Comments on: Sony Reader tips: Web2Book and the landscape mode http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/sony-reader-tips-web2book-and-the-landscape-mode/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:05:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Bill Janssen http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/sony-reader-tips-web2book-and-the-landscape-mode/comment-page-1/#comment-463214 Bill Janssen Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:31:23 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6831#comment-463214 By the way, as far as I can see, OpenOffice <b>doesn't</b> use the Mozilla code for rendering HTML. This was an option some folks were looking at, but it never made it into the codebase. By the way, as far as I can see, OpenOffice doesn’t use the Mozilla code for rendering HTML. This was an option some folks were looking at, but it never made it into the codebase.

]]> By: Bill Janssen http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/sony-reader-tips-web2book-and-the-landscape-mode/comment-page-1/#comment-463208 Bill Janssen Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:29:40 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6831#comment-463208 There are a couple of Open Source ways to make custom PDF files from Web pages. I've used <a href="http://www.htmldoc.org/" rel="nofollow">HTMLDOC</a> and <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/" rel="nofollow">OpenOffice</a>. HTMLDOC does a good job with simple Web pages, and most posted ebooks fall into this category. The biggest problem with HTMLDOC is that it's wildly out-of-date; in particular it doesn't support UTF-8 in Web pages. And this situation isn't likely to improve anytime soon, as the author, Michael Sweet, has been hired by Apple to work on CUPS printing. Another option is to try to use OpenOffice macros to convert Web pages to PDF. I worked out a macro package to do this; <a href="http://htmldoc.org/newsgroups.php?ghtmldoc.general+v:5157" rel="nofollow">see this post for details</a>. It works better than HTMLDOC for complicated pages, but has its own drawbacks. I'm surprised that no one has taken the Gecko framework and produced a "print-to-PDF" program for Web pages based on it. Seems to be a need for it. There are a couple of Open Source ways to make custom PDF files from Web pages. I’ve used HTMLDOC and OpenOffice. HTMLDOC does a good job with simple Web pages, and most posted ebooks fall into this category. The biggest problem with HTMLDOC is that it’s wildly out-of-date; in particular it doesn’t support UTF-8 in Web pages. And this situation isn’t likely to improve anytime soon, as the author, Michael Sweet, has been hired by Apple to work on CUPS printing.

Another option is to try to use OpenOffice macros to convert Web pages to PDF. I worked out a macro package to do this; see this post for details. It works better than HTMLDOC for complicated pages, but has its own drawbacks.

I’m surprised that no one has taken the Gecko framework and produced a “print-to-PDF” program for Web pages based on it. Seems to be a need for it.

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