Create reflowable content for the Sony Reader with deskUNPDF

sammykrupa · 05-12-2007, 02:50 PM

Docudesk's new program is out, and it is excellent (on Mac atleast!):

http://labs.docudesk.com/latest-tech...deskunpdf.html

gdxf · 05-12-2007, 04:26 PM

I've tested its Windows version. For pdf files based on images, the lrf output result is not desirable to me, obviously the conversion depends entirely on the program's OCR capability. In this respect the program does not have much advantage compared with ther OCR softwares.

gdxf · 05-12-2007, 04:48 PM

For text based pdf documents, this program does a wonderful job. Its speed of conversion is fast. Batch file processing is great. It makes me wonder whether there could be a program that can reflow the image-based pdf to lrf without OCR.

nekokami · 05-12-2007, 10:45 PM

I wish it had an output other than lrf, so we iLiad users could use it. But I guess that's what PDFtoHTML is for -- now that we have fbreader to read html.

jimmyzou · 05-13-2007, 11:24 AM

This is really wonderful tools for Sony reader users. I try it and immediately put it on my first piority than Scansoft's PDF converter before

tsgreer · 05-13-2007, 05:53 PM

This thing is awesome so far. Not sure if I can create a linked Table of Contents yet since I just downloaded it, but I like it better than Libriate for creating .lrf files. I can finally have italics and some formatting when I make books. I can also do illustrated versions now too. Yay!

kovidgoyal · 05-13-2007, 07:00 PM

You'd get more features with pdftohtml + html2lrf/BookDesigner

tsgreer · 05-13-2007, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You'd get more features with pdftohtml + html2lrf/BookDesigner

Well I'm on a basic non-intel, non-windows having Mac, so my options were pretty limited until this came out. I don't know any programming code and I don't use Terminal, so I am the guy that has to wait for the nice and easy GUI's to come out. I may try to figure out the programming stuff, but I just don't have enough time in the day...

kovidgoyal · 05-13-2007, 08:11 PM

Ah that would explain your reluctance. The hard part is really installing the tools, not using them. A simple use case would look like

Code:

pdftohtml my.pdf
html2lrf my.html

But yeah, until you can get past the installation hurdle, you're better off with the GUI.

ddesk · 05-14-2007, 05:46 PM

The final release version of deskUNPDF Professional is spec'd to perform PDF-HTML conversion, handle pdf-BBeB TOC conversions and internal links, the OCR engine will be enabled for extracting text from images and fixing text from PDFs with non-standard font encodings (all of this is detailed in the readme file). On the pdftohtml->html2lrf solution, I can tell you that deskUNPDF will outperform pdftohtml in creating structured text, paragraphs etc, from PDFs hands down. Besides this, doing an extra conversion (pdf-html-lrf vs pdf-lrf) is always going to me more lossy.

kovidgoyal · 05-14-2007, 06:02 PM

That's great, are you going to release the pdf->html converter as a standalone app/library as well. What's it written in?

dsyzling · 05-15-2007, 04:23 AM

re pdftohtml - does this extact embedded images? Last time I tried the 0.39 Windows command line tool it only extracted text (in simple mode). Complex mode converted to png but for final conversion to lrf that wasn't too useful for me. All formatting, headings, document structure was lost as well.

Darren

nekokami · 05-15-2007, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddesk

... fixing text from PDFs with non-standard font encodings

This is particularly interesting to me. I've had a couple of PDFs that I wasn't able to convert using other tools because of non-standard encodings.

ddesk · 05-16-2007, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That's great, are you going to release the pdf->html converter as a standalone app/library as well. What's it written in?

The entire conversion engine, PDF to all formats, will be available as an API. It is written in Java, which is compiled to native code for various platforms using GCJ (incidentally, we have an article on our labs site about building an OS X cross compiler for GCJ). For the initial release, the library will be available as a Java class (linked via JNI) and a COM component for Windows. That said, our main focus is on creating simple to use end user applications. Its nice to have different tools available, especially open source ones. Have you thought of creating simple installer packages for your python prs500-gui app? It was a pretty high bar to get all of the needed dependencies installed (at least on OS X), too much for the average user. With all of the features it offers, I know it would be a welcomed contribution.

kovidgoyal · 05-16-2007, 02:22 PM

There is an installer for windows and for linux its just a couple of commands. However, I don't have convenient access to an OSX machine, so I can't maintain an OSX installer. It's a pity...

A cross platform text extraction engine for PDF is a really useful thing. I'm looking forward to it.

05-12-2007, 02:50 PM	#1
sammykrupa Reader of the Reader Posts: 103 Karma: 107 Join Date: Apr 2006 Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	Create reflowable content for the Sony Reader with deskUNPDF Docudesk's new program is out, and it is excellent (on Mac atleast!): http://labs.docudesk.com/latest-tech...deskunpdf.html

05-13-2007, 08:11 PM	#9
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,835 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Ah that would explain your reluctance. The hard part is really installing the tools, not using them. A simple use case would look like Code: pdftohtml my.pdf html2lrf my.html But yeah, until you can get past the installation hurdle, you're better off with the GUI.

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05-12-2007, 04:26 PM	#2
gdxf Enthusiast Posts: 48 Karma: 27 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	I've tested its Windows version. For pdf files based on images, the lrf output result is not desirable to me, obviously the conversion depends entirely on the program's OCR capability. In this respect the program does not have much advantage compared with ther OCR softwares.

05-12-2007, 04:48 PM	#3
gdxf Enthusiast Posts: 48 Karma: 27 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	For text based pdf documents, this program does a wonderful job. Its speed of conversion is fast. Batch file processing is great. It makes me wonder whether there could be a program that can reflow the image-based pdf to lrf without OCR.

05-12-2007, 10:45 PM	#4
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I wish it had an output other than lrf, so we iLiad users could use it. But I guess that's what PDFtoHTML is for -- now that we have fbreader to read html.

05-13-2007, 11:24 AM	#5
jimmyzou Connoisseur Posts: 96 Karma: 11 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Montreal Device: Sony Reader; Kobo; Nook color	This is really wonderful tools for Sony reader users. I try it and immediately put it on my first piority than Scansoft's PDF converter before

05-13-2007, 05:53 PM	#6
tsgreer Lovin' the e-book life... Posts: 633 Karma: 2509 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Colorado Device: Ebookwise 1150, Sony PRS-505, Amazon Kindle, BeBook (with OpenInkpot)	This thing is awesome so far. Not sure if I can create a linked Table of Contents yet since I just downloaded it, but I like it better than Libriate for creating .lrf files. I can finally have italics and some formatting when I make books. I can also do illustrated versions now too. Yay!

05-13-2007, 07:00 PM	#7
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,835 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You'd get more features with pdftohtml + html2lrf/BookDesigner

05-14-2007, 05:46 PM	#10
ddesk Darren Posts: 4 Karma: 51 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Plano, Texas Device: PPC-6700/PRS-500	The final release version of deskUNPDF Professional is spec'd to perform PDF-HTML conversion, handle pdf-BBeB TOC conversions and internal links, the OCR engine will be enabled for extracting text from images and fixing text from PDFs with non-standard font encodings (all of this is detailed in the readme file). On the pdftohtml->html2lrf solution, I can tell you that deskUNPDF will outperform pdftohtml in creating structured text, paragraphs etc, from PDFs hands down. Besides this, doing an extra conversion (pdf-html-lrf vs pdf-lrf) is always going to me more lossy.

05-14-2007, 06:02 PM	#11
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,835 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	That's great, are you going to release the pdf->html converter as a standalone app/library as well. What's it written in?

05-15-2007, 04:23 AM	#12
dsyzling Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2006 Device: Sony Reader	re pdftohtml - does this extact embedded images? Last time I tried the 0.39 Windows command line tool it only extracted text (in simple mode). Complex mode converted to png but for final conversion to lrf that wasn't too useful for me. All formatting, headings, document structure was lost as well. Darren

05-16-2007, 02:22 PM	#15
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,835 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	There is an installer for windows and for linux its just a couple of commands. However, I don't have convenient access to an OSX machine, so I can't maintain an OSX installer. It's a pity... A cross platform text extraction engine for PDF is a really useful thing. I'm looking forward to it.

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