Need a Page From Google Books? Here’s the Super Easy Way to Get It!

Have you ever wanted to download just one or two pages from a book on Google Books but found that you had to download the entire book? Instead of just grabbing just the pages you wanted, you wound up with a huge PDF file on your hard drive.

Or maybe you needed a page from a Google Book that’s in preview mode but were out of luck because preview mode books can’t be downloaded at all?

Well, I’ve got the solution for you. Take a look at this video to find out just how quick and easy it is to grab a single page from Google Books!

How to Download a Google Books Page

From your Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browser open the Google Book from which you want to download a page. Make sure you are in the Classic Google Books view instead of the New Google Books view.

Inspect > Sources

Navigate to the page you want to download. Then right-click somewhere in the window and select Inspect at the very bottom of the menu. This will bring up what might be a scary-looking window with code in it. Ignore it; you don’t need to know how to read code in order to download a page from a Google Book!

Go to the top of the Inspect window and click the Sources tab. You will then see a list of folders with arrows next to them offering a drop-down menu. Go to the top folder which is a picture of a cloud labeled Books. Click the dropdown arrow to reveal the contents.

Locate the Page Icon

Now you will see a few folders and a series of green page icons. Each of these icons represents the image of any pages in the Google Book that you have already viewed, including the search previews.

At first glance, the page icon file names appear to be nonsense. But if you know what to look for, you can also see page numbers. Look for the letters “PA” followed by a number – that’s the page number. For example, if you are looking for page 59 of a book, you would click on the icon with the letters PA59 in the file name. You will then see an image of the page in the window to the right.

Drag, Drop, and Download

Once you find the correct page icon, left-click on it and hold the button down. Then drag that icon up to the top of your browser and let go. The image file will open up in a new tab.

You can now download the page image to your computer by doing a right-click, “save image as,” and then save it to your computer. Be sure to download the file to a logical place on your computer and give the image file a name that will help you to identify it later.

Another Method

Alternate Method: Right-click on the page icon and select “Copy link address.” Paste the copied URL into a new tab of your browser.

Find the Title Page

Be sure to make a copy of the book’s title page for your files. View the title page first and then look for pages named with “PP” instead of PA. I’ve found that the beginning pages of a book are typically labeled with “PP,” but this may vary by book.

Look carefully for the correct title page. There will also be a title page or cover image of the book’s thumbnail, and you do not want that one. You can tell the difference because the thumbnail is very small and has a flipped-up page corner. The larger image will be the correct one. You may need to click through a few of the PP images to find the title page.

Return to Reading

To get out of Inspect mode, click the X at the top, right-hand corner of the window. It will say Close when you hover over it.

And that’s it!

Wrap Up

Keep in mind that you must view the page you want to download before opening Inspect mode so it will appear in the list of page icons in the Sources box. This will add the page image to your browser’s cache.

Also, I have only been able to make this trick work with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. I have not been able to make it work using Firefox. Also, I have not tried Opera or Safari, nor have I tested this trick on a Mac.

If you find a way to download a page from Google Books in a browser other than Chrome or Edge, please let me know in the comments!

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