Thai Electronic Learning Book

[Silurian]

I was wondering if there is something like LeapPad/LeapFrog/Leapster electronic learning books in Thai.

[wasabi]

Does anyone know how to convert an existing book into an ebook? Are there any places that offer this service? I have some Thai learning books I'd greatly prefer to be in ebook format.

[boxig]

1. Get a license from the author.

2. Make HTML, RTF (or other text format) files.

3. Compile to exe with a free or shareware compiler.

2a. You can scan pages and use the images to make a slideshow or put images in HTML pages.

I assume the publisher has already the book in a digital format so you can ask the publisher if he sells ebooks

Edited May 24, 2006 by boxig

[wasabi]

1. Get a license from the author.

2. Make HTML, RTF (or other text format) files.

3. Compile to exe with a free or shareware compiler.

2a. You can scan pages and use the images to make a slideshow or put images in HTML pages.

I assume the publisher has already the book in a digital format so you can ask the publisher if he sells ebooks

I don't think they have it in digital format for purchase, if I get can permission I'm not sure the most efficient way to scan the book. Cut off the binding but then how do you scan double sided pages? I'd also like OCR done, ideally in Thai and English but minimally in English

Edited May 24, 2006 by wasabi

[meadish_sweetball]

OCR is time consuming and typically requires a skilled editor.

You are never able to trust the machine 100% and so at least one person will have to go through the entire document manually and correct any/all mistakes. Ideally you need somebody with native or near-native comprehension of English, otherwise the results will be flawed.

If the layout of the book is complicated, that will further complicate things.

I have done a fair bit of OCR from pdf picture documents into text rtf, and it is tedious work. I wish I had something more constructive to say...

[Rikker]

ํMeadish, have you actually done OCR with Thai, or are you referring to English? I didn't think there were commercial OCR programs available yet for Thai.

[meadish_sweetball]

Only with English so far.

[wasabi]

I should add the reason I'm so adament about an ebook is I'm visually impaired, ebooks are much easier for me to read since I can adjust the margin and text size. It also helps finding where a passage is which would require full OCR to do a text search. I'm legally handicapped so I'm entitled to some services for the visually impaired I've been told converting a book to an ebook is one of them, though a Thai/English book is probably beyond the scope of this service. The book I'm talking about is Thai Reference grammar by James Higbie and Snea Thinsan. It would be much easier for me to make use of this and other Thai learning books if it was in digital format.

Fortunately for me the internet came of age right when I was in college and all my materials were available online.

Maybe the best thing is for me to try to contact the publisher and explain my situation.

Edited May 29, 2006 by wasabi