2026-05-01T03:44:48+00:00 https://dafoster.net/articles/topics/#DigitalPreservation David Foster https://dafoster.net/favicon.ico https://dafoster.net/favicon.ico https://dafoster.net/articles/2022/07/10/crystal-1-3-0-released 2022-07-10T00:00:00+00:00 2022-07-10T00:00:00+00:00 <p><img class="img-box-right img-200" alt="Logo: Crystal Web Archiver" src="/assets/2021/crystal-web-archiver/logo@2x.png" /></p> <p><a href="/projects/crystal-web-archiver/">Crystal</a> is a <strong>website downloader program</strong> that is intended to save websites for long-term archival, even after the original site has fallen off the internet.</p> <p>Today&rsquo;s release brings the ability to download sites requiring login, better-support for infinite-scrolling sites, a <a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/wiki/Read-Only-Projects">read-only mode</a>, and a <a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/wiki/Shell">CLI shell</a>. See the <a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver#v130b-july-10-2022">release notes</a> for more information.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/releases/download/v1.3.0b/crystal-win-1.3.0b.exe">Download Crystal for Windows 7, 8, and 10</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/releases/download/v1.3.0b/crystal-mac-1.3.0b.dmg">Download Crystal for macOS 10.14 and later</a> <ul> <li>You will need to <a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/issues/20">right-click or Control-click on the application and select &ldquo;Open&rdquo; to open it for the first time</a>.</li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver#quickstart-">Quickstart guide</a> for downloading your first website</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://substack.com/">Substack sites</a> in particular can be successfully downloaded with this release of Crystal.</p> <p>The next release of Crystal will probably be the first final (non-beta) release, with an improved visual appearance, tutorials, and lots of documentation. See the <a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/wiki/Roadmap">roadmap</a> for more information.</p> <h3><em>Previous Releases</em></h3> <ul> <li><a href="/articles/2021/03/23/crystal-web-archiver-beta-released/">Crystal 1.1.0b and 1.2.0b</a></li> </ul> https://dafoster.net/articles/2021/03/23/crystal-web-archiver-beta-released 2021-03-23T00:00:00+00:00 2021-03-23T00:00:00+00:00 <p><img class="img-box-right img-200" alt="Logo: Crystal Web Archiver" src="/assets/2021/crystal-web-archiver/logo@2x.png" /></p> <p><a href="/projects/crystal-web-archiver/">Crystal</a> is a <strong>website downloader program</strong> that is intended to save websites for long-term archival, even after the original site has fallen off the internet.</p> <p>Today I&rsquo;m pleased to announce Crystal&rsquo;s first beta release, bringing support for downloading more complex static sites than ever before, and generally being stable enough for a full public release.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/releases/download/v1.2.0b/crystal-win-1.2.0b.exe">Download Crystal for Windows 7, 8, and 10</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/releases/download/v1.2.0b/crystal-mac-1.2.0b.dmg">Download Crystal for macOS 10.14 and later</a> <ul> <li>You will need to <a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver/issues/20">right-click or Control-click on the application and select &ldquo;Open&rdquo; to open it for the first time</a>.</li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://github.com/davidfstr/Crystal-Web-Archiver#quickstart-">Quickstart guide</a> for downloading your first website</li> </ul> <blockquote><p><strong>Update:</strong> These download links have been updated to point to the 1.2.0b release, which has a number of fixes related to first-time-launch issues and improvements for downloading large websites (with 10,000+ URLs).</p></blockquote> <p>Many new types of sites can be successfully downloaded with this release of Crystal, including DeviantArt portfolio websites at <code>*.daportfolio.com</code> (which are scheduled to fall off the internet in about a week after this post), <a href="http://otakuworld.com/">Otaku World</a>, and <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/">16Personalities</a>. <!-- Some others sites of interest like [bongo.cat](https://bongo.cat/) and the [Calm Blog](https://blog.calm.com/) require additional work. --></p> <h3>Digital preservation is important</h3> <p>I personally care a lot about <strong>digital preservation</strong>, which makes it possible to access and enjoy digital content even after it was originally released, substantially beyond the usual lifetime of such works. I&rsquo;m planning to work on a few projects this year to advance the state of the art in preserving both online sites and old Macintosh programs from the 1990&rsquo;s. If this topic is also of interest to you, please consider <a href="javascript:scrollToSubscribeBlock();">following me</a> on Twitter or RSS. I like hearing from people who have similar interests.</p> <h3><em>Related Projects</em></h3> <ul> <li><a href="/projects/classicbox/">ClassicBox</a> - <strong>(Pre-alpha)</strong> Makes it easy to play old Mac games from the 1990s on modern hardware, similar to the <a href="https://www.dosbox.com/">DOSBox</a> project.</li> </ul>