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eBook Reader needed - Here is a workaround until then!

Started by RobertM, 2007.06.23, 23:00:16

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RobertM

Hey all,

I recently bought a "PDF" online - a programming tutorial. Unfortunately, the document delivered was not a true PDF. It was an encrypted/password protected eBook. After no response from the company who sold it, I ended up having to load and register it on a Windows machine - and then print all 529 pages as I rarely use the Windows machine (except for website testing under IE).

Anyway, I'm hoping there will be (or maybe is?) an eBook reader available for OS/2 soon. Could a plugin or plugin modification for Lucide be written?


So... after getting tired of referring to hard copy and manually typing in the code snippets I was supposed to be trying through the various lesson sections, I had an idea that allows me to view this PDF on OS/2... keep in mind, I am using this technique to grant myself (the owner/licensor of the PDF/eBook) access - I am not (doing or suggesting) using this as a method to circumvent the document protection of documents you dont have the right to view (which I dont think would work anyway because of the first steps required)...


You do NOT need a Postscript printer to do this. If you do NOT have a Postscript printer (or your PS printer is black and white, meaning the driver may be set to grey-scale your documents for print), then simply go to HP's site, look up the Color Laserjet 4600, and select the POSTSCRIPT drivers for XP - there are multiple driver options, and only that one (or the massive package containing the PS drivers and all the rest) will work.




  • Make sure you have a true Postscript Level 2 or 3 printer driver installed on XP - I used the HP Color Laserjet 4600 PS driver as that was the printer I also printed this book to from the XP machine. [NOTE: Some printers support both PS and PCL printing - ensure you are selecting the PS version of the driver/print queue - this may require installing a second print driver (I always install both on eCS and XP, as some things print better via PS, and some print faster via PCL). NOTE 2: Some "PS" printers do NOT have true PS drivers, and the driver will print the document in a specialized printer code that the printer converts to PS - if you find the "Print to file" option below isnt working for you (or you dont have a PS printer - or only have a black and white one), try downloading the HP CLJ4600 PS drivers - not the PCL ones, set up a print queue using that, and then try again - no printer necessary for this step]
  • Open and activate/register the eBook using WinXP and the latest eBook reader
  • Select the PRINT option from the file menu - on the print dialog page, select "Print to file"
  • Print the document to "Some Name.ps" (replace "Some Name" with the document's name or whatever you find useful)
  • Send the document to your OS/2 or eCS system (floppy, USB, email, network - however you transfer files normally)
  • Open the .PS document (not the eBook)  in GhostScript/GSView (I used v8.53/4.5 respectively)



You MUST do these next steps in order BEFORE trying to "Convert" to a PDF using PDFWrite (otherwise PDFWrite will tell you the original document was encrypted and PDFWrite will refuse to write a PDF on that basis - all other convert formats I have tried work though):



ON THE eCS/WARP MACHINE (unless you have a working GS install on XP):


  • Convert the PS document (print file) to a PostScript File (using the Convert option in the file menu, selecting PSWrite, and the appropriate resolution and pages) - (yeah, I know it already is one - but read the line above to see why the extra steps)
  • Save the new PS file as whatever... "Some Name 2.ps", etc... dont overwrite the existing one just in case.
  • Close the open document in GSView
  • Open the new PostScript file that you just created
  • Export THAT file to a PDF (using the Convert option in the file menu, selecting PDFWrite, and the appropriate resolution and pages) - this time you wont get an error and it will properly export the new/2nd PS file to a PDF.

You now have a working, readable PDF file.

Hope that helps anyone having problems with eBooks... of course, it still does require another machine running XP, or XP running in a Virtual Session on the Warp machine... but at least for a bunch of us with access to (or ownership of) an XP machine, we'll be able to convert (to regular PDFs) and use our eBooks.


-Robert


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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RobertM

So... does anyone have any ideas about an eBook plugin or reader that will run under OS/2?


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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rudi

Not likely to happen. Adobe has it's hands on the encryption technology and
I don't think they are going to do an OS/2 version...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/08/02/sklyarov.DTL