[Solved - Firefox extension SingleFile converts the page to a .html file that can be accessed without login!] Any tricks to saving chapters in a digital, online-based textbook as a PDF? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world to c/techsupport@lemmy.world

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Print-to-PDF is locked down. There's a print option as part of the software, but it slaps my student email diagonally across every single page, which makes reading it kind of obnoxious.

I don't intend to distribute (which I'm assuming is why it's locked up so tight), but needing to log in and navigate to the text is getting cumbersome, so I'm hoping to just save a chapter at a time to my phone and whip that out to tackle my reading assignments.

Also hoping to preserve images, since a lot of the info is charts and such, so PDF seems like the best target, but open to any ideas.

...I suppose I could just suck it up and deal with their annoying software, but at this point I hate to admit defeat lol.

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[-] linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 9 months ago

anything that is on your computer, you must be able to save.

Does Ctrl-S (File > Save) work? (unlikely). Can you select all and copy/paste?
Try the browser extension SingleFile https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/SingleFile
Since you already have your "license", find a PDF backup online. https://annas-archive.org, PDFdrive.com, libgen (websearch for current URL), sci-hub (same), archive.org (need DeDRM from github to download adobe ebooks permenently)
as someone else suggested, ask some pirates: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/
Maybe it would be easier to remove the email address from the background. How to do that depends on what sort of fuckery is going on in the PDF and how nerdy you are. Can you open it in any editing software?

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

SingleFile https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/SingleFile

HOLY SHIT THAT WORKED!!

Definitely gonna call that good. Thank you!

[-] linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 9 months ago

oh cool! I didn't have too much confidence. Some websites manage to defeat it.

make sure to tell all your friends how they can back up their text books. :D

[-] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 3 points 9 months ago

If you wanted to grab a page or two could you print screen it?

If it's more than that I'd probably cross post this to a piracy community. I know that's not your goal but the methods would probably be the same.

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Naw, that'd be legit thousands of screenshots by the time this program is through... there's a LOT of reading. The book loads a full chapter at a time, so if I could somehow export the entire chapter all in one bite, that'd be a lot more manageable... I really hate how restricted this shit is - I paid full price for the damn thing!!

Piracy community... not a bad idea!

[-] DemBoSain@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago

Print-to-PDF is locked down.

Locked down how? You say this is online, but also mention software, so I'm not sure if this is browser-based or not. If a browser, can you use an addon like this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fireshot/

to capture the entire page?

If not a browser, it would help to know what the software is.

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

I'm probably not using the correct nomenclature.

It's all in-browser; by software I just mean whatever code that makes the page tick. When I do the usual ctrl+p, the print preview is a single page with a line of text in the middle saying to use the print feature built into the site. Using the print feature gets me the giant, super distracting watermark.

I'll give the addon a shot and check back!

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

No luck. That extension only saves a single 'screen' worth as a PDF, not the entire webpage as it advertises. I'd guess this is more the fault of the textbook restrictions than any actual issue with the extension.

Tried a few similar ones, and they either did the same thing, or saved that print preview I mentioned earlier (so, effectively just a shortcut to print-to-pdf).

I may just be SOL.

This makes me want to seed a torrent of it or something if/when I find a working option, just out of spite. >_<

[-] DemBoSain@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago

What's the website? I may be able to look at it tomorrow. Is it school-specific or one of those generic online document viewers?

Try throwing NoScript at it? But that will probably just break the entire page.

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

https://pageburstls.elsevier.com

Not sure if that link will actually be useful - you'll need a login to actually get to a textbook.

Try throwing NoScript at it?

Unsure how to do that... I see extensions with that name - try those?

[-] DemBoSain@midwest.social 3 points 9 months ago

Noscript is another addon, it blocks Javascript completely. You probably won't be able to log in, but it's worth a shot.

I just looked at the Elsevier page, it looks like what I expected. I'm sure there's a way to get the docs, I just don't have much access right now to search for it. My last recommendation is to try and find the book on a torrent site. My second last recommendation is to ask at !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com (I don't know if that link will work) if someone knows about Elsevier, they're pretty helpful, and you're just trying to read a book you already have access to.

Good luck.

[-] linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago

https://noscript.net/

Some websites will fall back to a "simple" version when the javascript they prefer isn't allowed. it's good design. My guess is that these parasites will design their website without such accessibility principals and prevent you from using it except on their terms. But it's worth a shot.

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Yea it just throws an error saying to enable javascript. It's sounding like piracy will be the best option, lol.

[-] muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

U can overite the css that gets applied during printing to do nothing ask chatgpt about it (dont tell it ur trying to bypass drm tho it doesnt like that)

this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024

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