a pdf question

[jojoba]

When I change the font (is that what is called 'reflow'?) on pdfs on my T1, the lines often end up like this:

The lines
will change like this so that some of the
lines are
very short and some are normal length and
it is
very annoying to read an academic article
like
that so I'm wondering if I can get rid of it.

Any way to fix this?

[luvduchovny]

Short answer: No.

Your options are put it back to it's original font size (and squint). Change the orientation to landscape (that sometimes helps), or resize the font and live with the annoying formatting.

[HarryT]

I'm afraid that's entirely normal with PDF reflow. The basic problem is that PDF is not an eBook format, but an electronic representation of a fixed-layout page. Trying to display a PDF formatted for an A4/Letter page of a screen that's only 1/6th the size that the document is designed for will always be an exercise in frustration.

[Analogus]

There is (in my experience) just ONE way:

Completely convert (with apropriate software) the PDF in another format. You describe a common PDF-issue which is more or less irrelevant when staying in 'normal'-mode with unaltered formatting.
PDF never was intended to use in a way which reformates a file completely. There are lots of ways to let a PDF looks like it looks (reaching from just beeing a picture to reflowable text).

For a PDF looking the way you describe I do following:

1) Crop the pages to remove headers and footers
2) Load it into the ABBY-PDF-Transformer (comm. software)
3) Convert it to HTML-file
4) load it in WORD and convert it into RTF (this step corrects some issues with picture-sizes)
5) Load it a second time in Word
6) Save it back to HTML
7) Import in Calibre
8) Convert it into EPUB
9) Copy it onto the reader

I tested a lot of solutions described here and on other places on the internet and ended up with this 'simple' procedure. This corrects your problem and does a very good job to get a PDF with pictures in a useable EPUB-document. But I do not recomment it for it is not a quick solution.

A.

[jojoba]

Thanks, everybody. That's kind of what I thought, but it's good to have confirmed that I haven't missed an essential feature.

Thanks also for that recipe, Analogus. Yes, it does seem like an arduous solution. I think I'm just going to save up for an iPad for my work related stuff. It seems to be the best option around for heavy duty pdf/academic work. I wish the Entourage Edge was still around because it looks perfect for that. Maybe someone else will reinvent the concept at some point in the future.

[ring0_event]

Originally Posted by jojoba

When I change the font (is that what is called 'reflow'?) on pdfs on my T1, the lines often end up like this:

The lines
will change like this so that some of the
lines are
very short and some are normal length and
it is
very annoying to read an academic article
like
that so I'm wondering if I can get rid of it.

Any way to fix this?

Yes, I have fixed such PDFs for my 950. Use Adobe Acrobat Pro to tag the PDF and it will display fine. You can also crop it at the same time.

EDIT: I was speaking of text only PDFs. And while the formatting was not 100% correct it was much better when tagged (on my 950, the T1 is not so great for PDFs).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ring0_event

Yes, I have fixed such PDFs for my 950. Use Adobe Acrobat Pro to tag the PDF and it will display fine. You can also crop it at the same time.

Acrobat Pro costs many hundreds of pounds (even more hundreds of US$). That's a VERY expensive solution!

[Mark Nord]

For what its worth:
I found for myself, that importing a PDF (novels, pure-text) in Mobipocket Reader does a pretty good job in "paragraph-detection". Then using calibre to process the *.mobi further.
HTH
Mark

[jojoba]

Originally Posted by ring0_event

Yes, I have fixed such PDFs for my 950. Use Adobe Acrobat Pro to tag the PDF and it will display fine. You can also crop it at the same time.

EDIT: I was speaking of text only PDFs. And while the formatting was not 100% correct it was much better when tagged (on my 950, the T1 is not so great for PDFs).

Oh, that's very useful - I happen to have Adobe Acrobat Pro at work. How do I tag them? I had a look in the menus but couldn't figure it out. I'm looking in their help section now.

Originally Posted by Mark Nord

For what its worth:
I found for myself, that importing a PDF (novels, pure-text) in Mobipocket Reader does a pretty good job in "paragraph-detection". Then using calibre to process th *.mobi further.
HTH
Mark

Does that mean that their likely to show up better on my Kindle (it's based on mobi, is that right)?

[Mark Nord]

Originally Posted by jojoba

Does that mean that their likely to show up better on my Kindle (it's based on mobi, is that right)?

In case zoom dosn't do the trick and you need some kind of reflow, try it.
Formating like in your first post are very rarely.

[jojoba]

I just try converting some pdfs to mobi formats and reading them on my kindle. Some of them came out betters and others didn't. I guess it's a bit of a hit and miss. I'm thinking I have to save up for an ipad for proper pdf work on the go.

[ring0_event]

Originally Posted by jojoba

Oh, that's very useful - I happen to have Adobe Acrobat Pro at work. How do I tag them? I had a look in the menus but couldn't figure it out. I'm looking in their help section now.

Start up Acrobat with your PDF to convert (back it up first), go to "Tools" menus (upper right), action wizard, then select "create accessible PDF". It should then perform various operations, including tagging. To crop, go to "Tools" menu, then go to "Pages", then go to "Crop".
Let me know if this works for you!

[ring0_event]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Acrobat Pro costs many hundreds of pounds (even more hundreds of US$). That's a VERY expensive solution!

I would be SO open to a free solution for PDF tagging...

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by jojoba

Thanks also for that recipe, Analogus. Yes, it does seem like an arduous solution.

I follow a similar recipe except I use Adobe Pro to crop headers/footers and then skip from Step 1 to 7 to import to calibre and convert to EPUB.

Originally Posted by jojoba

Does that mean that their likely to show up better on my Kindle (it's based on mobi, is that right)?

Have you tried to email your Kindle the PDF with the command to convert to MOBI? Sometimes I find this method is a decent solution for text PDFs and doesn't require much effort.

[jojoba]

Thanks, everybody. I'm going to test out these suggestions Although I'm increasingly thinking that I need another device for this. I'm looking for something to support my academic work, so while the conversion options would be fine on a irregular basis, I think I need a simpler set up from a longer term perspective.