How would one go about converting an e-book like vogel or brauer from the MSDB library into a real book made out of paper?
I imagine one would have to print half the pages (every second page) and then flip the papers over for the pages of the final book to end upp in the
right places.
Now, printing out one page at a time and then flipping it would be unimaginably time consuming, is there some software tool to do this with pdf's
and perhaps even with DJvu's?
The final book wouldn't have to be pretty in any way, I just like having "real" books and Im sure many of you'd do as well!neutrino - 24-6-2005 at 15:20
There are printers out there that will do this for you. I'm sure that there's also some piece of software somewhere.
[Edited on 24-6-2005 by neutrino]Silentnite - 24-6-2005 at 16:52
In word you can choose to print every other page. Then flip it over, start with page 2 and print every other page.
For those of you in the back, that's: 1,3,5,7,9 "FLIP" 2,4,6,8,10
Yes, it is terribly time consuming, but if your printing off that much it would take quite a while anyway.Mr. Wizard - 24-6-2005 at 17:40
Buy a cheap laser printer at Fry's for $99 (Brother) and print it yourself. Most computers have a two sided print option in printer setup menu.
My Mac does, so I'd guess the PC world has the same options. The print cartridge on a laser printer should last you long enough to print over 10K
pages. Another advantage to a laser printer is the ink won't run, or fade as on an inkjet printer. Use acid free document paper. The characters
are a fused plastic. Books will still be around when DVD disks will be as quaint as Edison's phonograph cylinders.
Making your own eBooks and bookbinding.
Lambda - 24-6-2005 at 19:43
This is a very interesting thread, and more emphasis should be given to this subject.
1.- Scanning books, what OCR software is the best to use: Abby FineReader, Omnipage proffesional or ReadIris Pro ?.
2. - Which scanner should be used ?. Should a HP scanner be used ?. On this scanner a book can be scaned in by folding the book over the side at a 90
- 135 degree angle, so that the cover doese not get damaged by putting it flat (180 degrees). Are there other scanners that can scane from the edge
?.
3. - How can I print out a book. Can this be done by printing the even pages first, and then the uneven pages after having turned the staple round.
What can go wrong here ?. What happens if my printer only once, selects two pages at one time, due to paperfeed problems ?. How can this problem be
solved, inorder to get the job done.
4. - How can I bind this book in, and give it a hardcover, looking more beautifull than the original book ?. Is it possible to use my printer to print
a text on this hardcover ?.
5. - Where can I find information on bookbinding ?. What techniques are used in bookbinding ?. Can I buy bookbinding equipment and materials ? Is it
expensive, and will this cost me more than just buying the book ?. What factors determen the price of such a project ?.
All these questions can easilly be answered, and I will, together with others make an effort to do so. Information and experience will be shared and
encountered problems answered and solved.Polverone - 24-6-2005 at 20:35
On OCR:
I would rank Finereader first, Omnipage second, and ReadIris third. Omnipage takes the lead in some reviewers' tests, but they care about things
we don't (like preserving complex page layouts in the absence of full page images) and care less about some things we do care about (like
stability, accuracy, ability to handle subscripts and superscripts). The Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders project almost exclusively uses
and endorses FineReader; I think that's a pretty strong recommendation. I have been very happy with FineReader.
Acrobat itself has OCR capabilities that work okay. Doing a side by side comparison of a page recognized with it and FineReader, FineReader was more
accurate but they both got 90%+ of the words right which is good enough for text-searching. If you want to have the ability to copy and paste OCRed
text from your PDF documents in the future, it is worth doing it with FineReader instead.
Is bookbinding that difficult ?
Lambda - 25-6-2005 at 00:39
These links may give you an impression on how books are bound by hand. This by no way means that these are the best sites in this field. All I am
trying to do, is to inspire some interest on this very rewarding matter, and point out to you how simple handbinding your own books can actually be.
Yes, Polverone, the sequence that I have put them in, is allso my personal favorite, giving FineReader the lead. Test reports that I have read,
indeed favour FineReader as being the best at text recognition.
For those of you that are interested in testing FineReader first, before buying the program: I seem to recall, that FineReader can be downloaded via
eMule (400 - 500 mb with all whistles and bells included). Oh, and don't forget to look for text documents in which the sepperate serials may be
hidden ( usually has the same name.TXT). And be carefull with those crack programs, in wich some jokers like to hide those Trojan and Worm bastards
in.
[Edited on 25-6-2005 by Lambda]Polverone - 25-6-2005 at 02:51
FineReader 7 full version can be found on axehandle's FTP site if you have an account and don't like taking your chances with P2P. You can
download a functional time-limited demo from the official web site. If you scan a bunch of books beforehand, you could then OCR them all during the 15
day trial period. You can also buy FineReader 6 from Abbyy for only $74.99, which is pretty cheap for such a great package and a good way to support
the company if you like what they make but can't afford version 7. The only improvements I've really noticed in 7 are handling of more TIFF
compression types and the output of more compact PDF files.Jome - 25-6-2005 at 16:58
A5 seems to be the most convenient format for homemade books. A5 is half the size of the normal printer paper, therefore one would get 4 book pages
from every printer-paper. A4 could be used, but it would be more expensive and proably harder to get a book that opens properly.
Print five A4 papers with (in order)
1 and 20
3 and 18
...and so on.
FLIP
2 and 19.....
and so on.
Fold them into 20-pages "packs", of course I mean f.ex a 200 pages book will consist of ten of these "packs". The packs are then
perforated in the folded inside and bonded all of them together with wire. It is important the perforation is even and in the same place for all of
the pages.
To make a hardcover, glue the resulting book into a carton cut to the right size (back+2*sides) with a flexible glue, the glue should
be almost like rubber or silicon when hardened, if hard glues are used the book will wreck the first time it is opened.
[Edited on 26-6-2005 by Jome]
[Edited on 26-6-2005 by Jome]
Papersize
Lambda - 26-6-2005 at 00:23
A 5 is half the sise of A 4, and A 3 double the sise of A 4. A centre folded A 4 will give you two A 5 sheets. A centre folded A 3 will give you two A
4 sheets.Jome - 26-6-2005 at 01:25
Thanks, I've edited my post.chemoleo - 26-6-2005 at 13:52
Indeed,how do you bind books? I've done this many years ago, I used thin acrylic glue, and dipped the side to be bound into it (3 mm), for 30 min
or so. The paper block was kept in place with two wooden pieces that were fixed by clamps, thus the whole thing was quite under pressure.
This was then dried on a radiator and bound with a cover.
That's how far it got.
I am sure there are better ways, like using melt-glues and such.
Mr. Wizard, I couldnt agree more with the backward compatibility. An issue we easily forget. Just recently, I tried to run an program that I
programmed 6 years ago in Delphi, and under bloody XP it doenst run anymore, gives me some memory error. In fact, I can't even recompile the damn
thing
I will make sure to keep working old computers just in case I can't run certain things on the modern ones!
[Edited on 26-6-2005 by chemoleo]
Books on book binding by the pro !
Lambda - 26-6-2005 at 15:32
Let the Pro tell you how it's done, read there books and get into book binding gear !
A few beautifull books, crystal clear scans and HTML's, presented to you by the Lambda Philantropical Institute.
Rapidshare has expired these files - it would be greatly appreciated if you could repost...Illegal Parkinson - 30-10-2005 at 05:56
I recently printed off most of vogel on a laser printer. I thought the printer would have "duplex" but alas it did not. I print 4 pages of
book per page of paper. I do this onto about six pages of paper, then manually flip the pages and print on the other sides. The result is still quite
space consuming but is not as severe as would be otherwise.
Book Binding Books
Lambda - 17-1-2006 at 17:46
Dear electricink,
I have uploaded the books you have requested to Rapidshare and Madhatter's FTP services.
