Reserved for updated Tutorial and FAQ.
FAQ: What does a 'Profile' do?
The 'Profile' box contains the default settings for each "device". If you select a profile from the drop-down box, then the various default options are loaded in. Afterwards, 'Processing' options can be selected to override these defaults. The 'Out Format' box selects the resulting ebook format to be generated. It also overrides the default settings.
The 'reb1200C' Profile retains 256 colors (but uses 16M colors prior to doing the conversion) while the 'reb1200' (note no 'C' suffix) produces a 16 grayshade image. A profile name with the a '-p' suffix denotes a Portrait one as without it defaults to landscape.
FAQ: When I view a 1150 .IMP why does it open up as a 1200 .IMP?
What can go wrong is a 'bug' that has reared its head before, namely the 1150 .imp "thinks" its a 1200 .imp. The solution, in the past, has been to re-install the eBook Publisher software. That usually cures the problem!
FAQ: Why does GEB (eBookwise) Librarian fail to properly transfer/load the resulting .IMP?
GEB Librarian can get confused if BOTH the 1150 .imp and 1200 .imp are in the same bookshelf when being uploaded. I think it has to do with the same 'Unique Edition ID' being used for both versions made from the same input. The solution here is to NOT put BOTH in the same bookshelf; use one for your 1150 ebooks and another for the 1200 ebooks.
FAQ: I am converting to .imp output format, but I get an error from the 'generate_imp' module. Why does it fail?
REQUIRED: You
must have the (free)
eBook Publisher software previously installed to facilitate the conversions to .imp and .oeb.
You can install the eBook Publisher software by going
here. Then choose to download and install the current version ( Win_eBookPub_2.2.5.exe ).
When rotating your input, if you want the output to be split over just two page flips, then select 'landscape-half' as your Layout Mode. For everything on one page only, select 'landscape-full'. The default 'landscape' mode will split over the maximum number of page flips so that the full width is displayed. There is also 'landscape-2col' which will display quadrants of the page over four page flips.
FAQ: What is an 'imglist' in the 'In Format' drop-down box?
To use the 'imglist' input format just create a text file with a list of filenames in any image directory, then you can get a mini color photo album. The easiest way to get this list of filenames is to open the command prompt in your image directory and issue the dos command:
Code:
dir /b /on >list.txt
Then open list.txt from PDFRead. Happy Converting!
To use the 'imgdir' input format just select any filename in an image directory to get a mini color photo album without the need for a text file as above for 'imglist'. The only drawback is that there is no control over the order that the images are compiled this way. This method always sorts the filenames alphabetically. Image formats supported are .jpg, .png, .gif, .bmp and .tif.
FAQ: The resulting text is too blurry! Can anything be done?
• You can choose a landscape mode to improve the clarity/resolution.
• You can reduce the amount of dilation (thickening of the text) by either turning it off with the 'no dilation' option or by increasing the DPI from 300 to say 600.
• If your results are too blurry, try increasing slowly the 'Error Level' as well as trying the above. With the GUI, you can do multiple tests (especially on a limited number of pages) until you get it just right. Then do it again with no pages restriction.
FAQ: Can PDFRead convert any .pdf?
If the .pdf is not built properly (you may have to input the number of pages in the outout screen), or is encrypted or has security preventing printing/extraction, then it will not work with PDFRead. The .pdf must be free of any DRM prior to being given to PDFRead.
FAQ: Can PDFRead convert (original).pdf** to (enhanced/cropped).pdf
To facilitate easy conversion of the intermediate images created by PDFRead into .pdf, I have written a simple batch (sam2pdfread.bat) file that can be placed in the temporary directory (created when an empty file 'debug' is placed in the PDFRead install directory).
To accomplish this (original).pdf to (enhanced/cropped).pdf, do the following:
1. Unzip
this file and copy the all files into the PDFRead/bin in the default install location (or copy the *.exe programs to a directory in your windows path)
2. Start PDFRead using the .pdf 'In Format" and .html 'Out Format'.
3. When PDFRead is finished, that .html 'Out Format will cause the temporary directory with the enhanced/cropped images to be visible.
4. Copy the 'sam2pdfread.bat' file to that temp dir and double-click it. That's it!
5. The resulting .pdf will have the name of the InputFilename (actually the resulting .html in that temp dir) and should be moved to a more permanent location. The temp dir can then be deleted.
Note: Doubles the memory storage required as each image is converted to a .pdf while retaining the original image.
The 'sam2pdfread.bat' can be edited to tweak the parameters passed to
sam2p and/or pdftk. Just experiment what works best for you!
EDIT: 7 Jan 2011 Fixed 'sam2pdfreadt.bat' to correct some sam2p housekeeping issues as well as recompiled pdfread.exe to pad image filenames with leading zeros so that combining *.pdf works properly.
This now includes a newer version of pdfread.exe and library.zip so you may want to make backups of the copies in your 'bin' folder before copying these files over.
EDIT: 7 Jan 2011 Also, while I was recompiling pdfread.exe I fixed a LONG time irk for me, the expansion of small crops into huge images. This time around, any small cropped image will not increase in size more than 10% of the original image. A good tradeoff! All modified files are included in the 'sam2pdfread.rar' available
here.
**Actually, you can use
any Input Format (.PDF / .DJVU / .TIFF / .CBZ / .CBR ) in lieu of just .PDF!
Just hover your mouse over any of the options and a nice tooltip help will pop up if you keep it there steady. Great way to learn the program hands-on!