7 ms·

Zshelf: Z-Library books downloader for reMarkable tablet

120 points by markMacLean 6y ago

blakesterz 6y ago
I've had a reMarkable2 for a while, and just started using it. It does just want I want it to do (which isn't all that much). I use it to take notes while I'm studying. The handwriting recognition is surprisingly good (my hand writing is terrible). Somehow I missed there are a bunch of things out there written for these tablets! https://github.com/topics/remarkable-tablet https://github.com/topics/remarkable-tablet
- tw04 6y ago
  I still don't understand why they don't add native onenote integration. I would buy one in a heartbeat if they did. The whole "well just email it to yourself" workflow is horrible and a non-starter. It seems like such an oversight that I can't quite wrap my head around it. I have no doubt MS would be willing to work with them and it should be entirely do-able given the linux underpinnings of the tablet. Maybe by the time there's a reMarkable3.
  - blakesterz 6y ago
    Totally agree with you on that one. OneNote would be a great thing to have on those things for sure. It's a nice little device, but doesn't do all that much.
  - rgrieselhuber 6y ago
    I personally am very glad that nothing related to MS is anywhere near it. The device is pretty much perfect. Would be nice if they supported Japanese handwriting recognition though.
    - ad404b8a372f2b9 6y ago
      If you're a power-user sshing the framebuffer over + tesseract-jpn (or tesseract-jpn-vert) works splendidly for me. You can get it working in 100 lines of python from mix-matching existing scripts.
      - rgrieselhuber 6y ago
        Thanks, I'll check that out.
  - wedn3sday 6y ago
    There's a nice 3rd party python library for reading/writing files to/from the tablet, so really you can do anything you want with it. The tablet is very much just a linux computer with an e-ink display attached, and they make it very easy to ssh in and do whatever you want.
  - AlanYx 6y ago
    An open source OneNote integration project for the Remarkable was just unveiled: https://github.com/jamesf91/RemarkableSync https://github.com/jamesf91/RemarkableSync
- nsomaru 6y ago
  How are you dealing with the jagged line issue and the other issues like no custom templates, no bookmarks etc.? I was pretty sold on RM2 but then I read about the slow development pace, the apparent nonsensical lockdown of the device etc (yes I know it’s less locked down than an iPad) and I just think about getting a boox device. Edit: see https://youtu.be/QoVIpCSpaFs https://youtu.be/QoVIpCSpaFs
  - AlanYx 6y ago
    The jagged line issue seems to have largely affected batches shipped in late 2020. Judging from the device serial numbers, it looks like there may have been four hardware revisions to the RM2. I have a more recent RM2 (early-February) and don't have the jagged lines issue or the wavy lines issue. Custom templates are possible without modifying the device at all, using free tools online. Bookmarks you can get using the DDVK hack (but they aren't anywhere as slick as the implementation on the Supernote). I'm not sure what you mean about the lockdown of the device. There's a thriving third-party community, including a package manager (Toltec), you get a SSH password out of the box, and you can even install a full Linux desktop environment on it (Parabola-RM). I'm pretty satisfied with mine. My biggest gripes are: (i) PDF searching is poorly implemented; (ii) no searching of handwritten notebooks apart from metadata; (iii) although you can get bookmarks with a hack, there's no way to bookmark notebooks like you would with paper notebooks, e.g., with several different style sticky notes that are easy to find and access. The built-in eBook reader functionality is poor, but since it's so easy to install KOReader, that's not an issue for me.
    - spijdar 6y ago
      I don't have a remarkable 1 or 2, but I did some digging when considering buying one before, and I'd call it locked down because the primary UI and software stack were very locked off. Yes, you can get an SSH connection to it, but past that point 3rd party development feels more like jailbreaking an iphone, just with the jailbreak freely provided. It's clear the developer intends for the device to be heavily restricted by default in an attempt to mimic a notebook as closely as possible. You are given a free escape hatch, but that's it.
- Loughla 6y ago
  I've been using the two for a month or two now for work notes (everything I do has to be documented in case of Freedom of Information requests). It's really good, but the lag between screens is just enough to be annoying. I tried the Boox Air, and it felt like trying to write on an overhead projector (for you youths, it felt like writing on a piece of stiff plastic). The one thing the remarkable does extremely well is simulate the actual feeling of writing on paper. That is very, very nice. I wish I was able to modify my tablet, because there are so many super handy things you can do with it!
  - jjoonathan 6y ago
    Once they get the latency of eink under control, I'm in. Until then, I need an iPad so I can pan and zoom around my liquidtext notes in silky smooth 60fps.
- spullara 6y ago
  My daughter uses it for drawing and really likes it.
caractacus 6y ago
Yeah, those damn authors don't deserve any money for their hard work writing. Let's make piracy easier and pretend we're doing nothing different to a lending library!
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- an_ko 6y ago
  I'm uninformed, as I'm into neither piracy nor libraries. What are the differences between the two from an author's financial perspective? My initial impression is that they sound equivalent; both are used to get your book for free, by people who don't want to buy it.
  - cooperadymas 6y ago
    Libraries buy the e-book legally and loan it out to a single person who then returns it. Libraries are often forced to buy ebooks at a much higher than consumer price, supposedly to offset the cost of customers who would buy the book themselves if libraries didn't exist. The author/publisher get paid for every copy purchased by every library and no more than 1 person can be reading that copy of the book at a given time. If someone wants to permanently add it to their collection they must purchase it themselves. It's the functional equivalent of someone buying the book and then passing it on to the next person who wants to read it. With pirating, perhaps one person bought the book originally and then it gets sent to an infinite number of people who permanently have it in their collection. The author gets paid practically nothing.
  - CharlesW 6y ago
    > What are the differences between the two from an author's financial perspective? The short answer is that libraries buy books, pirates don't. In regards to physical books, a good place to start is understanding "first sale doctrine"[1], which allows both libraries and you to do what you want with a book once you're purchased it. First sale doctrine does not apply to DRM-encumbered ebooks, so libraries must buy as many licenses as they wish to loan, paying three-to-five times the retail price for each limited-time license, and re-purchasing those licenses when they expire (typically after two years). [1] https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-first-sale-doctrine.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-first-sale-doctr...
utrack 6y ago
<shameless self-promotion> There's another tool for rM that fetches articles by URI and sends them to reMarkable as PDFs: https://sendreadable.utrack.dev/ https://sendreadable.utrack.dev/
- blakesterz 6y ago
  Looks really interesting, am I missing the code on GitHub?
  - JustSomeNobody 6y ago
    Nope, there doesn't appear to be any.
- avel 6y ago
  Remarkable's chrome extension does the same, no? And I have full control in the print dialog to adjust the output. There's a value if you provide a CLI tool for that, for automation.
  - utrack 6y ago
    Yep, it's basically the same thing. I've done it because it's chrome only, and there's no way to send articles from mobile.
- wedn3sday 6y ago
  The github link on the site takes you to your personal github page, not the page for the sendreadable project. One downside of the way remarkable handles this sort of thing, is that I assume I have to give you my API key, which would let you read/write anything you want to the tablet. Its a lot easier to trust that you're not doing anything fishy if you provide the code to the project.
  - utrack 6y ago
    The code is definitely not open source ready and it depends on a lot of custom infra (I've hacked it up in one weekend). You can always download PDFs without logging in and automate the upload yourself if you want.
fullstop 6y ago
I have mixed feelings on z-library. I don't condone book piracy but will admit that I've used it in the past in these situations: 1. I have the book in print but want the convenience of reading while traveling without a bunch of books in tow. This one is, IMO, a morally grey area. 2. I have put books on my daughter's Kindle which she checked out from the local library through overdrive. Far too many e-books from the library require Adobe Acrobat with some DRM garbage which realistically allows you to read it on a PC or an iPad.
- TrueDuality 6y ago
  I mostly feel the same way. I definitely do not condone book piracy, but I don't have any qualms about getting a digital version of a book that I have purchased. My favorite technical book publisher NoStarch Press (unaffiliated) provides eBook versions for free with purchase of a physical copy and I wish that was more common. I do not feel the same way about audiobooks, even if I own the book, there is additional cost and value added to producing audiobooks and I can't justify pirating those even if I already own the physical book.
  - Loughla 6y ago
    Thank you for that second statement. Too many people that I know personally justify pirating audiobooks because they already own a physical copy. A well-done audiobook (for example, Hyperion) is a production all on its own. It's an experience above and beyond the actual printed text. I don't know if that adds to the conversation or not, but I did want to thank you for that distinction!
  - dominotw 6y ago
    Yes agree with this sentiment here. This is only reason I buy books almost elusively from manning. Would be interesting to see how they estimate they loss of value from non-drm ebooks vs gain in customers like me who are buying books for no drm.
- websites2323 6y ago
  Similar to your use case #2, I use Z-Library (and others) to get DRM-free versions of books I bought on Apple Books. Reason being: I can't trust that Apple won't go ebook-bankrupt like Microsoft did a few years back.
aidenn0 6y ago
I had never heard of "Z-Library" before, so I followed the link. The z-library front page copy requires serious reading between the lines to tell that it's a piracy site. > Here you can always find the relevant information on the available domains for your region. Was the only tip-off for me, and that's quite subtle. While I have conflicted thoughts on piracy, I could see casual users using this site without knowing it was piracy, which definitely seems off to me. Maybe if I click through further it becomes more obvious?
- Epitom3 6y ago
  It should be obvious to anyone who reached the site. They have listed popular books on the front page. And the website itself isn't indexed if you don't explicitly search the name.
  - JustSomeNobody 6y ago
    >It should be obvious to anyone who reached the site. They have listed popular books on the front page. Not true for me. The front page had 3 links (Books, Articles, Sign up). I had to click Books before I could see content and _then_ it was obvious. > And the website itself isn't indexed if you don't explicitly search the name. Most people aren't going to know what that even means.
  - aidenn0 6y ago
    My local public library also has popular books listed. I didn't explicitly search the name, I got to it from a link on github, which I got to from a news aggregator. None of these links mentioned anything about piracy.
    - michaelmrose 6y ago
      Mentioning piracy on the front page would be legally disadvantageous as piracy is illegal. Drug dealers also don't have signage, price lists, and hours except for that one guy they busted in the south with a drive up window in his mobile home.
4AoZqrH2fsk5UB 6y ago
To any authors reading this: It would be cool if you would set up abilities to "donate" or direct pay you. I love getting ebooks but often its really difficult to find a drm-free version (sometimes I can get one on the publishers website). Because there's so much friction around it I get virtually all my books from pirated sources. For books that I really enjoy I'll then go pick up the book at my local bookstore, but I'd love to have an easy, digital way to pay you. Would be even cooler if you had a cryptocurrency address (ideally monero or maybe bitcoin) I could pay.

120 points by markMacLean 6y ago

I've had a reMarkable2 for a while, and just started using it. It does just want I want it to do (which isn't all that much). I use it to take notes while I'm studying. The handwriting recognition is surprisingly good (my hand writing is terrible). Somehow I missed there are a bunch of things out there written for these tablets! https://github.com/topics/remarkable-tablet https://github.com/topics/remarkable-tablet

tw04 6y ago
I still don't understand why they don't add native onenote integration. I would buy one in a heartbeat if they did. The whole "well just email it to yourself" workflow is horrible and a non-starter. It seems like such an oversight that I can't quite wrap my head around it. I have no doubt MS would be willing to work with them and it should be entirely do-able given the linux underpinnings of the tablet. Maybe by the time there's a reMarkable3.
- blakesterz 6y ago
  Totally agree with you on that one. OneNote would be a great thing to have on those things for sure. It's a nice little device, but doesn't do all that much.
- rgrieselhuber 6y ago
  I personally am very glad that nothing related to MS is anywhere near it. The device is pretty much perfect. Would be nice if they supported Japanese handwriting recognition though.
  - ad404b8a372f2b9 6y ago
    If you're a power-user sshing the framebuffer over + tesseract-jpn (or tesseract-jpn-vert) works splendidly for me. You can get it working in 100 lines of python from mix-matching existing scripts.
    - rgrieselhuber 6y ago
      Thanks, I'll check that out.
- wedn3sday 6y ago
  There's a nice 3rd party python library for reading/writing files to/from the tablet, so really you can do anything you want with it. The tablet is very much just a linux computer with an e-ink display attached, and they make it very easy to ssh in and do whatever you want.
- AlanYx 6y ago
  An open source OneNote integration project for the Remarkable was just unveiled: https://github.com/jamesf91/RemarkableSync https://github.com/jamesf91/RemarkableSync
nsomaru 6y ago
How are you dealing with the jagged line issue and the other issues like no custom templates, no bookmarks etc.? I was pretty sold on RM2 but then I read about the slow development pace, the apparent nonsensical lockdown of the device etc (yes I know it’s less locked down than an iPad) and I just think about getting a boox device. Edit: see https://youtu.be/QoVIpCSpaFs https://youtu.be/QoVIpCSpaFs
- AlanYx 6y ago
  The jagged line issue seems to have largely affected batches shipped in late 2020. Judging from the device serial numbers, it looks like there may have been four hardware revisions to the RM2. I have a more recent RM2 (early-February) and don't have the jagged lines issue or the wavy lines issue. Custom templates are possible without modifying the device at all, using free tools online. Bookmarks you can get using the DDVK hack (but they aren't anywhere as slick as the implementation on the Supernote). I'm not sure what you mean about the lockdown of the device. There's a thriving third-party community, including a package manager (Toltec), you get a SSH password out of the box, and you can even install a full Linux desktop environment on it (Parabola-RM). I'm pretty satisfied with mine. My biggest gripes are: (i) PDF searching is poorly implemented; (ii) no searching of handwritten notebooks apart from metadata; (iii) although you can get bookmarks with a hack, there's no way to bookmark notebooks like you would with paper notebooks, e.g., with several different style sticky notes that are easy to find and access. The built-in eBook reader functionality is poor, but since it's so easy to install KOReader, that's not an issue for me.
  - spijdar 6y ago
    I don't have a remarkable 1 or 2, but I did some digging when considering buying one before, and I'd call it locked down because the primary UI and software stack were very locked off. Yes, you can get an SSH connection to it, but past that point 3rd party development feels more like jailbreaking an iphone, just with the jailbreak freely provided. It's clear the developer intends for the device to be heavily restricted by default in an attempt to mimic a notebook as closely as possible. You are given a free escape hatch, but that's it.
Loughla 6y ago
I've been using the two for a month or two now for work notes (everything I do has to be documented in case of Freedom of Information requests). It's really good, but the lag between screens is just enough to be annoying. I tried the Boox Air, and it felt like trying to write on an overhead projector (for you youths, it felt like writing on a piece of stiff plastic). The one thing the remarkable does extremely well is simulate the actual feeling of writing on paper. That is very, very nice. I wish I was able to modify my tablet, because there are so many super handy things you can do with it!
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  Once they get the latency of eink under control, I'm in. Until then, I need an iPad so I can pan and zoom around my liquidtext notes in silky smooth 60fps.
spullara 6y ago
My daughter uses it for drawing and really likes it.

caractacus 6y ago

Yeah, those damn authors don't deserve any money for their hard work writing. Let's make piracy easier and pretend we're doing nothing different to a lending library!

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
an_ko 6y ago
I'm uninformed, as I'm into neither piracy nor libraries. What are the differences between the two from an author's financial perspective? My initial impression is that they sound equivalent; both are used to get your book for free, by people who don't want to buy it.
- cooperadymas 6y ago
  Libraries buy the e-book legally and loan it out to a single person who then returns it. Libraries are often forced to buy ebooks at a much higher than consumer price, supposedly to offset the cost of customers who would buy the book themselves if libraries didn't exist. The author/publisher get paid for every copy purchased by every library and no more than 1 person can be reading that copy of the book at a given time. If someone wants to permanently add it to their collection they must purchase it themselves. It's the functional equivalent of someone buying the book and then passing it on to the next person who wants to read it. With pirating, perhaps one person bought the book originally and then it gets sent to an infinite number of people who permanently have it in their collection. The author gets paid practically nothing.
- CharlesW 6y ago
  > What are the differences between the two from an author's financial perspective? The short answer is that libraries buy books, pirates don't. In regards to physical books, a good place to start is understanding "first sale doctrine"[1], which allows both libraries and you to do what you want with a book once you're purchased it. First sale doctrine does not apply to DRM-encumbered ebooks, so libraries must buy as many licenses as they wish to loan, paying three-to-five times the retail price for each limited-time license, and re-purchasing those licenses when they expire (typically after two years). [1] https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-first-sale-doctrine.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-first-sale-doctr...

utrack 6y ago

<shameless self-promotion> There's another tool for rM that fetches articles by URI and sends them to reMarkable as PDFs: https://sendreadable.utrack.dev/ https://sendreadable.utrack.dev/

blakesterz 6y ago
Looks really interesting, am I missing the code on GitHub?
- JustSomeNobody 6y ago
  Nope, there doesn't appear to be any.
avel 6y ago
Remarkable's chrome extension does the same, no? And I have full control in the print dialog to adjust the output. There's a value if you provide a CLI tool for that, for automation.
- utrack 6y ago
  Yep, it's basically the same thing. I've done it because it's chrome only, and there's no way to send articles from mobile.
wedn3sday 6y ago
The github link on the site takes you to your personal github page, not the page for the sendreadable project. One downside of the way remarkable handles this sort of thing, is that I assume I have to give you my API key, which would let you read/write anything you want to the tablet. Its a lot easier to trust that you're not doing anything fishy if you provide the code to the project.
- utrack 6y ago
  The code is definitely not open source ready and it depends on a lot of custom infra (I've hacked it up in one weekend). You can always download PDFs without logging in and automate the upload yourself if you want.

fullstop 6y ago

I have mixed feelings on z-library. I don't condone book piracy but will admit that I've used it in the past in these situations: 1. I have the book in print but want the convenience of reading while traveling without a bunch of books in tow. This one is, IMO, a morally grey area. 2. I have put books on my daughter's Kindle which she checked out from the local library through overdrive. Far too many e-books from the library require Adobe Acrobat with some DRM garbage which realistically allows you to read it on a PC or an iPad.

TrueDuality 6y ago
I mostly feel the same way. I definitely do not condone book piracy, but I don't have any qualms about getting a digital version of a book that I have purchased. My favorite technical book publisher NoStarch Press (unaffiliated) provides eBook versions for free with purchase of a physical copy and I wish that was more common. I do not feel the same way about audiobooks, even if I own the book, there is additional cost and value added to producing audiobooks and I can't justify pirating those even if I already own the physical book.
- Loughla 6y ago
  Thank you for that second statement. Too many people that I know personally justify pirating audiobooks because they already own a physical copy. A well-done audiobook (for example, Hyperion) is a production all on its own. It's an experience above and beyond the actual printed text. I don't know if that adds to the conversation or not, but I did want to thank you for that distinction!
- dominotw 6y ago
  Yes agree with this sentiment here. This is only reason I buy books almost elusively from manning. Would be interesting to see how they estimate they loss of value from non-drm ebooks vs gain in customers like me who are buying books for no drm.
websites2323 6y ago
Similar to your use case #2, I use Z-Library (and others) to get DRM-free versions of books I bought on Apple Books. Reason being: I can't trust that Apple won't go ebook-bankrupt like Microsoft did a few years back.

aidenn0 6y ago

I had never heard of "Z-Library" before, so I followed the link. The z-library front page copy requires serious reading between the lines to tell that it's a piracy site. > Here you can always find the relevant information on the available domains for your region. Was the only tip-off for me, and that's quite subtle. While I have conflicted thoughts on piracy, I could see casual users using this site without knowing it was piracy, which definitely seems off to me. Maybe if I click through further it becomes more obvious?

Epitom3 6y ago
It should be obvious to anyone who reached the site. They have listed popular books on the front page. And the website itself isn't indexed if you don't explicitly search the name.
- JustSomeNobody 6y ago
  >It should be obvious to anyone who reached the site. They have listed popular books on the front page. Not true for me. The front page had 3 links (Books, Articles, Sign up). I had to click Books before I could see content and _then_ it was obvious. > And the website itself isn't indexed if you don't explicitly search the name. Most people aren't going to know what that even means.
- aidenn0 6y ago
  My local public library also has popular books listed. I didn't explicitly search the name, I got to it from a link on github, which I got to from a news aggregator. None of these links mentioned anything about piracy.
  - michaelmrose 6y ago
    Mentioning piracy on the front page would be legally disadvantageous as piracy is illegal. Drug dealers also don't have signage, price lists, and hours except for that one guy they busted in the south with a drive up window in his mobile home.

4AoZqrH2fsk5UB 6y ago

To any authors reading this: It would be cool if you would set up abilities to "donate" or direct pay you. I love getting ebooks but often its really difficult to find a drm-free version (sometimes I can get one on the publishers website). Because there's so much friction around it I get virtually all my books from pirated sources. For books that I really enjoy I'll then go pick up the book at my local bookstore, but I'd love to have an easy, digital way to pay you. Would be even cooler if you had a cryptocurrency address (ideally monero or maybe bitcoin) I could pay.