PDFrasterFarian v2.0 beta [Archive]

alex_d

12-26-2006, 10:47 PM

Editor's Note: These files have been blocked from being downloaded because it has been brought to our attention that the application as it currently exists includes an expired trial version of commercial software.

NOTE:

The latest version can be found here:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10402

--------------------------------------

This is a sister thread to this one (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9106). I'm posting the beta here to get feedback before putting up the full version on the other thread. Please don't be shy about any comments, suggestions, or frank explanations about how it's all crap.

Features:
v2.0.0:
+Much better boldness enhancement (see pics in other thread)
+Quarters-of-a-page mode for even more readability
+UI overhaul
+Multithreading/multicore support
v2.1.0:
+Big speed improvement (...not really saying much...)
+Customizable defaults
+Better text quality using 'simple' processing
+No need for password stripping

Known issues:
+Currently, AutoImager (http://www.autoimager.com/) must be installed for the new image enhancement to work. A copy of the installer is attached.
+Incompatible with some filename characters ( ')' and '&' )
+When autocropping, the original cropbox is ignored. If something is revealed that was hidden, autocropping will include it leading to a larger page than with autocropping disabled.
+Lastly, the color-reduction step doesn't quite output grayscale values 0, 85, 170, 255. Instead, it produces four palletized colors which merely come close. The Reader reinterprets these and the result sometimes is white backgrounds with slight dithering and (possibly) a slight reduction in text quality.

Todo (short and long term):
One-click profiles
Promptless batch operation
Support for rendering djvu and other formats
Somehow increase text weight at the PDF level not as an image filter
Ability to run several pdfrasterfarian instances at once
Improve performance (currently... 4 to 15 minutes per 100 pages on my 1-core athlon 64)
Make a gui (with manual cropping, and zoom fragments)

Suggestions on fixing any of these or other issues are, of course, greatly appreciated. (Note to the hackers: the image-processing steps are all neatly isolated in the kernel-*.cmd files.)

SeNS

12-27-2006, 09:49 AM

Alex_d, could you please take a look to http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9146 ? I think JAP doing the same but with few additional features ;-)

alex_d

12-27-2006, 02:12 PM

lol. you could have REALLY told me about this a little sooner.

I must say i'm very impressed with the interface (something I put a lot of value in), but the program is missing all the boldness and sharpness enhancements to text of PDFrasterFarian. Second, the images it produces do not have the right resolution. Third, it keeps rotating "portrait" mode the wrong way so you can't really use portrait at all and it splits up landscape into multiple pages, which is unnecessary. Fourth, you're using lossy jpeg, aren't you? Lastly, it doesn't seem to autocrop each page individually. It crops one page and then makes every other (even/odd) page the same (not true autocropping).

For now, PDFrasterFarian gives MUCH better results, but I really hope our two efforts could be combined!

P.S. I'm russian speaking myself, but have been living in america for a while. Could I ask why does it seem that the biggest community of Sony Reader hackers is in Russia? You guys cant even order them, and I'd guess all but the noviye ruskiye wouldn't want to spend as much as on a computer on a device that only reads books. Then again, I don't have much money either and felt this was the right purchase.

Bob Russell

12-27-2006, 02:28 PM

I can't wait till this is a bit more mature and easy to install/run. Not being able to read PDFs has been one of the disappointments about the Sony Reader, so to hear that it can be remedied is awesome.

Was wondering about a few things in terms of the program so far:
(Forgive me if these are repetitive because I've missed the answers in the threads somewhere.)

1) When splitting into Landscape mode 2 pages per pdf page, what happens if a line falls exactly at the split point? Is there an overlapping portion in the middle?
2) Are there simple install instructions somewhere, and what needs to be installed in addition to the program? I saw AutoImager mentioned... is there anything else?
3) Is this is for Windows?
4) Is the average pdf page readable (albeit pretty small, so I'd have to use my glasses) in landscape mode now?

BTW, that would be awesome if the two of you could find a good way to combine efforts and get the best of both worlds! Thanks for the great contribution you are making for all of us!

alex_d

12-27-2006, 02:38 PM

Bob, could you please elaborate on the problems have with installing/running? I know v1 was quite confusing, but what are your impressions of v2? I really hope you could give feedback so that I could clear up any confusions in the UI.

ok, to answer your questions
1) Landscape mode gives a generous overlap of almost 20%. This is the same as if you rotated a pdf file. Quarters mode lets you adjust the overlap.
2) You need AutoImager and Adobe Reader (which I'm sure you already have). I plan that AutoImager won't be needed soon. The install instructions are very simple. Double-click 'install'. It explains a few things. What it says is that after installation, you can right-click any PDF in Explorer and there'll be a 'PDFrasterFarian' option.
3) Yes, it only works on Windows (2k/xp/vista).
4) Yes. With the new image enhancement of v2, the average page is even readable in portrait. Landscape you should find very comfortable.

Bob Russell

12-27-2006, 03:45 PM

Thanks for the info Alex!

Sorry, I wasn't being clear enough - actually, I'm trying to avoid being the early adopter on this one... I haven't tried to install. So as far as I know at this point, it works perfectly! ;-)

But looking forward to doing that install, I was wondering how that works, but your answers clear that up for me.

In fact, that additional info makes me all the more interested in trying it. If I get a block of time when I'm feeling adventurous, I may go ahead and try it. It would be really great to get this improved readability of pdfs. It's quite exciting actually.

kschan

12-27-2006, 08:59 PM

Alex,

I have been using earlier versions of PDFRasterFarian. I appreciate very much your continuing development of the program. For version 2, I came across the following problems:

1. I used all defaults in the conversion and tried to preview the first page, but there was an error message saying that
C:\Program Files\PDFRasterFarian 2.0.1 beta 1\temp\preview.png not found

2. I then ignored the error message and continued the process. Subsequently, the program hang when it rasterized the second page.

Hopefully, you can locate the problem and fix it. Thank you.

KSC

This is a sister thread to this one (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9106). I'm posting the beta here to get feedback before putting up the full version on the other thread. Please don't be shy about any comments, suggestions, or frank explanations about how it's all crap.

New features:
Much better boldness enhancement (see pics in other thread)
Quarters-of-a-page mode for even more readability
UI overhaul
Multithreading/multicore support
One-click profiles (not yet implemented in beta 1)
Promptless batch operation (not yet implemented in beta 1)

Known issues:
Currently, AutoImager (http://www.autoimager.com/download.asp) must be installed for the new image enhancement to work. Tips for another (free) program that can do grayscale dilation (or something better) are appreciated. My good friend ImageMagick is failing me here.
Also, only choice 1 works in the installer as of beta 1
Lastly, the color-reduction step doesn't quite output grayscale values 0, 85, 170, 255. Instead, it produces four palletized colors which merely come close. The Reader reinterprets these and the result sometimes is white backgrounds with slight dithering and (possibly) a reduction in text quality.

fixed (from 2.0.0):
Issue with ToC

Todo (short and long term):
Get the one-click/promptless thing to work
Support for rendering djvu and other formats
Somehow increase text weight at the PDF level not as an image filter
Bundle an applet for manual cropping
Ability to run several pdfrasterfarian instances at once
Somehow make things faster (on my 2.4ghz 1-core athlon pc, it takes 10-35 minutes per 100 pages, depending on options)

Suggestions on fixing any of these or other issues are, of course, greatly appreciated. (Note to the tweakers: the image-processing steps are all neatly isolated in the kernel-*.cmd files.)

alex_d

12-27-2006, 09:27 PM

kschan, did you install AutoImager? (link in op) You'll need this to use the new imaging mode, or else it'll give that error. You can also try going into Advanced mode and using 'simple' post-processing, which works the same as v1.0 and doesn't need anything. Let me know if either of those two things work. p.s. could you remove the enormous quote?

I'm happy you've found my script useful :) Thanks for the feedback.

SeNS

12-28-2006, 02:41 AM

P.S. I'm russian speaking myself, but have been living in america for a while. Could I ask why does it seem that the biggest community of Sony Reader hackers is in Russia?

Alex, come down. I'm not from Russia, I live in Boston for... nn years :-) But actually I'm Russian & speak Russian. You could join a Russian ebook-community (if you want) at www.the-ebook.org and we should talk about some progress in eBook-ing the World :-) (sorry, admins, it's not a "braindrain"; I think we should cooperate) Nevermind :-)

P.S. Alex, pics will come tomorrow...

alex_d

12-28-2006, 03:28 AM

i'm russian speaking... not quite russian writing, lol

still, i'm sure most people from that site do live in russia. and that site almost seems bigger than mobileread. i just find it odd.

Bob Russell

12-28-2006, 05:26 AM

You could join a Russian ebook-community (if you want) at www.the-ebook.org and we should talk about some progress in eBook-ing the World :-) (sorry, admins, it's not a "braindrain"; I think we should cooperate) Nevermind :-)No worries, SeNS.. we feel the same way. Cooperation is good for everyone. :)

mosh

12-29-2006, 01:12 PM

Running Windows XP

: c:\inetpub\law.lfr
Too many arguments in command line.

!!!!ERROR: Output file cannot be written to!

c:\inetpub\law.lfr.lrf

Possible causes include:
invalid filename
the file is already open
insufficient permissions

mosh

12-29-2006, 01:35 PM

in simple mode

Preparing...
Too many arguments in command line.

this section appears to be responsible:

ECHO.
ECHO Preparing...
"%relpath%software\pdftk.exe" "%inputFile%" dump_data output "%relpath%temp\doc_data.txt"
FOR /F "tokens=1-9" %%A in ('call more "%relpath%temp\doc_data.txt"') DO IF "%%A"=="NumberOfPages:" SET numPages=%%B
"%relpath%software\pdftk.exe" "%inputFile%" burst output "%relpath%\temp\stage1\%%04d" drop_xfa

jenia

12-29-2006, 03:40 PM

Alex, thanks for making this, it is truly the most useful tool for this device.
I had been trying to take roughly the same steps in acrobat pro to increase legibility, but this is certainly much better.
some observations: I was getting an error while doing the preview step and it was halting while rasterizing the second page, but lack of AutoImager explains it.
Parenthesis and some other characters in the file name cause the command window to close immediately after launching.
Version 2 with the autoimager option is a big improvement and I have had success with some difficult documents, including those converted from djvu to pdf, and those with cyrillic text (which is usually smaller and less legible than latin characters)
Thanks all for a great site
j

kschan

12-29-2006, 05:14 PM

Alex,

Many thanks for your hints. Indeed, I forgot to install autoimager. I'm on travel now and it is hard to download autoimager via phone line (which is what I have now!) I'll try it again after getting a fast link to internet.

kschan

bcamden

12-29-2006, 07:29 PM

alex_d,

This is a great product! An essential tool the likes of which Sony should have included with the Reader.

I have successfully got it working on Vista using Acrobat 8. Initially, Vista blocks the .cmd program, but after taking ownership of the whole directory, I could successfully remove the block and it works great!

The only glitch I noticed so far, is that a blank page results in an error message from AutoImager with a description "No files specified for image operation." After that no more rasterizing and post-processing occurs with PDFrasterFarian. It works OK after I remove blank pages using Acrobat so it is definitely not a show stopper.

dstewart

12-29-2006, 11:05 PM

Alex -- great stuff. I just got my Reader yesterday after hearing about it for months from mobileread user "geekraver" (who I know in "real" life). Anyway, I've been testing out the software on Charles Petzold's free ebook ".NET Book Zero" which you can find here (http://www.charlespetzold.com/dotnet/).

I've found that for some reason, it only finds 1 page in modes 1 or 2 (and the resulting file hangs my reader), but if I use 3 (all the options) mode, it finds all 267 pages. Not a huge deal, I'll just use option 3 and pick all the defaults from now on ;-)

evgen

12-30-2006, 04:03 PM

FWIW, I am finding that PDFrasterFarian is making my Reader more useful, so many thanks.

One bug/wierdness I have discovered in the 2.0 beta is that if you have a PDF that has blank pages in it the blank pages will end up croaking at the rasterizing and post-processing step. The stage 3 step for the blank page gives an error ("/typecheck in --get---") which leads to a "No such file..." OS error, croaks the ghostscript step, and finally ends with AutoImager popping up a "No files as input" dialog box.

alex_d

12-30-2006, 11:30 PM

thanks for the feedback and kind words!

jenia.. I'll work on fixing the issue with parantheses in file names. It's fundamentally a problem of the stupid, stupid, ridiculously stupid Windows CMD scripting language, but I think it can be corrected. Very important: which other characters gave you problems?

mosh.. i am not able to reproduce the "too many arguments" error. It could be the same problem of illegal characters as jenia. i'll think some more about this one, but maybe you can narrow down which of the three commands fails? (one trick is to insert the command "pause" or the command "echo About to Execute: xxxxx" on their own lines between other commands)

bcamden.. i didn't know vista did that. how annoying! (what... you can run any exe, but it blocks cmd? wth is the point?) I should get around to installing the RTM, but I really didn't enjoy the betas. (what an ugly and somewhat irritating ui... the windows vista guys should've really taken a page from the office 2007 guys.) Hmm, if you have any ideas about getting pdfrasterfarian to work out of the box on vista or which directions to give to users, let me know.

bcamden... autoimager gives that error with blank pages?? i do think that's a showstopper! thanks for pointing it out! anyway, autoimager has to get replaced because it's not free and it has to be installed by people, so the issue will resolve itself as soon as i find some other prog.

dstewart... I am able to reproduce the error with your pdf, but advanced mode works only if you do not strip the password, correct? (ie, not quite all defaults) I am working on a fix, thanks for the report!

evgen... same problem as bcamden. thanks for the feedback, hopefully i'll quickly get it fixed!

dstewart

12-30-2006, 11:50 PM

thanks for the feedback and kind words!
dstewart... I am able to reproduce the error with your pdf, but advanced mode works only if you do not strip the password, correct? (ie, not quite all defaults) I am working on a fix, thanks for the report!

That's correct -- not quite all defaults, I was not precise when I said that. Thanks for the quick response!

yunhaid

01-01-2007, 06:10 AM

hi,same as you,i also developed the pdftojpg ,it can auto output the "fit to view" jpgs from the pdf
you can see here
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9214
and i think the ghostscript seems not perfect for output jpg, i used the xpdf core

Vienna01

01-01-2007, 12:26 PM

I'm not sure this is the best way to mention a feature that I think would be helpful in ALL the programs that generate file formats that present well on the SONY Reader.

I find reading a bit awkward when one part of the sentence is on one page and one on the next page. I think an orphan control feature would be helpful. Maybe it needs to be more complex than IF SENTENCE DOESN"T FIT GO TO NEW PAGE because with large font size(TR 16-TR18)and small display size , long sentences would leave some pages very short as the moved to the next page. Maybe for sentences less than ## characters the rule would hold but for other a break in the sentence across pages would be "a necessary evil" <grin>

airlik

01-02-2007, 08:12 AM

I tried to convert The Works of Edgar Allan Poe from Google. I launched from the context menu and accepted all the defaults when prompted. It was unable to generate a preview page - I checked the path Paint was complaining about and there was no preview.png file there. I tried to preview another page with the same results. It went through and cropped all 349 pages fine, but when it started the next step (processing?) it only made it to page 2.

If you've any suggestions or would like the file, let me know - looking forward to seeing the results!

alex_d

01-02-2007, 03:36 PM

I've been investigating an improved text-procesing technique: making the text bolder at the font level, not as a 'photoshop' filter.

Doing this is turning out suprisingly difficult since a font's boldness is actually an inherent property. I've been able to get it to work manually by converting the pdf to postscript, extracting the fonts, running them through FontLab Studio to alter the weight, and reembedding them in the pdf. I'm not sure if it's all worth the effort, but the results do turn out pretty good.

Also, I've figured out how to speed things up tremendously. I'll release 2.1 soon with that change and other bugfixes.

P.S. airlik, i'll bet you don't have autoimager. (better error messages will also be in 2.1)

scotty1024

01-02-2007, 05:54 PM

Doing this is turning out suprisingly difficult since a font's boldness is actually an inherent property.

Actually its pretty simple but there are two issues that generally make it a b ad idea:

1. If the font is embedded it likely didn't come with the PDF (most embedded fonts come in Roman only)
2. The width of glyphs in bold fonts are generally larger than the width of the roman glyphs. The PDF will very probably come out looking like it was typeset by random chance.

Gameboy70

01-02-2007, 10:31 PM

For version 2, I came across the following problems:

1. I used all defaults in the conversion and tried to preview the first page, but there was an error message saying that
C:\Program Files\PDFRasterFarian 2.0.1 beta 1\temp\preview.png not found

2. I then ignored the error message and continued the process. Subsequently, the program hang when it rasterized the second page.I've encountered the exact same error with 2 different PDFs, tested on 2 PCs, although every other PDF I've run converts like a charm. In both cases the second page turned out to be a blank leader page inserted between the title page and the TOC. Since I have AutoImager installed, I get a error message from AI in addition to the one within PDFRF quoted above by kschan. Although it usually happens during the Rasterizing and Post-processing stage, the error message will be evoked during the preview stage if I select page 2 (the blank page) to preview.

On a different note, are Paint.NET or Gimp a possibilies for greyscale dilation? I'm not technical enough to know where this functionality is found, nor would I know if you can pipe straight through the apps and bypass their GUIs like you seem to be doing with AutoImager. While Gimp is probably better suited for the kind a batch processing you need, Paint.NET could replace MS Paint for previewing in addition to possibly handling the subsequent image editing functions. The clock is ticking on our trial installations of AI, and the thought of shelling out $60 to register the program is not attractive.

Another note: Am I missing the reason the for Landscape being the default layout? I would think that the overwhelming majority of PDFs out there are Portrait (I had 1 Landscape PDF in the ~35 PDFs I've converted so far). Not much of a complaint though -- it's just the one parameter that prevents me from lazily accepting all of the program's defaults.

Thanks for all of your hard work. This is a terrific tool. Now my Sony Reader is actually useful.

alex_d

01-02-2007, 11:00 PM

scotty, i'm not experimenting with the bold versions of the PDF's fonts. I'm extracting the normal versions and running them through a font processor which artificially makes them bolder while keeping the widths the same. I'm also converting truetype fonts into type 1, which isn't lossless either. I dunno, I haven't done too much testing, but I don't think the small imperfections matter much at the tiny font sizes we're concerned with. Also speaking of spacing... I've started playing with the "aligntopixels" option in ghostscript which makes the fonts clearer at the cost of poorer typesetting. For the 'simple' or 'none' processing modes this also seems a good tradeoff. (And while I'm on a typographical rant, I'd also like to mention ghostscript's infuriating habit of ignoring font hinting when using 2 or 4-bit antialiasing, since it just pretends it's rendering a letter two or four times bigger! Wth!)

gameboy, that's the blank page error. PDFs with blank pages don't work. It's fixed in PDFrasterFarian 2.1.0, among other things. Hmm.. as for dilation programs. Gimp sounds like a good candidate... I'll take a look. As for paint.net... does it require .net framework? AutoImager definately has to be replaced very soon thanks for the leads. And as for landscape mode... it's not for pdfs that are on their side.... it's for turning the Sony Reader on its side to read upright pdfs. Although I like portrait too, I have a feeling most people prefer the larger text of landscape. I'm working on a way for you to set up your own default options, however.

PDFrasterFarian 2.1.0 is on the way, probably tonight.

Gameboy70

01-02-2007, 11:57 PM

gameboy, that's the blank page error. PDFs with blank pages don't work. It's fixed in PDFrasterFarian 2.1.0, among other things. Hmm.. as for dilation programs. Gimp sounds like a good candidate... I'll take a look. As for paint.net... does it require .net framework? AutoImager definately has to be replaced very soon thanks for the leads. And as for landscape mode... it's not for pdfs that are on their side.... it's for turning the Sony Reader on its side to read upright pdfs. Although I like portrait too, I have a feeling most people prefer the larger text of landscape. I'm working on a way for you to set up your own default options, however.

PDFrasterFarian 2.1.0 is on the way, probably tonight.Sorry, missed the earlier reports of the blank page error. I thought I had a scoop. Paint.net does require the .Net 2.0 Framework, but it might be a practical long-term strategy if combined with Powershell (fka Monad) for scripting as a more robust alternative to CMD.

In the short run I'll delete the blank pages in Acrobat, unless you post PDFRF 2.1.0 first :cool:

I'll have to try processing a portrait-mode PDF with landscape optimization and see if the larger text is worth the additional scrolling (personally, I doubt it for me), but at least I understand the reasoning, and I appreciate the custom default configuration on the way. Thanks in advance for everything. You rock.

NatCh

01-04-2007, 05:58 PM

Hey, alex_d, I don't mean to jog your elbow or anything (:)), but any news on 2.1.0? :grin:

Gameboy70

01-04-2007, 07:18 PM

Yeah, what NatCh said ::wink, wink, nudge, nudge::

alex_d

01-04-2007, 07:32 PM

PDFrasterFarian 2.1.1 is out. If something doesn't work, try 2.0.1 and let me know about it. (note: switching between versions is easy, just rerun install)

NEW:
Way faster
Customizable defaults
Better text quality using 'simple' processing.
No need for password stripping

FIXED:
Blank pages crash
Various PDF incompatibilities (e.g. destwart's PDF, ABC-generated PDFs)
Clarifications of some error messages and captions
Autoimager's been cracked so it won't expire (this is a short-term solution)

KNOWN ISSUES:
Still incompatibile with some filename characters (e.g. parentheses)
When autocropping, the original cropbox is ignored. If something is revealed that was hidden, autocropping will include it leading to a larger page than with autocropping disabled.

Important: I have switched from passing ghostscript PDF files directly and instead I run them through PDFtoPS first. Ghostscript is like a retarded kid choosing ice cream when it comes to pdfs, and converting to postscript both gives the huge speedup and also allows some previously unreadable pdfs to be processed. PDFtoPS, however, is probably not perfect either. Let me know if you find PDFs that it can't handle. I wonder if there's some that ghotscript can read but pdftops can't.

EDIT: I fixed the pdftk/encryption issue. Also, manually inputing filenames wasn't working. Hence, 2.1.1

alex_d

01-04-2007, 09:32 PM

2.1.0's been updated to 2.1.1

download it from the OP

mosh

01-04-2007, 11:25 PM

Well I finally gave up trying to figure out why PDFRastaFarian could not create output files or why, after removing that section, it would continue to fail on extracting the pdf.

I am now running PDFRastaFarian on Win2k in a VM.

It appears that Ghostscript is unable to find gs_init.ps and therefore no png files are created.

Generating preview....
...Creating EPS file from PDF page
...Performing autocropping (this step may take several minutes)
...Rastering PNG file from EPS file (this step may take several minutes)
AFPL Ghostscript 8.54: Can't find initialization file gs_init.ps.
...Running PNG file through Sharpening filter
convert.exe: unable to open image `C:\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.1\\temp\prv_5.png': No
such file or directory.

SOLUTION

This issue occurs because the "kernel-preview.cmd" and "kernel-processing.cmd" both call GS with "PDFrasterFarian 2.1.0" as the directory whereas it is now "PDFrasterFarian 2.1.1".

A quick search/replace in both of those directories did not resolved this problem.

I had ensure that the drive letter was appended on this line in both files:

SET gs_includes=-I"c:\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.1\software\gs\gs8.54\lib" -I"c:\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.1\software\gs\gs8.54\Resource" -I"c:\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.1\software\gs\fonts"

Mosh

alex_d

01-04-2007, 11:53 PM

my apologies, you're right! posting 2.1.2 now, find it in post #1. (actually, the line should read "%relpath%\software\gs\gs8.54\lib")

NatCh

01-05-2007, 10:05 AM

Thanks, alex_d!

fifidong

01-05-2007, 02:25 PM

I still experience 0kb output file size on 2.1.2

alex_d

01-05-2007, 04:09 PM

I just redownloaded the zips and retested with a couple pdfs. It seems to be working for me. If anyone else is having problems, PLEASE SPEAK UP.

fifidong. One thing you could do is, right before it says "Press RETURN to close" is to post the file lrs2lrf.log, which will be in the same directory as your pdf, and the file temp.lrs, which will be in the 'temp' directory inside pdfrasterfarian. Also, take a look in temp\result and see if you see all the pages to your doc. Lastly, post the pdf too for good measure.

fifidong

01-05-2007, 05:15 PM

Input File Name : C:\Documents and Settings\dongsshi\Desktop\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.2\\temp\temp.lrs
Output File Name : C:\Documents and Settings\dongsshi\Desktop\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.2\_30__revive.lrf
ファイルの整合性をチェックします
整合性のチェック完了
[Warning ] Publisherの文字列が長すぎて、表示しきれない場合があります。
書誌情報ファイルの整合性をチェックします
書誌情報ファイルの整合性チェック完了
[Warning ] Invalid value blockrule. Set Default value [line: 37]
[Error ] Invalid file encoding. [line: 39]
ファイルが正しくありません
強制終了
次のファイルを削除します。:: C:\Documents and Settings\dongsshi\Desktop\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.2\_30__revive.lrf

That's what the lrs2lrf.log file contains
I have no clue why those Japanese Fonts are in there.
Also, I have installed East Asian Languages but, Language for non-Unicode programs is set to English (US default).

I attempted on several files, including this one (12 pages)
and eBooks. However same thing happens.

alex_d

01-05-2007, 06:39 PM

The pdf seems to work for me. Please attach temp\temp.lrs. (zip it up and use the attach function)

fifidong

01-05-2007, 07:25 PM

temp.lrs attached

fifidong

01-05-2007, 07:28 PM

I'm not sure but kernel-LRS.cmd and the temp.lrs seems to be non-ANSI encoding.

in Textpad when I try to open, it says

"WARNING: "kernel-LRS.cmd" contains characters that do not exist in code page 1252 (ANSI - Latin I). They will be converted to the system default character, if you click OK"

alex_d

01-05-2007, 07:39 PM

thanks.
hmm... I am at a loss at what's wrong. It does seem to be something with how your system handles foreign characters (seeing as your lrs is identical, and looking at the error lrs2lrf spits out). The japanese there is by default, since the .dll is from the Librie. The input LRS file also contains a bit of japanese to define a font (dunno, i just copied it straight from another LRS). It's encoded in UTF-8, which is a bit of a weird standard. However, my non-unicode language is also set to English, and i've got East Asian languages installed as do you. I've got no clue... anyone else have this problem?

In other news, I found a typo that prevented table of contents from working, and another bug that messes up page ordering in quarters-of-a-page mode. I'll post 2.1.3 tonight, whether or not we figure out fifidong's issue.

EDIT: yeah, textpad can't handle UTF-8. Neither can wordpad. Notepad, of all things, seems to work. However, that in itself isn't the problem.

alex_d

01-05-2007, 09:51 PM

2.1.3's been posted with the aforementioned fixes

EDIT: hmm... fifidong, aparently everything works if you just delete the part where you specify a japanese font. I'll put it in the next release. I think you'll probably be able to do it yourself (it's a short tag in kernel-LRS.cmd). let me know if it works.

jakeluck

01-08-2007, 03:05 AM

simply amazing software, all my 2 columns peer-review papers are all nicely sectioned into 4 pages. thanks for the great job!

JimCuk

01-08-2007, 06:56 AM

Alex,
Any idea why I ALWAYS get pages out of sync. Almost all of them fall in a random order. Even if I go through all advanced options. Trying to create a portrait LRF from a PDF, tried using the latest version but no luck.

JimCuk

01-08-2007, 12:55 PM

I think, though dont quote me (still testing) its the multi threading part thats messing it up. Changed it to one thread in the options and now the order seems ok, does this sound plausible?

jakeluck

01-08-2007, 01:38 PM

(manually cropped using acrobat, and selected formatting in portrait mode, rastering using 2.1.3).

...PROCESSING
Starting to process page: 1 of 13
Starting to process page: 2 of 13
Starting to process page: 3 of 13
Starting to process page: 4 of 13
Starting to process page: 5 of 13
Starting to process page: 6 of 13
Starting to process page: 7 of 13
Starting to process page: 8 of 13

runtime error R6028
- unable to initialize heap

when i clicked okay from the dialog box that poped up about sleep.exe, the rest went through. thought you may like to know.

alex_d

01-08-2007, 08:43 PM

JinCuk... you're saying page order is completely random for you... unless you only use one thread. Lol, well, at least you've discovered a workaround.

Hmm... Are they totally random (eg, page 1 goes to page 100) or only somewhat random (page 54 goes to page 52)? Thing is that at the point where multithreading is working, page numbers aren't really able to go out of order. My feeling is that maybe when that step finishes, and all the pages are in one folder, and my script asks Windows to list the contents of that folder.... windows doesn't list it in alphabetical (numerical) order and the pages get created in whatever way they're listed.

On my machine and seemingly most other people's it's always alphabetical, but maybe that can change. Could you do me a favor and right before you do "Press RETURN to close...", you go into temp/result and take a look at the files there? What order are they in? Also, if you take a file, eg, "0025" and rename it to "0025.png" and open it, is it a picture of page 25?

If it's just a problem of ordering, I should be able to fix it easily. I thought i could get away with a more elegant method, but guess not.

jakeluck... thanks for the bugreport. Sounds like it's not so much a bug as just windows running out of ram. What puzzles me is why sleep crashes and nothing else. However, sleep.exe doesn't do much and it doesn't really matter. Let me know if this happens often/repeatably or with plenty of free ram.

jakeluck

01-09-2007, 12:36 AM

alex, thanks for the tip, i increased my RAM by another 512MB and the problem hasn't appeared again sofar.

a feature suggestion:

a half-of-a-page layout: i have a number of books that are 2 pages on a landscaped letter page. right now i manually crop and split the pdf and then use my custom written pdf merging app to shuffle togetherthe pages again. would you please implement this layout structure?

JimCuk

01-09-2007, 02:59 AM

Alex, Its not completely random just up to 4 pages out of sync. Im testing it with multi threading now.

Re Jakes problem Its memory related I suspect as I had it too when I turned off my pagefile and ran out of ram. Just increase your pagefile or run fraster on its own.

Will be back in a bit with more info re: page sync problems

JimCuk

01-09-2007, 03:54 AM

Ok so more info on sync problem, in the Result folder the pages are in correct order, both the file order in windows and the pages themselves IE 0013 is page 13 in the book. But in the LRF page 13 is page 14. :|

grebki

01-09-2007, 02:29 PM

Hi,
I'm having trouble with PDF's that are in Landscape setting (for example, PDF printed PowerPoint slides) and PDF's with mixed Landscape/Portriat pages. It seems that the tool always expects the page to be portrait, and if it is rotated to landscape, then the resulting rasterized page has a large blank area at the top, and the rest of the page squished into the bottom -- as if the landscape page were shrunk down to fit onto a portriat page. Is there a setting to rotate landscape pages before processing or something like that?

-G

SeNS

01-09-2007, 04:02 PM

grebki, try JAP http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9146&page=1. You can set parameters for each page manually.

jbresee

01-09-2007, 05:35 PM

I can't get the pdfrasterfarian to install under vista.
It's something to do with how the relative paths are pieced together - it ends up with an extra slash.

If I try to execute at the cmd line, it complains that UI captions.cmd is not a recognized command.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Jim

grebki

01-09-2007, 05:50 PM

JAP works well! I simply rotated the pages, re-printed them to PDF, and then PDFRasterFarized them. Looks good -- It's especially nice for all of the engineering documentation that has lots of tables/digrams/etc. that I need. Now I can look like a Star Trek geek in the lab! WooHoo!

Hmm. Maybe I spoke too soon... It works with 1/4 page, but if I only have 1 frame and rotate, then for some reason it automagicallly figures out that it should still be landscape and rotates it back when viewing (and RasterFarizing)? Strange.

-G

alex_d

01-09-2007, 07:08 PM

whoa... JAP can be used to pre-process pdfs for pdfrasterfarian?

that's definately a good combo. jap for manual cropping + pdfrasterfarian for post-processing. jap still has a couple of issues, though (as, of course, does pdfrasterfarian).

JimCuk... hold on and i'll post 2.1.4 with the fix.
jpresee... i don't have vista yet so i can't test. Someone else on this thread had a problem with vista and was able to solve it (something about vista blocking cmd script files). The extra slash shouldn't matter.

JimCuk

01-10-2007, 07:17 AM

Cheers Alex :D

evgen

01-10-2007, 12:21 PM

Just curious, but given the fact that Adobe Reader is a bloated piece of crapware (that now has known security problems) it tends to be the first thing I nuke from my boxes to be replaced with FoxIt. What role does it play in the process?

jenia

01-10-2007, 01:11 PM

man, so many russkies here - it must be because of the special respect we have for the written word (and for intellectual property rights :wink: )

anyway, in addition to the parenthesis, having the ampersand (&) in the file name causes the app to hang after the first step. I gather it can't find the file - in mode two it directs me to go to mode three, saying that I can input file names manually, while in mode 3, it asks to input the file path.

also, at the step when you are asked to enter the name and author of the book, if you enter an ampersand in the title, it won't show up in the catalog of the reader or the connect software - the filename will show up instead.

magogo

01-11-2007, 10:58 PM

memobug

01-12-2007, 02:47 AM

Would it be possible or the preview mode to show half the page processed and half unprocessed? or maybe a range from light to dark enhancement 0 - 20?

Regards,

Matt

JimCuk

01-12-2007, 01:02 PM

Alex,
Still getting the same problem with the new version if I run multiple threads. This is trying advanced mode portrait.

Jim

fongwun

01-12-2007, 08:36 PM

fongwun

01-12-2007, 09:03 PM

I found more about the error. The post processing failed at:

"%relpath%\software\AutoImager\AutoImager.exe" /f %relpath%\temp\stage5\%page% /p Dilate /d /op %relpath%\temp\stage6\

I tried to run this command manually using some of your output images. It didn't produce any output files. This is probably why I got blank images at the end. Is there any reason the AutoImager doesn't work?

baker101

01-14-2007, 10:15 AM

hi i got the same error....do we need the full version of autoimage?

thanks.

cardician

01-14-2007, 07:22 PM

Am finally able to get an output file when using autoimager with PDFrasterFarian2.1.3. Went to autoimager.com and downloaded the demo straight to my PDFrasterFarian2.1.3. directory and opened/ran autoimager from there. Output file is now saved. (tah dahh!)
- BUT, looks like you need to NOT use autocropping if you process with autoimager. Otherwise, at least for me, using autocropping at this date vastly minimizes the image when using autoimager. There's no doubt some internal setting that will take care of this.
- Also, for Two-Column books, I choose 3 Advanced, Vertical 0%, Horizontal 10% default, and use autoimager (but NOT autocropping). This gives me a real nice display on the Reader.
- I'd like to thank alex_d for posting this terrific program. He sure adds a lot of value to using a Sony Reader.
- Sorry for the long note, but I'm only allowed to post anything on the Internet once a year.

baker101

01-14-2007, 08:22 PM

yup, after the install of image program in the directory of rastafarian works. awesome.. thanks cardician.

Vienna01

01-14-2007, 09:46 PM

Where is the most recent version of PDFrasterFarian posted?

baker101

01-14-2007, 10:39 PM

first pg version 2.1.3 i believe.

Where is the most recent version of PDFrasterFarian posted?

alex_d

01-16-2007, 03:56 AM

My apologies for the lack of updates! Ok, here it is, 2.1.4. Find it on page 1.

NEW:
You don't have to close MSPaint to preview another page/setting. (For comparing different settings.)

FIXED:
+The big "invalid encoding" error. (At least, I think it's fixed... please verify.) This was being caused by the blank.png file I was using which wasn't really a PNG (stupid mspaint). Issue appeared when a PDF had blank pages or AutoImager wasn't installed (which causes the whole document to have blank pages). Your guys' talk about installing autoimager into the pdfrasterfarian directory is confusing me, however. Did you try installing into the default windows path first? Also, are you installing into pdfrasterfarian 2.1.3\software\AutoImager, and overwriting what's there? There may be a larger issue with autoimager not working, and this may require another solution.
+Pages out of order issue
+Autocropping without previewing results in teeny tiny pages (or, actually, autocropping was severely crippled... it mistakenly used the bounding box generated during preview, rather than the one generated individually for each page)
+A few more UI clarifications (e.g. regarding autoimager)

Kind of dealt with:
+Filename issues. I don't think this can fully be solved because of the ridiculous way Windows CMD scripts handle variables. Instead of crashing, however, it now prints a message.

evgen, adobe software is required because of the way Windows handles context menus for file types. When adobe is installed, it owns .pdf files and if i want to add another option i have to go into adobe's place in the registry. To make this work with Foxit, please go to Folder Options>File Types>PDF>Advanced>New. Give the action a weird name, then go into regedit and search for it. Let me know the place in the registry that it ends up.

memobug, there isn't much point comparing processed to unprocessed. Rather, the prudent option would be to compare one type of processing to another that you pick. However, cutting up the page one way will also not work for people since it hides stuff. To fix it you get into even more options and parameters, and it all gets crowded since I don't have anything close to a proper UI. Quickest fix is to just not require you to close Paint after previewing. Done. (although it wasn't quite as straightforward as it sounds)

ok... so we have to examine the weird autoimager installation issue. Besides that, though, do you guys think pdfrasterfarian at this point can be deemed stable? Anything else to fix/add/clarify before primetime? Please speak up.

Corwin

01-16-2007, 12:20 PM

Some questions:
1. Is it possible to increase the size of font? I see that PDFrasterFarian fits the original A4 size to 6'' display of Reader, but the result is to small to read :(
2. When I use Size button of reader, text looks very bad to read and some piece of text disepears in the right coner.

P.S. I use portrait mode.

magogo

01-16-2007, 08:29 PM

alex_d

01-17-2007, 09:07 PM

corwin, to make things bigger convert using a different layout, such as landscape or quarters-of-a-page. When converting with landscape, put the Reader into landscape mode as well by holding the Size button for 5-10 seconds.

In fact, the default mode is landscape. If you convert using this mode and then do not put the Reader into the same mode, the text will look very bad. Hmm.... I think I should change this behavior. I wonder how many people tried pdfrasterfarian and thought it did a horrible job... Also, I wonder how many people didn't think to use landscape because they thought it was for landscape documents. Ugh. Alright, I'll work on making the relevant UI screen much clearer.

nerys

01-20-2007, 06:57 AM

Now consider the following with the knowledge that I know NOTHING of programming. After reading a few converted books I have found the software currently to be unsuable for the "page swapping" of pages 1 and 2 actually occurs THROUGHOUT the entire book seemingly at random.

I THINK I may know a possible reason for why it is doing this.

I noticed that so far in all cases that page that is out of place is SMALLER than the page its wrongly in front of.

I also noticed the software does TWO pages at a time. IE in sets of two.

so what happens if it finishes processing page 2 of the set of 2 before it finishes page 1 ? I am thinking when it does pages 1 and 2 whatever pages is done first is set as page 1 and therefore the other page is page 2

this would explain the 2/1 swap and why it randomly swaps other pages throughout a book.

Just an idea a simple way to test is to make it to do only one page at a time so this can not occur.

alex_d

01-20-2007, 08:34 AM

what?! you still get page swapping??? with v2.1.4? oh, man, damn. On my machine, changing the order in which the threads finish does not reproduce this bug. (It is easy to affect the order. If you put the focus on one of the thread windows, Windows grants it higher priority and it finishes sooner.)

nerys

01-20-2007, 12:25 PM

like I said I know nothing about programming I just happened to notice that the smaller pages tended to get flipped. I am going to try to test this by making the second page difinitively smaller than the first (sine I have a 100% occurrence of first page second page swapping if this gets rid of it it increases the chances that size might be an issue)

alex_d

01-21-2007, 02:44 AM

ok, nerys, you seem like you have plenty of enthusiasm to investigate this further. Open modules\kernel-processing.cmd. Near the bottom, on something like line 101, replace
del /Q "%relpath%\temp\stage1\%page%" & del /Q "......
with
REM del /Q "%relpath%\temp\stage1\%page%" & del /Q "......
this'll keep the intermediate file from being deleted.

Then, convert a pdf. When PDFrasterFarian finished, DO NOT "Press RETURN to close"
Look in the folders temp\stage4 through stage8 and also temp\result
Depending on the convert options, some of these folders may be empty. However, all the files you see are .PNG files. To open one, change its filename from, eg, 0001 to 0001.png. Please check these files to see if their filenames correspond to the actual pages they show. Also, upload temp\temp.lrs.

nerys

01-21-2007, 05:32 AM

hmmmm I do not have a kerney processing cmd file

I have 4 Kernel files all are kernel-xxx
autocrop
HQ
none
simple

then 3 UI - xxx.cmd files

advanced
normal
simple

and book_thumb.gif

thats it ??

Cogito

01-21-2007, 04:27 PM

Azayzel

01-21-2007, 04:56 PM

Dear Alex,
Okay, I’m an idiot. And a Mac user. I only installed Windows on my computer so I can use the Sony Connect software. So forgive me for this newbie question…

When I run PDFrasterFarian (Windows NT Command Script), the screen offers three user interface levels, and no matter which one I choose, I receive the following error message:

!!ERROR: No OUTPUT filename specified in the command. NOTE: From the command line, use PDFrasterFarian “input.pdf” “output.lrf”

I know there’s something basic I can’t figure out. Would appreciate any thoughts.

Best,
Craig

Craig,
After you've run the "install.cmd" batch once, you should have a context menu added for when you right-click on PDF files that says "PDFrasterFarian." Have you been using this option to convert, or have you been trying to run the "PDFrasterFarian.cmd" batch? I chose the basic setting when I installed the package and haven't encountered this error when using the context menu.

Hopefully this helps, if not I'm sure Alex will answer you shortly.

alex_d

01-21-2007, 07:37 PM

dammit, nerys, download 2.1.4. you got me worried.

cogito, it's mostly what azayzel said. Also, have you read the screens carefully or been able to follow them? (i know for the most part they're pretty confusing) With a fresh windows install, you'll need Adobe Reader installed for the context menu to show up. It's a peculiarity of the way the windows registry works (and probably of my limited knowledge of it). Tips on how to reword the relevant screens or deal with the registry are appreciated.

Cogito

01-22-2007, 12:26 AM

Thanks for the help Alex and Azayzel,
I was dragging my original .pdf onto the PDFrasterfarian icon, which opened the program but gave me the error I wrote of.
I then downloaded acrobat reader for the windows side of my computer and had to learn how to “right click” with a MacBook Pro which has only one button. (put two fingers on the track pad while clicking)
The program then opened and I just formatted my first book and can read it on my Sony.
Thank you again gentlemen,
Craig

alex_d

01-23-2007, 07:54 AM

Ok, I was finally able to get 2.1.5 uploaded. Get it HERE (http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/PDFrasterFarian%202.1.5.rar) (the link should work an hour after this is posted). Also, there's a copy of AutoImager here (http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/AutoImager_SETUP.exe).

Some nice improvements for newbies (a few captions got reworded, esp the most confusing ones). A few minor fixes for the rest (esp. in regard to manual filename entry).

I feel this is the definitive pdfrasterfarian version. At least until I start implementing new features. (But no one's really requested any... although one-click profiles sound very useful.)

Please try it out and let me know if there's any showstoppers or if the rar is corrupt or anything.

Oh, one last thing. I found a couple PDFs that pdfrasterfarian croaks on. Just Another Printer dies on it too. Optimizing in Acrobat Pro doesn't help. If someone could please, please, please find a way to process this thing to make it work, I would greatly appreciate it.

A page from the broken PDF (http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/Visual%20Basic%ae%202005%20Programmer%92s%20Refere nce.page.pdf). PDFrasterFarian reports a page count of 0, JAP just gives an file error.

alex_d

01-24-2007, 07:35 AM

ahh... ok. the problem with my pdf was the (R) symbol in the filename. It wasn't a windows script error this time (ie pdfrasterfarian itself). Instead it seems virtually every tool except for Acrobat Reader stops working when given such a filename (and doesn't tell you why).

LockeCole

01-24-2007, 08:59 AM

Wow, I love you Alex! This program is BRILLIANT, seriously.

One suggestion for a future version (my appoligies if someone suggested this before) The option of choosing a range of pages, like 2-60 or whatnot to make into one file.

Seriously man, thanks alot I've been pulling my hair at the way Sony had the reader and connect handle files, you've made it so much easier. Thanks!

pinenut

01-24-2007, 11:00 AM

I installed 2.1.5 but nothing happens on right clicking in Windows explorer. What else do I need to do?

alex_d

01-24-2007, 09:49 PM

ogghead

01-25-2007, 12:06 AM

I downloaded 2.16 from the link in your comment, but both 7-Zip and UnRAR foir Windows gave me a CRC error. I downloaded it again--no luck. Does it unpack for others?

ultim8fury

01-25-2007, 01:10 AM

Also getting a CRC error on 2.1.6 with MacPar Deluxe on OS X.

Azayzel

01-25-2007, 01:54 AM

ok... no one's bothered to mention this, and I'm not sure why I haven't figured this out already, but blank pages, although technically work, still get autoimager to put out an error message and you have to click OK in order to continue. people... when you notice something like this, please say something.

anyway, to fix the annoyance get 2.1.6 (http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/PDFrasterFarian%202.1.6.rar)

Hmmm... Alex, I've ran this on a PDF or two that had blank pages and didn't receive any errors. Not sure why, but I see the blank pages in the result. Haven't tried the latest version yet (though I'll d/l and test to check the CRC issue for you from my end), as I'm happy with how it works so far.

FYI I used you prog to prep up a manga scanlation following JE-Comic Creator and the results were friggin perfect! This is a great combination of two tools you dev's have put together. The result of the original PDF was ~26MB and after PDFrasterfarian it was down to ~12MB and pages loaded noticably quicker (not to mention the filters you run on the PDF removed quite a bit of ghosting). Here's a question though... If PDFrasterfarian transcodes the PDF to an image file, can't it be used to stitch together a bunch of images into a single file like JE-Comics Creator does? The reason I ask is that I'm trying to skip the whole convert to PDF portion of the process (though this only takes about 20-seconds).

Thanks man, have a nice day!

pinenut

01-25-2007, 03:45 AM

I am also getting a CRC error on 2.1.5 and 2.1.6.

Bob Russell

01-25-2007, 05:34 AM

Here's a question though... If PDFrasterfarian transcodes the PDF to an image file, can't it be used to stitch together a bunch of images into a single file like JE-Comics Creator does? The reason I ask is that I'm trying to skip the whole convert to PDF portion of the process (though this only takes about 20-seconds).I've been wondering the same thing. But my reason is that document scan images could then be prepared for the Reader without OCRing them.

Then if there was an automatic way of also automatically separating two page scans into two images in the right order, one could scan a book pretty quickly with two page scans on just about any scanner and turn it into something the Reader can see. That would be an unbelievable tool! ;-)

Alexander Turcic

01-25-2007, 09:50 AM

I am also getting a CRC error on 2.1.5 and 2.1.6.
I remember Alex was having a bad connection to our servers. My guess is that the last update has CRC errors because of that.

bugsbunny14

01-25-2007, 10:36 AM

hello all,
i am using version 2.1.4 , and the problem i am facing is that when i convert my pdf files to .irf using PDFrasterFarian the clearity is very good but the font size is very small , so when i make the page size larger on my sony reader (from small to medium or large ) the clearity becomes very bad , so is there a way to fix that ?

thanks .

yunhaid

01-25-2007, 09:13 PM

can you give me the lrf.dll and lrf.h file?
i have some intersting in pdftolrf.

alex_d

01-25-2007, 10:06 PM

yeah, sigh, i guess my uploading is still not working. ok, i've now tried creating a rar with a 10% recovery record. in theory, this should correct the errors that are introduced when i try to upload. The problem is the connection keeps breaking off and resuming, and I guess Filezilla doesn't handle this part perfectly. Or maybe even straight uploading doesn't work too well either. Anyway, download 2.1.6 here (http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/PDFrasterFarian%202.1.6.rar) and let me know if the recovery record helps.

Azayzel, PDFrasterFarian could very easily be made to work with images. Ok, in 2.2 you'll be able to right-click a folder and process and glue the images in it. I'm afraid the same page ordering issues as in pre-2.1.4 might resurface, but I don't think those affected too many people. (And the people with those problems can just go back to je-comic creator)

Bob, would simply splitting the image down the middle (or by some configurable but constant position) satisfy you? If you do your scans carefully, i think so. This would also not be a problem to add, and i'll put it in 2.2.

Also, maybe someone could do the homework for me and find a nice DjVu-to-PNG/JPG converter. (DjVu is a popular file format for scanned documents.) I'd like to put this in 2.2 as well.

The one-click-profiles feature is also itching me (ie an extra, configurable context-menu option that does a conversion without asking any questions). Thing is that simply adding a one-click-profile is easy. The hard part is actually deleting it (at least if you have more than one). You have to parse the Registry, present the existing profiles to the user, etc.

Oh, and, with one-click profiles you'd also want multiple conversion instances even more, so you could just fire a bunch of them off and go to sleep. To make temp folders that are different on each instance is easy. Cleaning up after people close pdfrasterfarian improperly is harder. Hmm... I guess i'll check timestamps on startup and delete older temp directories.

Lastly, specifying a page range for conversion is also not a problem. I'm not sure how many people really need this feature, but I'll chuck it into advanced mode.

hmm... if i implement all these features maybe i should call the new version 2.5

bugsbunny, the way to make things bigger is not to use the reader's size button, but to change a pdfrasterfarian parameter. In 2.1.4 this was called "landscape" mode. In 2.1.6 it's referred to as "splitting a page in two." I know this has been confusing many people, and it's frustatrating me that I can't get the new version out.

alex_d

01-25-2007, 10:11 PM

yunhaid, take a look here: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_conversion
the lrs2lrf is the tool i'm using to compile lrs source files into BBeB books. It makes use of the zylog dll, which oyu can also access directly. However, I don't know the headers to it or anything like that. I also used the lrf2lrs tool to see examples of sources files. I typically decompiled books made in bookcreator. There's also a full BBeB spec in another thread.

xietamu

01-26-2007, 01:23 AM

alex,

thanks for the program, it's great ;)

djvu to image conversion can be done using opensource djvulibre ( http://djvu.sourceforge.net/ ) package, it has a program ddjvu (although as I recall the output was to pbm and tiff only, I hope it's not a problem as ImageMagick can handle those)

Alexander Turcic

01-26-2007, 02:18 AM

Or maybe even straight uploading doesn't work too well either. Anyway, download 2.1.6 here (http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/PDFrasterFarian%202.1.6.rar) and let me know if the recovery record helps.
Works fine this time, thank you!

basil_555

01-29-2007, 03:58 AM

I noticed, that when I increase the size of PDF files, created with PDFrasterfarian, the Reader doesn't show the bottom part of the page, so this part is completely lost from view, and it isn't shown on the next page as well. Is there is a way to fix it?

alex_d

01-31-2007, 03:05 AM

basil, don't use the Size button on the Sony Reader except to switch from portrait to landscape. It looks ugly if you try this, and you cannot move the viewport to see the parts which are cut off.

because pdfrasterfarian encodes the pdf as images, you have to decide at conversion time how you want the result to look. i'm not aware of any .lrf feature that'll let me switch up the images that are displayed based on the orientation or size settings on the Reader.

kitsunebi

01-31-2007, 01:33 PM

PDFrasterFarian sounds like exactly what I need. I've had no luck reading the PDF versions of Google digitized books on my Sony Reader. I successfully downloaded and unzipped PDFrasterFarian 2.1.6, but I don't get a user interface when I click on the icon in Windows. Should I? Is there a user's guide or help file? All I see are three folders, "modules," "software," and "temp" plus the install/uninstall files. What's the next step to get the program running? Thanks...

jthunt11

01-31-2007, 03:20 PM

alex_d

This alone has made me buy a Sony Reader and it works perfectly on the PDF files I want to convert.

Thank you VERY much for this.

basil_555

01-31-2007, 03:34 PM

Yes, PDFrasterFarian is a GREAT program!

kitsunebi

02-02-2007, 10:39 AM

The instructions say that "The install/uninstall scripts put a context menu option for pdfs into windows explorer." This does not seem to occur for me after running install (I hit return as suggested for "quick install" and got the message "installation done." But when I right-click a PDF in Windows Explorer there is no "PDFrasterFarian" option. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks for anyone's help.

kitsunebi

02-03-2007, 01:21 PM

Please (continue to) ignore my two previous posts. I was able to install PDFrasterFarian successfully and am delighted by its effectiveness. I can finally read all my Google books! Outstanding program.

jmmcg9

02-03-2007, 10:41 PM

What did you do to get the program to work? Thx, Joe

jthunt11

02-04-2007, 11:52 AM

You will want to move the folder that PDFrasterFarian is in to somewhere you are going to keep it. (I put it under c:\program files\ebook\ ). When you have it there, double click on the install.cmd, follow the prompts, and thats it.

Now just right click on the PDF file you want to convert and you will see a PDFrasterFarian option.

kitsunebi

02-04-2007, 09:20 PM

What did you do to get the program to work? Thx, Joe

I did two things: (a) I re-downloaded the program and (b) I temporarily turned off my computer's firewall and then reinstalled it. I hadn't turned off my firewall before.

TND

02-15-2007, 12:11 AM

Humm.. I seem to be having a weird problem. Proggy hangs after the first 2 pages.

Is anyone else having the same problem? Any fixes?

alex_d

02-26-2007, 11:16 PM

ok, check out version 2.2.0 (http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/PDFrasterFarian%202.2.0.rar)

NEW:

+better image quality (sharper and higher contrast, but a bit less smooth)

+no more AutoImager (i wrote my own dilate filter)

+installation/right-click menu now not necessary. Just double-click "PDFrasterFarian.cmd" and use the regular Windows dialog box to choose a PDF to open and a filename to save.

+conversion is ~20% faster

+"promptless" support (can be called from a batch script without user input... post if you'd like more details)

I really hope this fixes the problems people had getting PDFrasterFarian to work and also offers good improvement for the older users. The interface in 2.2 is still text-based, but i'm working on 3.0 with a gui with layout manipulation, manual cropping, folders of images, batched conversions, etc.

Note: .NET Framework 2.0 is now required (hey... it's not as bad as Java)

Azayzel

02-27-2007, 12:57 AM

Sweet! This is nice, I'll have to give it a whirl and compare it with previous runs in your earlier version. Must've been a bugger to write your own filter to apply (a friend of mine did one with a stego-detection program he wrote, but it was done it Java... I think). Thanks Alex!

RTbar

02-27-2007, 10:35 AM

Mine goes to pages into the process and then the dilater says it has an error and must close. when I try to use the right click, it works, but makes a 2kb file that is unreadable

RSaunders

02-27-2007, 10:49 AM

Mine goes to pages into the process and then the dilater says it has an error and must close. when I try to use the right click, it works, but makes a 2kb file that is unreadable
When I run it, on a 16 page PDF, it gives no errors put produces the same size (2kb) file. The file, with .PDF extension, is not appealing to Acrobat. The first letters are "L R F è þ4 ", rather than the "%PDF-1.5 %âãÏÓ" you might expect.

Dave Qua

02-27-2007, 11:06 AM

RTbar

02-27-2007, 04:15 PM

Im running XP and I used 2.16 fine, but now 2.20 wont go past the dialter on page 2

alex_d

02-28-2007, 01:25 AM

Overwriting the original PDF and outputting another PDF is definately not what it is supposed to be doing. I've found and fixed the problem. And I think I've found how to fix the .net error, but Dave will let me know regarding that.

I've also deleted all the captions referencing the evil AutoImager.

PDFrasterfarian 2.2.1 (http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/PDFrasterFarian%202.2.1.rar)

"Sweet! This is nice, I'll have to give it a whirl and compare it with previous runs in your earlier version. Must've been a bugger to write your own filter to apply (a friend of mine did one with a stego-detection program he wrote, but it was done it Java... I think). Thanks Alex!"

Actually, the dilate filter turned out mind-numblingly easy. You just read in nine pixels and output the biggest of the bunch. I implemented it as a native C++/CLI library that I call from a .NET executable (in which i read the png into memory and get a pointer to the raw data). Implementing an image filter in Java must have given some horrible performance.

But anyway, please compare the new post-processing. It's easier to read but maybe not as nice to look at as the older fuzzier version. There's also some concern that the mode that i now run ghostscript in will render some fonts incorrectly. I think I'll restore the old processing as an option under Advance mode. If you'd like, you can also try tweaking kernel-processing.cmd/kernel-preview.cmd to see if maybe you can arrive at better settings.

Some notable lines:
line 73/74 which controls ghostscript (the new param -dGridFitTT=3 may give problems. Old behavior was =2)
line 82/83 which runs the contrast-enhancing filter. (new param is -unsharp 2x0.8+2.0, old is -unsharp 2x1+1)

alex_d

02-28-2007, 07:50 PM

by the lack of, "omg, pdfrasterfarian formatted my computer," i'm guessing 2.2.1 is working smoothly?

TND

02-28-2007, 09:45 PM

Just tried the new version. But it seems to be still generating a PDF and overwriting the original PDF file.

Cheers,
TJ

by the lack of, "omg, pdfrasterfarian formatted my computer," i'm guessing 2.2.1 is working smoothly?

alex_d

03-01-2007, 05:17 AM

oops, that's because the link is wrong and was pointing back to 2.2.0 (the name of the rar file was also 2.2.0)

here's the right one:
http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/alex_d/PDFrasterFarian%202.2.1.rar

Dave Qua

03-01-2007, 09:43 AM

I'm still getting the same problem as noted above. I deleted the old copy of the prog from my computer but the new version also hangs after processing the first 2 pages

RSaunders

03-01-2007, 10:33 AM

I'm still getting the same problem as noted above. I deleted the old copy of the prog from my computer but the new version also hangs after processing the first 2 pages
Me too. I got the new 2.2.1 rar, uninstalled and deleted the 2.2.0, installed 2.2.1, installed the .NET 2 framework, and I get the following:
...Creating EPS file from PDF page
...Performing autocropping (this step may take several minutes)
...Rastering PNG file from EPS file (this step may take several minutes)
...Running PNG file through Dilation and Shrink filters

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'imageManip, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)
File name: 'imageManip, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800736B1): This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)
at Dilate.Program.Dilate(Bitmap bitmap)
at Dilate.Program.Main(String[] args)

...Running PNG file through Sharpening filter
convert.exe: unable to open image `C:\Documents and Settings\saundr1\My Document
s\My Books\Tools\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\stage6\0002': No such file or directory.
convert.exe: missing an image filename `C:\Documents and Settings\saundr1\My Documents\My Books\Tools\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\stage7\0002'.

ERROR!!! Post-Processing failed!

Please make sure you have .NET Framework 2.0 installed.

If the problem persists, please report it at the mobileread forums.
Press any key to continue . . .
:(

mak021000

03-01-2007, 02:04 PM

When I run PDFrasterFarian it acts as if it is working. After execution the path is provided where the program informs me where my ebook has been saved. Unfortunately, there is no ebook to be found. Have I done something wrong during installation perhaps?

Bob Russell

03-01-2007, 02:54 PM

This is just a wild wild wild stab, but don't these things sound like they might be related to directory path issues. I know that there are a lot of issues with programs when they run into things like directory paths that are too many characters long, or that have spaces in them, or are in "my documents" which is abbreviates a fairly complicated directory path.

So that makes me curious... Has anyone tried installing this with really short and simple directory paths, and applied it to files in similar locations?

alex_d

03-03-2007, 07:49 AM

RSaunders, the .NET error is now different (well, it's different from Dave's). I'll research it. Note it's being caused by me trying to call a natively-compiled library. So much for trying to do things the right way... :-( Dave, are you now getting the same error as RSaunders? Also, when i googled the original error it said it happens when you don't have SP2 for winxp installed. Is that true for you two?

mak021000, I am not able to reproduce the error. Which way are you opening the file (right-click or directly via dialog boxes)? What is the full path of the file? Are you using 2.2.1 (the rar and the folder both say 2.2.1)?

haha... is there anyone here for whom 2.2.1 IS working??

jakeluck

03-06-2007, 10:25 AM

i am encountering few weird errors with 2.2.0, so temporarily reverting back to 2.1.6

1) it can no longer access pdfs from network shares, says "Access is denied."

2) same pdf-tools expired message, but now in the page preview selection says from
page "1-0" and refuses to let me select any page, is pdf-tools part of auto-imager?

3) so i copied the pdf from the network share to the local drive; however, if i abort
the process, it deletes the original.

DrSiddons

03-06-2007, 12:05 PM

Good day.

When I run the program (2.2.1) I keep getting an error (Dialate) and the program quits out in post-production.

I've installed .NET 2.0

What are next steps?

Dr. S.

p3zip

03-09-2007, 05:04 PM

Using 2.1.6, the file output had those lines-and-circle guide thingys on the top corners of the document, so I decided to try out 2.2.1. I am getting the same error, copy/pasted as follows:

Generating preview....
...Creating EPS file from PDF page
...Rastering PNG file from EPS file (this step may take several minutes)
...Running PNG file through Dilation and Shrink filters

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'imageManip, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one ofits dependencies. This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)File name: 'imageManip, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null' ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800736B1): This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)
at Dilate.Program.Dilate(Bitmap bitmap)
at Dilate.Program.Main(String[] args)

...Running PNG file through Sharpening filter
convert.exe: unable to open image `C:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_6.png': No such file or directory.

convert.exe: unable to open file `C:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_6.png'.

convert.exe: missing an image filename `C:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_7.png'....Reducing the colors of the PNG file

convert.exe: unable to open image `C:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_7.png': No such file or directory.

convert.exe: unable to open file `C:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_7.png'.

convert.exe: missing an image filename `C:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\p5881.png'.

Opening MSPaint...

ERROR: preview generation FAILED!

A quick googling of that HRESULT value turned up this thread:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=166919&SiteID=1

It made sense to me that perhaps I was missing some .DLLs from some obscure runtime package, so I went ahead and got vcredist_x86.exe, which did not solve the problem. Next I downloaded and installed Visual C++, Visual Basic, and Visual C# 2005 Express in the hopes that the debug .DLLs would solve it. They also did not.

I will try some additional steps, and a different PC altogether this weekend, and try to supply as much pertinent info as possible.

This PC is running a week-old install of WinXP SP2, all updates installed.

Muskrat

03-09-2007, 06:56 PM

I cannot get this program to install. Just keep getting "Error : Access denied" Has anyone found a fix for this?

Dave44FL

03-11-2007, 12:13 AM

I too get this PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1 Error
...Creating EPS file from PDF page
...Performing autocropping (this step may take several minutes)
...Rastering PNG file from EPS file (this step may take several minutes)
...Running PNG file through Dilation and Shrink filters

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'imageManip, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)
File name: 'imageManip, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800736B1): This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)
at Dilate.Program.Dilate(Bitmap bitmap)
at Dilate.Program.Main(String[] args)

...Running PNG file through Sharpening filter
convert.exe: unable to open image `C:\Documents and Settings\saundr1\My Document
s\My Books\Tools\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\stage6\0002': No such file or directory.
convert.exe: missing an image filename `C:\Documents and Settings\saundr1\My Documents\My Books\Tools\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\stage7\0002'.

ERROR!!! Post-Processing failed!

Please make sure you have .NET Framework 2.0 installed.

If the problem persists, please report it at the mobileread forums.
Press any key to continue . . .

I Checked my version of .NET using free version checker from
http://www.tmgdevelopment.co.uk/versioncheck.htm

VersionCheck results for DAVE:

Installed .NET Runtime(s)
OK.
Current version: The following runtimes are installed:
1.1.4322.2032 Version 1.1 SP1 Aug 2004
2.0.50727.42 Version 2.0 RTM (Visual Studio.NET 2005 RTM / SQL Server 2005 RTM) Nov 2005

I located my script entries to run with Dilate.exe and profile the error using Dependency Walker v2.2.
http://www.dependencywalker.com/

SET hRes=565
SET vRes=754
SET relpath=C:\temp\PDFrast221

These are the command values I passed to Dilate.exe while monitoring for errors with DW 2.2;
"C:\temp\PDFrast221\temp\prv_5.png" "C:\temp\PDFrast221\temp\prv_6.png" 565 754

There were several errors about DLLs that were missing...
MSCORPE.DLL
MSCORSEC.DLL
MSDIS150.DLL
MSPDB80.DLL
MSVCM80.DLL
MSJAVA.DLL

and this was near the end of the DW 2.2 log view;
Error: The Side-by-Side configuration information for "c:\temp\pdfrast221\modules\IMAGEMANIP.DLL" contains errors. This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem (14001).
LDR: LdrpWalkImportDescriptor() failed to probe c:\temp\pdfrast221\modules\imageManip.dll for its manifest, ntstatus 0xc0150002

I Downloaded MSJAVA.DLL from http://www.dll-files.com.
I profiled Dilate.exe again. There were still errors...

Some googling indicated I should install vcredist_x86.exe,
the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x86),
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=32BC1BEE-A3F9-4C13-9C99-220B62A191EE&displaylang=en

There are still errors.
There is no setup program, so I was reading about deployment of the runtimes.

I found MSVCM80.DLL in 2 places;
D:\WINXP\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC80.CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e 18e3b_8.0.50727.42_x-ww_0de06acd\
D:\WINXP\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC80.CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e 18e3b_8.0.50727.163_x-ww_681e29fb\

But Dilate.exe still complained that MSVCM80.DLL (among others) was missing.

I found this article enlightening;
Bootstrapper for the VC++ 2005 Redists (with MSI 3.1)
http://www.codeproject.com/cpp/vcredists_x86.asp

here's a key paragraph;

Finally, the C and C++ runtimes are now implemented as Side-by-Side DLLs. It's no longer enough to copy MSVCR80.DLL/MSVCP80.DLL/MSVCM80.DLL
(from now on called the CRT DLLs) into the System32 directory. You must now load the CRT DLLs through a manifest. If you attempt to load the
CRT DLLs without using a manifest, the system will detect this, raise an R6034 assertion, and abort(). That's why the CRT DLLs are now located
in WinSXS and not in the System32 directory.

It seems to me that you didn't compile a manifest into IMAGEMANIP.DLL, and it's required?

Maybe this can help...

VC++ Deployment;
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zebw5zk9(VS.80).aspx

letkemanp

03-18-2007, 02:42 PM

Sometimes this program hangs, in one DOS window with a title of 0551..E displaying the following message:
...Creating EPS file from PDF page
...Performing autocropping (this step may take several minutes)

I've left it alone for 30 minutes or more and it still does not complete.

I tried many different PDF files and sometimes it works fine, other times it does not. Sometimes it stops early in the conversion, before page 30, other times it stops about two thirds done. Sometimes it does not work on a file, then I try it again and it works fine. I noticed that if I to go the task manager can kill
gswin32c.exe then the process continues, however that make one page/image blank. I noticed this with version 2.1.4, 2.1.6 and 2.2.1. I think this is a problem with gswin32c.exe but I'm unsure what I can do to help you out.

When the program does work it does a great job, so thanks and please keep up the good work.

pfolger

03-18-2007, 07:06 PM

alex_d said "haha... is there anyone here for whom 2.2.1 IS working??"

I have DL'd 4 different versions of this software and have never got it to work. I know it's hard to complain about free software and all the hard work Alex is putting in to this project, but I'm having the same problems that everyone else seems to have 2 pages etc. I reinstalled .NET 2.0 etc.

Is there a commercial app available to buy that achieves the same result? Anyone? Sony!?!

TIA

letkemanp

03-18-2007, 08:09 PM

alex_d I have source code and DLLs needed to convert PDF to a usable images e.g. jpeg, tiff, png etc. Did you want it and would it help out with PDFrasterFarian development? The DLLs are free, "Commercial use is not authorized without agreement" - From web site, and I know how to use them in VB6, VBScript and ASP. I'm sure with a little time I could get them working with VB2005 and C# 2.0.

Let me know,
Pete

cfishy

03-22-2007, 01:31 PM

Hi letkemanp,

Can I take a look at the source and dll? I wanna try my hand on these...

Thanks,

mosh

03-24-2007, 04:32 PM

Alex,

Can you please package the Dilate.exe .Net executable properly. It is not signed and adding it to the global assembly cache is not possible.

Please advise

Mosh

letkemanp

03-25-2007, 09:56 AM

Check out http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10137

Aerlock

03-25-2007, 12:51 PM

I seem to have a similar problem. Appears to read in the pdf file OK but then tells me that Dilate has stopped working. I'm running Vista Ultimate and have gor .Net framework installed. The prog runs fine on my other computer running XP so I guess it is an operating system problem. I've included the infor that appears after the prog has stopped working in case it helps.
I'm getting similar errors on my XP machine. I'm also getting a message that is titled PDF Library and says Evaluation period expired, please contact pdfsupport@pdf-tools.com. The same line also shows up in the CMD prompt window. This happens every time I start PDFrasterfarian. I just uninstalled 2.1.6 and installed 2.2.1. I was getting the same PDF Library error with 2.1.6 and it would not process any .pdf files.

Here's what I get when I choose to preview the first page:
Generating preview....
...Creating EPS file from PDF page
...Performing autocropping (this step may take several minutes)
...Rastering PNG file from EPS file (this step may take several minutes)
...Running PNG file through Dilation and Shrink filters

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembl
y 'imageManip, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of
its dependencies. This application has failed to start because the application c
onfiguration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. (E
xception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)
File name: 'imageManip, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' -
--> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800736B1): This application h
as failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstall
ing the application may fix this problem. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)
at Dilate.Program.Dilate(Bitmap bitmap)
at Dilate.Program.Main(String[] args)

...Running PNG file through Sharpening filter
convert.exe: unable to open image `H:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_6.png': No
such file or directory.
convert.exe: unable to open file `H:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_6.png'.
convert.exe: missing an image filename `H:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_7.png
'.
...Reducing the colors of the PNG file
convert.exe: unable to open image `H:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_7.png': No
such file or directory.
convert.exe: unable to open file `H:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\prv_7.png'.
convert.exe: missing an image filename `H:\PDFrasterFarian 2.2.1\\temp\p1962.png
'.

I get the same unhandled exception errors when I try to process a .pdf without previewing the first page.

sambartle

04-01-2007, 03:25 AM

I just tried this to convert some PDF's I have of software documentation and I have to say it works brilliantly (its the first content i've loaded onto my PRS500 and been happy with)

Just wanted to let you know that 2.2.1 installed and works perfectly first time for me.. I do have visual studio installed on this pc mind.. Maybe theres something that VS installs that allows this to run properly??

Bob Russell

04-01-2007, 08:20 AM

I have 2005 VB Studio Express version, and I wasn't able to install...

sambartle

04-01-2007, 03:59 PM

hmm, was working fine all of yesterday..

shut down laptop to go to bed.. restarted it and now its not working anymore.. everytime i hit the pdfrasterfarian link on the right click menu windows shows me the dialog box where you can select which application to use to open the file..

very strange! (nothing has changed other than the reboot..) im gonna go see if i can find out why this is happening.

/edit: im a fool.. i thought that the install command file moved the files to program files or such and ran from there.. turns out it doesnt, so the error started after a removed the folder form the desktop.. recreated it and its working 100% fine again :)

Jary

04-12-2007, 06:47 AM

I'm having a little problem.

I have a .PDF file, I'm using version 2.1.4, and I try to read the file in vertical view (normal view). I've tried all modes, and I also did bolder the text (set it on 3), but the problem is the margin is not fine, mostly the top one, and the text is still a little too small.

Is there any way to get this better please ?

alex_d

04-12-2007, 12:33 PM

the top margin becomes large if the autocropped page is wider than the 3:4 aspect ratio (ie, it gets aligned to the bottom edge). That and the issue of small fonts is best resolved by doing manual cropping. This lets you zoom in on the text itself (removing visible things that autocropping doesn't touch) and adjust the margins to your preference. You can do this using Acrobat Pro or JAP or some other pdf tool (there are several shareware options). As I always say, if you find a good free tool that I can integrate into pdfrasterfarian, it would be appreciated by many.

Jary

04-12-2007, 04:07 PM

Thanks for the quick answer. I'm looking for it then.

alex_d

04-16-2007, 08:54 AM

RasterFarian 2.5.0 is up on the new thread.

kb7rjf

04-30-2007, 07:10 PM

ashkulz

05-01-2007, 12:40 AM

Stupid question-
Is there a version/equivalent program of RasaerFarian for those of us who live in a window$-free world? I use Mac OS-X and various *nix environments. Period. I would like to be able to rescale, etc my pdf files for use with the prs-500. Much technical documentation exista only in pdf format.

Thanks,
Mark Well, you can use PDFRead (http://pdfread.sourceforge.net) -- it works on Windows, Linux and OS X and supports multiple eBook devices. You might want to check this mobileread thread for more details.

DISCLAIMER: I'm the one who wrote PDFRead :)

nidecta

06-21-2007, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by fifidong
Code:

Input File Name : C:\Documents and Settings\dongsshi\Desktop\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.2\\temp\temp.lrs
Output File Name : C:\Documents and Settings\dongsshi\Desktop\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.2\_30__revive.lrf
ファイルの整合性をチェックします
整合性のチェック完了
[Warning ] Publisherの文字列が長すぎて、表示しきれない場合があります。
書誌情報ファイルの整合性をチェックします
書誌情報ファイルの整合性チェック完了
[Warning ] Invalid value blockrule. Set Default value [line: 37]
[Error ] Invalid file encoding. [line: 39]
ファイルが正しくありません
強制終了
次のファイルを削除します。:: C:\Documents and Settings\dongsshi\Desktop\PDFrasterFarian 2.1.2\_30__revive.lrf

That's what the lrs2lrf.log file contains
I have no clue why those Japanese Fonts are in there.
Also, I have installed East Asian Languages but, Language for non-Unicode programs is set to English (US default).

I attempted on several files, including this one (12 pages)
and eBooks. However same thing happens.

I got the same error. After some testing, I noticed this only happens if I choose "Full" post-processing. All the output PNG files are blank. "Simple" post-processing works fine. I am using 2.1.3. Any idea what the problem is?

I got the same error.....even in the simple model.....:disappoin:oops2:
:freak: