Project:Downloading, exporting, and manipulating the texts
The goal of the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project is to make Wittgenstein’s published writings that are in the public domain freely available online in a variety of languages. The main tool for this purpose are the webpages of which the site iself consists; these are accessible, mobile-responsive, and searchable. You can find a list of all available texts in the “All texts” page.
In addition to these web pages, the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project also provides several tools for exporting the text files in different formats which may better fit both your reading preferences and research needs.
Each webpage is liable to change when typos and errors are found or new features are added. Changes are visible in real time on the website; all of the export options listed below, instead, regenerate the export file every 24 hours so that it reflects the latest version of the webpage closely, although this is not in real time.
Customisable PDFs
This option is best if you would like to customise the appearance of your PDF or paper version of the text before either downloading or printing it.
This type of file is generated through the native “Print” feature of your browser with the addition of some dedicated styling. Through this feature, you can either print the document or download it as a PDF file. Depending on the browser you are using, the dialogue that pops up when you click the “Customisable PDF” button will let you choose:
- The page range you would like to save as a PDF file or print;
- Whether you prefer the default portrait layout or landscape layout.
Additional options are often available (look for a “More options” button) for you to select, such as:
- The page format: A4 is ideal for printing at home, whereas A5 or Letter may be more practical if you are looking to read on a computer screen;
- The margin size: if you are going to print the PDF file and would like to have some space for notes, then set big margins;
- The scale: 100% is often fine, but you may want to set this to 125% so as not to stress your eyes, or to 90% if you want to save a few sheets of paper when printing;
- The page header and footer: these features are added automatically by the browser and usually contain the URL and the title of the webpage from which the document was generated, the date and time at which it was generated, and page numbers.
Keep in mind that the page number which appears when you include the page header and footer will depend on factors such as the page format, margin size, and scale selected. What this means is that you should be careful when citing the page number of a document that you have previously customised since this may differ from person to person.
Static PDFs
This option is best if you are planning to read your PDF on a screen and would like a fixed layout and uniform page numbering that you can cite.
This type of file is generated through a pipeline which was designed by Frederic Kettelhoit and runs on GitHub.
EPUB e-books
This option is best if you are planning to read a text on an e-reader such as a Kobo, Nook, or Bookeen device; if you are planning to use a Kindle e-reader instead, we recommend using the MOBI file format (see below).
EPUB files are also supported by many smartphone and tablet apps and can be opened on desktop devices with free and open-source software applications such as Calibre.
This type of file is generated through a pipeline which was designed by Frederic Kettelhoit and runs on GitHub.
MOBI e-books
This option is best if you are planning to read a text on a Kindle e-reader.
This type of file is generated through a pipeline which was designed by Frederic Kettelhoit and runs on GitHub.
Markdown files
This option is best:
- If you would like to copy and paste either an entire text or a portion of it into a word processor such as Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer;
- If you need a very clean source file for further manual or automated text manipulation.
Markdown is a very simple markup language that is used to generate formatting through plain text. Compared to HTML, it is particularly suitable as the format for the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project’s source files because it only encodes information that has semantic value. These files use the Pandoc Markdown dialect.
This type of file is generated through a pipeline which was designed by Frederic Kettelhoit and runs on GitHub.
Please note that copying and pasting directly from the webpages is not recommended. This is because the formatting may easily be messed up in the process and you may end up pasting a lot of unnecessary, invisible information into your word processor.
Plain HTML files
This is a less-than-ideal, but still potentially useful option:
- If you would like to copy and paste either an entire text or a portion of it into a word processor such as Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer;
- If you need a very clean source file for further manual or automated text manipulation.
In most use cases, however, the Markdown files (see above) provide better a solution for these needs.
This type of file is generated through the “Render” feature of MediaWiki, the software this website runs on, which converts the MediaWiki source code of the page’s content section into HTML while ignoring all CSS styles except those that are declared as inline styles.
It encodes information both with and without semantic value, but it may be practical considering that HTML is an ubiquitous markup language.
Please note that copying and pasting directly from the webpages is not recommended. This is because the formatting may easily be messed up in the process and you may end up pasting a lot of unnecessary, invisible information into your word processor.
More possibilities
If you know your way around programming, you may be interested to explore the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project’s GitHub repository. Equally, if you have something interesting to share, then please get in touch with us.
The covers
The covers consist of a series of dots running in reading order from top-left to bottom-right.
After the first few rows of dots, which serve merely to outline the axis, a pattern begins. Within the pattern,
- Each circle represents a paragraph;
- The size of the circle represents the length of the paragraph;
- Solid circles represent numbered paragraphs,
- Blank circles represent unnumbered paragraphs;
- Circles are highlighted in yellow when they contain more question marks than full stops.
The covers were designed by Frederic Kettelhoit.
Acknowledgements
This feature of the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project's website was made possible by the contributions of Frederic Kettelhoit, who wrote the code that generates the downloadable files and designed the covers; David Chandler, who helped in the design and testing phase; and Michele Lavazza, who helped optimise the MediaWiki source files for export, designed the user interface, and contributed to the testing.