k2pdfopt: optimizes PDFs for viewing on e-readers

[orpheus2011]

Everything is working fine for me with release 1.32. However, I am trying to get text to be as aligned as possible - meaning full justification. I am getting rather uneven line breaks and have tried applying the help tips to get even line breaks. Am I correct in assuming that the way to do so is to use the d option from interactive menu and set the width and height as a multiple (1/2, 1/3, etc.) of DPI*l , where is respectively width or length in inches? Please advise if there is a better/correct way to do this. Many thanks!

[willus]

Originally Posted by orpheus2011

Everything is working fine for me with release 1.32. However, I am trying to get text to be as aligned as possible - meaning full justification. I am getting rather uneven line breaks and have tried applying the help tips to get even line breaks. Am I correct in assuming that the way to do so is to use the d option from interactive menu and set the width and height as a multiple (1/2, 1/3, etc.) of DPI*l , where is respectively width or length in inches? Please advise if there is a better/correct way to do this. Many thanks!

The best way is to use the "o" interactive menu option (or -odpi command-line option). I revised the help page that discusses uneven line breaks to try to be more clear and also added an example: http://willus.com/k2pdfopt/help/linebreaks.shtml.

[orpheus2011]

Many thanks for this, I am now trying the settings recommended on your site and its giving some good results. However, I keep occasionally getting one or two fully justified lines which are much smaller than the rest. I have attached a sample page that shows this. The document was 8.5 inches wide, and I gave an odpi of 198, with right justification and RTL scanning also enabled. Could you please tell me why this happens? Many thanks again!

[willus]

Originally Posted by orpheus2011

Many thanks for this, I am now trying the settings recommended on your site and its giving some good results. However, I keep occasionally getting one or two fully justified lines which are much smaller than the rest. I have attached a sample page that shows this. The document was 8.5 inches wide, and I gave an odpi of 198, with right justification and RTL scanning also enabled. Could you please tell me why this happens? Many thanks again!

Yes. See the attached image. You have just enough characters crowding the gap between the lines that k2pdfopt doesn't consider it a clean enough gap. If your text doesn't have any figures, I recommend increasing the gap threshold for the rows--the -gtr option or "gt" in the interactive menu and then the "Gap threshold for rows" entry. Here is the text from the k2pdfopt usage info on -gtr: "Threshold for detecting gaps between rows (expert mode). This sets the maximum total black pixels, in inches, on average, that can be in each row of pixels before the gap is no longer considered a gap. A higher value makes it easier to detect gaps between rows of text. Too high of a value may inadvertently split figures and other graphics. Default = 0.006." At some point I'll do a help page on this.

Try increasing the row-gap threshold slowly until you get the result you want, e.g. .008, .01, .015, etc.

[orpheus2011]

thanks, it worked great by setting the gt value for rows to 0.008. My only remaining quest is that of bringing about "full" justification - i.e. lines stretching for the entire width of the Kindle screen. Do you know which settings would do that?

[willus]

Originally Posted by orpheus2011

thanks, it worked great by setting the gt value for rows to 0.008. My only remaining quest is that of bringing about "full" justification - i.e. lines stretching for the entire width of the Kindle screen. Do you know which settings would do that?

There is currently no option for full justification. I am debating whether I want to add that or not. I think in most cases it wouldn't look very good, but I may add an option for it in the future.

[willus]

Okay Orpheus, I tried to offer something in the way of full text justification in the latest release of k2pdfopt (v1.33).

[orpheus2011]

Originally Posted by willus

Okay Orpheus, I tried to offer something in the way of full text justification in the latest release of k2pdfopt (v1.33).

Many thanks Willus, I truly appreciate it. Am testing it now.

[Guns4Hire]

This thread is old so my question might go unnoticed nut its worth a try. Every PDF i convert through k2pdfopt is sideways. While can that the finished product would be suitable to read on my STR everything has been turned vertical. I've tried messing with the command line switches but no matter what everything is vertical even the pictures lol.

Any suggestions?

[Guns4Hire]

Ok I see now that its always set to landscape mode. I think I have it figured out with the rt command. I tried it but I was inputing the command as "rt 90" which it kept telling me it was an invalid command I had to put in "rt" enter then put "no" in for the next two options then it allowed me to input the degrees.

And while that seems like it should of worked its still vertical just swapped lol but still vertical.

[willus]

Can you post a link to an example PDF file that comes out sideways? K2pdfopt doesn't default to landscape mode, but it may be incorrectly determining the orientation of your files and auto-rotating them before processing them. To prevent this, do exactly what you did above (select "rt" and then enter "no" twice), but put in 0 instead of 90 degrees. Again, I'd like to see one of these files to know why it is deciding to rotate it.

[Guns4Hire]

I'll try the 0 degrees and see if that helps. Not sure how to give/get you the file because if I send it to you wouldn't that be copyright infringement? Its called Behind the Berlin Wall: East Germany and the Frontiers of Power by Patrick Major. I have a friend that had to read for a college course or maybe he did a paper, don't really remember but he gave me his book because my love of the cold war and east germany etc. And in the back was a cd that had the text book in PDF. I don't have much experience with PDF I only have 3 of them everything else of mine is epub.


*Edit: That worked.

[willus]

Originally Posted by Guns4Hire

I'll try the 0 degrees and see if that helps. Not sure how to give/get you the file because if I send it to you wouldn't that be copyright infringement? Its called Behind the Berlin Wall: East Germany and the Frontiers of Power by Patrick Major. I have a friend that had to read for a college course or maybe he did a paper, don't really remember but he gave me his book because my love of the cold war and east germany etc. And in the back was a cd that had the text book in PDF. I don't have much experience with PDF I only have 3 of them everything else of mine is epub.


*Edit: That worked.

Cool. I sent you a private message. Please read.

[Guns4Hire]

Originally Posted by willus

Cool. I sent you a private message. Please read.

Responded...


BTW this is a great program...thanks. Finally able to read these PDF's!!!

[willus]

I've posted k2pdfopt v1.34, which fixes the problem Guns4Hire had (incorrect detection of the document orientation) along with a few other bug reports/feature requests I have received over the last month or so.