PDF Sucks and see here why... - Page 2

Azayzel · 01-25-2007, 04:24 AM

I think that one of the main problems that people have when converting from PDF to any other format happens when a) the fonts aren't embedded into the PDF, or b) the PDF was generated as a raster image.

a) If the fonts were embedded within the PDF, it would be a simple (albeit, expensive) matter of opening the document within Acrobat Pro and copy/pasting the text into something more easily formatted into an eReader-type format. There are even a few free websites available that will convert the PDF to Word or RTF formats for you with a simple upload.

b) The second option for getting the data out of a PDF is a bit more tricky and time-consuming, but is a necessity, especially if the image was rasterized. This involves running OCR on the document, I even think that Adobe has a rudimentary OCR utility built-in to version 7.0. Of course, the better your OCR software, the better result you'll get. You can then copy/paste or output the result to a format more friendly to your needs. One problem you may encounter with this method is if the PDF had any kind of watermark placed within it before being rasterized (if it hasn't been converted, you can simply remove the watermark w/in Acrobat Pro), this can and will cause problems during the OCR process. Fortunately, if the watermark is a different color than the rest of the document; e.g., red, green, blue, etc., you can load the rastered image into Photoshop or some other grpahics utility that lets you separate the colors used in the image, delete the channel with the watermark, and re-flatten the channels back to B/W. If the watermark spans multiple channels, but does not exist on one, you're set; otherwise you'll have to live with it and seek some other type of program that can convert the image to the format you require.

IMO I do not see PDF's leaving the scene for a very long time to come; it is just too universal/cross-platform to disappear and has been essentially adopted by the government (amond others) as the defacto standard for storing documents. Sure, it may have some large file sizes; but you get what you see and there are other apps that output PS and PDF files other than what Adobe has, they just caught on quicker and marketed the project quite well.

Good luck!

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01-25-2007, 04:24 AM	#16
Azayzel Cache Ninja! Posts: 643 Karma: 1002300 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Tokyo, Japan Device: PRS-500, HTC Shift, iPod Touch, iPaq 4150, TC1100, Panasonic WordsGear	I think that one of the main problems that people have when converting from PDF to any other format happens when a) the fonts aren't embedded into the PDF, or b) the PDF was generated as a raster image. a) If the fonts were embedded within the PDF, it would be a simple (albeit, expensive) matter of opening the document within Acrobat Pro and copy/pasting the text into something more easily formatted into an eReader-type format. There are even a few free websites available that will convert the PDF to Word or RTF formats for you with a simple upload. b) The second option for getting the data out of a PDF is a bit more tricky and time-consuming, but is a necessity, especially if the image was rasterized. This involves running OCR on the document, I even think that Adobe has a rudimentary OCR utility built-in to version 7.0. Of course, the better your OCR software, the better result you'll get. You can then copy/paste or output the result to a format more friendly to your needs. One problem you may encounter with this method is if the PDF had any kind of watermark placed within it before being rasterized (if it hasn't been converted, you can simply remove the watermark w/in Acrobat Pro), this can and will cause problems during the OCR process. Fortunately, if the watermark is a different color than the rest of the document; e.g., red, green, blue, etc., you can load the rastered image into Photoshop or some other grpahics utility that lets you separate the colors used in the image, delete the channel with the watermark, and re-flatten the channels back to B/W. If the watermark spans multiple channels, but does not exist on one, you're set; otherwise you'll have to live with it and seek some other type of program that can convert the image to the format you require. IMO I do not see PDF's leaving the scene for a very long time to come; it is just too universal/cross-platform to disappear and has been essentially adopted by the government (amond others) as the defacto standard for storing documents. Sure, it may have some large file sizes; but you get what you see and there are other apps that output PS and PDF files other than what Adobe has, they just caught on quicker and marketed the project quite well. Good luck!