Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with PDF

Delicious for pdfs?

furious — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:55:40 -0800

How can I organize offline pdfs on windows so that they're easy to find offline using a standard browser? In a perfect world, it would be like delicious, but for pdfs. Tags, sortable by tags, compact display. Endnote and Wordpress are the available tools. This is on Windows. There is an offline wordpress blog. There are a bunch of pdfs in folders on a shared drive. I wish I could have something like delicious, where anybody who has access to the shared drive could look for the pdfs by putting in tags. The listings brought up would be linked to the pdf files.

So with Endnote, Wordpress and a bunch of pdf files, how can I create an index that allows the pdfs to be searched for easily, by subject, tag, author, etc using a standard browser? A single page could be created on the wordpress blog with a list of all the pdfs, with keywords. A control+f search could be used to locate useful pdfs. But that would not be sortable. The wordpress blog already has entries, so entering each pdf as a separate entry would not work - tags would give you things other than links to the pdf files. An additional wordpress blog solely for the pdfs is not an option.

Example: person x says "I wonder about salamanders' tongues." Uses Internet Explorer or Firefox to go to the page. Tag search-animals. Nothing. Tag search amphibians. Tag search amphibians+anatomy. Brings up 5 locally linked pdfs. Person x wants more- tag search for salamander brings up 30 results. To get just recent results, tag search salamander+2009.

If there were some way to get some code from delicious, put it into a single page on the wordpress blog and have it mimic delicious, that would be perfect.

Any ideas? The process of entering in all the information will be arduous and time consuming, so I want the final product to be worth it.

Are there any free Mac programs to remove PDF encryption?

raddevon — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:39:12 -0800

Are there any free Mac programs to remove PDF encryption? I purchased a PDF book which I would like to transfer to my new Kindle. I have done the transfer, but the Kindle cannot open the book. I assume this is because the book is encrypted. Does anyone know of a free program for the Mac which will remove this encryption?

Numerous .txt to PDF (best options)

cjorgensen — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:11:49 -0800

What's the best way to make a PDF of a bunch of plain text files? I have 260+ .txt files I would like to convert into one PDF. Each .txt file is a page or so. I would like each file to be it's own page/story. I use a Mac.

Presume I have access to most programs. Presume I have a passable knowledge of terminal.

I would rather not import each file one at a time. I would prefer not to just combine them into one big file to import and have to flow each page.

My end goal: I want a singular PDF with each .txt file as its own page (so I can reorder as I prefer). What's the best way to do this?

If it matters, each of these pages will be styled identically, but there may be some commentary inserted between pages.

I am willing to buy an app if need be, but cheaper the better.

US Kindle 2 in Europe

Busoni — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:15:03 -0800

In January, I'm leaving the US for Europe, where I'll be for the next six months, if not more. I want to buy an E-reader, so I can continue to read books in English, and also to save myself from lugging books back and forth. Given the circumstances, seems to me the best choice is to buy a Kindle 2 right now. Am I right? Some thoughts and questions:

I don't think I'll buy the DX, because it seems a lot of the features are disabled in Europe; if I'm wrong, let me know.

I don't suppose anyone's tried the native PDF conversion on the Kindle 2 (announced two days ago) already, and can tell me how it is?

Is there a difference between buying the Kindle here and buying it there? As far as I could make it, there's no actual physical difference between the two models, just a list of features that disappear. (I guess I won't be able to use the browser once I land in Europe?) In other words, there's no reason to pay extra cash to wait and order it from there, am I right?

Any reason I shouldn't buy a Kindle 2, right now? Should we expect new sales before January? Big, game-changing announcements? Ideally, I might have waited for a Kindle 3 or Apple announcement, or bought the Nook, but given my circumstances, it seems the Kindle 2 is a pretty good bet. Anyone care to contradict this?

Help me get my European drivers license.

swhitt — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:37:12 -0800

Looking for a Citroën C3 drivers manual. I'm taking my drivers test tomorrow in a C3. They ask us a few questions about the inside and outside of the car and the instruction manual I have is not in English. Any chance you can find a PDF English manual for a 2007-2008 C3? My google-fu is failing me.

How can I replace embedded PDF fonts?

lwf — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:07:15 -0800

How can I replace embedded fonts in a PDF with "normal-looking" versions? I have a textbook I received from my professor for a class, and the text is incredibly hard to read. Screenshot of PDF. (non-highlighted text is what the text looks like normally)

I'd also like to not lose text formatting. (italics/monospace etc)

How to make the NDSlite display PDFs

lizbunny — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:33:53 -0800

Google-fu failed, has anyone found a PDF reader for the NDSlite for use with an R4 card? My uncle's been adoring the DSlite and the R4 card I hooked him up with a while ago. He's gotten decently tech-savvy with the R4 card (even got his movies to play on it), but he can't find a PDF reader for it and wants one badly. I no longer have a DS or an R4 card, and so can't do this search and testing by trial-and-error myself for the results that HAVE turned up. None specify if they're for the R4 system either... I sincerely hope there are mefites out there who have sought and found an answer! Many, many thanks in advance!

Problems saving web pages to PDF in Firefox

game warden to the events rhino — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:51:21 -0800

When I try to print certain web pages to PDF in Firefox, chunks of text go missing. Why? I suspect this one will be speedily answered, but I've searched and searched to no avail. I've been trying to use Firefox's Save to PDF feature to preserve web content locally on my hard drive, but when I try this with certain blog posts, only part of the post makes it through to the PDF file, often with the layout completely screwed up. I don't need a perfect representation of the web page (though that'd be nice) but I do need all the text. Here's a random example of a blog post where the text of the post itself is missing when I save to PDF. Sorry if this is obvious. I assume frames or something like that may be to blame? Thanks for any suggestions.

Free/Open Source Scan-to-PDF Software?

cowbellemoo — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:20:19 -0800

What's the best free or open source software (for Windows XP) which will scan multiple pages in a row and output a PDF with zero fuss? I don't really like the software that came with the scanner and I don't want to pay for Acrobat Pro. Currently I'm using OpenOffice Draw, which works fine except for having a few too many mouse clicks between importing each page as a scanned picture -- which are annoying when I'm trying to concentrate on something else while I scan a bunch of things in.

Ideally I'd like to just place a new page, close the lid, click a button, scan, rinse, repeat. That's basically how Acrobat Pro does it, but is there a free/OS alternative that behaves the same way?

Why are my PDFs becoming heavyweights?

steeb2er — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:55:29 -0800

Why do minor changes to a PDF in Photoshop CS3 radically increase the file size (from 200k to 6.5MB)? I'm no graphic artist (as evidenced by this question), but I'm an intermediate user of Photoshop and frequently asked to make changes to existing documents. Right now, I'm trying to change the address on an old PDF to our new address. The old PDF is roughly 200kb before editing, but 6.5MB after editing. What am I doing wrong?

Here's my step-by-step:

1) Open PDF in Photoshop CS3
2) Create new layer
3) Use text tool to type out the new address (basic Arial font) over top of the old address
4) In background layer (the original PDF), use the paintbrush tool to cover up the old address
5) Save as PSD
6) Flatten layers
7) Save as PDF, without Photoshop editing capabilities

The doc is a full sheet, 8.5x11; It's a photo-heavy step-by-step guide, but the pictures aren't high-res or great quality. Photoshop CS3, Adobe Acrobat, Win XP SP3. If you need any other info or want the files themselves, I'll be glad to provide.

How do I Live Trace the images in a PDF in Illus CS3?

cobra_high_tigers — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:47:25 -0800

How do I Live Trace the images in a PDF in Illustrator CS3? So, a friend has mocked up a program for a conference that he's arranging on a shoestring budget in Microsoft Word. The printer was ready to charge like $200/hr for converting this document to a printable format, which is out of the budget range my friend is working with. Basically, he said that it needed to be in a vector format in CMYK color space.

Since I have a mac, the first thing I did was to print the document to a pdf, to convert all the text to glyphs. Next, I opened a page in Illustrator, and it was easy enough to convert the color space to CMYK from RGB. Finally, I went to convert the raster images inserted in the document (.jpgs and .gifs) to vectors. The tutorials I had seen for Live Trace made it look pretty simple, but I can't figure out how to make it happen on my document.

It isn't that I'm displease with the results, it's that I can't make it happen at all. With the image selected, the Object->Live Trace->Make menu option is grayed out.

What do I need to do to the images in this imported pdf to make it so that Illustrator allows me to Live Trace them?

Thanks for the help!

Is there any way to deal with corrupt pages in non-OCR'd PDF files that occur after copying?

mjklin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:47:57 -0800

Is there any way to deal with corrupt pages in non-OCR'd PDF files that occur after copying? I've been steadily scanning my backlog of personal papers with a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner, which scans to PDF. The older version of the ScanSnap could not automatically recognize (OCR) scanned documents, but rather treated them as image-based PDFs. I copied these files for backup and general use, often deleting the originals.

Recently, when I've tried to open these files, there have been several pages inside that are blank. In Adobe Reader I get the message "Not enough information for an image", while in Foxit Reader I get a garbled or smeared version of the page. This is annoying and fairly traumatizing since I often don't have the original.

So, a few questions for those who have experience with the ScanSnap and/or PDFs of this type:

1) Is there any way to recover the lost information?
2) Does this only happen with non-OCR'd PDFs? Could it ever happen to a "normal" PDF with a layer of text?
3) What if I scan handwritten notes, which have no recognizable text? If I OCR them (with the newer ScanSnap, which permits this), will they still be vulnerable to corrupt pages in the future?
4) Is there a "safer" way to copy that will not result in lost data?

Thanks much.

How to print one PDF page on two sheets of paper?

ask me please — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:07:54 -0800

Is there a simple way to print 1 A4 PDF over 2 sheets? I have been sent a long PDF with two pages of text squeezed onto each PDF page, meaning that on a standard A4 printer, I get two tiny pages of text on each printed A4 page. I'd really like to print the document with each PDF page as TWO printed pages. Is there a simple way to do this? Googling only seems to get me a large number of answers on how to solve the opposite problem.

If it matters: I'm running Windows on a Mac.

PDF creator for Firefox?

dfriedman — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:57:02 -0800

Looking for an add-on to Firefox that will allow me to save web pages as PDF documents I have a bunch of emailed receipts that I need to save as PDF files for my accountant. I'm looking for some sort of add-on to Firefox that will allow me to save an email (via gmail) as a PDF.

I've tried this add-on, however, it's timing out when I try to use it.

My alternative is to print out these emails, scan them as PDFs and save them. This is more time consuming.

Suggestions?

Thanks.

Updating my portfolio website and need help with web navigation, images, hosting and more.

mintchip — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:04:23 -0800

Updating my online portfolio and need help with web navigation, images, hosting and more. I would like to update my online writing portfolio, which is currently a blog hosted by Blogger. Each post is a thumbnail image along with some introductory copy. The thumbnails link to large jpg images
stored on Flikr. I want to spend a minimum of time updating my site, and I need to be able to make updates with ease. I have old versions of Photoshop and Dreamweaver at my disposal. Can you help me with these questions?

1. Navigation: On Blogger, new posts appear in date order rather than being organized by category. I am not happy with this navigation limitation. Is there any way around this without creating a whole new website independent of Blogger? I have been thinking about purchasing a domain name and then using an HTML template, but it would be easier if I didn’t have to do this. If I do need to move to a different site format, what would you recommend for a simple template and/or host?

2. Photo storage: My thumbnail images, which Blogger creates, link to Flikr photos. However, the type in these larger images isn't fully readable until the user clicks a second time (after clicking on the thumbnail), to enlarge the image to full size. I’m afraid some readers won’t do this. Is there a good solution to this? Where should I store my photos (if not on Flikr)?

3. Photo size and format: What are standard image sizes? If I abandon the blog format and create a new HTML site, how should I go about creating all of the JPGs I will need (full size, thumbnail)? What is the standard size for full size images and thumbnails and what do you recommend for a naming convention? Would PDF format be preferable? If so, what software should I use to create my PDFs, are there any standards to these, and where can I store them?

4. Should I allow people to download my writing samples, either as JPG or PDFs?

Editable PDFs?

Kattiara17 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:09:58 -0800

I want to be able to create editable, form-based PDFs. What software do I need? I want to be able to create editable, form-based PDFs. For example, if you look at this W4 form, you can click and type information into each of the preset fields.

What software do I need to be able to do this? My google-fu is failing me; it looks like I need to buy Adobe Acrobat, but is that the only option? If it is, does it matter as far as Standard vs. Pro edition?

Embedding book excerpts on your website?

danburzo — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:17:20 -0800

I need ideas for embedding book excerpts on my website. I'm looking for a way to embed book excerpts on my website. I've looked at Scribd and Issuu so far but I'm not wholly convinced, as their embed capabilities fall short of my expectations regarding the user experience.

Do you know any alternative service? I am also open to a solution that resides on my own server; something that takes a PDF file and displays it to the user in a HTML page (via Flash, most probably).

Now that we've put the books online, how do we get them back onto paper?

yamel — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:40:32 -0800

How do I prepare digitized public domain works for clean print on demand? Organizations like Google and the Open Content Alliance are, of course, digitizing millions of public domain books. The OCA provides a variety of downloadable files (jpeg 2000, pdf full color or b/w, djvu) for their content. Their intent in scanning is to create images that are great for viewing on a computer screen. Printing and binding is not a consideration for them.

Here is a sample title. It's various files are located here.

So, of the variety of files offered, which would be the easiest to work with in order to create a legible paper copy from a vendor like Lulu.com? Things I'd need to be able to do:

- add binding margin, or occasionally margin all around,
- normalize page size (as images sometimes seem randomly cropped) with minimal image distortion,
- if working with the OCA PDF files, strip hidden characters (OCR),
- batch process, or minimize page-by-page work so that each can be prepared in less than 60 minutes,
- clean up shadows or distracting grayscale fields behind the text,
- deliver small-ish b/w PDF

I have had marginal (ha, get it?!) success with a few of these steps depending on which source I begin with, but no success on all points. I have access to Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems, and Adobe Acrobat Pro on the Mac, but no budget for other pro tools. I'd love to hear of pro tools that would do the job, though, if there's a true magic bullet for all of the above processes.

I see this kind of material being put out by the University of Michigan and Cornell, but I'm not sure if they're starting from files meant for this kind of operation. Oh, and the 'why' and 'should you even try' questions are someone else's domain; I'm just trying to figure out how

2 Sided PDF Conversion

dortmunder — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:57:04 -0800

Is there a way to take a brochure made in Microsoft Publisher 2007 and convert it to a 2 sided PDF that can be printed out and folded as a brochure? I have no problem converting the file, but I cannot, for the life of me find any sort of option for either creating a 2 sided PDF, or for printing a 2 sided document in Acrobat. What am I missing?

How to quickly crop to trim in Acrobat?

TochterAusElysium — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:36:04 -0800

How can I efficiently crop pages to the trim area in Adobe Acrobat 9? I have a large number of PDFs created by InDesign CS4; they have crop marks and a slug. I need a second set of PDFs that are cropped to the documents’ trim areas. I can open each PDF and manually draw in the crop area, but that takes a long time, so I have two questions:

One – is there a script of any kind that will open the PDFs, crop them to the trim area, and re-save them to a different directory? (Free would be great, of course, but pay may work.)

Two – barring that, I’m trying to figure out why Acrobat’s “Crop Pages” dialog seems to offer me the option of cropping a PDF to the trim, but when I select the “TrimBox” option and hit “OK,” nothing changes.

Bear in mind that I don’t care if the PDF’s are “really” cropped; that is, I realize that the information outside the trim area would still be there, but not visible. That’s fine. I just want a way to crop the PDFs to the trim so that other viewers will only see what’s inside the trim, not the crops and slug.

I’m on a Mac, OS 10.5.7; Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro (9.1.1).

Enlarge and print part of pdf page?

ragtimepiano — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:21:13 -0800

How do I enlarge and print part of a pdf page? I subscribe to the NYTimes Digest online and print out the crossword puzzle page. The print on a standard 8 1/2 by 11 page is fairly small, and by the time I finish the puzzle my eyes are tired. Besides printing out, scanning to file and using photo editing (a time-intensive process), is there a way to enlarge the part of the page on which the puzzle appears, and to print out only that part?
Thanks, members of the hive mind!

Please recommend PDF indexing software for OS X.

NucleophilicAttack — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:41:35 -0800

Please recommend OS X software which can generate indexes from PDF files. Freeware is best, but shareware is also fine. I have a number of PDFs which are several hundred pages in length, for which I would like to generate indexes. Some wishlist features:

* indexes both rare words, and words from a list.
* can adjust the page numbers it outputs to match the actual numbering on each page of the PDF, rather than the logical page numbers.
* tweakable with respect to what kind of words get indexed, and what kind do not

Tagging in Acrobat Pro 8

nosila — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:59:38 -0800

I would like to be able to search comments in numerous pdf files at once using Adobe Acrobat Pro 8. Can it be done? Ideally, I would be able to designate a folder to search within. This way, the comments could act as tags. E.g. if I have a folder that is full of articles about Haydn that I've read and marked up, I could easily locate every comment in which I've written "Symphony No. 8." Then I could click on the search result and the appropriate pdf would open magically at the right place.

If this isn't possible in Acrobat Pro 8, any suggestions on how I might do it? I'm willing to entertain the possibility of using other software, though I really like Acrobat Pro aside from this.

How to use Pagemaker to Split a Pdf into Several Pdfs

joannemerriam — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:05:19 -0800

How do you break apart a multiple-page pdf into a bunch of separate-page pdfs in Pagemaker?

Applications for converting XML to Word / PDF?

UbuRoivas — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:51:19 -0800

Applications for converting XML to Word / PDF? I'm looking for an application that can convert multiple-record XML files with embedded (encoded) images into human-readable form - Word or PDF preferred.

Ideally, the application would be easily configurable as an end-user productivity tool, eg with a drag-n-drop interface for laying out which fields appear where on the output file (not unlike a mail merge).

Splitting the output into separate docs for each record in the XML would also be a bonus.

Currently, I'm taking a look at Altova Stylevision, but wondering if there are any other products that might also fit these requirements....?