You Can Help

BookLiberator is an ambitious project that is just getting off the ground. We're going to need a lot of people to jump on board if this is going to work.

There is a list of shallow bugs that can be fixed in short order, even by people who aren't familiar with the BookLiberator codebase. You'll need basic python and gtk skills to play along, but the best way to learn the code is to jump in and fix something simple.

We've started a page for bazaar branches. Feel free to add your own.

Please download the code, try it out, and report bugs. You might find the test images helpful.

BookLiberator needs to be packaged to make installation super-simple. Builds can be scripted (we've started doing that scripting in bookliberator/utils and Makefile). Milestone releases will need to be packaged too. Volunteers to take on such tasks would be much appreciated.

BookLiberator has only been developed and tested on Ubuntu Hardy. I'm pretty sure it will work anywhere it can find Python and pygtk, so any recent Linux box should do. We're working on a version for Windows (should go out March 1) and Mac (maybe early April).

BookLiberator used to have a unit-testing framework. Then bad things happened and it disappeared. We desperately need somebody to back-fill a unit-testing framework and tests.

Build a bookripper! You can do it cheaply and with little more than a screwdriver.

Local plastic shops can cut the plexiglass sheets you'll need, generally for under $30. Everything else can be built with a screwdriver, some scrap material to make the stand, and nuts and bolts from the hardware store. That is exactly how ours were put together.

Almost any small point and shoot camera with manual focus from the last few years will work. If it has a tripod mount on the bottom and can get ~5 Megapixels per shot, try it out. Some features like manual focus and an external power cable will speed up the process, but almost anything will get you high enough quality pictures for turning your books into PDFs or plain text files. Experiences with specific camera models can be found in CameraModels.

Current ideas for improving the working model, or prototypes for new ones, can be found at HardwareIdeas

The hardware is equipment operating in the real world. User experiences are going to vary, and we expect the accumulated knowledge of a community will enable us to find best practices fairly quickly. ContributeToThisWiki, document your trials, and tell people what you've learned.

We've started a help page for the software. Please add clear instructions for using the BookLiberator there.

There is a FAQ. Help us add questions and improve answers.

We need more people using, testing and developing. If BookLiberator makes your life better, tell your friends. Get them ripping and get them involved.