We have reviewed several tools in the past that allowed you to download books from the service. A new tool has been released recently in a new version that allows anyone to download all readable books and magazines from Google Books.

Google Books Downloader is a free application for the Windows and Mac operating system. The program needs to be installed, and it is suggested to select the custom installation option to avoid the installation of Arccosine (whatever that is). It is definitely not needed for the program’s core functionality.

You need to open the Google Books website in a web browser to copy the web addresses into the downloader. Just head over there and search for books that you would like to download. All that needs to be done afterwards is to copy the web address and paste it into the application afterwards.

You may want to check the output format options before you click on the Start button to download the selected book. The program will download and convert the selected book to pdf format by default, with options to change the format to png or jpg instead.

The only other options that are available are to change the book’s output resolution (default 800px, with options to change from 350px to 1200px) and the destination folder the book will be saved to.

Windows and Mac users can download the latest version of the program from the official program homepage.

Up until now users have tried different ways to download those books to their computers and devices, largely to access them in an offline environment or on devices with an unreliable Internet connection.

The major problem that many Google Books user face is the difficulty in determining whether a books is offered as a full version or a preview only.

The only valid option to verify if the book is fully offered is to click through to the book’s page at Google Books.

The limitation of book previews is due to copyright law, and the preview pages have been made available by the book copyright holders. The number of permitted pages differs, and the rest will be omitted from the preview.

To sum it up to this point: Not all books can be downloaded completely, and those that can often make it more difficulty than necessary for the user.

Lets take a look at the options available:

1. Download Books Directly

Some books can be downloaded directly from Google Books in pdf or epub format. The availability of those books seems to be limited, but it is the best option if offered. An example would be Jack London’s The Call of the wild, which is accessible here.

Take a look at the Download link in the upper right corner of the screen. A click on Download offers to save the whole book in pdf or epub format.

download google books

Then again, most books cannot be downloaded directly. Here are programs, add-ons and other options to download Google Books books if no direct download link is offered.

2. Google Book Downloader (Firefox | Greasemonkey)

This Greasemonkey extension Google Book Downloader adds a Download this book button to the top left corner of individual book pages. A click on the button retrieves all book pages as single images. Those are not automatically downloaded to the local computer system, and users need to either move them into a download manager, or use a bulk image downloader like Down Them all or Flashgot to download all at once.

The extension works reasonable well, but requires manual processing of the images. Most users may want to create a pdf document out of the downloaded images to improve the accessibility. Windows users can check out Convert Photos to PDF for pointers.

We have described this method in detail at our download Google books guide.

3. Goo Reader (Windows | Limited)

Goo Reader is a Google Books Reader and downloader for Windows. The free version is limited to 40 results per search, which is not a big problem considering that searches can be refined until the desired results are included.

One interesting option is to check the option to only include books in the search results that offer full views. This sorts out all books that are only partially available. Each result is shown on a book shelf with its front cover, hovering the mouse over a cover displays various options, including the ability to read the book, or download it as a pdf document. The latter option is however only available in the commercial version of the program.

goo reader downloader

Goo Reader is only available for Windows, and requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 SP1.

4. Google Book Downloader (Mac)

Google Book Downloader for Apple Macintosh systems offers a straightforward way of downloading books from Google’s service. It is a basic application that displays a simple form accepting book urls or IDs. A click on download displays the retrieved title of the book or magazine, and a proposed download location. A click on save will retrieve all pages of the selected book and compile it in a pdf document in the end for offline viewing purposes.

google book downloader

The application offers a few preferences, including the ability to set the width of the resulting document which can be very helpful if the device the book needs to be read on has limited screen estate available.

Google Book Downloader is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 and above, a download is provided at the project website.

5. The Manual Way (All browsers, all operating systems)

The manual approach is more time consuming than the others, but it will work regardless of the changes made to the Google Books service. Some programs or extensions may fail to work in the future if Google decides to change how the pages are delivered and displayed to the user.

Web browsers make use of a cache, often called the temporary Internet files, to speed up page loading times. Most websites have static elements like site logos or images that do not need to be downloaded separately on every page if they stay the same all the time.

The web cache speeds up page loading times by loading previously saved elements of a website from the hard drive, and not the server. If a user visits Google Books all pages of a book are stored in the cache for the very same reason.

This means that the pages have already been downloaded to the local system. All the user needs to do is located the pages, and copy them to another location.

The easiest way to do that is to clear the cache in the web browser prior to opening the book page at Google Books. This ensures that the book pages can be easily identified in the cache. (see Web Browser Maintenance for help on clearing the cache)

Load the Google Books page after clearing the cache. Make sure all pages have been loaded properly. Switch to the cache directory on the local hard drive and copy the images from the cache into another directory.

Some web browsers support the about:cache command, which displays the content’s of the cache in the web browser. Opera and Firefox do for instance.

opera cache

google books cache

The fallback method is to open the cache directory directly.

Verdict

Most books cannot be easily downloaded to a local PC. Users who really need to download a book will find a way. The Mac application seems to be the easiest to use right now, followed by the Greasemonkey script.

Many Google books downloader that we have reviewed in the past are no longer working. If you know of a method that has not been mentioned in this guide, let us know about it in the comments.

Download options are not provided on Google Books which leaves users with no other choice than to read the books and magazines online or use a third party tool to download them to the local computer.

We reviewed the Google Books Downloader back in 2009. The now defunct tool offered an option to download any available book or magazine from Google Books.

A working alternative is the Google Book Downloader userscript which integrates nicely into the website. The extension places a Download this book button in the left upper corner. A click on that button will generate download links for all pages of the selected book or magazine.

google books downloader

Download links are also provided for each page of the magazine or book individually on the right side of the image. The links will open the image in a new browser window by default.

This process is obviously not suitable for downloading books with hundreds of pages. That’s where an extension like DownThemAll for Firefox comes in handy. The extension will recognize the image links that have been generated by the userscript so that they all can be downloaded at once to the computer.

download google books

The combination of the userscript and the download manager is a good solution for users who want to download pages or entire books and magazines from Google Books.

The userscript is not working in Google Chrome in its current form.

The biggest benefit for searchers is that the full text is available at the website. The text can either be viewed online or downloaded in pdf format to a local computer system instead.

Books that are available completely for online viewing and downloading are marked with a green full view text. A search for classics like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet or Faust will reveal search results that include full versions but also books with limited or no preview. It is however safe to say that most classic books are provided in at least one full view edition.

The advanced search parameters can be used to search only for books or magazines that are available completely on the website. A few thousand books are usually available in full view if the name of a mastermind like Goethe, Schiller or Shakespeare is entered. Modern books on the other hand are usually not available as full versions.

The changes are outlined in the official Google Booksearch blog. Here is a short rundown of all new features that have been introduced:

• Embeds and links: It is now possible to embed previews or full views of books in third party websites. It is practically the same feature that allows Youtube users to embed videos on third party websites. Links can now also be saved or send to other users that bring them directly to the current active page of the book.
• Better search within each book: Searching books has become more powerful for public domain and partner books as searches are not showing a better preview with easier options to jump straight to the part of the book the search term was found.
• Thumbnail view: See thumbnails of all pages of a public domain or partner book. A click on a thumbnail will open that page directly.
• Contents drop-down menu: A content drop down menu that allows users to jump straight to a chapter in the book or magazine.
• Plain Text Mode: Books that are fully available are now easier viewable as plain text copies.
• Page Turn Button and Animation: Clicking the page turn button will turn the page. This is an alternative to scrolling down manually.
• Improved Book Overview Page: Additional information about books are displayed in the overview.

Some features that are rolled out sound quite interesting while others will probably not find such a huge following. It is however good to see that Google is improving their service further.

A better alternative would be the software program Google Books Downloader which can be used to download parts or entire books in pdf format. The process requires some manual work on part of the user. Books and magazines are identified by an unique ID which is displayed in the address bar. That unique ID has to be copied and pasted into the software. Everything else is done automatically by the software. The program will scan all pages of the selected book or magazine and display all pages in its interface.

Each page can be selected for download separately which is useful if only selected parts of the book or magazine should be downloaded. The other option available is to download the full book or magazine right away to the local computer.

google books download

Only the scanned magazine or book pages are downloaded and included in the pdf document. The size of the pdf document depends on the number of pages of the book or magazine. Google Books Downloader provides an excellent way of downloading books and magazines from Google easily.

Update: The program appears to be no longer available. You can check out some of the alternatives that are still working. First the userscript Google Book Downloader and then How To Download Google Books Ebooks.