PDF Newspaper

About

This is a free software project to help people create printable PDFs from content found on the web. It is a free alternative to HP's Tabbloid service. It is being developed as part of the Five Filters project to promote alternative, non-corporate media.

Bookmarklet

To easily convert web pages and feeds into PDF, we provide a bookmarklet which can be added to your browser's bookmarks toolbar. Once added, you can get a PDF version of any web page or feed you're viewing by clicking the bookmarklet - no need to visit this website.

The bookmarklet is available in the options panel (click 'show options...' on the form above). Before dragging it up to your bookmarks toolbar, configure it by setting the title, story order, image, full-text and other options. Then drag up. If you've never used a bookmarklet before, read more.

WordPress Plugin

Make PDF Newspaper is a new WordPress plugin which integrates the FiveFilters.org code and allows users to offer their content in PDF form. Many thanks to Martin Hawksey for developing the plugin.

Compare

	FiveFilters.org	Tabbloid.com	FeedJournal.com	Feedbooks.com	Zinepal.com
PDF library	TCPDF (free)	PDFLib (not free)	iTextSharp (free)	PrinceXML (not free)	Apache FOP (free)
Free software (FLOSS)	Yes (see below)	No	No	No	No

API

To create a PDF from a web page or a feed, pass the URL (encoded) in the querystring to the following URL:

http://fivefilters.org/pdf-newspaper/makepdf.php?feed=[url]

To customise the output, the following options can be appended to the querystring above (again, make sure to URL encode the values):

&title=[PDF title]
&order=[Date order] ('desc' or 'asc')
&images=[Include images?] ('true' or 'false')
&fulltext=[Fetch full text?] ('true' or 'false')

If you have an API key, add that to the querystring:

http://fivefilters.org/pdf-newspaper/makepdf.php?feed=[url]&api_key=[key]

Note: When a valid API key is supplied, the service redirects to another URL to hide the API key - a key ID and unique hash replace the API key in the querystring. The API key should not be shared, so if you'd like to link to a PDF publically while protecting your API key, make sure you copy and paste the URL that results after the redirect.

Web Service Limits: Free and Paid Access

We have imposed limits to keep the service running smoothly and to avoid abuse. Certain features have also been reserved for paying users:

	Free	$10/month
PDF pages produced per feed	~10	~20
Full-text fetches per feed	4	10
Customisable subheading	No	Yes
Custom title image	No	Yes (should be emailed to us)
Custom fonts	No	Yes (should be emailed to us)

If you don't like the limits associated with the free service, you can either download the source code and host it yourself (see below) or buy an API key for $10 a month and continue to use the hosted solution here on fivefilters.org. (The monthly fee allows us to cover costs and continue developing the project.)

FiveFilters.org API Key
hosted service — $10/month

Hosted or Self-hosted: What's Right for Me?

Unlike most web services you'll encounter online, we want our users to be free to examine and run the code behind FiveFilters.org however they like. As such, in addition to our hosted option, we also give you the option of self-hosting.

Using the hosted service is the easiest option as we manage everything—you don't have to set anything up or worry about code. It also means you do not have to worry about staying up to date—we maintain the code and any changes we make will automatically be made available to you.

If, however, you have your own hosting account or manage your own server, the self-hosted option gives you the freedom to run the code and manage everything yourself without relying on us. It also gives developers the opportunity to examine the code and make changes.

Source Code and Technologies

Source code available.
The application uses PHP, TCPDF, HTML Tidy, HTML Purifier, SimplePie, PHP Typography, OPML Parser and PHP Hooks.

System Requirements

PHP 5.2 or above is required. The code has been tested on Windows and Linux using the Apache web server. If you're a Windows user, you can try it on your own machine using WampServer. We have also tested the code with paid hosting services NearlyFreeSpeech.NET (recommended) and Dreamhost. It should also work with other web hosts.

Download and Installation

Current version: 2.2 — 2010-07-07 — Changelog

The software can be downloaded free of charge through launchpad.net using a Bazaar client (see below). However, many people are unable to follow the instructions, unwilling to install the Bazaar application required for the download, or simply want an easier way to download. For those of you who'd like a simpler solution, you can now buy a zip package with the source code for $15 - you will receive an email with download instructions automatically. The zip file contains a readme file with instructions for uploading the code to your web host via FTP. Buying the zip package will also mean you will receive free updates when we make minor changes and notification when a major update is released.

PDF Newspaper 2.2
zip package — $15

Installation with the Bazaar client

Note: If you can't connect directly to the server to carry out these steps, you can install the Bazaar client on your own computer, carry out steps 2 and 3 to retrieve the files, then connect to your server via FTP to upload the files.

Log in to your host using SSH
Change to the directory where you want RSS to PDF Newspaper installed
Enter bzr export pdf-newspaper http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~keyvan/fivefilters/pdf-newspaper/
Now enter chmod -R 0777 pdf-newspaper/cache/
That's it! Try accessing the pdf-newspaper folder through your web browser, you should see the form asking for a feed URL.

If you'd like to generate PDFs without going through the form first, you can simply pass the feed URL in the query string to makepdf.php. For example:
http://example.org/rss-to-pdf/makepdf.php?feed=http://schnews.org.uk/feed.xml

If you'd like to change the title image, replace images/five_filters.jpg with an image of your own (keeping the same filename).

Todo

~~Image support~~ (partial)
~~Prevent headlines wrapping to next column/page~~
~~Display date~~
~~Custom title~~
~~Compact, ink/toner saving template~~
~~WordPress plugin~~ (thanks Martin!)
Display source
Test support for other languages
More testing
Develop web app
- multiple feeds (see tabbloid/feedbooks' newspaper feature)
- multiple output formats (for ebook use)

Support

I'm happy to help activists/anarchists/progressives set this up for their own content. I can either help you set it up on your own server, or create a customised look (e.g. different title image) and host it here. If you fall in this category, get in touch.

If you don't fall in this category, I offer paid support.

Bug reports and questions welcome.

License

This web application is licensed under the AGPL version 3 — which basically means if you use the code to offer PDF creation for your users, you are also required to share the code with your users so they can do the same themselves. (More on why this is important.)

The libraries used by the application are licensed as follows...

TCPDF: LGPL
HTML Tidy: MIT-like
HTML Purifier: LGPL
SimplePie: BSD
PHP Typography: GPL v2
OPML Parser: Freeware
PHP Hooks: LGPL

Donate

If you find the service here or the code useful, please consider donating. I'm a student working on this project in my spare time. At the moment it takes up a lot of my time and as much as I like working on it, I need to think about living and hosting costs too. The site carries no advertising and I've released the code under a free software license so anyone can benefit from it. Donations are the only way I can continue developing the project and continue avoiding wage slavery. If you're able to donate, your contribution (whatever the amount) would be greatly appreciated.

Author

Created by Keyvan Minoukadeh for the Five Filters project.
Email: keyvan (at) keyvan.net

fivefilters.org