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Anemone DAISY maker

Anemone is a Python 3 script to put together a DAISY file from HTML text, MP3 audio recordings and time index data.

Anemone produces DAISY 2.02 files by default, or DAISY 3 (i.e. ANSI/NISO Z39.86) if an option is set. It currently can produce one of two different types of digital talking book:

1. Full audio with basic Navigation Control Centre only: this requires a list of MP3 files for the audio, one MP3 per section, and the title of each section can be placed either in a separate text file or in the filename of the MP3 file.

2. Full audio with full text: this requires MP3 files for the audio, corresponding XHTML files for the text, and corresponding JSON files for the timing synchronisation. Each JSON file is expected to contain a list called "markers" whose items contain "id" (or "paragraphId" or anything else ending id) and "time" (or "startTime" or anything else ending time), which can be in seconds, minutes:seconds or hours:minutes:seconds. The IDs in these JSON files should have corresponding attributes in the XHTML, by default data-pid but this can be changed with a command-line option.

All files are placed on the command line, and Anemone assumes the correspondences are ordered. So for example if MP3, HTML and JSON files are given, Anemone assumes the first-listed MP3 file corresponds with the first-listed HTML file and the first-listed JSON file, and so on for the second, third, etc. With most sensible file naming schemes, you should be able to use shell wildcards like * when passing the files to Anemone.

You may also set the name of an output file ending zip; the suffix _daisy.zip is common.

The title, publisher, language etc of the book should be set via command-line options: run the program with --help to see all.

Download anemone.py

History on GitHub

The daisy anemone is a sea creature on the rocky Western shores of Britain and Ireland; the Dorset Wildlife Trust says it’s “usually found in deep pools or hiding in holes or crevices, or buried in the sediment with only tentacles displayed”. Similarly this script has no interactive user interface; it hides away on the command line.

Behaviour of DAISY readers in 2024

Dolphin EasyReader 10 (iOS, Android and Chromebook): is able to open the ZIP and play the audio while highlighting the paragraphs in a ‘full audio plus full text’ book, both Daisy 2 and Daisy 3
Dolphin EasyReader 10 (Windows): ditto but ZIP needs to be unpacked separately and NCC or OPF file opened
JAWS FSReader 3 (Windows): is able to play audio while highlighting paragraphs is both Daisy 2 and Daisy 3, but ZIP needs to be unpacked separately and NCC or OPF file opened; may work better without JAWS running; synchronisation with audio seems to require --mp3-recode; images are not scaled to fit
HumanWare Brailliant: does not show text if there is audio (hopefully it can still be used for navigation); tested only with Daisy 2
Pronto Notetaker: ZIP needs to be unpacked to a “Daisy” folder on SD or USB, and the device just plays the audio; tested only with Daisy 2
US Library of Congress NLS Player: unpack the ZIP onto a blank USB stick of capacity 4 GB or less—audio plays; navigation works if you use --mp3-recode; tested only with Daisy 2
HumanWare Victor Reader Stream: ZIP needs to be unpacked into “Other Books”; audio plays, device can navigate by section; tested only with Daisy 2
HIMS QBraille XL: can display the text (after opening with Space and Enter); does not play audio; tested only with Daisy 2
DAISY Pipeline (2023): Please do not use this to convert an Anemone-produced Daisy 2 book to Daisy 3. The resulting Daisy 3 is not likely to play on anything. If Daisy 3 is required, use Anemone’s --daisy3 option to produce it directly.

Legal

All material © Silas S. Brown unless otherwise stated. Android is a trademark of Google LLC. GitHub is a trademark of GitHub Inc. MP3 is a trademark that was registered in Europe to Hypermedia GmbH Webcasting but I was unable to confirm its current holder. Python is a trademark of the Python Software Foundation. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. Any other trademarks I mentioned without realising are trademarks of their respective holders.