PDF to text/html?

utrost · 06-21-2007, 03:18 AM

Now that we have so many great tools for converting text and/or html to lrf - what tools do you use to convert pdf to text/html? (in order to convert the result to lrf). I am looking for a tool which preserves the formatting (tables, italics...) and graphics of an pdf during the conversation process...

Uwe.

igorsk · 06-21-2007, 04:07 AM

If you want to preserve everything, try ABBYY's FineReader or PDF Transformer. They're not cheap though.

utrost · 06-21-2007, 05:44 AM

Hm, I was thinking more of an open source /freeware tool :-)
Any Ideas?

Quote:

Originally Posted by igorsk

If you want to preserve everything, try ABBYY's FineReader or PDF Transformer. They're not cheap though.

ashkulz · 06-21-2007, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by utrost

Hm, I was thinking more of an open source /freeware tool :-)
Any Ideas?

Well, you can try PDFRead (disclaimer: I wrote it) to convert PDFs -- it doesn't really convert it to text/html, it creates images out of each page so all formatting is preserved. There's another tool which does the same functionality called RasterFarian (search the forums and you'll find it).

Also, I've tried a lot of tools (both free/paid) and in the end the effort is just not worth it. Even taking a well formatted document, it takes at least an hour to get it in a readable form. A lot of the PDFs are not generated well, so sometimes the conversion is bizarre. The PDF => Image route is much simpler and requires no manual intervention (at the expense of taking more space and a much longer conversion time).

sammykrupa · 06-21-2007, 09:09 AM

You want pdftohtml

Works great.

Try the -c switch.

Sam Krupa

JSWolf · 06-21-2007, 09:42 AM

What does the -c switch do?

ashkulz · 06-21-2007, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What does the -c switch do?

It converts the document in complex mode, ie. tries to remain faithful to PDF formatting as much as possible. I've found it not that useful, as it mostly then uses absolute positioning in HTML, which does not always convert well when seeing on an ebook.

JSWolf · 06-21-2007, 03:09 PM

One important question... Does pdf2html keep the attibutes such as bold, italics, underline, etc?

Jon

nekokami · 06-21-2007, 04:50 PM

I'm pretty sure pdf2html does keep italics, etc. Also worth looking at (if you're using a PC or running wine on Linux) is the processtext.com PDF converter, which is cheap, easy to use, and does a good job on nearly every file I've thrown at it (the exception being one that had very weird custom encoding). It also has a "complex" mode, similar to pdf2html, that helps greatly in eliminating those annoying fixed line lengths.

paspas · 06-22-2007, 03:19 PM

hi, i use finereader (ocr) in vmware to convert pdf, it's very good

06-21-2007, 03:18 AM	#1
utrost Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: Sony reader	PDF to text/html? Now that we have so many great tools for converting text and/or html to lrf - what tools do you use to convert pdf to text/html? (in order to convert the result to lrf). I am looking for a tool which preserves the formatting (tables, italics...) and graphics of an pdf during the conversation process... Uwe.

06-21-2007, 09:09 AM	#5
sammykrupa Reader of the Reader Posts: 103 Karma: 107 Join Date: Apr 2006 Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	pdftohtml You want pdftohtml Works great. Try the -c switch. Sam Krupa

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06-21-2007, 04:07 AM	#2
igorsk Wizard Posts: 3,442 Karma: 300001 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Belgium Device: PRS-500/505/700, Kindle, Cybook Gen3, Words Gear	If you want to preserve everything, try ABBYY's FineReader or PDF Transformer. They're not cheap though.

06-21-2007, 09:42 AM	#6
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,897 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	What does the -c switch do?

06-21-2007, 03:09 PM	#8
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,897 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	One important question... Does pdf2html keep the attibutes such as bold, italics, underline, etc? Jon

06-21-2007, 04:50 PM	#9
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I'm pretty sure pdf2html does keep italics, etc. Also worth looking at (if you're using a PC or running wine on Linux) is the processtext.com PDF converter, which is cheap, easy to use, and does a good job on nearly every file I've thrown at it (the exception being one that had very weird custom encoding). It also has a "complex" mode, similar to pdf2html, that helps greatly in eliminating those annoying fixed line lengths.

06-22-2007, 03:19 PM	#10
paspas Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 11 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: prs505	hi, i use finereader (ocr) in vmware to convert pdf, it's very good

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