Problem: Given an item in the Internet Archive, e.g. The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, you may be tempted to download the PDF for its exactness. Admirable! However, my e-reader is horribly slow for opening it and turning pages. I find slow page turning aggravating; it makes me lose my train of thought and strains my reading comprehension.

Solution: Download a different format of individual images, bulk-scale them down exactly to your device’s screen, then package the images back into one single file.

This extra work is well worth it for me.

• TODO – See also PDF? I haven’t tested it, but I wonder if “repairing” a PDF would also help with e-reader speed.

Tested and works with the Kobo Aura ONE

Preparation ∞

• Install IrfanView and it’s plugins package.
• Download the Internet Archive item’s “Single Page Processed JP2 Zip”

• Unzip that, and notice a folder full of .jp2 files.

Conversion ∞

• Open one of those .jp2 files in Irfanview

• Press t (thumbnail view)

  • Wait for the thumbnails to load (You’ll see the counter at the top-left of the window). If you get impatient, you can click “Stop” in the top menu.
• Press control a (select all)

• right-click on an item, and press b (batch conversion)

Batch conversion settings:

• Work as: (o) Batch conversion

• Batch conversion settings:

  • Output format: [TIF – Tagged Image Format]
    — Click “Options” (see below)
  • [x] Use advanced options (for bulk resize…)
    — Click “Advanced” (see below)

• Output directory for result files: (or placeholders, like $D)

  • Click `Use current (“look in”) directory
  • Then append something to the end of the directory it suggests. I end mine with out\

• Click Start Batch at the bottom-left

Batch conversion settings > Options

• (o) Huffman RLE

• [_] Save palette for greyscale images (default: ON)

Batch conversion settings > Advanced

• [x] RESIZE

• (o) Set new size:

  • (o) Set one or both sides to:
    — (These are appropriate for the Kobo Aura ONE. The settings for another e-reader may be different.)
    — Width: 1872
    — Height: 1404

• Set new DPI value: 300

  • (This is appropriate for the Kobo Aura ONE. The setting for another e-reader may be different.)

• [x] CHANGE COLOR DEPTH

  • (o) 2 Colors (black/white) (1 BPP)

You can also copy the below into an .ini file, and use the Load settings function.

[Batch]
AdvCrop=0
AdvCropX=0
AdvCropY=0
AdvCropW=0
AdvCropH=0
AdvCropC=0
AdvResize=1
AdvResizeOpt=0
AdvResizeW=1872.00
AdvResizeH=1404.00
AdvResizeL=0.00
AdvResizeS=0.00
AdvResizeMP=0.00
AdvResample=1
AdvResizePerc=0
AdvResizePercW=0.00
AdvResizePercH=0.00
AdvDPI=300
AdvResizeUnit=0
AdvResizeRatio=1
AdvNoEnlarge=1
AdvNoShrink=0
AdvResizeOnDpi=0
AdvCanvas=0
AdvAddText=0
AdvWatermark=0
AdvReplaceColor=0
AdvUseBPP=1
AdvBPP=2
AdvUseFSDither=1
AdvDecrQuality=0
AdvAutoRGB=0
AdvHFlip=0
AdvVFlip=0
AdvRLeft=0
AdvRRight=0
AdvGray=0
AdvInvert=0
AdvSharpen=0
AdvGamma=0
AdvContrast=0
AdvBrightness=0
AdvSaturation=0
AdvColR=0
AdvColG=0
AdvColB=0
AdvSharpenVal=1
AdvGammaVal=0.00
AdvContrastVal=0
AdvBrightnessVal=0
AdvSaturationVal=0
AdvColRVal=0
AdvColGVal=0
AdvColBVal=0
AdvDelOrg=0
AdvOverwrite=0
AdvSubdirs=0
AdvSaveOldDate=0
AdvAllPages=1
UseAdvOptionsOrder=0
AdvFineR=0
AdvFineRVal=0.00
AdvBlur=0
AdvBlurVal=1
AdvMedian=0
AdvMedianVal=3
AdvRbg=0
AdvBgr=0
AdvBrg=0
AdvGrb=0
AdvGbr=0
AdvAutoCrop=0
AdvOptionsOrder=
[BatchText]
AddText=
TextCoord=0;0;100;100;
Corner=0
Orientation=0
TranspText=1
SemiTranspText=0
FitColorW=1
OutlineFill=0
Outline=0
Emboss=0
Shadow=0
FontColor=65280
TxtBgkr=16777215
FontParam=-13|0|0|0|400|0|0|0|0|1|2|1|49|
Font=Courier
[Effects]
CanvL=10
CanvR=10
CanvT=10
CanvB=10
CanvInside=1
CanvColor=0
CanvMethod=0
CanvW=1920
CanvH=1080
CanvCorner=4
ReplaceColorOld=0
ReplaceColorNew=0
ReplaceColorTol=0
[BatchWatermark]
Coord=10;10;
Corner=0
Image=no image
Transp=33

Completion ∞

• Find your output directory

• right-click and Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder

  • If you have something like 7zip, then use that to create an uncompressed zip file.
  • I haven’t tested RAR to make an uncompressed .cbr file, but that ought to work.
• Rename it to something you like. I prefer Author - Title

• Rename the extension from .zip to .cbz

  • If you don’t have extensions visible, then I believe you can pull up the properties of the file (right-click > Properties) and rename it there.