With the end of Livescribe’s Development Program, it is no longer possible for end users (or even developers) to download the SDK and deploy any of the numerous Custom Paper Products made by developers such as myself (among others). For a while now, I have been discussing the possibility of Livescribe creating and releasing a tool that installs third party Custom Paper Products to their smartpens. For various reasons, none of which will be discussed here, Livescribe did not release such a tool. I have been toying with the idea of building one myself for the last year, however I have not done so assuming that Livescribe will at some point do so. At this point, with Livescribe closing their Developer Program, it is obvious that they will not be releasing such a tool now.
The other reason I was hesitating with building this tool was that it would be coded in C# which I have had zero experience coding in before. I’m primarily a Java programmer with experience with both C++ and PHP (all of which use very similar syntax). Seeing no tool forthcoming from Livescribe and not wanting Custom Paper Products to be a product of the past (no pun intended), I finally dove right into it! I During this process, I learned that C# is nowhere near as complicated as I feared and most of the Syntax still applies from C++. With minimal googling, I was able to build a fully functional Custom Paper Deployment Tool using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 as my Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
Please note that the Custom Paper Deployment Tool is not supported by Livescribe in any way, shape or form. As the Developer Program has ended, this tool is not associated with it at all. There is no warranty (either explicit or implicit) on the tool. I do not take any responsibility if anything adverse were to happen to your smartpen because of my tool. By going to the bottom of the page and clicking-through to the installer page, you agree to the terms and conditions listed above. This tool is available freely to all users by following the download link at the bottom of the page.
This is version 1.0.0.5 of the Custom Paper Deployment Tool. This version allows you to deploy only Custom Paper Products that are bundled with the tool. Future versions of the tool will allow the user to specify the Custom Paper Product via an .afd file to install. The Custom Paper Deployment Tool must be started before the Smartpen is connected or it fails to detect it. In case you have already connected your Smartpen after starting the Custom Paper Deployment Tool, reconnect it after the Custom Paper Deployment main window has loaded. Once connected, just check the boxes of the Custom Paper Products you would like to deploy and once you completed your selection press the Deploy button to deploy them to the Smartpen connected. Please make sure to only have one Smartpen connected at a time or you will confuse the Custom Paper Deployment Tool and possibly corrupt the firmware on all Smartpens connected. Deploying Custom Paper Products will take some time (usually around 5 seconds for each Custom Paper Product selected) as each one will have to be deployed individually. Please make sure not to disconnect the Smartpen until the Deployment process is complete at which point your Smartpen will show the time again.
You will then need to print the PDF files that correspond to the Custom Paper Products you deployed. Those can be accessed via the Tools” –> “Print PDF Notepads” option. “Tools” –> “Smartpen” has two options: “View Smartpen Data” and “List Installed Paper.” “View Smartpen Data” will provide basic information about your Smartpen such as free space as well as battery levels. “List Installed Paper” will display a list of all installed Paper Products (Official and Custom) on your Smartpen. All of these functions support writing the data to a log file by pressing the “Save to log file” button.
Currently the Custom Paper Deployment Tool supports the deployment of 4 different types of notepads with 8 notepads of each type. If you are ready to begin, you can go to the Custom Paper Deployment Tool Install Page.
Any questions or comments can be posted below and I will respond shortly. Please be aware that I have not digitally signed these install files so they will give a “Security Warning” because of an “Unknown Publisher.” There is however no security concern with the download and the install.
Update: 8/4/11 @ 3:09 PM EST
I just pushed out several updates to Custom Paper Development Tool to deal with deployment errors. The current version is 1.0.0.13. If you did manage to get it installed despite the errors, your downloaded copy should automatically update to version 1.0.0.13 next time you start it.
Update: 8/22/11 @ 1:51 PM EST
I know there have been severe problems with DNS (provided for free by http://xname.org) as well as web server overloads so I have finally setup deployment using Amazon’s S3 service for reliability and stability. The link above has been updated to reflect that change. If you have a working copy of the download, it is not required that you uninstall and reinstall using that link, but it is recommended for future updates. Thanks for your patience!
Update: 10/08/11 @ 12:13 AM EST
Version 1.2.0.0 is now released which allows deployment of user supplied .afd files through the “File” –> “Open” menu. The full changelog can be found here. Your installed version should prompt you to update it when you start it next, but if it doesn’t, you can always click the big download button below.
Update 02/22/20102 @ 11:39 PM EST
Added a new video at the top of the page with detailed use instructions. It provides a demonstration of all of the functionality built into Custom Paper Deployment Tool.
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Hi, Im sure this has already been solved but I'm new to livescribe. I just bought an 8gb echo smart pen for my wedding. My plan was to use the smartpen on my guest sign in book to creat a digital guestbook that can be manipulated when creating photobooks, thank you's, ect. Is there a guest book template for dot paper or a vender that I can buy one from. It needs to be "presentable", my fiance's words. Thank you for any help.
Jason,
The best I can offer are the unlined/lined notepads (that are downloadable as part of the tool linked above). I would recommend having your fiance take a look and see if she thinks them presentable enough. As for any actual templates for guestbooks, I haven't seen any and due to the close of Livescribe's Developer Program, it is very unlikely that you will see any new ones. Please see this post for more details: http://rohankapoor.com/2012/01/livescribe-we-want…
Rohan,
I am new to the livescribe pen technology and only began using it because my professor is requiring it to teach our college algebra class. it seems like a great thing but the paper issue concerns me…and apparently many others. i'm not super techno savvy and was curious about your product. does it give me the capability to print blank sheets of paper that i can then use with my echo pen? i know that the livescribe desktop has an option for printing blank sheets but i don't have a printer at home. however, i do have a $25 printing balance at the university every semester. unfortunately, i can't print from my laptop to the university printers, none of the school computers have livescribe desktop installed and it's not an option to print the sheets from the livescribe website.
is this a problem your program could help me with?
Jess,
Yes this software is a possible solution to your problem. What you would do is install this program (see download link above) on your laptop. You would then deploy the notepads that you wanted to print and then click the print pdf's button in the tools menu. Instead of the printing the PDF's, copy them to a USB pen/flash drive and then go to your university computer. From that computer open the PDF file(s) and print them making sure to disable page scaling in Adobe Acrobat.
Let me know if you need any more help.
I chanced upon this, and what a piece of programming! I purchased a pen and installed this software, and printed off a notebook after deploying it, and it worked perfectly well, using a basic home printer! Once I get to work I'll print more off using the "posh" one!
I take my hat off to you for your perseverance, something Livescribe should promote!
Thank you again
OS Windows 7 Home and Ultimate 32 bit and 64 bit
I am very glad to hear that you liked the software and that it worked well for you! That was my original intent with this software to allow people with "basic" home printers to utilize custom paper.
Hi Rohan
I downloaded and installed the CPD tool, deplyed a LinedPad #1, printed off a couple of pages from the pdf, but the pen fails to recognise the paper. I am using the 8gb echo, with the latest firmware released by livescribe about a week ago. Any help on this would be appreciated greatly.
Thanks
Hi Rav,
Are you getting a specific error message from the pen? Can you click "Tools" –> "Smartpen" –> "List Installed Packages" and verify that the LinedPad is actually deployed there?
Hi Rohan
Thanks for the great service that you are providing. Unfortunately for some reason I cannot download the application. It begins the download process on two different systems and stops at exactly 208Mb. It comes up with am "Application download did not succeed. Check your network connection, or contact your system administrator or network service provider. Under details in the error log it seems to indicate that "The server committed a protocol violation. Section=ResponseStatusLine". Any ideas on how I can download your impressive app? Thanks again!
From what I can tell, that error appears due to VPN's or Proxy servers losing an http packet during the transmission. Can you try the download without the VPN or Proxy server connected (direct connection if possible). The other possibility appears to be a server error but it's working for many other people which leads me to believe the problem is at your end.
Let me know if that helps,
I am having the same download problem. I am not sure what changes need to be made to get this file to download completely. Could this file be placed in another server for download. Or, could it be made to download where it can be continued if it fails so it does not have to start over? Thank you.
Unfortunately the nature of the deployment technology (Microsoft ClickOnce) does not allow a file to be partially downloaded and then restarted from there. If you are connection through a corporate connection, please talk to your IT people and have them look and see if their are any proxy/vpn settings that would be breaking your download.
I have need of a custom reusable blank calendar and scheduling paper for my business to use with my livescribe pen. I have been asking for some time now for some one to create these pages, alas no one has steped up to do it and I do not know how to do it on my own. Will this program help me to do that with my livescribe pen? Or can you help me to do this? PLEASE… Thank you for your time and consideration.
This program will not help you do that. All it does is deploy notebooks that exist already. Unfortunately as Livescribe has closed their Developer Program, there is no way to create such a calendar anymore. My recommendation to you is to tell Livescribe that you want the Developer Program back by following the directions here: http://rohankapoor.com/2012/01/livescribe-we-want…
Rohan,
your video on your toolkit is very nice…
Congratulations.
Istvan
Thanks Istvan!
Hi,
I will soon have my first livescribe echo.
I installed Custom Paper Deployment Tool but after opening, (without conecing livescribe) it stopped working. I have vista x32. What should I do?
I have not tested it personally on Windows Vista (never had a computer with it myself) but my guess is that you didn't install Livescribe Desktop which installs the necessary drivers for this Custom Paper Deployment Tool to run. Please install Livescribe Desktop and then try running the tool again.
Thanks verry much for your work and answer.
I have now my first livescribe echo and I am in trouble becase this installation error. What can I do?
I try to install Livescribe Desktop from http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/starthere/ on two PC with Windows Vista x32, and Windows Vista x64, but i have the same "decompression error".
But, I successfully printed the ruled notebooks from your websitsite on my HP inket printer!
This is great! Thanks again!
It would be great if you could put the grid notebook A4 in PDF format on your website.
According to Livescribe's Knowledge Base, you should follow these instructions to get the stand alone zip installer if the main installer fails to download for you: http://support.livescribe.com/entries/20355027-85…
In regards to creating A4 notepads with grids, please see this post as currently I am unable to do so as Livescribe has closed their Developer Program. http://rohankapoor.com/2012/01/livescribe-we-want…
I came back because finally I installed Livescribe Desktop after I was informed from the Livescribe Support abaut the link : http://www.livescribe.com/downloads/support/LivescribeDe...
Custom Paper Deployment Tool now works perfectly! But my injet HP F380 print out sheets too dark I think, and pen does not recognize them. You can change something in pdf file to print them as the ones here: http://rohankapoor.com/projects/livescribe/origin… # idc-cover? That are brighter and works perfectly for me with the same settings of the printer. Great work! Thanks!
I'm glad you were able to get the program installed and working. I'm going to link you to my response to one of your other comments where I answered your question with some depth. http://rohankapoor.com/projects/livescribe/origin…
Great work Rohan!! Thank's a lot for sharing your tool!
I have a question though. I would like to have all the notebooks the (150, 50, 25 page versions) as unlined blank versions with only the pattern on them. The pattern does not have to be unique, I'd be perfectly happy if it used the same anoto dot pattern as the existing notebooks. This would be very useful to me since the developer programme has ended, because then I could print any pattern I want on those blank pages.
Unfortunately, because they use the same dot pattern, they will not work for blank pages. As your smartpen (and anyone else's who has used Custom Paper Deployment Tool) has these notepads deployed on them, it recognizes the fact that they are not blank. Because hey are tied to a set of (lined, or graphed) notepads already, they cannot be tied to another set of paper (blank) without confusing the smartpen. The best thing I can suggest is to get Livescribe to release access to more dot pattern. Please see this post: http://rohankapoor.com/2012/01/livescribe-we-want…
hi Rohan
I downloaded the unlined notebooks at the weekend and printed the paper out on the printer i've been using to print livescribe paper. and it was very dark (which is ok as i've seen your comments elsewhere about that). However, it didn't pick up the pen writing very accurately and I was missing about half the letters when I wrote on it with my 1Gb pen that I bought new at christmas. The pen has been working really well on the livescribe notebooks and i checked it on the "official" paper afterwards and it worked again fine.
I really wanted your plain paper and your lab notebook paper so is there anything you can suggest to improve my situation as everyone else on this blog says the paper you have provided works brilliantly.
hope to hear from you soon
Hi Nick,
Can you verify that you are printing on a laser printer at 600dpi with page scaling turned off? You can also try turning on toner save mode, or half toning in the printer driver settings before printing.
I have installed it and everything went fine. My only concern is: How do I get the "Dotted Gray shade" lighter? Because when I print your files the gray shade is too dark and my pen does not recognize it. I have Windows 7 and I open the file with Adobe Acrobat Reader X and I can see the dotted gray shade but it is impossible for me to lighten that shade. I'm sorry to take your time with my problem. Keep up the good work, we need guys like you. I'll be one of your donor, because you deserve it. Thanks again.
Unfortunately some of the "darkness" is just part of the way that Livescribe's SDK outputs the postscript files. I have messed with the output settings and this was the lightest I have been able to make the output. The only thing I can suggest is to try turning on toner save mode, or half toning in the printer driver settings before printing. This sometimes has the effect of "lightening" the physical output produced by the printer.