pdf -> pdf with margin cropping

luckycharms · 08-04-2011, 12:05 PM

hi folks,

i know that pdf input is a nightmare, and i'm not looking to convert pdf to epub or anything. Rather, i'm wondering if calibre can help with some formatting of the pdf. I would still end up with a pdf on my reader, which isn't ideal, but i don't think there's much else i can do about that.

So, is there any way Calibre can crop the margins on pdf's for me before sending the pdf to the device? That's the main thing i'm interested in, though other things like adjusting the crop and detecting tables of contents would be nice too.

thanks!

note: while this question must have been asked before, a search here and on google didn't come up with anything.

jackie_w · 08-04-2011, 12:54 PM

Calibre does supply a commandline program, called pdfmanipulate.exe, which can be used to trim the whitespace borders but it is not available from any of the GUI menus as far as I know.

On a Windows system (don't know about Mac and Linux), if you have a little technical ability, it is possible to write a short batch file to run it automatically on a selected PDF. You don't actually need to be in Calibre to run this. You could also use a similar approach to get it to loop through a whole directory of PDFs if you wanted. It can be quite slow per book but it could be left to run unattended.

Just in case it's of interest, there is also another free non-Calibre utility, called JPDFBookmarks which, amongst other things, has features which can extract bookmarks from your source PDF and put them back in your cropped PDF

luckycharms · 08-04-2011, 01:04 PM

thanks jackie. sounds like i'd have to make a separate directory for all my calibre pdf docs in that case, as I don't want to crop all my originals.

Any idea if this is on the dev list?

thanks!

ldolse · 08-04-2011, 01:07 PM

If you're just looking to manipulate pdf natively Calibre is not the best choice. There are plenty of third party pdf utilities that can do this, you're probably best off with one of those. I can't provide firsthand experience, but I've seen a lot of people recommend Briss:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/briss/

You might be able to integrate it with Calibre's 'Open With' plugin to streamline things...

luckycharms · 08-04-2011, 01:13 PM

hmm - yeah, what i was *hoping* for was some sort of tool similar to how chm->epub conversion works, but for pdf->pdf. As I mentioned above, I don't really want to get into messing with my original files. Rather, I'd like them to get manipulated along the path to exporting to the device (again, like the chm->epub conversion process).

There was some mention at some point of a second conversion pathway that didn't rely on conversion to HTML. Rather, it just went through conversion to images. I was hoping that would have opened the door for pdf->pdf manipulation somehow.

08-04-2011, 12:05 PM	#1
luckycharms Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kobo Glo, PRS-650, iPad 1, iPhone 4S	pdf -> pdf with margin cropping hi folks, i know that pdf input is a nightmare, and i'm not looking to convert pdf to epub or anything. Rather, i'm wondering if calibre can help with some formatting of the pdf. I would still end up with a pdf on my reader, which isn't ideal, but i don't think there's much else i can do about that. So, is there any way Calibre can crop the margins on pdf's for me before sending the pdf to the device? That's the main thing i'm interested in, though other things like adjusting the crop and detecting tables of contents would be nice too. thanks! note: while this question must have been asked before, a search here and on google didn't come up with anything.

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08-04-2011, 12:54 PM	#2
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,251 Karma: 16539642 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E, LibraCol, PBTouchHD3	Calibre does supply a commandline program, called pdfmanipulate.exe, which can be used to trim the whitespace borders but it is not available from any of the GUI menus as far as I know. On a Windows system (don't know about Mac and Linux), if you have a little technical ability, it is possible to write a short batch file to run it automatically on a selected PDF. You don't actually need to be in Calibre to run this. You could also use a similar approach to get it to loop through a whole directory of PDFs if you wanted. It can be quite slow per book but it could be left to run unattended. Just in case it's of interest, there is also another free non-Calibre utility, called JPDFBookmarks which, amongst other things, has features which can extract bookmarks from your source PDF and put them back in your cropped PDF

08-04-2011, 01:04 PM	#3
luckycharms Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kobo Glo, PRS-650, iPad 1, iPhone 4S	thanks jackie. sounds like i'd have to make a separate directory for all my calibre pdf docs in that case, as I don't want to crop all my originals. Any idea if this is on the dev list? thanks!

08-04-2011, 01:07 PM	#4
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	If you're just looking to manipulate pdf natively Calibre is not the best choice. There are plenty of third party pdf utilities that can do this, you're probably best off with one of those. I can't provide firsthand experience, but I've seen a lot of people recommend Briss: http://sourceforge.net/projects/briss/ You might be able to integrate it with Calibre's 'Open With' plugin to streamline things...

08-04-2011, 01:13 PM	#5
luckycharms Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kobo Glo, PRS-650, iPad 1, iPhone 4S	hmm - yeah, what i was hoping for was some sort of tool similar to how chm->epub conversion works, but for pdf->pdf. As I mentioned above, I don't really want to get into messing with my original files. Rather, I'd like them to get manipulated along the path to exporting to the device (again, like the chm->epub conversion process). There was some mention at some point of a second conversion pathway that didn't rely on conversion to HTML. Rather, it just went through conversion to images. I was hoping that would have opened the door for pdf->pdf manipulation somehow.

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