Anyone have optimizing tips for PDF files?

stevet · 03-03-2010, 10:57 AM

I've seen a few fleeting references in threads about doing something to PDFs to make them work better on ebook readers. i have a Sony PRS600 Touch, and I have several files that are technical reference manuals that I can now carry in my briefcase (yeah, no more boxes of manuals).

These are not really well developed tagged PDFs, but most likely just "print to PDF" from the original files, and some of the older ones are scanned PDFs. So, the files are fairly large (6mb to 17mb), and don't view very well. Are there things I can do to make them smaller, or view better?

Steve

frabjous · 03-03-2010, 11:18 AM

The best thing to do would be to try to obtain the source documents from which these PDFs are produced, and re-export to PDF using minimal margins and your screen size and page size. Often you cannot do this, however,

Failing that, I highly recommend using using some of the tools you'll find (or find discussion of) around here, particularly sopdf (my favorite for text-based PDFs) and pdflrf (which I prefer for scanned PDFs).

There are some others too, like PDFRead, you can try too, but the two above are my favorite.

stevet · 03-04-2010, 09:25 PM

I tried pdflrfwin, and it seemed to work. I couldn't figure out how to make sopdf work. I was expecting 2 dialogs for input and output, and couldn't figure out what to put in the single text box to get an output. I tried pasting the path to the source file, but that didn't work. Is it a Windows 7 thing?

frabjous · 03-04-2010, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevet

I tried pdflrfwin, and it seemed to work. I couldn't figure out how to make sopdf work. I was expecting 2 dialogs for input and output, and couldn't figure out what to put in the single text box to get an output. I tried pasting the path to the source file, but that didn't work. Is it a Windows 7 thing?

I don't really know what you mean by "single text box".

sopdf is a command line program. You would normally run it from a Command line prompt. The options are described in the first post in that thread.

If you prefer to do it using a graphical user interface (GUI) more like pdflrfwin's, then you can either use the GUI I made or the GUI Nathan Campos made -- should simplify the process

Superlucky · 03-05-2010, 12:40 AM

I always crop a pdf as far as possible on the left and right margins and then add tags.

03-03-2010, 10:57 AM	#1
stevet Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Sony PRS600 Touch	Anyone have optimizing tips for PDF files? I've seen a few fleeting references in threads about doing something to PDFs to make them work better on ebook readers. i have a Sony PRS600 Touch, and I have several files that are technical reference manuals that I can now carry in my briefcase (yeah, no more boxes of manuals). These are not really well developed tagged PDFs, but most likely just "print to PDF" from the original files, and some of the older ones are scanned PDFs. So, the files are fairly large (6mb to 17mb), and don't view very well. Are there things I can do to make them smaller, or view better? Steve

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03-03-2010, 11:18 AM	#2
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	The best thing to do would be to try to obtain the source documents from which these PDFs are produced, and re-export to PDF using minimal margins and your screen size and page size. Often you cannot do this, however, Failing that, I highly recommend using using some of the tools you'll find (or find discussion of) around here, particularly sopdf (my favorite for text-based PDFs) and pdflrf (which I prefer for scanned PDFs). There are some others too, like PDFRead, you can try too, but the two above are my favorite.

03-04-2010, 09:25 PM	#3
stevet Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Sony PRS600 Touch	I tried pdflrfwin, and it seemed to work. I couldn't figure out how to make sopdf work. I was expecting 2 dialogs for input and output, and couldn't figure out what to put in the single text box to get an output. I tried pasting the path to the source file, but that didn't work. Is it a Windows 7 thing?

03-05-2010, 12:40 AM	#5
Superlucky Fanatic Posts: 581 Karma: 5952 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: PRS-505, PRS-350	I always crop a pdf as far as possible on the left and right margins and then add tags.