Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any advise on a free and/or easy to use PDF cropper to remove all the margins in a PDF? I'm currently using PocketXPDF as my reader. Also if anyone has any other suggestions for a PDF reader I'm interested as well. FoxIt looked interested, but did not have full screen capability or the ability to rotate. I looked at ClearVue as well which as I recall had the same limitations. Anyways open to suggestions.

Thanks,
Jesse

Acrobat Pro, of course, has easy to use margin cropping tools. You can crop entire books of pages at once, any and all sides at once.

Of course, Pro isn't free, and the free reader won't crop.

jessesn, maybe this (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7289) helps.
pdftk is discussed in this thread.

PDFCropper is the application, designed to solve the problem with preparing for reading normal sized (A4, B4, C4, letter etc.) pdf's on relative small (Sony Reader PRS500/PRS505, iRex Illiad etc.) devices.

The problem is that pdf is not reformat able by nature. Yes, there is reflow mode in Acrobat Reader, but at first Acrobat Reader is not available for most e-book readers (especially for e-ink devices),
and second even with reflow function reading of complex content (technical books, magazines etc.) is not comfortable. Bad formatted pdf's and wide white spaces make the situation even worse.

The only way how this problem can be solved (at least based on my experience) to cut original pages into smaller pages with removing white spaces.
This is exactly what program do. But comparing with similar software PDFCropper is much more flexible, that allows to prepare books with much better quality in a very short time.

PDFCropper can produce text and image pdf's.

PDFCropper web-site currently is under construction. But it is already available for downloading:

PDFCropper v1.1 RC1 links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/87491638/PDFCropper1_1RC1Setup.exe.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a07bc5/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JI7CM0N4

Trial version of PDFCropper is fully functional, the only thing - output pages include watermark (which by the way displays registration code that you need for obtaining license).

And you can download and value an example of prepared (cropped) pdf:

This is original one - http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/download/langspec-3.0.pdf

These are links to cropped one:

http://rapidshare.com/files/87301097/The_Java_Language_Specification.pdf.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/252400/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8KW32DJT

And these are links to the one cropped as image pages (only some pages are there, due large file size):

http://rapidshare.com/files/87486857/The_Java_Language_Specification__images__partly_.p df.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/d02ead/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MJCYT8KH

Also, anyone interesting in software, can send me example pdf, and I will send back resulted pdf prepared via application.

License price per one computer is 20 euro. Payment can be made via PayPal or directly to bank account.

You can ask any questions about using or installing software and details about purchasing the license via e-mail:

vstefanyuk@gmail.com

P.S. Application is implemented by using Java. You have to have installed Java environment version 1.5 or higher.
Also Ghostscript has to be installed. In case if it is not, application will propose you to download.

Change log:
v1.1 RC1 - fixed the bug with adding table of contents (now appropriate menu item in Sony PRS 500/505 display table of contents correctly).
added separate option for adding clickable table of contents pages.
added displaying of table of contents in the left pane.
improved auto-framing functionality - added possiblty to create frames with size proportional to device size (paper size setting in Crop Settings dialog).
improved cropping funcionality - added possibility to remove empty frames in resulting pdf ("Skip empty frames" option in Crop dialog).
improved dialogs input errors displaying, errorness fields are highlighted by red.
fixed bug with deleting last unaccessible project reference from recent projects list.
added pdf restrictions checking during opening pdf. in case if there are no enough rights for pdf manipulating - program will ask pdf user password.
example pdf's are updated.
simplified trial mode - removed pages shuffling!

PDFCropper v1.2 RC4. Now with pdf reflow support!!!

Change log:
v1.2 RC4 - added "Embed fonts" and "Text encoding" settings in Crop dialog. Minor bugs fixes.
v1.2 RC3 - minor bugs fixes. Errors are saved in log-file.
v1.2 RC2 - added "Proportional frame scaling" and "Create temporary pdf" settings in Crop dialog.
v1.2 RC1 - added reflow support!!!, added frames index incrementing/decrementing functionality (eq. frame moving), improved auto-frames functionality - added support for frames layout (Down to right, right to down) and added support for frames reflow, fixed bugs with processing rotated documents.


PDFCropper v1.2 RC4 links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/95447622/PDFCropper1_2RC4Setup.exe.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a14ef1/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EAN0P360

I tried the cropper utility, and after installing the latest java runtime and ghostscript it kind of worked. It did however insist on not only cropping away the white margins but also to split each side in two, which might be helpful to some but not useful to me since I use the Cybook.

Since the program also print “unregistered version” and shit on all pages of the cropped PDF it is not useful in any way.

You have to understand the program to use it properly. How long did you play with it?
Yes, there is no manual yet. But it is just question of time. In a few days release version will be produced and site will appear.

Send me example pdf to vstefanyuk@gmail.com, I will send you back prepared one. You can see what possible to do with a program.

Can you crop pages and keep them in 'Portrait' form instead of halving them and insisting on reading them in 'Landscape' mode? There must be a way of nicely cropping away margins in .pdf files.

Can you crop pages and keep them in 'Portrait' form instead of halving them and insisting on reading them in 'Landscape' mode? There must be a way of nicely cropping away margins in .pdf files.

Course. Just go to www.pdfcropper.com (http://www.pdfcropper.com) and look at Samples section

Prospect - If you had read his intro about the pdf cropper you would have noticed it talks about the unregistered version appearing on the pages.

Granted you wanted a free version and he is peddling his warez here but still.

vstefanyuk - I think your program is nice. I just don't have $30 US to spend on it. I am a lowly college student. If you come out with a student price feel free to let me know ^.^

ladynikon - sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but you might give this link a try.

http://www.pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html

I haven't examined it too closely, so apologies in advance if it's not what you want.

Tommy

if i alredy cropped the pages how i resieze the fonts to fit theme to sony reader ?

if i alredy cropped the pages how i resieze the fonts to fit theme to sony reader ?

To change font size you have to crop pdf via reflow method and specify in Crop dialog font magnifier. The latest version is 1.26, btw. It is available at www.pdfcropper.com (http://www.pdfcropper.com).

Updated to v1.29

Latest version can be downloaded at www.pdfcropper.com

Change log:

v1.29

* improved auto-frames functionality. Added ability to aggregate detected frames area for custom pages. Added ability to define frames of custom pages by detecting frames splits (eq. smart cut)!!!
* improved reflow functionality. Optimized processing of highlighted text (titles etc.) and blocks of text with proportional font size (program code etc.)
* fixed bug with page flipping, previously frames area was not rotated
* fixed bug with deleting temporary files that were created during producing images pdf (if you used to create images pdfs, please, check your temporary folder, delete files that are started with "pdc", sorry for inconvenience)

v1.28

* fixed bugs with displaying list of pages functionality

v1.27

* fixed bugs with auto-frames and crop functionality (they appear for pdf's with non-zero media box location)
* fixed bugs with editing page groups
* added displaying list of pages functionality

PDFCropper is the application, designed to solve the problem with preparing for reading normal sized (A4, B4, C4, letter etc.) pdf's on relative small (Sony Reader PRS500/PRS505, iRex Illiad etc.) devices.

Why would you 'crop' a pdf to read on an iLiad, when the iLiad pdf reader has a really easy to use bulit in zoom funtion?

Frankly speaking I do not know how useful for pdf zoom button in iRex Illiad is. In case of Sony Reader it is not. I think it is very depend from size of white spaces, size of font and if pdf is created correctly.

In any case 1/3 of my customers are people who use iRex Illiad. I think they tried zoom button and they were not satisfied with result.

Updated to v1.30

Change log:

* improved crop functionality. Added possibility to split output pdf by multiple files (see "Split output by" option in "Crop" dialog)
* improved crop functionality. Added "Frames orientation" and "Frames scaling" options to "Crop" dialog
* improved reflow functionality. Added "Source interlinear spacing" and "Target interlinear spacing" options to "Crop" dialog
* improved detecting custom pages frames splits functionality. Now instead of searching pure white split, it tries to find "whitest" split
* improved responsiveness of application during long-run operations (crop, auto-frames etc.)

Comming soon:
- Auto-detecting frames blocks. By using this feature it will be possible automatically convert complex pdf magazines etc.

This thread looks more and more like an advertisement by the minute.
Anyone considering PDF problems ought to look at the free forum devised tools. I write a little bit about it in my blog (http://writert.blogspot.com/2008/08/making-pdf-documents-readable-on.html)

I also happen to have Adobe Pro and would love to help you out.
The only problem with Adobe is that when used to remove all white margins, some pages get "blown up".

My personal favourite is Pi discussed here (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23048)