PDF enlarging?

heychadwick · 12-28-2010, 08:51 AM

Hi All,

I just got a SONY PRF-300 "pocket reader" for the holidays. It looks very cool and I am happy with it. I am having trouble with what I want to put on it, though. I'm a war gamer who wants to put all my manuals, rules, books, etc on my e-reader. It would be fantastic to have all my gaming resources in one small and easy to carry book.

There are some war gamers that have made .pdf's of some of the various resources and I have gotten some of them. They are .pdf files that are graphic files of the books instead of OCR text scans. There are a lot of charts and such and I am not sure if an OCR scan would get them all. My problem comes in that it's just too small to read. I have a smaller ebook and I don't really have the option to get a different one.

So, with all that, I have a bunch of .pdf's that are too small to view on my ebook. Is there any software to enlarge the .pdf's? I would hate to have to re-create all the .pdf's myself as I have no idea how to do it and it would be extremely time consuming.

Any help????? Please???? It's the main reason I got an e-reader!

Jellby · 12-28-2010, 11:23 AM

Doesn't your reader have a zoom function that enlarge the PDF as you view it?

Elfwreck · 12-28-2010, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

Doesn't your reader have a zoom function that enlarge the PDF as you view it?

I don't think the 300 has zoom; like the 505, it has reflow, which only works if the original is text-and-images instead of scans, and even then is prone to doing whacked things with the formatting.

I have lots of PDFs of gaming books; they're not great on the ebook reader. I have a 505, which can read letter-sized pages if I squint, and read them a little better (less squinting) if I switch the orientation, but it's still a pain.

Answer to OP: No, there's no nice simple "make this PDF bigger/chop into smaller pieces for ebook reader viewing" answer. There's a handful of programs that can help--one that crops out the whitespace on the edges, one that separates the columns into their own pages (and possibly cuts them in half as well). They're limited, but better than trying to read letter-sized PDFs as-is on a 5" screen.

I don't know the details because I'm fluent in PDF conversion and if I want it formatted for my Reader, I'll OCR if necessary, convert to Word, reformat entirely, and pick an ebook type that works for it.

I hope someone will be along soon to provide links to the PDF-fixing programs.

frabjous · 12-28-2010, 12:05 PM

Yikes. You've trying to combine the hardest kinds of PDFs to make work well with a small screen with one of the smallest screens possible! Yikes!

Here's a run down of some options you have, but don't expect any great results: Reading PDFs on Portables

heychadwick · 12-29-2010, 09:54 AM

Thanks everybody!

The PRS-300 does have a zoom function, but it doesn't work on PDF graphics. It works great if the PDF was created with OCR, but not a graphic scan of a whole page with charts and images. So, it doesn't help.

My wife bought me the PRS-300 for Christmas. She knows that I have wanted one and this was an affordable one she surprised me with. She talked to the person at the store who uses it to view regular ebooks and they loved it. It's not really an option to change the device for a myriad of problems that I won't go into as they are complex and interpersonal (anyone else married?). So, I have this device and no other.

Thanks frabjous! I glanced at that document and it looks very useful. I will go dig through that.

I'm thinking that I will probably have to make my own documents which is going to be a bit scary and time consuming. ugh.

heychadwick · 01-03-2011, 02:16 PM

So.....I've been doing some research and some thinking.

What if I convert the file from .pdf into a word doc? There are a few free programs that a quick google search shows. Will that work? I'm thinking some sort of OCR conversion for .pdf files is probably out there.

I'm at work and can't even test anything at the moment. Does anyone know or recommend one to try? Does anyone think this won't work?

Thanks in advance!

frabjous · 01-03-2011, 04:52 PM

Converting to HTML is probably better if you're going to convert it back to an ebook format afterwards.

I don't know of any that work well enough that I'd trust it for this, but go ahead and give it a try and see what the results look like. I discuss some options here.

heychadwick · 01-03-2011, 05:20 PM

Converting to HTML....hmmm.......that sounds good.

I went to the other link about .pdf and OCR. It's very thorough.

If I only want to get the OCR'ed text out of the document, is Cuneiform enough? I figure I can always get any images that I need in there somehow anyways (though maybe going to html is better).

Tessaract not having a GUI turns me off from it. I'm not a line junkie.

Google docs (and other web based OCR sites) have a size limit. I've got some pretty hefty .pdf's.

OK....will now look at converting to .HTML....

thanks!

frabjous · 01-03-2011, 05:39 PM

There are some GUIs for tessaract out there now. You'll find them if you google for them. I haven't used any of them, and whether there are any good ones depends on your OS, which I don't think you mentioned...

heychadwick · 01-03-2011, 08:00 PM

Vista, sorry.

OK....I tried the top Google search for "pdf convert html" and it came up with Some PDF to HTML Converter 1.5. I tried to use this and only some of them worked. Some it worked great on and I was able to copy/paste the text out of. Others (the ones I really want) it just came up blank.

Hmmmmm

I might try Cuneiform to get just the text or I might look for a GUI for Tessaract.

Thanks for assistance.

heychadwick · 01-04-2011, 09:07 AM

I did finally install gimagereader (after trouble getting the dictionaries installed) and ran that program. Any .pdf I tried to open caused the app to crash. No idea why. Tried small ones and simple ones. Nothing worked.

heychadwick · 01-04-2011, 09:22 AM

Hmmmm.....downloaded Cuneiform and tried to install it. It was all in Russian. I chose the only options I could...but I don't see it installed on my pc. I tried a few times with the same result. No new shortcut or anything on my program list. I went to the website and it's just one page of English and doesn't offer anything for installs.

heychadwick · 01-05-2011, 01:28 PM

What if I wanted to make a new document? I could print out my .pdf and scan it with an OCR scanner or something. I could get the words in a format that I am happy with. Maybe I can insert graphs or images if I need to (only if I need to).

Would that work? What would be the best way to do this?

frabjous · 01-05-2011, 05:38 PM

I don't use Windows, so I'm not familiar with what OCR software is out there.

If you have access to a scanner, or more likely a multifunction, device with its own OCR software built it, go ahead and try that, sure, and see what it gives you, and re-insert the images.

But if you're willing to put in that much manual work, I would think there would be other ways of proceeding.

What do the pages look like, do they at least (typically) divide the page into multiple columns of text? That's what most of the game manuals I've seen look like (e.g., see below). If so, by going through each page and divide each page into little reader-sized chunks (especially aiming for viewing landscape). You could use BRISS for this. Perhaps this screenshot will give you the basic idea of what I have in mind:

(Darn, I could have done that more consistently, but was too lazy to put much effort into it.)

In the output, each one of those numbered squares would become a page of the output: when blown up, that would probably be readable, landscape. (If you want to keep it portrait, you could probably break it into 4/page, but it would be smaller.)

It might be a PITA if each page used different sized columns, or tables that spanned columns, but if you were willing to handle those pages separately (using BRISS exclude function), it might be doable.

That way there would be no need to worry about OCR quality, since you'd still be using scanned images, albeit divided up.

heychadwick · 01-06-2011, 07:56 AM

That's a great idea! Most everything could be broken up in that fashion. I think there are a few areas that would be easier to just type up and make a new table to better format the information. I'm a pretty fast typist and it just might be easier to re-do a single page for those hard to do parts.

This is a fantastic idea. I really like this!

I think there are a few .pdf's that are pretty terrible and it wouldn't be hard for me to just create my own, though. I might want to do that instead.

12-28-2010, 08:51 AM	#1
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	PDF enlarging? Hi All, I just got a SONY PRF-300 "pocket reader" for the holidays. It looks very cool and I am happy with it. I am having trouble with what I want to put on it, though. I'm a war gamer who wants to put all my manuals, rules, books, etc on my e-reader. It would be fantastic to have all my gaming resources in one small and easy to carry book. There are some war gamers that have made .pdf's of some of the various resources and I have gotten some of them. They are .pdf files that are graphic files of the books instead of OCR text scans. There are a lot of charts and such and I am not sure if an OCR scan would get them all. My problem comes in that it's just too small to read. I have a smaller ebook and I don't really have the option to get a different one. So, with all that, I have a bunch of .pdf's that are too small to view on my ebook. Is there any software to enlarge the .pdf's? I would hate to have to re-create all the .pdf's myself as I have no idea how to do it and it would be extremely time consuming. Any help????? Please???? It's the main reason I got an e-reader!

01-03-2011, 08:00 PM	#10
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	Vista, sorry. OK....I tried the top Google search for "pdf convert html" and it came up with Some PDF to HTML Converter 1.5. I tried to use this and only some of them worked. Some it worked great on and I was able to copy/paste the text out of. Others (the ones I really want) it just came up blank. Hmmmmm I might try Cuneiform to get just the text or I might look for a GUI for Tessaract. Thanks for assistance. Last edited by heychadwick; 01-03-2011 at 08:34 PM.

01-05-2011, 05:38 PM	#14
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	I don't use Windows, so I'm not familiar with what OCR software is out there. If you have access to a scanner, or more likely a multifunction, device with its own OCR software built it, go ahead and try that, sure, and see what it gives you, and re-insert the images. But if you're willing to put in that much manual work, I would think there would be other ways of proceeding. What do the pages look like, do they at least (typically) divide the page into multiple columns of text? That's what most of the game manuals I've seen look like (e.g., see below). If so, by going through each page and divide each page into little reader-sized chunks (especially aiming for viewing landscape). You could use BRISS for this. Perhaps this screenshot will give you the basic idea of what I have in mind: (Darn, I could have done that more consistently, but was too lazy to put much effort into it.) In the output, each one of those numbered squares would become a page of the output: when blown up, that would probably be readable, landscape. (If you want to keep it portrait, you could probably break it into 4/page, but it would be smaller.) It might be a PITA if each page used different sized columns, or tables that spanned columns, but if you were willing to handle those pages separately (using BRISS exclude function), it might be doable. That way there would be no need to worry about OCR quality, since you'd still be using scanned images, albeit divided up. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by frabjous; 01-05-2011 at 05:43 PM.

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12-28-2010, 11:23 AM	#2
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,515 Karma: 18512745 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	Doesn't your reader have a zoom function that enlarge the PDF as you view it?

12-28-2010, 12:05 PM	#4
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	Yikes. You've trying to combine the hardest kinds of PDFs to make work well with a small screen with one of the smallest screens possible! Yikes! Here's a run down of some options you have, but don't expect any great results: Reading PDFs on Portables

12-29-2010, 09:54 AM	#5
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	Thanks everybody! The PRS-300 does have a zoom function, but it doesn't work on PDF graphics. It works great if the PDF was created with OCR, but not a graphic scan of a whole page with charts and images. So, it doesn't help. My wife bought me the PRS-300 for Christmas. She knows that I have wanted one and this was an affordable one she surprised me with. She talked to the person at the store who uses it to view regular ebooks and they loved it. It's not really an option to change the device for a myriad of problems that I won't go into as they are complex and interpersonal (anyone else married?). So, I have this device and no other. Thanks frabjous! I glanced at that document and it looks very useful. I will go dig through that. I'm thinking that I will probably have to make my own documents which is going to be a bit scary and time consuming. ugh.

01-03-2011, 02:16 PM	#6
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	So.....I've been doing some research and some thinking. What if I convert the file from .pdf into a word doc? There are a few free programs that a quick google search shows. Will that work? I'm thinking some sort of OCR conversion for .pdf files is probably out there. I'm at work and can't even test anything at the moment. Does anyone know or recommend one to try? Does anyone think this won't work? Thanks in advance!

01-03-2011, 04:52 PM	#7
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	Converting to HTML is probably better if you're going to convert it back to an ebook format afterwards. I don't know of any that work well enough that I'd trust it for this, but go ahead and give it a try and see what the results look like. I discuss some options here.

01-03-2011, 05:20 PM	#8
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	Converting to HTML....hmmm.......that sounds good. I went to the other link about .pdf and OCR. It's very thorough. If I only want to get the OCR'ed text out of the document, is Cuneiform enough? I figure I can always get any images that I need in there somehow anyways (though maybe going to html is better). Tessaract not having a GUI turns me off from it. I'm not a line junkie. Google docs (and other web based OCR sites) have a size limit. I've got some pretty hefty .pdf's. OK....will now look at converting to .HTML.... thanks!

01-03-2011, 05:39 PM	#9
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	There are some GUIs for tessaract out there now. You'll find them if you google for them. I haven't used any of them, and whether there are any good ones depends on your OS, which I don't think you mentioned...

01-04-2011, 09:07 AM	#11
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	I did finally install gimagereader (after trouble getting the dictionaries installed) and ran that program. Any .pdf I tried to open caused the app to crash. No idea why. Tried small ones and simple ones. Nothing worked.

01-04-2011, 09:22 AM	#12
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	Hmmmm.....downloaded Cuneiform and tried to install it. It was all in Russian. I chose the only options I could...but I don't see it installed on my pc. I tried a few times with the same result. No new shortcut or anything on my program list. I went to the website and it's just one page of English and doesn't offer anything for installs.

01-05-2011, 01:28 PM	#13
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	What if I wanted to make a new document? I could print out my .pdf and scan it with an OCR scanner or something. I could get the words in a format that I am happy with. Maybe I can insert graphs or images if I need to (only if I need to). Would that work? What would be the best way to do this?

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01-06-2011, 07:56 AM	#15
heychadwick Member Posts: 20 Karma: 386 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PRS-300	That's a great idea! Most everything could be broken up in that fashion. I think there are a few areas that would be easier to just type up and make a new table to better format the information. I'm a pretty fast typist and it just might be easier to re-do a single page for those hard to do parts. This is a fantastic idea. I really like this! I think there are a few .pdf's that are pretty terrible and it wouldn't be hard for me to just create my own, though. I might want to do that instead.