Wikisource:Scriptorium/Help

Hathitrust

Is there a way to fully export a Hathitrust scan with non-copyright restrictions without having to do every page? This scan is what I'm talking about. Nighfidelity (talk) 02:27, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

You can use Internet Archive Downloader, which is a browser plugin supported by Firefox and Edge and probably Chrome. That'll give you a button. I'll upload this for you; you can always just ask.--Prosfilaes (talk) 05:56, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

It's at File:I am Jonathan Scrivener by Claude Houghton.pdf. I used "ocrmypdf --optimize 3 --clean --skip-text" to losslessly compress it to a useful size.--Prosfilaes (talk) 06:32, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

Could you also do it for Death Points a Finger if you have time? Nighfidelity (talk) 17:06, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

@Nighfidelity: It will be at File:Levinrew - Death Points a Finger.pdf shortly, but are you sure it is already in the public domain? There is a copyright notice, so unless the copyright was not renewed, it will have to wait for a few years. Yann (talk) 10:18, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

I couldn't find any renewals here, nor could I find any renewals from anyone named Will Levinrew here (the alias that Levine used) Nighfidelity (talk) 13:56, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

Tangential note: I'm now seeing instances where Hathi blocks view of further pages after I look at some number from a single work. This happens even when the volume is no longer under copyright, and for which I am able to view ~100 pages before access is lost. Once access is lost to a volume, I cannot return to previously viewed pages without clearing cookies. --EncycloPetey (talk) 18:36, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

The_Philippine_Islands,_1493–1898/Volume_12/Three_Chinese_Mandarins#91

Why are the images at an irregular size? Nighfidelity (talk) 15:03, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

The scanned images are slightly different sizes. I tried setting the height instead of width for each, but it's still not right. I'm going to try to merge the images so they can transclude as a single image.—Tcr25 (talk) 15:36, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

Ok. Nighfidelity (talk) 15:38, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

I think I have it fixed now.—Tcr25 (talk) 16:10, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! Nighfidelity (talk) 16:12, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

Double-struck letters

I have a situation I'm not sure how to deal with at Index:Indian Earth.djvu. Essentially, that book uses double-struck letters (or something that looks like it) for dropped initials (for instance see Page:Indian Earth.djvu/58), which

• are available in unicode, eg 𝔸 U+1D538 MATHEMATICAL DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL A
• are available through the math extension, eg <math>\mathbb A</math> which gives $\mathbb {A}$, which is in fact the same output as using the unicode character directly (at least if using the default math renderer)

So theoretically we can reproduce these. My question is then, should we? (Not talking about maths texts, but contexts like these where it's stylistic.) I've done the book with them so far but I'm not 100% convinced. Notably my concerns would be, given these are actually distinct characters from the usual letter (as opposed to just a font):

1. 𝔸 copypastes as 𝔸 not as A
2. I don't know if screen readers or that kind of technologies can read 𝕊elling as "selling" or if these end up spitting out something like "double-struck s; elling"; or how these things work

Opinions? — Alien  3
3 3 14:22, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

If the {{di}} template allowed you to set an alt value, then that would serve for screen readers. --EncycloPetey (talk) 15:16, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

Additional comment: The title looks fine in the edit window for me but the "H" at the end of the title on the title page does not display correctly in Mainspace on my computer. --EncycloPetey (talk) 15:18, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

Oh well, that settles it. Probably some common fonts don't even have the character, which makes it a no-go. I'll replace them. Thanks for the input anyhow. — Alien  3
3 3 15:22, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

foreign script?

Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 12).djvu/246 and Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 12).djvu/247 feature a foreign script which I'm not sure how to properly include. Nighfidelity (talk) 15:40, 27 April 2026 (UTC)

This is Baybayin. If you are trying to insert the characters, you can copy/paste them from the corresponding Wikipedia article, as they are in Unicode and should probably work just fine with whatever browser and text editor you have. Are you asking how to handle things like "[Baybayin character] above / Latin character below"? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 16:08, 27 April 2026 (UTC)

No, just what the script was. Nighfidelity (talk) 19:13, 27 April 2026 (UTC)

But how would that be done? Nighfidelity (talk) 13:47, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

I just tried using {{sfrac nobar}} and that seems to work ... —Tcr25 (talk) 14:26, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

Ok. Nighfidelity (talk) 14:27, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

You might want to play with the size of the characters in the fractions; I left it with what you had in running text, but does look a little off to me.—Tcr25 (talk) 14:29, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the information! Nighfidelity (talk) 14:32, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

Wrongly Validated Pages

The indexes Index:Blackbird.pdf and Index:Cream of Tannahill's songs (2).pdf have most of their pages marked as validated but they clearly aren't validated. Could someone please fix these or mark them as not proofread? I don't have the time or patience to fix all them right now. ToxicPea (talk) 18:59, 27 April 2026 (UTC)

I have fixed the problems with Index:Cream of Tannahill's songs (2).pdf, plus I've also done the transclusion. Will continue onto Index:Blackbird.pdf. Chrisguise (talk) 08:29, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

formatting help for Page:United States of America v. Southern Poverty Law Center - grand jury indictment.pdf/1

how do i format the first part (before the introduction)? ltbdl (talk) 16:29, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

also would like help for the signatures in Page:United States of America v. Southern Poverty Law Center - grand jury indictment.pdf/14. ltbdl (talk) 16:36, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

{{multicol}}? — Alien  3
3 3 20:50, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

• For the signatures, we usually don’t add the signature, but instead use {{signature}}. For the case caption, I usually put the names of the parties in {{left block}}, and let the rest float to the right (sometimes with an artificial {{gap}}). See an example here. Adding width=50% can also prevent it from growing too wide. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 23:39, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

  thanks, both of you. i've decided to use multicol.

  on a related note, on the first page, what is written after "18 U.S.C. §"? i've resorted to guessing for the first one. ltbdl (talk) 07:27, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

  nvm, could figure it out from the rest of the text. ltbdl (talk) 13:28, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

how do i add a border to every cell in a table?

like on Page:United States of America v. Southern Poverty Law Center - grand jury indictment.pdf/8 ltbdl (talk) 11:09, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

• ltbdl: For this you need to use {{ts|ba}} (or other combinations, like {{ts|bt|br|bb}}) on an individual cell level. Using {{ts|ba}} on the table just puts a border around the entire table. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 00:21, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

  The preferred way is to use a CSS style sheet and apply that to the table. MarkLSteadman (talk) 00:29, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

i've decided to just use border=1. ltbdl (talk) 06:01, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

table cell spilling over two pages

sorry for the excessive questions, but how do i proofread a cell that spills over two pages (see Page:United States of America v. Southern Poverty Law Center - grand jury indictment.pdf/9 and Page:United States of America v. Southern Poverty Law Center - grand jury indictment.pdf/10)? ltbdl (talk) 11:35, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

You have to put some of the table coding in the footer/header. See Help:Page breaks#Tables across page breaks.—Tcr25 (talk) 12:12, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

thanks, but this method only works if the spillover cell is in the rightmost column, which this isn't. ltbdl (talk) 12:15, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

As far as I know the only option is put the content on the previous page and comments/talkpage notes to explain. — Alien  3
3 3 12:16, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

ah. thanks! ltbdl (talk) 12:19, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

It may be possible to do this via labeling the continuing section and then transcluding it by name if you really want to do this ... MarkLSteadman (talk) 00:28, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

Sorry, I missed that the issue was single cell in the table.—Tcr25 (talk) 12:52, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

gothic font styling

how do i style text in a gothic font, like in Page:Supreme Court of the United States, 2016 Shadow Docket Memos, Feb. 5 2016.pdf/1? ltbdl (talk) 07:40, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

{{blackletter}} (or abbreviated form {{bl}}). I find it best to start with {{larger}} as normal size blackletter is too hard to read. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 07:42, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

thanks! though apparently my device won't display blackletter fonts... ltbdl (talk) 09:13, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

Hebrew text

I’ve just cleaned up Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/85 and added the Greek text; could someone who knows Hebrew add the Hebrew text? I’ve been working through the old backlog of Category:Pages with missing Greek characters, and I’ve come across some Hebrew, which also has some backlog (currently, 1217). I would also very much appreciate it if editors with knowledge of Hebrew could look at this backlog from time to time. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 22:00, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for working on the Greek category. I've gone to do it a few times, but lost energy after dealing with 20 or so pages. I hadn't realised that the Hebrew category had got so large. I'll have a look at some of it when and as I can, but the assistance of others would also be welcome. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 02:54, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

Arched/Curved text in Wikisource

Is there a template for making arched/curved text in wikisource? Johshh (talk) 12:02, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Can you provide a link to a Page where the kind of text you need is demonstrated? It's not clear what you mean. Do you mean arranging a title or sentence as an arc, like a rainbow? --EncycloPetey (talk) 13:40, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

This can be done with CSS. What do you have in mind? Is there a certain page that you can link? ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 06:34, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Bretland og britane (the first page) Johshh (talk) 14:37, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

You can see a cumbersome example at this Stack Overflow question: it comes down to translating and rotating individual characters one-by-one to make the arc. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:11, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

linebreak disappears on transclusion

see Page:Sun Tzu on The art of war.djvu/113 and The Art of War (Sun)/Section VII. the 4th section has a linebreak between the translation and the commentary but it disappears on transclusion. ltbdl (talk) 03:06, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

same problem with Page:Sun Tzu on The art of war.djvu/126, section 37. (same chapter.) ltbdl (talk) 03:32, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

and here: The Art of War (Sun)/Section VIII and Page:Sun Tzu on The art of war.djvu/135, sections 13 and 14 get merged. ltbdl (talk) 04:09, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Actually, there is no line break on the page. There is an artificial appearance of a line break in Page: namespace because the page is divided into sections, and in Page: space that results in line breaks. But when those sections are transcluded, the line ends are joined together, unless there is an {{nop}} or an actual blank line to keep the content separated. --EncycloPetey (talk) 03:35, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

@EncycloPetey: there does seem to be a linebreak here:

4. Thus, to take a long and circuitous route, after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him, to contrive to reach the goal before him, shows knowledge of the artifice of ''deviation''.

{{smaller|{{fine|Chia Lin understands {{art-of-war chinese|途}} as the ''enemy’s'' line of march, [...]

ltbdl (talk) 03:41, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

The problem appears to be that there was no blank line following the text and the end of the page, and so the section end was not closing properly. However, this also generates a break with the text running onto the next page. So there may be an error either way. --EncycloPetey (talk) 04:10, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

I think the new break problem results from using nested {{small}} and {{fine}} instead of using a "block" template to resize the text, and from opening a new instance on the following page, which causes a paragraph break. --EncycloPetey (talk) 04:12, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

is there a fix? ltbdl (talk) 05:03, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

I've attempted a fix by switching to block templates, but because the text on page 114 doesn't follow on immediately, there is a linebreak there where you don't really want one. There is also a change to the leading in that paragraph because block templates have a different line-spacing to the non-block templates for font size. The fix for this is to move the text of that part of the paragraph back to page 113 and restore the templates to the non-block versions. If you elect to do the text moving, then leave comments as to what you've done. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 07:43, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

That line break issue is resolved if the text following the noinclude tags is placed immediately after, with no line return, as I just did. --EncycloPetey (talk) 14:01, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

that's hacky, but it works. thanks, both. ltbdl (talk) 14:31, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

wait, no, as @Beeswaxcandle said the line height is different. any way to change that? ltbdl (talk) 14:41, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

actually, why are the line heights for the block and inline templates different? ltbdl (talk) 14:50, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

The block templates recognize that a whole paragraph (or several) are at a smaller font size and adjust the line height accordingly. The in-line templates are really for individual short lines or words set at a smaller size among other text, and so do not adjust the line height. The solution is that the work really should be using the block templates throughout, since there are whole paragraphs being resized. --EncycloPetey (talk) 14:53, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

argh, more work to do... :) but seriously, thanks again. ltbdl (talk) 15:06, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

How to download from hathitrust?

I wish to download a book. How can i do that? Johshh (talk) 14:36, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

@Johshh: internet archive downloader. despite the name, it can also download hathitrust texts. ltbdl (talk) 14:39, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you. I will use this tool. Johshh (talk) 14:43, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Complex table help

There is a page located here that is part of the current Monthly Challenge. Folks have proofread most of the book, but this table has not been done, partly because there are dividers between some rows and columns, but not others. Could someone please help? --EncycloPetey (talk) 21:52, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

I think this is a decent approximation. Let me know if more is needed. Thanks to everyone else for their work. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 23:19, 20 May 2026 (UTC)