I couldn't find an out-of-print book online no matter how hard I tried.
Google Books had it, of course, but it was missing pages.

So I did this procedure, which works, but the results are too blurry.
Is there a better way to snapshot a book in Archive.org displays?

1. Create an account on archive.org (they verify the email)
<https://archive.org/account/signup>
2. Log in to borrow the hard-to-find book (you get only 1 hour)
<https://archive.org/account/login>
3. Position the book in your web browser as big as you can get it
(Set it up as one page at a time so the right-arrow button works)
4. Start Windows Irfanview & press "c" (capture)
5. Set "Capture method" to "Hot key" to "Ctrl + Left" (or whatever)
6. Set (5) Custom rectangle/region capture
Click the top right corner (e.g., 765:223)
Click the bottom right corner (e.g., 1183:842)
7. Manually subtract 1183-765=418 width, 842-223=619 length
8. Back to Irfanview, press "c" & select #7
Choose (7) Fixed screen rectangle
X-pos=765 Y-pos=223
Width=418 Height=619
9. (x) Save captured images as file
File name: ###_$U(%d%m%Y_%H%M%S)
Save as: PDF (or whatever format you want)
10. In Archive.org, press the right arrow in the GUI to "next page"
For each page, press "Ctrl + Left" for Irfanview to snapshot it
(that will create a numbered PDF file for each page of the book)
11. Open Adobe Acrobat Writer "File > Create PDF > From Multiple Files"
Hit the Browse button and in Windows load each file using
the first file selected and then shift-select to the last file
(it helps if you add a dummy 000 first page PDF & 999 last page PDF)
(You can delete those first and last dummy PDF pages later)
(The reason is Windows, somehow, screws up the first file.)
12. Then shrink the resulting multi-page PDF in Adobe Acrobat 6
Acrobat: File > Reduce File Size

If you try to use Calibre on the original PDF, it does not
improve the quality no matter which of the score of formats
you convert to and save.

Unfortunately, the archive.org images are blurry.
They're readable. But definitely blurry.

Google Books is clearer, but Google Books is missing pages.

Does anyone know if you go to Google Books over a period of
a few days or from different IP addresses, if all the pages
eventually show up?

Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:

> I couldn't find an out-of-print book online no matter how hard I tried.
> Google Books had it, of course, but it was missing pages.

When you looked at the book at Google Books, is the ISBN number listed?
A search on that might prove more fruitful. Cannot do the search for
you since neither the book, author, or ISBN was mentioned.

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 02:13:22 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote

>> I couldn't find an out-of-print book online no matter how hard I tried.
>> Google Books had it, of course, but it was missing pages.
>
> When you looked at the book at Google Books, is the ISBN number listed?
> A search on that might prove more fruitful. Cannot do the search for
> you since neither the book, author, or ISBN was mentioned.

If I can't find it, you'll never find it. Nobody will if I can't.

I wouldn't have asked the question if the epub was available anyway.
To be doubly clear, I'm not asking people to run my searches for me.
Especially on a PDF and editors and Windows newsgroup. I can run them.

I am not asking people to run my searches, as I am writing scripts to run
those searches as you can see in the other thread you had responded to.
<https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=77704&group=alt.comp.os.windows-10#77704>

But to answer your question, of course the book has not only an ISBN but it
has about five of them depending on the paperback, hardcover & edition.

Back to the original question, I went to the Google Books from three
different VPN browsers and I answered part of my own question, which is
that there are DIFFERENT pages which are displayed by Google Books.

The main question is how to get a better quality screenshot to PDF.
The secondary question, already partially answered, is if I go to Google
Books enough times from enough different IP addresses and browser
fingerprints, will the ENTIRE book eventually be revealed?

Has anyone tried that?
If you have, you could save me a LOT of time experimenting with it.

On 03/13/2024 1:37 AM, Oliver wrote:
> I couldn't find an out-of-print book online no matter how hard I tried.
> Google Books had it, of course, but it was missing pages.
>
> So I did this procedure, which works, but the results are too blurry.
> Is there a better way to snapshot a book in Archive.org displays?
>
> 3. Position the book in your web browser as big as you can get it
>   (Set it up as one page at a time so the right-arrow button works)
> 4. Start Windows Irfanview & press "c" (capture)
> 5. Set "Capture method" to "Hot key" to "Ctrl + Left" (or whatever)
> 6. Set (5) Custom rectangle/region capture
>    Click the top right corner (e.g., 765:223)
>    Click the bottom right corner (e.g., 1183:842)
I have done this many times and not just of Archive.
I do a screen capture (I use the standard PrnScr from keyboard)
I paste it in Irfanveiw and crop the book section and save the file.
Depending on the size of the book I may do the same page two or three
times. Each time maintaining the same zoom level. When I crop I use
the same index marks in the book. ie edge of page, and make sure I crop
the section between lines in the book. The idea is to line everything
up for the next step.
I save each section of the page.
When I have the complete page, I use the Image, merge image (old
Panorama) funtion to put the page back together.
Once I have the all of the pages reconstructed and saved. I then use
the Options, Multipage images, Create multipage PDF, to put the pages
back together in one file.
In some Archive.org books you have the option of download the book as a
pdf file,

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:48:26 -0400, knuttle <keith_nuttle@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>
>In some Archive.org books you have the option of download the book as a
>pdf file,
>
And with some books on Google.

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 16:15:32 +0100, Shinji Ikari <shinji@gmx.net> wrote

>>The main question is how to get a better quality screenshot to PDF.
>
> Show the Screen with as big resolution as possible (far bigger than
> the PDF will show) and then take the Screenshot. Maybe use an 8k
> Screen?

Thanks for that advice, since this is not a question of how to download a
book, but how to save something that is presented only on screen in about
two hundred instances.

I have a working solution so what I'm seeking from experts is a better
working solution - specifically with higher resolution than the solution.

I did change my monitor from the recommended to other resolutions, but none
were as good as the recommended resolution (1920x1080) but that could be
expected since it was the highest resolution offered by Win+I > Display.

> Then you have the maximum screenshot you can make.

I was hoping to "sharpen" the image where I was hoping there is a PDF tool
out there which does that - much like Irfanview sharpens a JPEG snapshot.

> If you want more, then it is not a screenshot any more, because it
> can't be from your screen.

The question is all about finding a PDF screenshotter (c.t.p) that can be
edited to be sharper (c.e) on the Windows platform (a.c.o.w-10).

The situation, summarized is:
a. How do you obtain a sharper screenshot than your resolution (windows).
b. Once you have the screenshots, how do you assemble 200 of them (PDF).
c. And is there an editor out there that sharpens the images (editors).

Otherwise, my approach (which is essentially the first approach that I took
to the problem of assembling & sharpening 200 screenshots) is the best.

But I asked the question here in the hopes to find a better solution.

Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:
[...]

> I was hoping to "sharpen" the image where I was hoping there is a PDF tool
> out there which does that - much like Irfanview sharpens a JPEG snapshot.

Why do you want/need to do the sharpening in "a PDF tool"? Why can't
you just sharpen the screenshots?

[...]

> The situation, summarized is:
> a. How do you obtain a sharper screenshot than your resolution (windows).

See above.

BTW, have you considered using Windows Snipping Tool (instead of
IrfanView) to make the screenshots? (I don't know which of the two is
more suitable for your task.)

> b. Once you have the screenshots, how do you assemble 200 of them (PDF).

As knuttle mentioned, IrfanView can make a multipage PDF from images,
not need for other tools (like Adobe Acrobat Writer which you mentioned).

> c. And is there an editor out there that sharpens the images (editors).

See above. As to sharpening images, you may also want to look at the
free software of the major camera brands. I used Nikon's software.

> Otherwise, my approach (which is essentially the first approach that I took
> to the problem of assembling & sharpening 200 screenshots) is the best.
>
> But I asked the question here in the hopes to find a better solution.

Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:

> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>>> I couldn't find an out-of-print book online no matter how hard I tried.
>>> Google Books had it, of course, but it was missing pages.
>>
>> When you looked at the book at Google Books, is the ISBN number listed?
>> A search on that might prove more fruitful. Cannot do the search for
>> you since neither the book, author, or ISBN was mentioned.
>
> If I can't find it, you'll never find it. Nobody will if I can't.
>
> I wouldn't have asked the question if ...

We don't know all the ifs of how you searched. Geez, lighten up.
Someone tries to help, and all you can do is lambaste the respondent
rather than say "Yes, I already tried searching on the ISBN."

You're a teacher?

> I am not asking people to run my searches, as I am writing scripts to run
> those searches as you can see in the other thread you had responded to.
> <https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=77704&group=alt.comp.os.windows-10#77704>

Yeah, you're creating a Rube Goldberg solution over there while casting
out all your students on non-Windows platforms.

> The main question is how to get a better quality screenshot to PDF.

https://www.google.com/googlebooks/perspectives/facts.html

Question: Why do some in-copyright books have full pages visible?
Answer: Whenever you can see more than a few snippets of an in-copyright
book in Google Books, it's because the author or publisher has joined
our Partner Program and granted us permission to show you the Sample
Pages View, which helps you learn enough about a book to know whether
you want to buy it. This is something we do with a publisher's explicit
permission.

Question: Can I download books for free using Google Books?
Answer: Google Books helps you search within and discover books. When
you find a book that's still under copyright, you'll typically see only
a small portion of the book at a time – either the Snippet View or the
Sample Pages View – plus links to places where you can buy or borrow it.
Some publishers have set their in-copyright books to Full Book View. If
you find a book that's out of copyright, we're also able to display the
Full Book View.

Is the copyright still valid on whatever is this unidentified book you
want to find? If so, your "students" probably appreciate your theft.
That a book is out of print does not excuse you from a copyright.
Copyright lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years
if published after Jan-1-1978, or 95 years if published earlier. Must
be a list of very old books. No one deciding to print a book does not
nullify its copyright.

Apparently your intent is to violate copyright. When Google shows just
snippets of a book, that complies with copyright law. When they show
the full book, that's with permission, or the copyright lapsed. You
want to distribute books regardless of active copyrights.

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 13:51:33 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote

> I believe the OP does have at least one computer with a larger screen.
> I think his screen is larger than the one I've got.

You're correct my screen is larger than my refrigerator (almost) in that
it's the Sharp LC-45GD7U (the screen only of which I just measured
physically, with a ruler, to be about 36 inches wide & 22 inches tall).

I tried to flip sidewise the book that I could only borrow for one hour on
archive.org or google books where that would have helped a lot!

But I didn't know how to flip a Firefox TOR web page display sidewise.

> At one time, Windows used to support "pan mode" and you could define
> a virtual resolution in the MVidia "old" control panel. That
> capability was removed from both NVidia and ATI/AMD interfaces
> (at roughly the same time the PowerStrip developer shut down),
> which tells you Microsoft wanted pan mode removed.

Ah, that's interesting. It's the one solution suggested so far that I had
not immediately thought of already - which is to see if the driver I have
supports better resolution on my dual monitor setup.

My driver is... let me look... using the (deprecated) DuMo software...
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti driver version 31.0.15.3770

If I can "landscape" the web page view - that would add pixels immediately.
Can that be done?

> Linux still has pan mode. This is from my notes file, and has some
> suggestions for configuring a limited/specific set of distros for taking shots.
>
> # Remove ugly backup picture from desktop, replace with color [Gnome3?]
> gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri none
> gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background primary-color '#3ea5a6"
>
> # Set virtual resolution, desktop "pans" when mouse bumps edge of screen
> # Type bare "xrandr" command to get your output port names.
> xrandr --output HDMI-0 --panning 1280x10000
>
> # Dump a snapshot of the screen into the specified output file.
> # The purpose of the sleep 10, is to allow the user to flip back to
> # the item being captured, and say, select a menu with a mouse to compose a shot.
>
> sleep 10 ; xwd -root -out xwd.xwdump
>
> But on modern Windows, that's been removed. Presumably part of PVP
> or its successor (where 4K BluRays are decoded in an Enclave on the CPU
> and other sneaky things).

I tried to use the Adobe Acrobat (writer) capability of opening an entire
web page (every page in the web site down from a given level) but it just
ended up giving me the archive.org home page level and not the pages of the
book.

I do think there is magic there though in that capability of Adobe Acrobat
to turn an entire web site into a linked PDF (much like Paul already does
with the Windows freeware WkHtmlToPDF tool (https://wkhtmltopdf.org/).

I just have to figure out how to get Adobe Acrobat writer to use the
URL to a book and then follow through with every page of the book,
but the URL remains static for the entire book by some magic unknown to me.

That's why I'm asking for help from the experts because if it was easy, I
would have done it already and I wouldn't need to be asking for advice.

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:48:26 -0400, knuttle <keith_nuttle@yahoo.com> wrote

>> 4. Start Windows Irfanview & press "c" (capture)
>> 5. Set "Capture method" to "Hot key" to "Ctrl + Left" (or whatever)
>> 6. Set (5) Custom rectangle/region capture
>> �� Click the top right corner (e.g., 765:223)
>> �� Click the bottom right corner (e.g., 1183:842)
> I have done this many times and not just of Archive.
> I do a screen capture (I use the standard PrnScr from keyboard)
> I paste it in Irfanveiw and crop the book section and save the file.

Thanks Keith, as I think I learned this Irfanview screen-capture method
from you (or maybe it was Paul, I don't remember as it was long ago).

I also learned from this newsgroup that the standard "control+y) will crop
inside of Irfanview, but MUCH BETTER is the non-standard "control+shift+y".

That will crop out all white space, or in reality, all monotone colors on
the outside of the image, which works especially well for displays such as
that of books where there is usually a clear delineation between the book
pages and the web page background as part of the Google Books or
Archive.org (or whatever web site) GUI that is displaying the book pages.

But in this case, since archive.org (and Google Books) displayed the pages
in EXACTLY the same place, using the Irfanview fixed rectangle works well.

If we take an arbitrary example using the script I posted elsewhere...
<https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=77704&group=alt.comp.os.windows-10#77704>
Looking for this item which I have in my hands as an example:
"A legal history of the civil war and reconstruction: A nation of rights,
by Laura F. Edwards, 2015, 1107008794, 978-1107008793

Here are some links that are found just now using the script listed above.
https://archive.org/details/legalhistoryofci0000edwa
https://openlibrary.org/search (finds item 0vB4BgAAQBAJ)
https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Legal_History_of_the_Civil_War_and_Rec.html?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ
https://books.google.com/books?id=9asPBgAAQBAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions
And so on.

Each of those presents the pages of that book in the same spot.
Which makes it easy to use the static rectangle Irfanview method.

The problem is that the text is blurry from Google Books
(which is also missing pages so you have to re-visit using VPNs).

But worse is the archive.org that has the whole book, but every page
is blurry.

I tried to snap JPEGs and then sharpen them and then save to PDF,
but I didn't try TIFF yet. Do you think TIFF can be sharpened better?

Is there a sharpen technique for PDF pages?

> Depending on the size of the book I may do the same page two or three
> times. Each time maintaining the same zoom level. When I crop I use
> the same index marks in the book. ie edge of page, and make sure I crop
> the section between lines in the book. The idea is to line everything
> up for the next step.
>
> I save each section of the page.

That's a good idea if we can find a way to automate that for potentially
three hundred pages times three or four zoom levels per page.

Assuming we zoom so that only 1/3rd the page is showing at a time,
we could snap, oh, say, 100 pages at that zoom level.

Then we could re-do those 100 pages lowering the zoom to the middle third.
And then re-doing it the third time on the bottom 1/3rd of those 100 pages.

That would work if Irfanview has a batch "Merge" feature (vertical merge).
But I can't find it in the advanced GUI options when I press "b" in IV.

> When I have the complete page, I use the Image, merge image (old
> Panorama) funtion to put the page back together.
>
> Once I have the all of the pages reconstructed and saved. I then use
> the Options, Multipage images, Create multipage PDF, to put the pages
> back together in one file.

I've been using the abc functions of Irfanview for years (a=about, b=batch,
and c=capture) where the IV merge is powerful - but can it be batched?

Is there a batch merge feature where we can take 300 shots of the same 100
pages, the first 100 are the top 1/3rd of the page, the second 100 are the
middle 1/3rd of the page, and the third 100 is the bottom 1/3 of the page?

Can Irfanview be scripted to merge files that way?
That might work. Good idea. If it's possible to batch the process.

It would be a general purpose solution that triples the resolution, so to
speak, right?

> In some Archive.org books you have the option of download the book as a
> pdf file,

I understand. I agree. But often they are not, as in the sample I provided
above for ISBN 978-1107008793 but even so the question is seeking a general
purpose clever solution to the basic problem of screenshot resolution.

On 13 Mar 2024 19:52:58 GMT, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote

>> I was hoping to "sharpen" the image where I was hoping there is a PDF tool
>> out there which does that - much like Irfanview sharpens a JPEG snapshot.
>
> Why do you want/need to do the sharpening in "a PDF tool"? Why can't
> you just sharpen the screenshots?

I already tried that by snapping JPEG images in Irfanview and sharpening
them and then converting them to PDF (as the final thing is a book).

Your suggestion gave me an idea though, which is I can probably snapshot to
GIF or BMP which can be set to not have image compression.

Since it's a book of hundreds of pages, it might be better to snapshot as
TIFF without compression and then combine all the TIFFs.

I just ran a quick test in Irfanview and I was pleased to see the Irfanview
sharpen command works on all three non-compression file formats.

I wonder if the PDF experts know how to snapshot a screen to PDF at no
compression? Is that even possible?

>> The situation, summarized is:
>> a. How do you obtain a sharper screenshot than your resolution (windows).
> BTW, have you considered using Windows Snipping Tool (instead of
> IrfanView) to make the screenshots? (I don't know which of the two is
> more suitable for your task.)

I know about the Snipping Tool as it was renamed over the years but I have
never used it except in the beginning long ago, and found Irfanview easier.

But maybe it has the ability to save PDFs without compression? Let me look.
https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+snipping+tool+save+to+pdf+uncompressed
a. Windowskey+shift+s
b. Draw the area with the mouse
c. Press control+p (which can only save as PDF, not any other format)

Oh my Gosh. I didn't know it would do what it did do. I happened to have a
Firefox session going which was a long page (off the screen) and the
snipping print above actually printed the ENTIRE page (which would have not
been captured had it been an Irfanview print of what's displaying on
screen!).

What's nice is the Windows snipping tool saved parts of the page not
displaying, so I'm going to need to see if it can display the entire book
when it's scrolling downward (not side to side) for hundreds of pages.

That might be the trick needed!

>> b. Once you have the screenshots, how do you assemble 200 of them (PDF).
>
> As knuttle mentioned, IrfanView can make a multipage PDF from images,
> not need for other tools (like Adobe Acrobat Writer which you mentioned).

I wasn't aware Irfanview can make a multipage PDF from multiple images.
I knew the "b" batch command could "convert" many images to just as many
PDFs but not that it would make a multi-page PDF from the images.

Let me google that for myself.
https://www.google.com/search?q=irfanview+make+multi-page+pdf+from+jpegs

You're right again!
https://irfanview-forum.de/forum/program/support/9258-

Irfanview: Options > Multipage images > Create multipage PDF
Then "Add Images" and then "Save" with PDF compression turned off!

Now that is nice! It eliminates the need for the Adobe Acrobat writer!
And it solves the issue of saving the images to PDF without compression.

I need to experiment with that, where my first thought is.
a. Save everything to an uncompressed format (GIF, BMP or TIFF).
b. Run Irfanview batch (b) to sharpen (which doesn't always make it better)
c. Run Irfanview to convert the results to an uncompressed PDF.

That solves a lot of the data collection problems.
I'm not sure if it solves the blur problem yet though.

>> c. And is there an editor out there that sharpens the images (editors).
>
> See above. As to sharpening images, you may also want to look at the
> free software of the major camera brands. I used Nikon's software.

I need to find a way to intelligently sharpen specific images which are
blurry words so it's always black on white (which is the problem set).

I wonder if they have software specifically for de-blurring text?

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 15:59:18 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote

> We don't know all the ifs of how you searched. Geez, lighten up.
> Someone tries to help, and all you can do is lambaste the respondent
> rather than say "Yes, I already tried searching on the ISBN."

Well, you're a better software user than I am if you can find the
downloadable PDF for this particular book which can be bought but which
isn't available in any free PDF other than via the Google Books method
(missing pages) or archive.org (full book but you can only borrow it for
one hour at a time).

A legal history of the civil war and reconstruction A nation of rights
By Laura F. Edwards, 2015, 212pgs, ISBN 1107008794 & 978-1107008793

I'm NOT asking you to run a search for me, so I'll run it myself on
that particular item, where I'm well aware of what exists and what does not
exist in terms of book sites as explained in the related thread here.
<https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=77704&group=alt.comp.os.windows-10#77704>

But I'm now answering your question of finding the PDF online for free.

It's available via multiple library logins of course, but the quest would
be for a book that is NOT available on the net other than in archive.org.
1. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etextbooks/222/
2. https://academic.oup.com/ajlh/article-abstract/56/2/299/2195548
3. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1788738404?sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals
4. https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/121/2/572/2582064
5. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/legal-history-of-the-civil-war-and-reconstruction/index/AE32B6F1403F78147EF3F5E03DFF0BE1
(and so on)

Again, I'm not going to ask you to google that for me, as I can
run all the searches you can run, so that's not what I need.
1. https://archive.org/details/legalhistoryofci0000edwa (one hour free borrow only)
2. https://openlibrary.org/search?q=A+legal+history+of+the+civil+war+and+reconstruction+A+nation+of+rights&mode=everything
3. https://www.google.nl/books/edition/A_Legal_History_of_the_Civil_War_and_Rec/0vB4BgAAQBAJ
4. https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Legal_History_of_the_Civil_War_and_Rec.html?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ
5. https://books.google.com/books?id=9asPBgAAQBAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions
6. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9asPBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=A+legal+history+of+the+civil+war+and+reconstruction+A+nation+of+rights&ots=0uIAA7OpUU&sig=mPzfC4IDyLL8gzrpgSefWE8WqWo#v=onepage&q=A%20legal%20history%20of%20the%20civil%20war%20and%20reconstruction%20A%20nation%20of%20rights&f=false
7. https://www.readanybook.com/search?q=A%20legal%20history%20of%20the%20civil%20war%20and%20reconstruction%20A%20nation%20of%20rights
(and so on)

The question was never about running the search.

The question was about the technical problem of
a. Screenshotting hundreds of pages of a book
b. That only shows one page at a time
c. And which is kind of blurry so it needs sharpening
d. And then it needs reassembling
e. And likely a lot of compression as a result of individual files
each with embedded fonts

Some really good answers have come about from this question already.
Thanks for your help and advice.

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 16:03:54 +0000, Peter Johnson
<peter@parksidewood.nospam> wrote

>>In some Archive.org books you have the option of download the book as a
>>pdf file,
>>
> And with some books on Google.

I found out something interesting about Google Books when I just ran a test
on the book that I picked as a sample for Vanguard since he asked for a
title.

https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Legal_History_of_the_Civil_War_and_Rec.html?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ
(Is there a way to shorten that link? Let me experiment a bit.)

Oh good.
It's like Amazon where all you need is the B0x...x to construct a link.
https://books.google.com/?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ
https://books.google.com/books?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ

I used that link with two different VPNs at the same time, and a
different set of pages showed up, which supports the theory but doesn't
prove that if you return to the Google Books link frequently, you might
just get all the pages.

But it's tedious at best.

On 03/13/2024 5:21 PM, Oliver wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:48:26 -0400, knuttle <keith_nuttle@yahoo.com> wrote
>>> 4. Start Windows Irfanview & press "c" (capture)
>>> 5. Set "Capture method" to "Hot key" to "Ctrl + Left" (or whatever)
>>> 6. Set (5) Custom rectangle/region capture
>>>  �� Click the top right corner (e.g., 765:223)
>>>  �� Click the bottom right corner (e.g., 1183:842)
>> I have done this many times and not just of Archive.
>> I do a screen capture (I use the standard PrnScr from keyboard)
>> I paste it in Irfanveiw and crop the book section and save the file.
>
> Thanks Keith, as I think I learned this Irfanview screen-capture method
> from you (or maybe it was Paul, I don't remember as it was long ago).
>
> I also learned from this newsgroup that the standard "control+y) will crop
> inside of Irfanview, but MUCH BETTER is the non-standard "control+shift+y".
>
> That will crop out all white space, or in reality, all monotone colors on
> the outside of the image, which works especially well for displays such as
> that of books where there is usually a clear delineation between the book
> pages and the web page background as part of the Google Books or
> Archive.org (or whatever web site) GUI that is displaying the book pages.
>
> But in this case, since archive.org (and Google Books) displayed the pages
> in EXACTLY the same place, using the Irfanview fixed rectangle works well.
>
> If we take an arbitrary example using the script I posted elsewhere...
> <https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=77704&group=alt.comp.os.windows-10#77704>
> Looking for this item which I have in my hands as an example:
> "A legal history of the civil war and reconstruction: A nation of
> rights,  by Laura F. Edwards, 2015, 1107008794, 978-1107008793
> Here are some links that are found just now using the script listed above.
> https://archive.org/details/legalhistoryofci0000edwa
> https://openlibrary.org/search (finds item 0vB4BgAAQBAJ)
> https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Legal_History_of_the_Civil_War_and_Rec.html?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ
> https://books.google.com/books?id=9asPBgAAQBAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions
> And so on.
>
> Each of those presents the pages of that book in the same spot.
> Which makes it easy to use the static rectangle Irfanview method.
>
> The problem is that the text is blurry from Google Books (which is also
> missing pages so you have to re-visit using VPNs).
>
> But worse is the archive.org that has the whole book, but every page
> is blurry.
> I tried to snap JPEGs and then sharpen them and then save to PDF, but I
> didn't try TIFF yet. Do you think TIFF can be sharpened better?
>
> Is there a sharpen technique for PDF pages?
>
>> Depending on the size of the book I may do the same page two or three
>> times.  Each time maintaining the same zoom level.  When I crop I use
>> the same index marks in the book. ie edge of page, and make sure I
>> crop the section between lines in the book.   The idea is to line
>> everything up for the next step.
>>
>> I save each section of the page.
>
> That's a good idea if we can find a way to automate that for potentially
> three hundred pages times three or four zoom levels per page.
> Assuming we zoom so that only 1/3rd the page is showing at a time, we
> could snap, oh, say, 100 pages at that zoom level.
> Then we could re-do those 100 pages lowering the zoom to the middle
> third. And then re-doing it the third time on the bottom 1/3rd of those
> 100 pages.
>
> That would work if Irfanview has a batch "Merge" feature (vertical merge).
> But I can't find it in the advanced GUI options when I press "b" in IV.
>
>> When I have the complete page, I use the Image, merge image (old
>> Panorama) funtion to put the page back together.
>>
>> Once I have the all of the pages reconstructed and saved.  I then use
>> the Options, Multipage images, Create multipage PDF, to put the pages
>> back together in one file.
>
> I've been using the abc functions of Irfanview for years (a=about, b=batch,
> and c=capture) where the IV merge is powerful - but can it be batched?
>
> Is there a batch merge feature where we can take 300 shots of the same 100
> pages, the first 100 are the top 1/3rd of the page, the second 100 are the
> middle 1/3rd of the page, and the third 100 is the bottom 1/3 of the page?
>
> Can Irfanview be scripted to merge files that way? That might work. Good
> idea. If it's possible to batch the process.
>
> It would be a general purpose solution that triples the resolution, so to
> speak, right?
>
>> In some Archive.org books you have the option of download the book as
>> a pdf file,
>
> I understand. I agree. But often they are not, as in the sample I provided
> above for ISBN 978-1107008793 but even so the question is seeking a general
> purpose clever solution to the basic problem of screenshot resolution.
I don't know how heavy an Irfanview user you are but there is a function
to automate some processes on several files.
This is the deceptively named Irfanview File, Batch conversion and
rename. While this function does what it says, By checking the advance
Option, and then Clicking Advance, does many things. (I have not
explored all) I have only used the Resize option, but there is a Crop
option, and many other things you can do in on the files you put in the
windows.
I did not see any way to move to another section of a page or to advance
to another URL.
One other thing, it is possible that mouse dribble has changed some
setting that cause the blurred letters. Have you changed the font
settings in the browser, or in the Windows OS? The refresh rate can
sometimes do amazing things.
Try setting the monitor and the OS to the default settings for the screen.

Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:

> ISBN 1107008794

First hit in my Google search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ISBN+1107008794

pointed to:

https://www.amazon.com/Legal-History-Civil-War-Reconstruction/dp/1107008794

I also searched Google Shopping on the title, and it pointed to the same
Amazon page. The above Google search found it at eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/p/202604172

Hardcover is pricey at $90 to $95. Paperback is cheaper at $11 to $26.
At Amazon, the seller is amazon.com, not some 3rd party using Amazon as
a store frontend. A further search at eBay on the title found some
cheaper options:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=A+legal+history+of+the+civil+war+and+reconstruction+A+nation+of+rights&_sacat=0&_odkw=ISBN+1107008794&_osacat=0

You'll get the book, not a .PDF file or URL pointing to a PDF of the
book. I clicked on the "See all formats and editions", but just paper
copies were shown; however, there a Kindle e-book mentioned, the
cheapest format, so maybe you could create a .pdf from that assuming
Kindle doesn't enforce some DRM on still-copyrighted works.

To copy [violate the copyright] the full content to others, you'll need
a scanner. When I use the software bundled with my scanner, and for
document mode, it will let me keep scanning to append all scanned pages
into one document, like a PDF. A search online shows there are many
EPUB to PDF converters. Calibre can do doc conversion, too.

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7GqNMo5GM4

I haven't bothered with Amazon's Kindle. Maybe they use an e-pub format
that isn't proprietary. From the video, Calibre can convert from EPUB
or AZW3 to PDF.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindle_File_Format

Other places I found selling that book:
https://www.browseaboutbooks.com/book/9781107008793
https://www.vitalsource.com/products/a-legal-history-of-the-civil-war-and-laura-f-edwards-v9781316234044
https://www.libroworld.com/9781107008793/
https://ca.biblio.com/book/legal-history-civil-war-reconstruction-nation/d/1417002433

If these really are students, don't they have to buy their own textbooks
for a class? Second to tuition, class books were damn expensive when I
went to the university. I bought the used ones if I wasn't going to
keep the book (by selling it back to the bookstore provided later
classes used the same book). Calibre can run on multiple platforms, so
maybe your students could get the cheap Kindle format. Them buying the
book eliminates you violating the copyright. Since the publication date
is 2015, the copyright has a lot longer to expire (75 years) even if the
author died the moment of publication.

Now it's time to retract your claim of "If I can't find it, you'll never
find it. Nobody will if I can't."

On 03/13/2024 8:00 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:
>
>> ISBN 1107008794
>
> First hit in my Google search:
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=ISBN+1107008794
>
> pointed to:
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Legal-History-Civil-War-Reconstruction/dp/1107008794
>
> I also searched Google Shopping on the title, and it pointed to the same
> Amazon page. The above Google search found it at eBay:
>
> https://www.ebay.com/p/202604172
>
> Hardcover is pricey at $90 to $95. Paperback is cheaper at $11 to $26.
> At Amazon, the seller is amazon.com, not some 3rd party using Amazon as
> a store frontend. A further search at eBay on the title found some
> cheaper options:
>
> https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=A+legal+history+of+the+civil+war+and+reconstruction+A+nation+of+rights&_sacat=0&_odkw=ISBN+1107008794&_osacat=0
>
> You'll get the book, not a .PDF file or URL pointing to a PDF of the
> book. I clicked on the "See all formats and editions", but just paper
> copies were shown; however, there a Kindle e-book mentioned, the
> cheapest format, so maybe you could create a .pdf from that assuming
> Kindle doesn't enforce some DRM on still-copyrighted works.
>
> To copy [violate the copyright] the full content to others, you'll need
> a scanner. When I use the software bundled with my scanner, and for
> document mode, it will let me keep scanning to append all scanned pages
> into one document, like a PDF. A search online shows there are many
> EPUB to PDF converters. Calibre can do doc conversion, too.
>
> https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7GqNMo5GM4
>
> I haven't bothered with Amazon's Kindle. Maybe they use an e-pub format
> that isn't proprietary. From the video, Calibre can convert from EPUB
> or AZW3 to PDF.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindle_File_Format
>
> Other places I found selling that book:
> https://www.browseaboutbooks.com/book/9781107008793
> https://www.vitalsource.com/products/a-legal-history-of-the-civil-war-and-laura-f-edwards-v9781316234044
> https://www.libroworld.com/9781107008793/
> https://ca.biblio.com/book/legal-history-civil-war-reconstruction-nation/d/1417002433
>
> If these really are students, don't they have to buy their own textbooks
> for a class? Second to tuition, class books were damn expensive when I
> went to the university. I bought the used ones if I wasn't going to
> keep the book (by selling it back to the bookstore provided later
> classes used the same book). Calibre can run on multiple platforms, so
> maybe your students could get the cheap Kindle format. Them buying the
> book eliminates you violating the copyright. Since the publication date
> is 2015, the copyright has a lot longer to expire (75 years) even if the
> author died the moment of publication.
>
> Now it's time to retract your claim of "If I can't find it, you'll never
> find it. Nobody will if I can't."
Please don't quote me but as I remember Kindle and other similar ebooks
are a proprietary version of the standard PDF file. that may be another
approach to get what you want.

knuttle <keith_nuttle@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:

The attribution line you omitted in your reply to me.

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Now it's time to retract your claim of "If I can't find it, you'll never
>> find it. Nobody will if I can't."
>
> Please don't quote me but as I remember Kindle and other similar ebooks
> are a proprietary version of the standard PDF file. that may be another
> approach to get what you want.

I didn't quote nor reply to you. I quoted Oliver's claim in his article
(Message-ID: <usrpva$sb4h$1@dont-email.me>), and I replied to Oliver
about retracting *his* claim.

Are you now Oliver?

In your other subthread (Message-ID: <uss7as$v364$1@dont-email.me>), my
filters hid your post along with any replies to it. As a consequence, I
did not read nor respond in that subthread. Anyone who posts here using
Base64 is not complying to netiquette in text-only newsgroups. Posting
in Base64 is a known defect with Thunderbird. I filter out Base64
posters.

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:00:02 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote

> Now it's time to retract your claim of "If I can't find it, you'll never
> find it. Nobody will if I can't."

You did not find it.

I gave you an example of something that has no free downloadable PDF.
You didn't find a free downloadable PDF.

Neither did I. And that was why I gave you that example.
We didn't find it probably because it likely doesn't exist on the net.

If you can find the free PDF, then you're a better searcher than I am.
But I doubt you are any better than I am because I'm pretty good.

Anyway, the point of this question isn't the free downloadable PDF.
You made the question into the free downloadable PDF - not me.

The point is the software to MAKE that PDF out of displayed pages.
The trick is going to be to de-blur those pages.

I'm thinking there may be software someone alluded to that will take images
of books (which are black text on a white paper background) & de-blur them.

Do you know of any software that does that de-blurring specific for text?
(Sharpen is ubiquitous but it's not good enough in my tests yesterday.)

Because this thread is about improving the process of creating a PDF
when all you have are the visible pages (as from archive.org).

On 3/13/2024 4:59 PM, Oliver wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 13:51:33 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote
>> I believe the OP does have at least one computer with a larger screen.
>> I think his screen is larger than the one I've got.
>
> You're correct my screen is larger than my refrigerator (almost) in that
> it's the Sharp LC-45GD7U (the screen only of which I just measured
> physically, with a ruler, to be about 36 inches wide & 22 inches tall).
>
> I tried to flip sidewise the book that I could only borrow for one hour on
> archive.org or google books where that would have helped a lot!
>
> But I didn't know how to flip a Firefox TOR web page display sidewise.
>
>> At one time, Windows used to support "pan mode" and you could define
>> a virtual resolution in the MVidia "old" control panel. That
>> capability was removed from both NVidia and ATI/AMD interfaces
>> (at roughly the same time the PowerStrip developer shut down),
>> which tells you Microsoft wanted pan mode removed.
>
> Ah, that's interesting. It's the one solution suggested so far that I had
> not immediately thought of already - which is to see if the driver I have
> supports better resolution on my dual monitor setup.
>
> My driver is... let me look... using the (deprecated) DuMo software...
> NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti driver version 31.0.15.3770
>
> If I can "landscape" the web page view - that would add pixels immediately.
> Can that be done?
>
>> Linux still has pan mode. This is from my notes file, and has some
>> suggestions for configuring a limited/specific set of distros for taking shots.
>>
>>    # Remove ugly backup picture from desktop, replace with color  [Gnome3?]
>>    gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri none
>>    gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background primary-color '#3ea5a6"
>>
>>    # Set virtual resolution, desktop "pans" when mouse bumps edge of screen
>>    # Type bare "xrandr" command to get your output port names.
>>    xrandr --output HDMI-0 --panning 1280x10000
>>
>>    # Dump a snapshot of the screen into the specified output file.
>>    # The purpose of the sleep 10, is to allow the user to flip back to
>>    # the item being captured, and say, select a menu with a mouse to compose a shot.
>>
>>    sleep 10 ; xwd -root -out xwd.xwdump
>>
>> But on modern Windows, that's been removed. Presumably part of PVP
>> or its successor (where 4K BluRays are decoded in an Enclave on the CPU
>> and other sneaky things).
>
> I tried to use the Adobe Acrobat (writer) capability of opening an entire
> web page (every page in the web site down from a given level) but it just
> ended up giving me the archive.org home page level and not the pages of the
> book.
> I do think there is magic there though in that capability of Adobe Acrobat
> to turn an entire web site into a linked PDF (much like Paul already does
> with the Windows freeware WkHtmlToPDF tool (https://wkhtmltopdf.org/).
>
> I just have to figure out how to get Adobe Acrobat writer to use the URL to a book and then follow through with every page of the book, but the URL remains static for the entire book by some magic unknown to me.
>
> That's why I'm asking for help from the experts because if it was easy, I
> would have done it already and I wouldn't need to be asking for advice.

You know there's a display control panel, whereby two terminals
can be placed side by side. They can really have any sort of
(x,y) offset you want, with the windows touching with little
overlap between them. One panel can be stacked on top of the
other.

Well, terminals can be rotated, too.

*******

The *best* way to do this, is with an LCD panel that has a rotation sensor
inside. The EDID is fiddled, such that when the monitor is physically
rotated, a switch closure on the rotation sensor, tells the panel it's
been rotated. The EDID tells Windows that a "new terminal is connected
and it happens to be rotated". Windows then changes the scan order
in the crossbar counters and so on, so that the pattern comes out
correctly for the new orientation. The end result is text has the
normal orientation, and the monitor is now Portrait instead of Landscape.

If, on the other hand, you rotate a terminal and it has no sensor, then
you have to manually do that in the display control panel (somehow).
Yes, I've seen four options for orientation, so there really is
a way to do it manually.

The summary is, just about anything is possible, with the display
control panel. I bet you could even turn the panels upside-down,
but there's no incentive to be doing that.

If your Display panel now reverts to the Display page of
the (stinky) Settings wheel, that's not the end of the world. When
the NVidia driver is installed, soon afterwards, the OS
mentions "we will install the NVidia control panel from the
App Store". And I end up with an NVidia icon in the tray
extension area. That panel still has the traditional graphical
representation of multiple LCD panels.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/fRyJngwJ/NVidia-CP-from-Microsoft.gif

Paul

On 3/13/2024 3:52 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:
> [...]
>
>> I was hoping to "sharpen" the image where I was hoping there is a PDF tool
>> out there which does that - much like Irfanview sharpens a JPEG snapshot.
>
> Why do you want/need to do the sharpening in "a PDF tool"? Why can't
> you just sharpen the screenshots?
>
> [...]
>
>> The situation, summarized is:
>> a. How do you obtain a sharper screenshot than your resolution (windows).
>
> See above.
>
> BTW, have you considered using Windows Snipping Tool (instead of
> IrfanView) to make the screenshots? (I don't know which of the two is
> more suitable for your task.)
>
>> b. Once you have the screenshots, how do you assemble 200 of them (PDF).
>
> As knuttle mentioned, IrfanView can make a multipage PDF from images,
> not need for other tools (like Adobe Acrobat Writer which you mentioned).
>
>> c. And is there an editor out there that sharpens the images (editors).
>
> See above. As to sharpening images, you may also want to look at the
> free software of the major camera brands. I used Nikon's software.
>
>> Otherwise, my approach (which is essentially the first approach that I took
>> to the problem of assembling & sharpening 200 screenshots) is the best.
>>
>> But I asked the question here in the hopes to find a better solution.

Snippingtool used to be a good tool.

It's had its ups and downs. It has been fiddled
by morons, and *broken* more than once.

The other day, it was taking a snapshot, then
something would segfault or otherwise blow out,
and *no* window would appear with my snapshot in it.

When will these morons learn that you "work on software
until it is perfect" and "then STOP FUCKING WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Oh, well.

As a consequence, I cannot really saddle people with
a copy of Snippingtool, for as long as its
day to day disposition (the blowout last week)
are still happening. Why have an unreliable SaaS thing,
when you can have a reliable/unchanging ancient
piece of software ?

Right now, I rely upon GIMP screenshot capability,
as my "known-to-work" solution. It's more steps, but
when your SnippingTool is doing something erratic,
you take the high road.

Paul

On 3/13/2024 6:12 PM, Oliver wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 16:03:54 +0000, Peter Johnson
> <peter@parksidewood.nospam> wrote
>>> In some Archive.org books you have the option of download the book as a pdf file,
>>>
>> And with some books on Google.
>
> I found out something interesting about Google Books when I just ran a test
> on the book that I picked as a sample for Vanguard since he asked for a
> title.
>
> https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Legal_History_of_the_Civil_War_and_Rec.html?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ
> (Is there a way to shorten that link? Let me experiment a bit.)
>
> Oh good. It's like Amazon where all you need is the B0x...x to construct a link.
> https://books.google.com/?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ
> https://books.google.com/books?id=0vB4BgAAQBAJ
>
> I used that link with two different VPNs at the same time, and a different set of pages showed up, which supports the theory but doesn't
> prove that if you return to the Google Books link frequently, you might
> just get all the pages.
>
> But it's tedious at best.

It's 212 pages.

The theory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Books

The practice:

https://medium.com/@designing/how-i-hacked-google-books-missing-pages-f2d85289ca26

(Well, he didn't really, he used "snippets" to reconstitute a page, which
isn't going to look like a page exactly. And it would take a kazillion
queries to build an entire book, which would not necessarily look
like the original pages, and would have all the OCR errors.)

Paul

On 2024-03-13, Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:
> Well, you're a better software user than I am if you can find the
> downloadable PDF for this particular book which can be bought but which

Why should this group help a pirate? It's not even an expensive
book. If you live in a developed economy, you've already spent far
more than the cost of the book in terms of your time trying to avoid
paying for it.

> A legal history of the civil war and reconstruction A nation of rights
> By Laura F. Edwards, 2015, 212pgs, ISBN 1107008794 & 978-1107008793

On 13.03.2024 23:02, Oliver wrote:

> 3. https://www.google.nl/books/edition/A_Legal_History_of_the_Civil_War_and_Rec/0vB4BgAAQBAJ

> The question was never about running the search.
>
> The question was about the technical problem of
> a. Screenshotting hundreds of pages of a book
> b. That only shows one page at a time
> c. And which is kind of blurry so it needs sharpening
> d. And then it needs reassembling
> e. And likely a lot of compression as a result of individual files
> each with embedded fonts
>
> Some really good answers have come about from this question already.
> Thanks for your help and advice.

I don't understand why you make screen shoots. For example,
if displaying a page of the above link in Firefox, select
"Save Frame As". In the saved directory you will find
the original jpg of the page (size 1280x1978 pixel).

I suppose, if you scroll through the book, somewhere
in the browser cache all the pages should be stored,
so you can copy them all at once.

"Julian Bradfield" <jcb@inf.ed.ac.uk> wrote

| Why should this group help a pirate? It's not even an expensive
| book.

Indeed. This project sounds so farfetched and nonsensical,
as well as blatantly illegal, that I suspect the OP is doing
research on attitudes about theft of copyrighted material.
Maybe it's a college student, maybe cops, or maybe it's
an AI bot, honing its "skills".

On 3/14/2024 7:39 AM, Newyana2 wrote:
> "Julian Bradfield" <jcb@inf.ed.ac.uk> wrote
>
> | Why should this group help a pirate? It's not even an expensive
> | book.
>
> Indeed. This project sounds so farfetched and nonsensical,
> as well as blatantly illegal, that I suspect the OP is doing
> research on attitudes about theft of copyrighted material.
> Maybe it's a college student, maybe cops, or maybe it's
> an AI bot, honing its "skills".
>
>

Did anyone write a script or commit a DMCA-punishable crime ?
Nope.

Some of us know what our limits are, from a legal perspective.
And we're not going to leave a record of our activities in
an open forum like this, now are we.

You would be surprised, just how chilling DMCA-crime is.
It's tentacles are long. It's a law you use when a DA
swings a big dick.

The interesting one, was the article in Medium.com , where
the article author claims he did a mass attack and glued
together Google "snippets" to make a book. Which is silly to start
with (it's not necessarily going to look like a book). But...
he was careful to obscure his code to carry out the procedure.
Reason. Um... Um... Gee, why would he not put his code in that
paid Medium article of his ? A normal analysis of the code, would
not reveal wrong-doing. Um... um...

This is one reason, that currently academic researchers
will no longer touch Skype, with a barge pole. To start with,
it's no longer an "exceptional" piece of work. It's less
interesting to study. But after the legal opinion given
on the study of the original Skype, the application of DMCA-crime
is now overreaching enough, that only Blackhats will be studying
the holes in the new Skype.

When is the last time you read any articles on cracking WPA3
(after the initial version was shown by cryptographers, before
it was really officially deployed, to be unsound). Well, no one
does that now.

So yes, I think the audience is vaguely aware of how much
cajoling we can do, and then... we walk away.

This is double-ungood, citizen.

This is like when the local crack dealer, leaves baggies of crack
all over neighbourhood sidewalks. If you pick up a bag, an
officer comes over and clamps the handcuffs on you. Just another
day in the neighbourhood.

Paul