- How do I download and view DRM-PDF ebooks?
First you need to have Adobe Digital Editions installed. If you do not have it installed please go to http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/ and install this free ebook reader. After you have Adobe Digital Editions installed download your ebook from your Lybrary.com account. The authorization should take place automatically and you should be able to read your ebook in Adobe Digital Editions. Adobe Digital Editions can display PDF and EPUB ebooks.
Adobe Digital Editions also allows you to move DRM-PDFs to mobile devices such as the Sony PRS-505 and Sony PRS-700 e-ink based mobile readers.
We recommend you get an Adobe ID and authorize your Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to this Adobe ID. Using the same Adobe ID on different computers and mobile devices will allow you to read your ebooks on multiple devices. If for some reason you need to change the authorization of your Adobe Digital Editions then do the following: Launch ADE, and then press Ctrl+Shift+D (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+D (Mac). After deauthorizing, you will be forced to reactivate/authorize when you next run ADE.
(On Windows computers the ebook files are typically saved in My Documents/My Digital Editions folder.)
- Why do I get a file with the extension .acsm when I download a DRM-PDF eBook?
When you start to download a DRM-PDF a small file with the extension .acsm is first downloaded. This is used by Adobe Digital Editions to send the activation ID to the delivery server which will use that ID to generate an encrypted PDF eBook, which is then downloaded to your PC. If your computer is asking you where to save the .acsm file then your Adobe Digital Editions may not be installed correctly or may not yet be authorized. Often you can solve this issue by simply setting your computer to always use Adobe Digital Editions to open this type of file (in Windows XP, for instance, right click on the file and choose Open With, select Adobe Digital Editions and tick the box to tell Windows to remember the setting).
Alternatively you can drag and drop the .acsm file into Adobe Digital Editions which will start the download and authorization process.
- Where are my download links? (and other download problems)
Login to your Lybrary.com account. Under the heading "Downloads & Orders Overview" click on the "view" button on the far right to view your order. When you view your order the underlined ebook titles are your download links. You can also find all your ebooks and download links in alphabetical order in the digital-shelf.
If clicking on the download link does not seem to work (screen stays blank or black for a very long time) you can also right-click on the download link and then select 'save as', 'save target as' or 'save link as'. [For Mac users: You can also try to ALT-mouse-click which should automatically save the file to your hard disc, or CTRL-mouse-click which will open a context menu where you can select "Download Linked File As...".]
If you use Firefox and you do 'right-click save-target-as' the suggested filename will be 'download.php'. Change this to a filename with extension .pdf if you download a PDF, or .zip if you download zip file etc. (Unfortunately Firefox does not query the server for the filename but guesses it based on the webpage name, which of course can be entirely different.)
- How do I view my HTML ebooks?
After you have downloaded the zip file you need to extract or unzip this file to an empty folder. After it is extracted you can view the HTML ebook with most web-browsers such as Firefox (which is the one we recommend), Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera or any other standard complient browser. Some customers are confused about the 'extraction' step because the Windows operating system allows one to explore a zip file without extracting it. To the user it looks like it is extracted because one can see all the files. However, in this state the HTML ebooks are not viewable. You need to explicitely extract the zip file. A second source of problems is that sometimes unzip software dumps all files from all subdirectories of the zip file into one flat folder destroying the internal hierarchical file structure. This also breaks the HTML ebooks. Make sure that the extraction process preserves subdirectories. For example, you should always see a subfolder '_data' after extraction besides the ebook HTML file.
There is one other issue that can cause problems. Make sure your pathname (the directory names you store your ebooks in) do not have any space-character in their name. Spaces in a directory name can cause problems.
- Viewing one of my HTML ebooks with Internet Explorer I receive a warning that active contents is present. Why and how do I prevent this?
This is a bug in Internet Explorer. There is no Active-X contents in the HTML ebook. However, there is a way to prevent this warning from showing up. The solution is to go to Tools->Internet Options->Advanced and then scroll down until the security options show up. The 2nd option (Allow active
content to run in files on My Computer) should be turned on.
- Viewing PDFs on Mac
Some of our PDFs need AcrobatReader to display correctly on a Mac. The Mac built in PDF viewer can have problems with the larger PDFs. I don't know what upsets the native Mac PDF viewer. This happens for example for Orson Welles: The Man Who Was Magic.
- What is the difference of the various formats PDF, PDF_facsimile, DRM-PDF ...?
We support PDF and HTML formats. Most of our ebooks are PDF and we are slowly converting HTML ebooks to PDF ones. PDF ebooks are typically displayed with AcrobatReader, a free PDF reader provided by Adobe, or a number of other PDF viewers. We recommend the latest Adobe Digital Editions viewer because it also works very well with protected PDFs like the DRM-PDF ebooks.
- PDF: This is an unprotected unencrypted PDF. We prefer this format because it gives you the largest amount of flexibility. You can print these ebooks and you can back them up as often as you wish. Please do not abuse this freedom to make copies for your friends or worse, sell these copies.
- DRM-PDF: DRM stands for 'Digital Rights Management'. These are PDF ebooks which are protected by DRM and there are restrictions. First, you need a viewer that supports DRM. We recommend Adobe Digital Editions because it is the newest ebook viewer from Adobe. Older AcrobatReader versions 8 and 7 do work, too, but we do not recommend them. Second, you need to read the DRM restrictions for each particular ebook carefully. You can find it at the bottom of each ebook description. Some ebooks do not allow printing. Some restrict printing to a certain number of pages. The same goes for copying which is typically not allowed but can be enabled for a certain number of copies. Also the read-aloud feature can be disabled. So make sure the DRM restrictions are fine with you before you purchase.
- PDF_facsimile: This is an unprotected unencrypted PDF, like the PDF format above, but it was created differently. A PDF_facsimile ebook is a scan (image) of each page of the original book plus searchable text invisible behind these page images. The ebook preserves the look of the original book (typically an old out of print book) but still allows you to perform a full text search. We use this format primarily for old books to preserve some of their charm. The resulting files can get quite large.
- HTML: This is an unprotected and unencrypted ebook which is viewed with your web browser. See FAQ 2 and 3 in case you run into problems viewing these ebooks.
- HTML+facsimile: This is the same as the HTML version with the addition that every page is also available as scan (image) allowing you to see how the book looked in its original form. You can easily switch the view from facsimile to normal converted view.
- iSilo: This is a format specilized for PDAs and requires the iSilo reader software before you can view this on your PDA. It is not a format for your desktop. There are emulators which would allow you to view it on your computer.
- JPEG: This is an image format. Very few of our products are purely a collection of JPEGs.
- MP3: This is an audio format you can play back on your computer, your iPod or any other MP3 player.
- WMV: This is a Windows video format and is typically only useful for PCs. Of course you could convert it to other video formats to view it on different hardware.
These ebook formats can sometimes come in bundles as in HTML & PDF. This means that you will get both a HTML version and a PDF version of the same ebook. The ebook format is followed by either 'by download' or 'on disc', the former indicating that you download these ebooks and the latter that you will receive a disc with the ebook on it.
- How to mount CDs on Linux
You can also access our discs from Linux. The only thing you have to be careful is how you mount the CD:
mount -t iso9660 -o check=relaxed -o ro DEVICE MOUNTPOINT
The -t iso9660 specifies the type of filesystem (many of our CDs are in iso9660), -o check=relaxed says to convert a filename to lowercase before looking it up, -o ro is for read only access, DEVICE and MOUNTPOINT are, respectively, your device and mount point.
- How to check and deactivate authorization in Adobe Digital Editions
To check your AdobeID in Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) click on Library->Authorize Computer... You should see your email address which is your AdobeID.
If for whatever reason you authorized with the wrong email address you can deactivate the authorization and re-authorize.
- Launch Digital Editions
- Enter the key-combination of <CTRL><SHIFT>D (<CMD><SHIFT>D on Mac OS)
- At the dialog, confirm that you wish to de-activate the machine
- Quit Digital Editions
- Relaunch ADE and you will be prompted to enter your AdobeID
- How to login from an iPhone, and how to install an app
First make sure you have Javascript turned on in your iPhone's Safari webbrowser. (Settings/Safari/Javascript needs to be on.) Browse with Safari web browser from your iPhone to http://www.lybrary.com/login_mobile.php, or if you want your login (your email address) already pre-populated then use http://www.lybrary.com/login_mobile.php?login=your_email_address.
Once you are logged into your Lybrary account with your iPhone you can install any app you have bought. You will see the number of apps bought in the brackets next to "App". Below you see an example of a customer with one iPhone app. Click on "App" and you will get a list of your apps. In this case here the customer has one app named "Dracula Ebook Test".
 
Click on "Dracula Ebook Test" to install it. You will see the title screen of the app (after some loading time) shown on the left below. Here we need you to press the "+" as shown by the arrow. When you press this you will be given three options. We would like you to select the "Add to Home Screen" option as shown below in the center. The next screen will ask you to name the app. There is typically some preset but you can give it any name you like. Then press the "ADD" button as indicated below in the right screen shot.
  
- What payment options do you provide?
We accept all major credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express, Discover), Paypal, checks, money-orders, and even cash. However if you decide to send cash (please only send USD) we are not responsible for a lost envelope or package. We have over the years received a few cash payments and everything went fine, but it is a significant risk to send cash and you the customer will have to bear that risk. If you send a check or money-order there will be a delay in the processing of your order. We have to wait until the funds clear and then we can process your order. This can take up to 10 business days.
If there are any unresolved questions or any comments you want to share, please contact us. |
