How to read Ebooks on your own terms

Marcus Halberstram · 06-26-05, 08:58 PM

I've heard people complaining about purchasing an Ebook and then not being able to transfer it to a PDA or another computer, so I'm offering a way to extract the text from protected Ebooks that you purchase. I first started doing this for two reasons:

1) When I bought a book from Amazon for Adobe Reader, then found that I could not read it on my PDA which I had originally wanted to do.

2) After trying to read a book in Microsoft Reader, I found I couldn't use the whole screen for text, HALF THE DAMN SCREEN IS UNAVAILABLE DUE TO THE LAYOUT!!! I hated hitting the scroll button every half-second. Microsoft Reader is awful, plain awful.

After much frustration, I found a way to conver the Ebooks with some software tools.

You will need:
Workspace Macro Pro: You can download this as a trial. Workspace Macro Pro lets you record keyboard and mouse macros to repeatedly perform actions.

ClipMate: You can download this as a trial. ClipMate records clipboard events, like screenshots and the like, so that you can store them later.

Omnipage Pro: You can purchase this (expensive) unless you already own it. This performs optical character recognition on images.

This is my personal method, after much trial and error, so take it for what it's worth. This explanation is terse and I don't have the programs in front of me to write a step-by-step guide- but this will give you a general idea.

Set your screen resolution to something low, so screenshots aren't too large (turn LCD screens 90 degrees for a longer page view). Open ClipMate and change the settings so it can store unlimited images. Open your purchased ebook in Adobe or Microsoft Reader and enter full-screen mode. Use Workspace Macro Pro to record a macro as such: <print screen> <pause 5 seconds> <pagedown>. Run this macro for as many pages as you have in the book.

This will store a screenshot of every page in your ebook in ClipMate's database. Open clipmate and export all the images to files, using jpg compression at the highest quality.

Omipage can then load all the images and perform OCR on the pages, then you can export the text and read it on your PDA.

A tip- turn off text-smoothing and images with Adobe, the characters recognize much more accurately. And you may have to fiddle with resolution, or do a half page at a time.

I use Plucker to compress the text, then VadeMecum to read my books.

Do not ask me for Ebooks, and don't distribute books that you purchase. Also, check out Project Gutenberg for some great (FREE!) online books- Sherlock Holmes, Paradise Lost, Mark Twain's writings.

If you purchase Ebooks, you own them, and shouldn't have to be tied to your computer monitor in order to read it.

Marcus Halberstram · 06-26-05, 09:01 PM

Another tip- some programs when not in full-screen mode may show a little "lock icon" or some such thing that will cause Omnipage Pro to recognized that it is DRM'd. You can use a program like JpegCrops to batch-crop that part out of the image.

»HunTeR« · 06-27-05, 07:21 AM

JEEEZ!

Man I bought an e-book from Amazon.com few days ago. (26$)
It was written that I will be able to transfare it to my PDA using adobe tools and stuff.

I downloaded the e-book>activated my adobe reader 7>activated adobe reader 2.0 for PDA>transfarred the file using adobe reader - and I keep getting the message "premission to open this document has expiered" ...

I have been looking for days now for a software that can crack the damn DRM security feature!
When i find how i will let you guys know! (for legal usage only!)

CookieKid · 06-27-05, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by »HunTeR«

JEEEZ!

Man I bought an e-book from Amazon.com few days ago. (26$)
It was written that I will be able to transfare it to my PDA using adobe tools and stuff.

I downloaded the e-book>activated my adobe reader 7>activated adobe reader 2.0 for PDA>transfarred the file using adobe reader - and I keep getting the message "premission to open this document has expiered" ...

I have been looking for days now for a software that can crack the damn DRM security feature!
When i find how i will let you guys know! (for legal usage only!)

I was a lil worried about getting ebooks because of this problem. This is such a hassle when you can't even read your own LEGAL e-books that you've just purchased.... :bang:

CK

»HunTeR« · 06-28-05, 06:09 AM

Originally Posted by CookieKid

I was a lil worried about getting ebooks because of this problem. This is such a hassle when you can't even read your own LEGAL e-books that you've just purchased.... :bang:

CK

I AM REALLY FRUSTRATED

I wanted so much to start reading this book on the way home in the bus ...
and now I can't ...

I can't find a software to crack this thing up

So I'm going to start the final solution : contact Adobe!
maybe they can help me!
baaaaaaaaa
*mutters curses as he opens adob's support page using FIREFOX*

uwaku · 06-29-05, 08:43 AM

I just cheat: select all text in Adobe, paste it into a notepad txt file, then use Reader Studio to convert it to LIT for my PPC or one of many other programs to convert it to a PDB for my Palm. Hey, I bought it, I can do whatever I want with it.

keiffer · 07-02-05, 10:08 PM

Thank you, Marcus, for the tips. I decided to give it a try.

I had an ebook that was only in PDF secure format. There wasn't any 'select all' and 'copy' available in Adobe Reader for this secure ebook. I mostly use ereader for my ebooks. Below is how I did the conversion after reading the tip above.

Downloaded and installed ClipMate.

I already had Macro Magic so I used it. There are other macro programs that can be used.
In Macro Magic, I set up a repeat loop command. If there is 200 pages, I set the loop for 200. Each loop does a 'print screen', pause 1 second, 'down page', pause 1 second then repeat loop. I did a keyboard shortcut to activate it. In my case, ctrl + shift + p.

There should be an icon for ClipMate in the lower right corner of your screen. Right click it and select 'Auto Capture' if it isn't already selected. It's a little hard to see if it is selected or not. Also, select 'Append Clips Together'.

I opened Acrobat Reader and selected my ebook. I then selected 'Full Screen'. Now, all I see is the ebook and no menus.

I then press the keyboard shortcut for Macro Magic, ctrl + shift + p. It starts doing a screen shot and then goes to the next page. When the screen shot is done there is a pop sound from the speakers. ClipMate is giving an audio feedback of the screenshot being done.

When all the pages have been captured, open ClipMate. Select the graphics files. Click 'File', 'Export Clips'. For myself, I select 'save BMPs to JPGs and set the quality to the highest setting. Select your location to save the files to and click okay.

The only OCR software I had was what came with my scanner. It didn't work that well. I looked at OmniPage. It is pricey and it appears to be locked to the PC. I like software I can move to my other PCs. After trying out trail versions of different OCRs, I selected TOPOCR.

TOPOCR is designed for digital camera pictures of text. All you have to do is open files from your screen shots. The quickest way to do the conversion is to open your file manager, select your files and drag them to the image window in TOPOCR. It starts opening them and converting them. I don't know what the limit is to the number of files you can drag and drop.

Note:
Magic Magic can interfere with other programs. It hasn't been updated in awhile. Open it only when you need it and close it afterwards. If you don't, other programs might start giving you error all of a sudden and for no reason. It's $40 and is pricey since it isn't being supported. The Workspace Macro Pro mention probably is the best way to go.

ClipMate. If you try to use a key generator instead of paying for it, they ping their database to see if it a good serial number. If it isn't, it will take you to a website for you to repent of your wrong doing and purchase a serial number. And.... at a $5 off savings. I guess cheaters can save some money. Do a search and there are other sites that have it for $25. If you pay $30 at their site, you paid too much.

OCR. If someone knows of a cheaper and more accurate OCR, please post the name and where to get it. TOPOCR is $30. It's a bit high but it did a better job than the others I tried. I'm willing to switch if there is a better one. It takes too much time to download and test them all.

On a side note, if you get audiobooks from Audible, there is a way to convert them to MP3s. You don't have to play and record them in real-time to convert them. There is shareware that will do a 6 hour book in about 30 minutes. It makes a huge MP3 file. You still have to split the file up. There are programs that will split them based on time. Sorry, it can't do it by chapters.

Thanks again, Marcus. The ClipMate utility really helped out alot.

Good luck.

Keith

»HunTeR« · 07-03-05, 06:20 AM

Originally Posted by uwaku

I just cheat: select all text in Adobe, paste it into a notepad txt file, then use Reader Studio to convert it to LIT for my PPC or one of many other programs to convert it to a PDB for my Palm. Hey, I bought it, I can do whatever I want with it.

Why didn't I think of that!!

It's great, isn't it?

well it's not!
unfortunately most DRM protected files don't allow copy paste options for large texts or at all. so ... sorry buddy! nice try :approve:

so what's the next trick? start retyping everything in word then convert it to PDF ? :bang::bang: :exc::exc::exc:

uwaku · 07-05-05, 01:52 PM

Oh well, guess we can't all be lucky. Haven't had a book stop me from copying & pasting yet. Maybe you only have Acrobat Reader, not Acrobat full?

And why would you want to type in Word & convert to PDF? Seems kinda wasteful to me...

»HunTeR« · 07-25-05, 06:40 AM

Hey guys - some good news (well kind of!!)

It seems that Adobe knows about this problem of DRM and VGA pocket pcs (not only by the way) since a very very long times (first VGA unit!!) ... till now no real solution!

However here is a semi good solution offered by the Adobe support team on their forums:
"
1. Install Adobe Reader.
2. Activate your device.
3. Transfer the e-book.
4. Install SE_VGA (http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=14679)*
5. Run SE_VGA
6. Go to Real VGA mode (480*640 resolution)
7. Launch Adobe Reader.
8. Open the e-book.
"

It is still annoying as we have to move to real VGA and read in that mode (which is hard for me at least).
but heh - better than nothing - maybe next Christmass we'll have a real good solution!

CyberSpaceCadet · 09-27-05, 01:15 PM

See my post on the sticky string on here. It SEEMS to work for me ...