
Show HN: LastingPaper – A Desktop App for Your E-Ink Kindle - lvscar
https://www.lastingpaper.com
======
Swalden123
I like the idea and will give the app a go. I think most other comments so far
are being extremely nit picky. Sure he graphics needs work, but it’s
unfortunate that commenters seem to only be able to comment on that.

Give the guy a break!

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dublinben
Does this only work with the Amazon Kindle, or can you use any e-reader?
Standard EPUB support would be nice.

~~~
lvscar
LastingPaper is design to be a "helper" for Amazon E-Ink Kindle.

As a longtime E-Ink Kindle user, I wish there would be a software existed ,but
there isn't, so I create LastingPaper.

But I think the webpage to Ebook local convertor and eBook management features
could help other e-reader user to a certain extent.

When you have generated a eBook using LastingPaper, you can right click the
virtual cover, there will be a "Open eBook storage folder" menu item. Clicking
it, you will find a standard ePub Ebook file there.

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galapago
"Sorry , current version only available for 64Bit Mac and Windows."

~~~
RMPR
Very sad

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Abishek_Muthian
I currently use 'Send to Kindle' official extension/app to do this. I once
thought of creating custom setup using calibre API to do the same without
sending the data to Amazon; So I think you to highlight that Privacy part,
perhaps a table comparing the features between 'Send to Kindle' &
'LastingPaper' would be helpful.

Physical connection and not using Internet for conversion should mean faster
transfer as well.(I haven't tried it yet).

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gjango
Is there a way to convert PDFs to Kindle format though ? I'd love to have
research papers on kindle.

~~~
stonewareslord
Calibre handles this very well. Plug in kindle > open calibre > go to device
settings and uncheck pdf support > add books and calibre automatically
converts to .mobi

~~~
gjango
Thank you :) have to try this and see.

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RMPR
Sad that there's no linux version, I would have loved to try this.

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JaviLopezG
I can't figure out how I am supposed to connect it to my Kindle.

~~~
lvscar
When you attach Kindle to the computer using a USB cable, your Kindle will be
a USB storage device. As long as LastingPaper found there is a Kindle as a USB
storage device attached to the computer, It could copy eBooks to your Kindle
and could read highlight logs from the Kindle.

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avgeek23
No Linux version :/

~~~
RMPR
Can relate

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dewey
The idea is good and I'm always looking forward to the day where there's a
good alternative to Calibre.

Unfortunately the design is giving me a very strong Calibre vibe.

Some suggestions that I think don't look good on top of what the other people
already said:

\- 3 different fonts, unify it to use one (and none of them should be Papyrus)

\- The book covers are the main part of your app, so they should stand out by
either using the book cover, or a place holder which the book title being
presented in a way that doesn't result in 5 line breaks

~~~
donio
Calibre is not bad if you stick to the CLI utilities and avoid the GUI. ebook-
convert in particular is pretty much all I need from Calibre. I normally run
it with the following options:

    
    
      ebook-convert input.someformat output.mobi --remove-paragraph-spacing --change-justification=justify --enable-heuristics --unsmarten-punctuation
    

(It's picky about the ordering of the input/output vs the flags)

~~~
dewey
I usually download some additional metadata and then send it to my Kindle via
the "Mail to Kindle" Mail address, I could probably script that part easily
but for the few times I use it right now I'll just have to stick to the GUI.

~~~
benologist
There's a project called COPS which adds a small web site to your Calibre
library so you open it in the Kindle browser - it's pretty convenient:

[https://github.com/seblucas/cops](https://github.com/seblucas/cops)

[http://www.linux-
magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/imag...](http://www.linux-
magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-
us/images/cops/552543-1-eng-US/cops_reference.png)

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mattl
“Some webpage” should be “some webpages” I think :)

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spookyuser
Very cool!

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iudqnolq
This looks like an electron app. Is it, and if so can you make Debian/Ubuntu
releases? Depending on what you're doing it should be a relatively simple
change to your build process.

I'd definitely try this out if it was available for Ubuntu.

~~~
lvscar
@iudqnolq Yes! The UI of LastingPaper is built on ElectronJS. I'm used to be a
long-time desktop Linux user too. I would like to release it on the Linux
platform. But at current, the highest priority of LastingPaper developing is
fixing feedback problems submit by early-stage users. After there no more
obvious problem and un-implementation future existed, I will spend time to
release a Linux version. I will inform it to you at that time, Thanks for your
attention!

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criddell
First, the good. There are a lot of nice ideas here. I especially like that
somebody is working on the problem of getting highlights and notes out of the
device. Does the Kindle have to be physically connected to the computer, or
does it work over the network?

There's also bad... I hate to say this, but I don't think I would use the app
because of the way it looks. For example, look at the top screenshot with the
tiles for the books and the postage-stamp image in the bottom right corner.
IMHO, it doesn't look good. Graphic design isn't something I'm good at so I
don't have any recommendations here, but I know that I don't like it.

There also seem to be a lot of odd font choices in the application. I would
probably stick with one font family for the UI portions.

~~~
iudqnolq
I'm not a specialist in graphic design, but a few issues that appeared to
stand out to me, in no particular order:

1\. Whatever the shadowed rectangle is lower left, it looks like an ad that
I'm supposed to be sure isn't their content. In other words, it completely
doesn't fit with everything else. Its shadow makes it above everything else on
the z-index, as if it's the most important thing on the page

2\. Inconsistent padding. Similar things should have similar spaces between
them. The whole padding scheme falls apart in the lower left, and the massive
difference between vertical and horizontal padding on the tiles makes them
look wrong. Also, this is a nitpick but the search button should be aligned
with the other icons or farther away from them.

3\. The tiles are too narrow. This is partly caused by too much padding
between the tiles, taking up valuable space.

But text

flows

badly if

you

squish

it too

much

The items should have a set width that lets the examples look nice (maybe so
that "Beijing's tallest tower" fits on one line, not sure exactly without
seeing it) and then have fewer items on one row if the window can't fit them
all.

4\. The thumbnails, like you said. If you've got images for titles one can put
the text over the image. This is the trickiest of my suggestions to get right.
I think it looks cool. Some people hate it. A discussion of ways to do this:
[https://css-tricks.com/design-considerations-text-images/](https://css-
tricks.com/design-considerations-text-images/)

5\. Color. Color draws attention. Right now my attention is drawn to the
thumbnails the floating action button. The rest feels like a mock up that
hasn't been colored yet. This seems to use material design, and material
design has color palettes. I'd pick one of them and color according to the
instructions.

6\. That "Storage" floating action button. Does that mean connect a device? If
so: the FAB is for stuff people need to do frequently. If people don't need to
connect devices frequently this might be better as a de-emphasized button and
a prompt on the first run

But then, I'm a random person on the internet whose never launched anything
near this impressive. Feel free to ignore my thoughts OP.

~~~
lvscar
@iudqnolq Thanks for your suggestion!

A few problems (padding of those virtual book cover) I have already tried to
fix before posting the "SHOW HN" thread. But you have given me a lot of other
clue to improve.

Yes, I'm using material design, but at a superficial level, after the initial
releasing, I will spend more time at better use the design tool. (eg: lever up
color).

The "storage" button is just an entrance of popping up menus. I will change it
in the next release version.

Your modest but inspiriting language gives me lots of engergies. Thanks again.

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egypturnash
_Some webpage deserve to be lasting kept in eBook format_

This is not a valid English sentence. Perhaps you meant “Some webpage _s_
deserve to be _permanantly_ kept in eBook format”?

There’s lots of other errors throughout the site that make me suspect English
is not your first language; I would suggest finding a native speaker to do an
editing pass.

I don’t own a Kindle, I just use the app on my phones and tablets, so I am
assuming I can’t use this since it repeatedly refers to “your e-ink Kindle”.

~~~
toyg
“Permanantly”...

What is the name of that law which says people correcting misspellings on the
internet are doomed to make typos in their own comments...?

(But I concur that the copy needs reviewing.)

~~~
wyldfire
Muphry's law [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law)

