Google Chrome Comix PDF

looks really interesting. Given that the web is the interesting platform, more web client innovation is welcome, especially in open source web clients (but let’s not forget the servers).

The way Google apparently has announced the project is also interesting. As of this writing www.google.com/chrome is not live, but printed comics drawn by Scott McCloud describing the project have been mailed to journalists.

Philipp Lenssen scanned the comic book and posted it as a series of 38 images, each with its own page. Google had the foresight to give permission for this in advance by releasing it under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license, noted on the comic book’s back cover.

This is one rare case in which I find reading a PDF easier than web pages (page down has lower latency and requires less movement than clicking ‘next page’) so using sam2p and pdftk I made a PDF version of the comic book.

Note that although Creative Commons licenses containing the ‘No Derivatives’ term do not allow altering the license work, they do allow moving the otherwise unaltered work to a new format. (Ideally Google would have released the work under a more permissive license, but we’ll take what we can get.) Lenssen’s scanning and my PDFing are examples of such format shifting.

17 Responses

  1. […] Mike Linksvayer has created a PDF file of the Google Chrome brochure. […]

  2. stagueve says:

    Thanxxx for the PDF! I downloaded it to share it with my readers (hope that’s not a problem…).

  3. macbeach says:

    I’ve seen a couple versions of this already where the providers seem more intent on manufacturing hits to their web site than providing the actual information. I was going to do the same (PDF conversion). I’ll just link to you instead.

    Tanks for the effort.

  4. stagueve, macbeach: you’re welcome!

  5. Coty says:

    Thanks a ton for this, Mike. This is a much better way to read.

  6. Farhan says:

    Its very interesting that Google has decided to take on a project like this. They obviously have such an interest in how people access the web, it was only a matter of time before they took things into their own hands. It is going to be very interesting to see how this pans out.

    Google Chrome browser Screenshots
    http://www.tonesall.com/computers-internet/google-chrome-screenshots.html

  7. You’re credited here Mike:
    http://www.sriraminhell.com/2008/09/googles-new-browser-chrome.html

    Thanks for the PDF.. Cheers!!

  8. Hi there, in an effort to spread the comic book, i also created a PDF (there must be a zillion versions now). If you wish it can be also downloaded from here ( http://madmolf.blogspot.com/ ) at the bottom of my last post . I don’t really care about hits on my page, but it’s such a giant leap that every reader will turn into an evangelist after reading it, and i turned into one ;°)
    Thank you Mike for your efforts.

  9. David Gerard says:

    “We are so, so happy with Google Chrome,” mumbled Mozilla CEO John Lilly through gritted teeth. “That most of our income is from Google has no bearing on me making this statement.” – http://notnews.today.com/?p=57

  10. […] A new Internet browser and then from Google…  oh yes, of course I need to try the new Internet browser Google Chrome – even though I really like to use Firefix – anyway just testing Chrome for now… And I do like the launch of the browser by making a Google Chrome comic and sending it out…  thats COOL! (read it online or download the pdf) […]

  11. zygo says:

    I’ve been using Chrome Beta for a couple of days now. It does not seem to like opening PDFs via Adobe Acrobat Distiller. Is anybody else having a problem?

  12. Fuiun says:

    Thank you for your work :)

  13. Anonymous says:

    Yes, I’m having the same problem. Whenever I try to open up a pdf from Chrome I get an error message.

  14. Eric Oye says:

    I found your site with the keyword “google chrome comic” from Google SE and you are ranking at #4. Thanks for the pdf version of the comic.

    Your blog is full of info that i wanted. Thanks a lot again mike

  15. Reda says:

    Hi there, I am having a problem in opening .pdf files using google Chrome. Does anybody know how to fix it. Apart from that i am so far satisfied with what chrome has come wiz..

  16. Hello guys……This is really helpfull in a pdf version as its hard to read each page online or saving individual images and then reading it page by page. Yes a problem is there in google chrome that whenever you click any doc or pdf, it will automatically download it to your My Documents …each file you just click….
    so hope Reda you got the reply…do tell me…

  17. […] GateHouse’s use of the most restrictive CC license to republish, as I did previously with the Google Chrome Comic. Bow builder Bob Linksvayer has been constructing his own bows, arrows and other hunting equipment […]

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