As part of this, I wrote a software pipeline that takes epubs, html files, or pdfs and converts them into formatted books with custom covers, page numbers, chapter formatting, etc.
I used an LLM for categorizing the books. There's a nice way to filter such that you could easily find "Young Adult, Ancient, Fantasy" for example.
When downloading from the site, the PDFS are rendered in a work queue. Hopefully the server I'm using won't get overwhelmed. It takes around 10-15 seconds to generate for most books.
Most of the books currently on the site are from Standard Ebooks. I plan to add more books from Archive.org and Project Gutenberg over time.
I also created a little guide on how you can print and bind books at home with around $200 in equipment. (https://printableclassics.com/print-guide)
Printable versions of the Harvard Classics are available here: https://printableclassics.com/harvard_classics This is an example of direct PDF conversion.
Hopefully this is useful to some people. I plan to use the books here for home education myself so it will at least be useful to me. I'd like to add a guide with top suggestions by age level and some educational theory on how I made the selections. I'm happy to take any feedback on the site or answer any questions.
There is also the option to have the books professionally printed through a print on demand provider. I'm hoping that could be a way to pay for the site hosting.
Thanks for checking it out!
Couple of observations:
- the page size drop down doesn't display any units (e.g. "6 x 9"). I assume there're all in inches but it would be a little more helpful if it said so and/or included a common name (e.g. US Letter) if one exists for that size.
- you might want to look into page imposition[1] something that's basically essential for any kind of stitched binding (as opposed to "perfect binding"). Full-blown imposition software is often ridiculously expensive and can have quite a few options so it's definitely both an engineering and UI challenge. In the meantime, Bookbinder JS[2] is a great site that I think runs entirely client side and can transform any PDF.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imposition
2: https://momijizukamori.github.io/bookbinder-js/?paperSize=LE...
Maybe more complex layout might be needed if you happened to have a printer that could handle like, A0 size paper, or continuous rolls, which would give more flexibility in terms of the number of ways you could fit your pages onto the stock material. for the hobbyist though? More than good enough.
I personally like to use standard A4/letter size paper and print one page per side and do perfect binding. Printing two A5 pages on A4 was my original approach, but then the grain direction is wrong for standard computer paper and the pages come out too stiff.
I think the quality is good enough for me, but I definitely understand the appeal of sewn binding.
What's your experience / recommendation?
My technical workflow (for personal books) is `Makefile` + `frontmatter.tex` + `chapter-*.md` + `endmatter.tex` and some unholy abomination of pandoc or whatever that'll stitch it all together and some other software to run imposition, etc.
I'll (at some point) take a look at what you're doing, but it's a really neat hobby- I've been doing 1-2 books at a time (~50-100 pages) w/ kettle stitching and hard-cover (with ribbons of course!).
...looking through your recommendations, but don't see mention of pigment-based ink/printers or short-grain paper (ChurchPaper was where I got some of mine from). Is the ET-8550 "the one" that you've found? Having something "large format" for printing is tempting, but it'd probably be better to outsource at $1-5/page compared to a more compact printer. What about drying out or long-term storage of inkjet / print heads?
re: the Guillotine, I've been tempted by seeing some hydraulic manual cutters, but it seems like big space investment... how have you experienced it? They're saying 400 pages (a whole ream?) on the one you've linked but that seems like a stretch.
Thanks, and be on the lookout for an email / pdf!
I like the Epson ink tank printers and have been happy with them. I usually use cheap generic ink. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are better options though.
I mostly do perfect bound books so I can use normal printer paper, center the pages, and it will be in the correct grain direction. Otherwise you'll have to order through dedicated specialty paper suppliers and also might need a larger format printer. In a pinch, you can ignore grain direction but the end result definitely isn't as good. Once I run out of my current cover paper, I'll probably order coated on 1 side short grain paper from some specialty paper supplier.
I also use a one sided laminator on the cover which makes the cover much more durable.
I think the manual cutter works well enough for me. It does work at 400 pages with some muscle. Upgrading to a programmable cutter would be the next step for me, but it would only be needed if you're making 5+ books a day.
I use a manual perfect binder like this: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/A4-Size-Wireless-Desk...
It gives better results than thermal binding, but it's probably not worth the investment for most people.
I also like velobinding for short things.
plus the cost of toner and paper?
For example, I can buy 5,000 sheets of printer paper for around $50. You use both sides so that would be half a cent per page.
I use an ink tank printer and you can get maybe a quart of ink for around $15.
It wouldn't include wear and tear on the printer, which is harder to quantify.
I also like to use cream colored paper instead of white which adds another half cent per page for perfect binding. Glue for the spine is a penny.
The cover itself might be around 20 cents of paper and 5 cents of ink.
DIY Bookbinding: https://youtube.com/@diybookbinding
DAS Bookbinding: https://youtube.com/@dasbookbinding
That’s My Bookshelf: https://youtube.com/@thatsmybookshelf
The pipeline itself is in node.js and uses mostly pdf-lib (https://pdf-lib.js.org/) and ebook-convert (https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/generated/en/ebook-convert....)
For epubs, I split the book into chapters and run ebook-convert on each chapter individually, adding an extra page if needed to make the number of pages even. Then I combine all the chapters and do a custom scheme for numbering (because you don't want numbers on blank pages, you want the numbering to start at chapter 1, etc)
For html books from Project Gutenberg for example, I make sure they have text in <p> and chapters in <h2>. Then do a similar logic with ebook-convert.
For pdf books, I just use pdf-lib to draw the pages directly.
I also shift odd pages to the right and even pages to the left so there is a larger inner margin than outer margin.
If you're looking to do custom books, I would just use ebook-convert by itself, it just won't be quite as pretty though because it lacks those improvements.