Page2Pub is a research project of the Open Publishing Lab at RIT. It provides the vehicle through which we can explore the possibilities of aggregating content from the Internet into a portable, print-ready format. In addition, as is the case with all of our projects, Page2Pub is an open source software project that we hope will provide others with a platform for research into this area.

The project consists of two parts:

• A gathering component – a Mozilla Firefox extension that enables users to gather full web pages or partial selections from pages into an EPUB e-book publication. You can then read it using an EPUB Reader.
• A rendering component – the Page2Pub Rendering System, a stand-alone application that provides users with the ability to transform and re-flow gathered content, and then export it into an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) file, making it more suitable for print.

Download a sample EPUB and .PDF created using Page2Pub from content gathered from RocWiki.org, a citizen created guidebook for the Rochester, NY.

• Download the RocWiki: Rochester Guidebook EPUB
• Download the RocWiki: Rochester Guidebook Print Ready PDF

The key goals of this project have been as follows:

• Produce print output that is higher quality than just printing out a web page from a web browser.
• Streamline the process of content aggregation and re-flow to require as little user supervision as possible.
• Provide a platform for future research into a bridge between print media and web-based content.

Page2Pub is an open source project. If you are interested in assisting with its development (either through funding or directly working on it with us) please contact us.