Hack27.Use Your PSP as an E-Book Reader

Hack 27. Use Your PSP as an E-Book Reader

Use the PSP's picture-viewing capabilities to read e-books.

When you browse the web on your PSP [Hack #41], you'll discover that the PSP's crisp, clear screen presents text clearly and legibly. Why not use the PSP to read e-books?

Several sites online have converted texts and comics into JPEG images specifically designed for viewing in the PSP's photo browser [Hack #26].

3.8.1. Manga

The first PSP "e-books" to emerge online came in the form of Japanese manga comics or graphic novels.

Seven Seas Entertainment's GoManga.com (http://gomanga.com/pspmanga/index.php) has made an entire selection of black and white Manga titles customized for display on the PSP. They are releasing these titles in serialized form, episode by episode. Their current titles include Amazing Agent Luna, Blade for Barter, Last Hope, and No Man's Land. Each episode is freely downloadable from their site in a zipped folder. All you have to do is download the files, unzip them, take the folder containing all of the individual page images, and drop it onto your PSP's Memory Stick in /PSP/PHOTO/. Each picture is 480 x 297 at a resolution of 72dpi (as you can see in Figure 3-28, the image has been turned on its side so that it will nicely fill the PSP's screen). This is larger than the 480 x 272 size of your PSP's screen, so you will have to use the analog stick to move around each page of the comic slightly. Holding the PSP on its end with the directional pad and analog stick beneath the screen will let you view the comic properly, and clicking on the R trigger of the PSP moves you ahead to the next page.

A PSP PAK of full-color Manga comics is also freely available from eigo-Manga English Comics (http://s95330819.onlinehome.us/manga/psppak.htm). So far, there is only one PSP PAK available, and it contains samples from five different manga comics. These images are set to 480 x 311 and turned on their side, so again you will need to hold the PSP on end and use the analog stick to move around on the page.

Figure 3-28. Part of the first episode of No Man's Land from Seven Seas Entertainment

3.8.2. PSP Magazines

PSP Magazines (http://www.pspmagazines.com/) is a site created and maintained by Jason Schuller, who notes on the site's About page: "I was doing this for myself anyway and figured why not share my work." This site consists of various short articles and selections from various magazines. These selections would all appear to be scraped from the online versions of the magazines and then reformatted for viewing on the PSP by Schuller, who then serves them up for download. There is a rather large selection of magazine snippets available, and the list is updated regularly. There is even a section of independent PSP Magazines listed. All images are set to the default 480 x 272 size of your PSP's screen and are, for the most part, designed for normal viewing without having to hold your PSP on one end.

3.8.3. Free PSP E-Books

In your search for free e-books for your PSP, you will undoubtedly come across sites offering copies of books without permission from their copyright holders. I suggest that you instead take the time to learn how to make your own PSP e-books [Hack #29] from texts freely and legally available to you.

3.8.4. Hacking the Hack

The list of freely available e-books designed for viewing on the PSP is growing daily. Use Google (http://www.google.com) to search for PSP e-books and see if any new titles that haven't been mentioned in this brief sampling appear.

Of course, the best way to find content for your PSP that you will be interested in reading is to make your own. Head on over to The Online Books Page (http://onlineBooks.library.upenn.edu/) or Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/) to grab some books that are freely and legally available in the public domain. Then turn to "Create Your Own PSP E-Books" [Hack #29] for a discussion of the different ways you can go about converting these texts into JPEGs for viewing on your PSP.