k2pdfopt: optimizes PDFs for viewing on e-readers

[willus]

Dicke, thank you. The best way to increase text size is to increase the output dpi. Please try the k2pdfopt help pages.

[idoit]

Thanks again William for this excellent program. I wanted to email you but I thought saying it here would be better:

1. Can't you preserve images somehow, without changing their size? I mean if the image is large, don't split it just fit it into the page (or next blank page)? because right now, it splits big images. If you don't do that, then the reader can zoom in for those pictures (given this case happens rarely, it won't be too inconvenient for readers).

2. When I converted this pdf with -c parameter (to preserve color), some redundant words appear in the first page where title and authors are, whereas if you do the conversion without this parameter, it works perfectly.

P.S. This tool is really helping me in my research, so thank you very much... and if you can just simply ignore images and don't split them, I would definitely like it even more.

Edit: k2pdfopt did a great job on this pdf. The original pdf is ~10 MB and output pdf is 800 KB. NICE.

[Joe591]

I am very excited about the possibility of a good pdf reading experience on these types of devices. Unfortunately I am having the following problem.

K2pdfopt always crashes leaving a "has stopped working" message whenever I enable the color output option. I am converting scientific pdfs for reading on the kindle fire. I have tried the x64 x32 and x32 oldCPU versions and as well as a collection of options while encoding (both png and jpeg etc.) but with no luck. I have Win7 x64 with an AMD X6 chip.

Figures are an important part of reading journal articles and their proper handling is crucial to the experience. Any wisdom to shed on this type of issue?

[willus]

Originally Posted by Joe591

... K2pdfopt always crashes leaving a "has stopped working" message whenever I enable the color output option. ... Any wisdom to shed on this type of issue?

Joe, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. This is a known issue and is actually fixed in my working version, but I'm in the middle of adding some other new features, so I probably won't be releasing it for another few weeks. I'll see if I can't get out an interim bug-fix release before then, but I've got a lot going on right now, so I can't promise anything.

[willus]

I've just posted k2pdfopt v1.41 which is a bug-fix / minor improvement release. Among the issues it addresses is the issue Joe591 and cscat had with the -c option.

[idoit]

UPDATE: RTFM cscat

Great job William! Thanks again...

Spoiler:

Ummm, would adding support for languages like Persian (my native language), which is RTL, difficult? (Personally, I don't think so... if it was open-source, it'd have been a breeze though! )

Details for willus:
Out of curiosity, I tried to convert one pdf and I knew it would do the following but anyway I did it in practice:

Example for original line:

شاهنامه شاهنامه شاهنامه شاهنامه فردوسی فردوسی فردوسی فردوسی

which is supposed to be read from RTL (so in this example the block all with word "شاهنامه" should be first and then the block with word "فردوسی"), but the output of k2pdfopt now is:

فردوسی فردوسی فردوسی فردوسی
شاهنامه شاهنامه شاهنامه شاهنامه

which is incorrect.

[thomass]

Originally Posted by cscat

Ummm, would adding support for languages like Persian (my native language), which is RTL, difficult?

A general support for RTL languages is already available.

[Waldorf]

Willus,

Many thanks for your nifty program. I can now read pdf's from Google Books on my Kindle.

Some of the pdf files convert with uneven line breaks to the point that the converted file has almost twice the pages as the original. See the attached page in pdf.

I'm using the Windows 32 v. 1.41. I tried word wrapping without success.

Any help you can give I will appreciate.

Waldorf

[willus]

Originally Posted by Waldorf

Willus,

Many thanks for your nifty program. I can now read pdf's from Google Books on my Kindle.

Some of the pdf files convert with uneven line breaks to the point that the converted file has almost twice the pages as the original. See the attached page in pdf.

I'm using the Windows 32 v. 1.41. I tried word wrapping without success.

Any help you can give I will appreciate.

Waldorf

Waldorf -- sorry for the late reply. You've found a case that k2pdfopt doesn't handle very well when wrapping text, namely, hanging indents. Ideally, k2pdfopt would detect that most of the lines are indented and correctly wrap the text, but it doesn't. I will add this to my list of possible features to implement in the future. The book also has several little comments in the margins, which k2 doesn't typically handle well. I've been thinking about ways I could handle those better. To get a better idea of how k2pdfopt is parsing your document, try the -sm option.

In the mean time, I would use -wrap- and -col 1 to turn off text wrapping and multicolumn detection, respectively (see the the third question/answer on my faq page). The only issue with doing that is that the resultant text might be too small for you.

Doing a quick google of Bryce's book, I found this page, which has it available in several formats. Some of them might be more suitable for mobile reading than the standard PDF.

[Waldorf]

Willus,

Thanks for your reply & the cite to a Kindle version of Bryce. That's service above & beyond.

Best,

JWaldorf

[twobob]

TOPPOST:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /archive/k2pdfopt/k2pdfopt.exe on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Probably best to edit that now then....

Just wanted to add. Excellent product - much KUDOS

it's munching its way happily through the nth thousandth page right now on a Linux 64 system. no install, very impressed.

[colateral]

pllllllllllease some one help meee

it never work with me i have kobo touch V2 french

i use pdf arabic already but i can't read anything -soo smal
with this k2toPDF i get a large pdf


but i lose must of document centent !! !

[twobob]

Originally Posted by colateral

pllllllllllease some one help meee

it never work with me i have kobo touch V2 french

i use pdf arabic already but i can't read anything -soo smal
with this k2toPDF i get a large pdf


but i lose must of document centent !! !

I am no expert there was some mention of RTL and Left to Right support options in the above threads. -c perhaps? I'm sure it will be in a readme / menu somewhere.

I have never had an issues with this so can't really help but would suggest reading up this thread

And giving a more clear explanation on what the problem is.
You say it is missing - exactly what is missing? text off the edge? pages just missing? do the extra pages get added to the page count? etc.

That sort of detail will really help get it sorted when someone comes along who knows more about the product.

Thanks

[willus]

Originally Posted by colateral

pllllllllllease some one help meee

it never work with me i have kobo touch V2 french

i use pdf arabic already but i can't read anything -soo smal
with this k2toPDF i get a large pdf


but i lose must of document centent !! !

Colateral-- Can you attach the source PDF file you are trying to read (or provide a link to it)? That would be a big help. Can the kobo touch read PDF files directly like the kindle? Has anybody else had success with k2pdfopt on a kobo touch?

[colateral]

Originally Posted by willus

Colateral-- Can you attach the source PDF file you are trying to read (or provide a link to it)? That would be a big help. Can the kobo touch read PDF files directly like the kindle? Has anybody else had success with k2pdfopt on a kobo touch?

thank you willus

for exemple this document

[MOD: Link to copyright material removed]

after using the app , / lastest version / with default setting
i get the result
[MOD: Link to copyright material removed]

kobo read arabic pdf directly like kindle .