. The covers are in black and white, but I don't care.

Then (pay attention ), I READ the book as a PDF file.

Most of my PDF files come from Archive.org

WONDERFUL. SIMPLE. ENJOYABLE. PDF FILE. KINDLE SCRIBE. YEAH!

[ekbell]

While they are not my favorite source of Public Domain books I have grabbed a number of their PDFs.

I use EBookDroid to read them on my tablet as it provides a number of options to improve PDF readability.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

https://www.naps2.com/

Thanks for linking that. I am glad it is multi-platform. However, on Linux it seems to be single-threaded. Is it the same on Windows/macOS? My main workstation has 14 cores, so seeing it do a compute-heavy task on just one of them is a bit frustrating.

[PeterT]

There seems to be some multi core discussions at https://sourceforge.net/p/naps2/discussion/general/