MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Need Text extraction engin from editable PDF

rraod · 05-16-2014, 05:42 PM

Though Acrobat Professional program is expensive, it has some very good conversion features.

Acrobat Professional will allow you to Save a good pdf in to a HTM format, DOC format or RTF format along with TXT and JPG formats using the SAVE AS command.

I have tried a few large PDFs with formatted text and images saved it to HTM format (HTML 4.01 with CSS 1.0) and it gave me an almost exact replica of the PDF. Using Sigil, I could make corrections to the HTM file and create an epub file.

The PDF to Text convert utilities are useless as they loose the images and page formatiing. The best option would be to convert the PDF to HTML format which retains the formatting and the images. Try to look for some free PDF to HTML utilities on Google and experiment.

One word of caution while trying out these free utilities. They come bundled with unnecessary programs. Select custom install and read the instructions carefully screen after screen while installing these utilities and opt out of any other extra programs the installer tries to put on your system by un-clicking the check-marks. Don't keep pressing the next button repeatedly.

Good Luck!

05-16-2014, 05:42 PM	#7
rraod Bibliophile Posts: 59 Karma: 2017058 Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Somewhere in the middle of the desert. Device: Kobo Aura H2O	Though Acrobat Professional program is expensive, it has some very good conversion features. Acrobat Professional will allow you to Save a good pdf in to a HTM format, DOC format or RTF format along with TXT and JPG formats using the SAVE AS command. I have tried a few large PDFs with formatted text and images saved it to HTM format (HTML 4.01 with CSS 1.0) and it gave me an almost exact replica of the PDF. Using Sigil, I could make corrections to the HTM file and create an epub file. The PDF to Text convert utilities are useless as they loose the images and page formatiing. The best option would be to convert the PDF to HTML format which retains the formatting and the images. Try to look for some free PDF to HTML utilities on Google and experiment. One word of caution while trying out these free utilities. They come bundled with unnecessary programs. Select custom install and read the instructions carefully screen after screen while installing these utilities and opt out of any other extra programs the installer tries to put on your system by un-clicking the check-marks. Don't keep pressing the next button repeatedly. Good Luck!