ARLingBen-Hur

Classics for e-ink

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, set page by page for a tablet.

The complete novel of 1880 by Lew Wallace in 953 pages, with a cover on page 1 and a band for handwritten notes at the foot of every page, a linked table of contents and a Contents link wherever you are in the book.

What you get

Three PDF files of the same 953 pages: one sized 157 x 210 mm for an e-ink screen, one A4 and one US Letter for printing. Page 1 is the cover, then all eight books and 81 chapters, the text unchanged. The cover is an AI-generated picture commissioned by the publisher; every other page is typeset by our own program. The free sample is the first three chapters.

Cover of the ARLing e-ink edition of Ben-Hur: a painted chariot race in a Roman circus, four white horses at full gallop and a driver in a red cloak
Cover of this edition.
4.90 €one payment

VAT included, nothing added at checkout. You buy the three files once and keep them.

Free sample Or on Etsy

  • the same 4.90 € as on Etsy, and buying here leaves more of it with us
  • the sample is the first three chapters, no account and no e-mail
  • e-ink, A4 and US Letter, all three in the price
Price and seller

Seller: ARLing s. r. o., Company ID 56583486, Bratislava, Slovakia. The payment is handled by Stripe as merchant of record (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd., Dublin): you buy from Stripe, which collects the payment, issues the receipt and pays the VAT, and ARLing supplies the files. By paying you agree to immediate delivery of digital content and accept that this ends your right to withdraw from the contract. Terms · Withdrawal

What a page looks like

A reading page, a running head and room for the pen.

The picture is a real page of the e-ink file, not a mockup. The chapter opens with its number and title, the running head names the book you are in, and the bottom of the page carries the Contents link and the page number.

Page 11 of the e-ink file: the running head Chapter I and Into the Desert, the chapter title, the opening paragraphs in serif type, and a ruled band at the foot of the page for notes
Page 11 of the e-ink file, exactly as it is in the PDF.

The text block is 139 x 194 mm on a page of 157 x 210 mm, set in 13 pt serif with 22 lines to a page and no hyphenation, so a line break never falls inside a word. Italics are kept wherever the source transcription marks them.

Under the text there is a 33 mm band left empty on every page. It is there for a pen: a note, a date, a name you want to remember. The band is also a PDF form field, so you can write in it with the pen on an e-ink tablet, or type into it on a computer in Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview or Firefox. Under the band sit the Contents link and the page number, so from any page you are two taps from any chapter.

The A4 and US Letter files hold the same text block in the middle of the sheet, so the pages, the page order and the links are the same in all three files.

The files

Three files, the same 953 pages.

FilePagePagesSizeFor
Ben-Hur-eink.pdf157 x 210 mm (3:4)9535.35 MBreMarkable 2 and Paper Pro, Kindle Scribe, Boox Note Air, Supernote A5 X2
Ben-Hur-A4.pdf210 x 297 mm9535.36 MBprinting on A4
Ben-Hur-Letter.pdf215.9 x 279.4 mm9535.35 MBprinting on US Letter
Ben-Hur-Sample-eink.pdf157 x 210 mm (3:4)chapters 1 to 3freeon this page: to try on your device before you buy

To get the book on your device, download the PDF on a computer or phone and copy it to your reader the way you normally add a book: the reMarkable desktop or mobile app, Send to Kindle for the Scribe, a USB cable and the device folder for Boox, or the upload page of a Supernote. Nothing is installed and no account of ours is needed.

To print it, use the A4 or US Letter file at 100 percent or actual size rather than fit to page, single sided or double sided, and bind or clip the pages.

Text source

Where the words come from.

The original English text of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, first published by Harper and Brothers, New York, in 1880. It is in the public domain: Lew Wallace died in 1905. The text comes from a public domain digital transcription and is reproduced unchanged, including the author's dedication and his three footnotes. Only the line breaks were reflowed for the page and italics restored where the transcription marks them.

The same text is free as an EPUB from Project Gutenberg and from Standard Ebooks. What you pay for here is the typesetting for an e-ink page, the notes band, the page numbers and the linked contents in a PDF that behaves like a PDF on the tablet. If an EPUB reader suits you better, take the free one; we would rather say that than sell you something you do not need.

Typeset and published by ARLing s. r. o., Slovakia, by our own program.

What is not verified

No physical device has been tested.

Every number on this page is measured in the finished PDF by our check script: pages, chapters, links, link targets, the smallest type size, the size of the files. What we have not done is open Ben-Hur-eink.pdf on a reMarkable, a Kindle Scribe, a Boox or a Supernote and turn its pages there. Nobody here owns one. A 953 page file is also the largest we make, and how fast a given reader turns its pages is exactly the thing we cannot tell you.

That is what the free sample is for. It has the same page size, the same type and the same kind of links as the book, so you know before you pay. If something is wrong on your device, write to andrej@arling.sk with the device name.

Questions

Before you buy.

Which devices is it made for?

The e-ink file is 157 x 210 mm, the 3:4 proportion of the reMarkable 2, reMarkable Paper Pro, Kindle Scribe, Boox Note Air and Supernote A5 X2, so the page fills the screen without zooming. We have not opened the file on a physical device: the sample with the first three chapters is free, so you can try it on yours before you buy.

Is this the whole novel?

Yes. All eight books and 81 chapters, 953 pages including the cover on page 1, and the author's dedication and his three footnotes. The check script compares every chapter with the source text word for word: 81 of 81 chapters verified.

The text is free on Project Gutenberg. What am I paying for?

The typesetting. The same text is available free of charge as an EPUB from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks. Here you get a PDF made for an e-ink page: 13 pt serif, 22 lines to a page, no hyphenation, a 33 mm band at the foot of every page for notes with the pen that is also a fillable form field, so you write in it with the pen on an e-ink tablet or type into it on a computer in Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview or Firefox, page numbers, a linked table of contents and a Contents link on every page.

Can I print it?

Yes. The A4 and US Letter files carry the same 953 pages as the e-ink file, centred on the sheet. Print at 100 percent or actual size rather than fit to page.

How is the download protected?

By an unguessable address and nothing more. The files sit on ordinary static hosting under a folder name of 16 random characters, and after the payment this page shows you that address. Anyone who is given the address can open it, so it is not a lock. We say so here rather than pretend otherwise.

The unlock is remembered in this browser, so you can come back to this page later on the same device and the links are still here. Clearing the site data of this browser forgets it; keep the files once you have downloaded them.

Why buy here and not on Etsy?

The price is the same, 4.90 € either way. The difference is on our side: Stripe keeps 1.5 percent plus 0.25 € of the payment, Etsy about 10 percent, so buying here leaves more of your money with the people who made the book. If you would rather buy where your other purchases are, the Etsy listing is linked above and is exactly the same book.

Do I get a receipt?

Yes. Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd. is the merchant of record: you buy from Stripe, which collects the payment, issues the receipt with VAT and settles the VAT, and ARLing supplies the files. If you are buying for a company, enter your VAT number in the checkout and the document is made out to the company.

Can I get my money back?

By law, no, and we would rather say it before you pay. Digital content delivered immediately with your consent carries no right of withdrawal: in Slovakia that is section 19 paragraph 1 letter m) of Act No. 108/2024 Coll. on consumer protection, and across the EU Article 16 letter m) of Directive 2011/83/EU. Clicking the payment button is that consent, because the files are shown at once.

That is the law, not our customer service. The sample is free precisely so you can decide before paying. If a file is broken or never arrived, write to andrej@arling.sk and we will fix it or send the money back, because that is a different thing from changing your mind.