Download copyrighted pages from Google Books

Google online book tool i.e books.google.com, is a great tool for readers, where you can search copyrighted books, view and read limited preview pages . The tool allows you to view limited preview from some books, while you can view full books for some authors. But the drawback of this tool is you cannot save any of the pages you view or print them. To overcome this limitation there are 2 working methods, by which you can save the pages in png format to your harddisk and do whatever you like.

The two methods give you full access to the pages you view as you can download them to your harddisk.

• First Method, can be used only in Firefox browser.
• Second Method, can be used on any OS, and works with Internet Explorer owser only.

1. Method 1:

Open Firefox browser.

Install "GreaseMonkey" add-on.When you install this add-on you see a monkey face in the status bar of Firefox. Install GreaseMonkey. Otherwise, select Tools -->Add-ons from Firefox menu. You will see the following pop-up menu.

My search options does not show "GreaseMonkey" as it is already installed. For you, if it is not installed it will display in the search. Then click on "Add to Firefox" at the bottom right of the add-on. Your "GreaseMonkey" add-on is installed.

Now you need to install the "GoogleBookDownloader" userscript. Install Google Book Downloader. When you see the userscript page, just click on "Install" to install the script.

Note: First install "GreaseMonkey" add-on and then install this script. Otherwise, you'll have difficulty installing the script.

Once installed, open books.google.com and search for your favorite book. If you see "Full View" or "Limited Preview" then you can view pages from that particular book.

Note: If the tag is "Limited Preview" you can only view some pages from that book, as some pages are copyright protected. So you will not able to download the full book, even with this add-on or for that matter, whatever trick you use.

You will see "Download this book" link in the left hand side for the book you have selected.

Note: If you don't see the link, just refresh the page or press F5.

See the following pictures for a demo how it's done.

Now just click on the page you want to download. Hurray, your page is opened in another tab. Just click "File-->Save as" to store in jpg or png format.

Note: Download 1 page at a time, otherwise, your IP will be banned if you use any download manager to download all pages at once.

Method 2: This is a cumbersome method. Use this method only if the above method fails.Also this method works with Internet Explorer only.

First, go to the following folder in XP. Delete all the files first. Nothing is going to happen.

C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

(In Vista and Windows 7, search for Temporary Internet Files folder. Only the path may be different)

Some of the folders in the above path may be hidden, so you need to select the option to view Hidden files in your explorer.

Select the book you want to read after searching in books.google.com. Then browse the book as if to read or continue reading the book.

In the abive folder use type option in the explorer to view "png" files in a row. Now copy the png files one by one and paste in a convenient folder the "png" files. Rename each file as you keep copying. The Internet address of these files will start something like "http://books.google.com/books?id=....." to confirm these files.

Sridhar Palla is a civil engineer worked in IT sector for some years, before retiring to teaching field. I like both Civil engineering and Information Technology. I write articles on Technology, Internet, Windows 7, Windows Tips, Software, Products, Reviews, Browsers, Performance Tips, Apple etc. So please support my website www.techlikes.com.