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Posted by JSeiko 6 hours ago

Project Gutenberg – keeps getting better(www.gutenberg.org)
550 points | 147 commentspage 2
ndr42 5 hours ago|
The project was geo-blocked in Germany for a long time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29024039
debo_ 3 hours ago||
Project Gesperrtberg
JSeiko 4 hours ago||
very glad this has been resolved (I'm from Germany myself)
RattlesnakeJake 5 hours ago||
As a Kindle user, I still miss the old version of the site. The new one looks great on normal desktop, but the old one was simple enough to load and directly download books on the device's built-in browser.
JSeiko 5 hours ago||
That's interesting. What about the new design prevents you from doing it? Genuinely asking here. We may fix it if it's actionable
bitigchi 42 minutes ago|||
Maybe include a "Lite" version that only displays text/links? No to minimal styling would be great!
RattlesnakeJake 5 hours ago|||
And now it's time to put my foot in my mouth. I haven't used it in a while because it was frustrating, but you guys seem to have already fixed it :)

The previous version of the site had two major flaws:

1. The search bar had been removed from the top of the page, and hidden behind a "Click here to search" (or similar) link partway down the page

2. Once you opened that page, the coloring of the site was so washed out on e-ink that the text input was hard to find.

Thanks for fixing it!

JSeiko 5 hours ago||
"you guys seem to have already fixed it" - that's what we like to hear :)
graemep 5 hours ago||
Is that a Kindle issue?

You can download books in most browsers. I know Amazon have done things to make life difficult for other stores in the past.

RattlesnakeJake 2 hours ago||
I'd call it one of those middle-ground things:

• On the one hand, E Ink devices have a fairly known set of limitations, and it would be ridiculous for me to expect them to render the whole web well.

• On the other hand, it's good for website designs to consider the kind of devices employed by their users. Using a Kindle to access Gutenberg is likely less of an edge case than it would be for other sites, so it's worth the extra design work.

(Keep in mind that -- given my sibling comment -- this is all theoretical. The latest iteration of Gutenberg's site is much better than the previous version)

mowmiatlas 5 hours ago||
Made an app that allows reading PG books as audiobooks on iPhone https://loudreader.io/
JSeiko 5 hours ago|
that's cool!
smilespray 4 hours ago||
I remember printing out project Gutenberg books in the mid-90s, four regular pages to an A4 page, double-sided on my inkjet. I had a background in typography, so I made it work.

Any yes, the text needed a lot of processing to make it right.

Now, in my early fifties and with declining eyesight, that's out of reach now.

Thanks for sticking with the project!

JSeiko 4 hours ago|
that's cool! one of my "pet-ideas" is actually to make an AI-agent that does all that typographical work for any PG book to make it nicely printable without any manual labor whatsoever. Maybe that's doable now ...
smilespray 3 hours ago||
That is doable. Most of my work was regexp and repetitive stuff. And the typograhpy stuff is achievable with the current state of the art models. Not that I remember what I did, it was 30 years ago.
JSeiko 3 hours ago||
Interesting!
cold_tom 3 hours ago||
Project Gutenberg feels like the opposite of modern internet design philosophy. Quiet, useful, accessible, and built to last.
seizethecheese 6 hours ago||
A big pet peeve of mine with Project Gutenberg was the lack of mobile styling. Looks like it’s been fixed! Awesome.
JSeiko 5 hours ago|
good to hear - that was a lot of work!
Myzel394 2 hours ago||
I wonder if the people behind project Gutenberg use Anna's Archive or mam for books that can't be put on Gutenberg.
aronhegedus 5 hours ago||
Recently downloaded Moby Dick from here:) very easy to use
JSeiko 5 hours ago|
Moby Dick is consistently one of the Top Downloads
oidar 4 hours ago||
I'm slightly curious how PG handles heavily illustrated books. I've downloaded some years ago, and the quality of the illustrations was always pretty poor. Has it been improved lately? What's the QA like for illustrations?
gluejar 4 hours ago|
Nowadays we depend on scans from Internet Archive, Hathitrust, and other sources. Some scans are better than others. Bear in mind that our illustrations need to be in the public domain and usually from the same edition as the text. https://www.gutenberg.org/help/errata.html
autoexec 4 hours ago|
I love how usable the site is even with JS disabled!
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