Re: Pali fonts work on eReaders, Tipitaka PDF unzip problem, make Pa

Dear Andy and all,

http://readingfaithfully.org/book-sources/sutta-pitaka-e-books-epub-mobi-kindle/
has some nice links to well formatted epub and mobi ebooks.
Included is a link to a mobi that someone already used calibre to covert
the offline version of accesstoinsight into one mobi file. Hopefully a
central hub of dhamma ebooks emerges where there is communication and
minimal duplication of effort from people formatting dhamma works into
ebooks.
On the topic of pali fonts, I know very little about them, but I do
know that anyone with a computer running windows 7, you don't need to
install any pali fonts. Unicode Pali characters just work right out of
the box, and they work on kindle without having to install anything.
Also, chinese characters also work on kindle, no special fonts to install.
I've been experimenting with calibre and am really impressed with
how useful it is. Basically, if you know how to create a simple html
document, if you use an "H1" heading format for a section header, those
headers will be recognized by calibre as a chapter break, and will
automatically format the converted mobi or epub so that there is a
pagebreak, and for kindle touchy, the "swipe up" and "swipe down"
motions will advance chapters up and down. Section heading using "H2",
calibre will scan those in and build a table of contents (along with the
"H1" headings). What's particularly useful about calibre is you can
have a seriously large hierarchy of nested html files all linked
together, such as the offline access to insight, and they all get
converted into one ebook.

Metta,
Frank

On 12/17/2011 4:48 AM, Lennart Lopin wrote:
> Dear Andy, Bhante
>
> ...having used the tools you mentioned, we created a collection of most of
> the Sutta Pitaka books as epubs:
>
> http://books.nibbanam.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=3&Itemid=29&vmcchk=1&Itemid=29
>
> metta,
>
> Lennart
>
> On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 3:09 AM, Yuttadhammo<yuttadhammo@...> wrote:
>
>> **
>>
>>
>> Also, Calibre does a good job with many options from pdf to epub:
>>
>> http://calibre-ebook.com/
>>
>>
>> On 12/15/2011 11:09 AM, palitechguy wrote:
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> I spent the last couple of days getting Pali Texts from VRI plus Access
>> to Insight web pages formatted into ePub format and onto an eReader I have
>> for testing.
>>> The bottom line :
>>>
>>> 1) There is at least one inexpensive eReader that allows you to install
>> Pali fonts and use them without any problem.
>>> 1.a If you know how to copy files onto a USB key then you can install
>> the Pali fonts onto the eReader.
>>> 1.b If you can choose a font from the list in your word processor then
>> you have the skills needed to activate the font and use it.
>>> The eReader I tested with is the Kobo eReader Touch Edition.
>>>
>>> (My Sony eReader PRS-650 does not allow me install and activate fonts in
>> a way that any normal human being can understand. It is such a complicated
>> fuss that I won't bother detailing it).
>>> 2. The Pali Tipitaka as PDF files - bug?
>>>
>>> I downloaded the PDF files from tipitaka.org a few times over the last
>> year but they didn't unzip properly on my Windows XP computer and I didn't
>> have time to fuss with it.
>>> I think I found the problem. You cannot "Extract All..." files on
>> Windows XP if there are Pali special characters in the file name?
>>> In any case, I renamed the zip files that I downloaded and they unzipped
>> fine.
>>> BTW : the computer I used is installed in French so this might have
>> affected the unzip?
>>> Conclusion : If you have not been able to unzip the PDF files from
>> tipitaka.org then try renaming them.
>>> If you have the font installed on the eReader then these PDF files show
>> all pali characters. This is nice but...
>>> 3. It turns out that it is very fast and easy to create ePub books for
>> Pali (and the Access to Insight web site or other web sites).
>>> There is a program called "SIGIL The ePub Editor" (under the GNU GPL v3)
>> that makes it very easy to create ePub format books for yourself or others.
>>> 3.1 If you just want to create a fast ePub book then
>>>
>>> - Open Windows Notepad
>>> - Copy and Paste some Pali or a web page into Notepad
>>> - "Save As..." - After Filename and File Type there is a little
>> pull-down list Code (Encodage in French). Change it from ANSI to UTF-8
>>> almost done!
>>>
>>> - Open Sigil
>>> - Open your file
>>> - Save As... - There is a pulldown box for the file type. The default is
>> EPUB file (*.epub)
>>> and you have just created your first Pali ePub book.If a pali font is
>> installed on your eReader then all Pali characters will show properly.
>>> Optional : If you are going to be sharing the book then you will
>> probably want to add a cover, create section headings, generate a table of
>> contents and much more but it is not necessary.
>>> 4. Links
>>>
>>> I blogged about the Pali Tipitaka pdf file bug and about adding fonts to
>> the eReader at :
>>>
>> http://emsjuwel.com/pali.dictionary/buddhist-pali-tipitaka-pdf-files-an-unzip-problem-solved/
>>> You can download Sigil and see the Basic Tutorial (on the left side
>> under "Wiki Pages") at :
>>> http://code.google.com/p/sigil/
>>>
>>> Hopefully we will soon be able to offer pali materials in the very handy
>> ePub format.
>>> peace from
>>>
>>> Andy
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------
>>> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>> Paa.li-Parisaa - The Pali Collective
>>> [Homepage] http://www.tipitaka.net
>>> [Pali Document Framework] http://www.tipitaka.net/forge/pdf/
>>> [Files] http://www.geocities.com/paligroup/
>>> [Send Message] pali@yahoogroups.com
>>> Yahoo! Groups members can set their delivery options to daily digest or
>> web only.Yahoo! Groups Links
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Paa.li-Parisaa - The Pali Collective
> [Homepage] http://www.tipitaka.net
> [Pali Document Framework] http://www.tipitaka.net/forge/pdf/
> [Files] http://www.geocities.com/paligroup/
> [Send Message] pali@yahoogroups.com
> Yahoo! Groups members can set their delivery options to daily digest or web only.Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>