4 ms·

"Can I get a PDF of this book? No, our contract with MIT Press forbids distribution of too easily copied electronic formats of the book."

whatok 11y ago
I was able to print to PDF in Chrome and combined the PDFs in Acrobat.
- TheCabin 11y ago
  I guess this could be automated. For instance, you could download all html files using a plugin like "Download Them All" with a renaming mask like "inum-nameinum.ext" and then try: find . -iname '*.html' -exec wkhtmltopdf {} {}.pdf \; There are also tools to convert the resulting files to a single pdf. The only problem I got is, that the woff fonts are not rendered by "wkhtmltopdf" :-/ Ideas?
  - make3 11y ago
    you mean, like people have proposed multiple times already in this thread (with actual working scripts)
    - TheCabin 11y ago
      Who did before? Also, this solution would work with a newer release of wkhtmltopdf.
cced 11y ago
This type of thing is what gets people thinking about a way around the no-pdf solution.
thinkMOAR 11y ago
What does the contract say about 3rd parties wrapping it in PDF?
dandermotj 11y ago
Look, I'm not planning on printing the whole thing, binding it and sticking it on my shelf. I want the pdf because then I can use it when I'm offline, across devices and search it easily. If I want this book in hard copy, then I will purchase it - I've done this regularly with free digital books - but when it is offered free digitally then in my opinion prohibiting to only certain file formats is futile (as evidenced here), and such constraints are ineffective attempts to encourage people to buy the hard copy through inconvenience. And I must add that this is no slight to the authors, whom have my greatest appreciation for compiling their vast knowledge into a book and offering it for free. These guys are legends.
- bootload 11y ago
  @dandermotj I understand that, just included the reason why you cannot get it. The online book really sucks. I turned the styling off.

whatok 11y ago

I was able to print to PDF in Chrome and combined the PDFs in Acrobat.

TheCabin 11y ago
I guess this could be automated. For instance, you could download all html files using a plugin like "Download Them All" with a renaming mask like "inum-nameinum.ext" and then try: find . -iname '*.html' -exec wkhtmltopdf {} {}.pdf \; There are also tools to convert the resulting files to a single pdf. The only problem I got is, that the woff fonts are not rendered by "wkhtmltopdf" :-/ Ideas?
- make3 11y ago
  you mean, like people have proposed multiple times already in this thread (with actual working scripts)
  - TheCabin 11y ago
    Who did before? Also, this solution would work with a newer release of wkhtmltopdf.

cced 11y ago

This type of thing is what gets people thinking about a way around the no-pdf solution.

thinkMOAR 11y ago

What does the contract say about 3rd parties wrapping it in PDF?

dandermotj 11y ago

Look, I'm not planning on printing the whole thing, binding it and sticking it on my shelf. I want the pdf because then I can use it when I'm offline, across devices and search it easily. If I want this book in hard copy, then I will purchase it - I've done this regularly with free digital books - but when it is offered free digitally then in my opinion prohibiting to only certain file formats is futile (as evidenced here), and such constraints are ineffective attempts to encourage people to buy the hard copy through inconvenience. And I must add that this is no slight to the authors, whom have my greatest appreciation for compiling their vast knowledge into a book and offering it for free. These guys are legends.

bootload 11y ago
@dandermotj I understand that, just included the reason why you cannot get it. The online book really sucks. I turned the styling off.