This is a fine and useful project, but my experience with newly printed classics is the quality is inferior for a number of reasons. Besides paper and binding, typesetting is something that older editions rarely messed up, but some new editions create a facsimile by scanning all the pages and then re-printing. That means that instead of getting the crisply defined letters of an old printing press, you get fuzzy letters and scan artifacts. This (https://printableclassics.com/harvard_classics) shows what I mean. Not only is the typesetting quality worse, but the price is much higher for the new edition. I don't have a problem with the price on Printable Classics ($885 for a new 50 volume set is reasonable), but you could often find the same thing cheaper used. A used set is $300-$600 on ebay. The value of these PDFs is that you could make a higher quality edition as long as the text is OCR'ed and properly typeset (which is true of the Moby Dick version on the site). For the scanned copies, it would be a big undertaking to re-typeset, but I'm sure LLMs could help.
Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
21–30 of 33 posts
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#22I’ll be curious to go through your tutorial later as book binding is something I’d like to learn. I was really excited recently when I was able to get Claude Code to write me a python script to generate a custom weekly planner since I haven’t found a commercially available one laid out like I’d like. Unfortunately I haven’t found anywhere that can print something pocket sized for me, so for it to be actually useful, I’m going to have to print and bind it myself.
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#23This is a fine and useful project, but my experience with newly printed classics is the quality is inferior for a number of reasons. Besides paper and binding, typesetting is something that older editions rarely messed up, but some new editions create a facsimile by scanning all the pages and then re-printing. That means that instead of getting the crisply defined letters of an old printing press, you get fuzzy lette…
I agree. I wish I had the time to retypeset those. I would be concerned though with mildew/mold on old, used versions though.
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#24I’ll be curious to go through your tutorial later as book binding is something I’d like to learn. I was really excited recently when I was able to get Claude Code to write me a python script to generate a custom weekly planner since I haven’t found a commercially available one laid out like I’d like. Unfortunately I haven’t found anywhere that can print something pocket sized for me, so for it to be actually useful,…
I had a good experience using Lulu for print on demand books. You can order just quantity one if you want to go that route.
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#25This is a fine and useful project, but my experience with newly printed classics is the quality is inferior for a number of reasons. Besides paper and binding, typesetting is something that older editions rarely messed up, but some new editions create a facsimile by scanning all the pages and then re-printing. That means that instead of getting the crisply defined letters of an old printing press, you get fuzzy lette…
I wonder how good a job the ClearScan feature on Adobe Acrobat would do. IIRC it creates one or more fonts based the existing characters in the PDF. So each lowercase 'a' would look the same, and be a sort of average of all the 'a' letters in the book.
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#26This is a fine and useful project, but my experience with newly printed classics is the quality is inferior for a number of reasons. Besides paper and binding, typesetting is something that older editions rarely messed up, but some new editions create a facsimile by scanning all the pages and then re-printing. That means that instead of getting the crisply defined letters of an old printing press, you get fuzzy lette…
I agree. I wish I had the time to retypeset those. I would be concerned though with mildew/mold on old, used versions though.
That's true. Older books require skill to restore, so choosing old or new is a balance.
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#27This is a fine and useful project, but my experience with newly printed classics is the quality is inferior for a number of reasons. Besides paper and binding, typesetting is something that older editions rarely messed up, but some new editions create a facsimile by scanning all the pages and then re-printing. That means that instead of getting the crisply defined letters of an old printing press, you get fuzzy lette…
I wonder how good a job the ClearScan feature on Adobe Acrobat would do. IIRC it creates one or more fonts based the existing characters in the PDF. So each lowercase 'a' would look the same, and be a sort of average of all the 'a' letters in the book.
That's neat. I'll look into that.
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how good a job the ClearScan feature on Adobe Acrobat would do. IIRC it creates one or more fonts based the existing characters in the PDF. So each lowercase 'a' would look the same, and be a sort of average of all the 'a' letters in the book.
That's neat. I'll look into that.
Sorry, apparently they renamed it to 'Editable text and images'.
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that ink tank printers can be cheaper per page, but lasers can be faster and possibly more durable. I think professional machines tend to be laser printers. I haven't had a problem with the heads drying out but I try to use my printers at least weekly. 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 bett…
You could print smaller booklets in half-page format and use stapled or sewn binding, for a more durable and higher-quality result. That could be done without needing a larger-format printer. It might be especially appropriate for shorter text such as individual articles, and this was often the historical practice with e.g. octavo books which were quite popular back in the day.
Yes that works too, it's just the grain direction on printer paper runs along the long edge so the books end up very stiff if they're folded.
Re: Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders
#30Interesting. I like the idea of reprinting classics to all look identical as a way of designing a library. Would be interesting to select a set of books for your kid, have them printed, and just put them in their room. I wonder if any startups are doing this.