Merge scribbles with PDF - Page 3

Bert · 02-27-2007, 02:21 PM

Because several people would like them: here are the sources of the 1.4 version.

I just zipped my entire source directory (including build, dist, ...), so everything should be there. Also note I created the app with NetBeans 5.5, to edit the just open the source-dir and everything should work fine (you'll have to add the iText library to the NetBeans libraries though).

Note: these sources don't include the iText library I used. Visit http://www.lowagie.com/iText/ to get the sources or binaries.

A little disclaimer: It has almost 5 years since I last wrote something in Java (and the first time using an IDE, in college we had to use notepad/emacs so we wouldn't be 'spoiled' by the IDE's features). So if you see something strange/funny/stupid in these sources, please inform me ... I didn't take (yet) the time to 'clean up' these sources

kusmi · 02-28-2007, 03:14 PM

Cool stuff, many thanks - I take a look, as one thing I was missing is support for transparency (not sure, if iText supports it though) - currently all drawings are opaque, so if you (by mistake) draw a line over some text, this text is no longer readable, so perhaps some light transparency might help :-)

Bert · 04-04-2007, 04:40 PM

Another update (v1.6) - see front page for files & source:

- Scifier noticed that bookmarks are lost when merging pdf's with scribbles (Well, he noticed that with the iLiad companion software - but this was also the case with my tool). This is fixed now. Instead of recreating a new pdf from he old one by copying all pages, I now copy the original and modify that one. This also preserves comments (author, description, ...), forms, ...
- You can now drag & drop files & folders to the source & destination boxes.
- Shows some indication when merging (wait cursor).

Bert

BACbKA · 04-05-2007, 05:29 AM

Thanks!

Moderator: stick this thread, please.

yokos · 04-05-2007, 05:52 AM

Thanks Bert for your update. Your scribble merger has more features than iRex's one.

Scifier · 04-06-2007, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert

Another update (v1.6) - see front page for files & source:

- Scifier noticed that bookmarks are lost when merging pdf's with scribbles (Well, he noticed that with the iLiad companion software - but this was also the case with my tool). This is fixed now. Instead of recreating a new pdf from Bert

Works very fast even on the huge PDF files. Excellent tool ! Thanks Bert.

Though one small enhancement could make it a bit more usable - could you add a ability to save color custom color mappings to a configuration file.

Since my LCD monitor has a little bit more colors than Iliad does I would rather prefer to have my scribbles to be of non-grayscale colors.

I would have changed the hardcoded values myself (ScribbleMergeForm.java file) if I knew how to compile java sources into jar file

I guess I need to install Ant, Java compiler and then execute Ant with the build.xml as a command line parameter - but this is there my Java knowledge ends.

If you don't have time for implementing color mapping persistence - may be you could provide us with steps on how to setup a java build environment to build your sources.

Thanks.

BACbKA · 04-06-2007, 01:14 PM

scifier: I'm satisfied w/ using the command-line options for mapping the colors, once and for all, and am generally using the tool from the command line.

Bert · 04-06-2007, 05:54 PM

@Scifier: I created the app using NetBeans 5.5 (netbeans.org). Just open the complete directory in NetBeans and you can easily build & run the project.

About the color maps: I myself always use the GUI, an it is a (little) hassle to always select the colors. So I decided to do just as scifier suggested, and implemented color map presets.

Check version 1.7 for details (see first post for binary & source)

Bert · 04-07-2007, 06:27 AM

New update (v1.7.5): Using saved color mappings supported in command line mode (see -? for details, check the -cm switch). You'll have to use the GUI to create the color mappings.
I also fixed a bug in the GUI version: the mapping selected at startup was the last saved mapping, not the last used.

A few notes about these color mappings (in command line mode):

The program searches for a file 'ColorMapPresets.xml' in the current directory and retrieves the mappings from there. I decided for now to use the current directory because I wasn't sure where to put the file otherwise ... I could put it together with the .jar, but I can't be sure if I have write rights in that folder (or do I ?).
If it can find the xml file, the program will use the default mapping found in that file (this is the last used mapping in the GUI). Extra color switches (-c1 to -c4) can override parts or all of this default mapping.

Scifier · 04-08-2007, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert

@Scifier: I created the app using NetBeans 5.5 (netbeans.org). Just open the complete directory in NetBeans and you can easily build & run the project.

I've downloaded the latest NetBeans (the version that comes with Java SDK since I didn't have it on my machine) and the sources of your ScribbleMerger
had been compiled with no errors or warnings (this is rarely happens to me when I compile something open sourced) - so I guess I don't have to bother anyone in case if I want a quick fix or a custom tailored enhancement. Thanks for sharing sources, Bert.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert

About the color maps: I myself always use the GUI, an it is a (little) hassle to always select the colors. So I decided to do just as scifier suggested, and implemented color map presets.

Thanks to Bert, now everyone can enjoy scrible colors they like the most.

Scifier · 04-09-2007, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert

New update (v1.7.5): Using saved color mappings supported in command line mode (see -? for details, check the -cm switch). You'll have to use the GUI to create the color mappings.
I also fixed a bug in the GUI version: the mapping selected at startup was the last saved mapping, not the last used.

(after some pondering over resulting documents produced by Scribble Merger): Is it possible to implement merging scribbles into PDF document so we could delete/update them later. Currently, after scribbles been merged with PDF document, they becomes irreversibly embedded into PDF document as the images(?).

What I would like to see - instead of converting Iliad scribbles into images, having them embedded as a "line objects/lines" (not sure if I'm using the right term here). Having scribbles as "lines" allow us to remove or update them on PC as well.

I believe the "line" (*1)(*2) is the 2nd most popular tool (the number one is the highlighting but highlights doesn't really work nice on the 16-grayscale Iliad's screen) to make notes "on" PDF documents.

Moreover, we would be able to convert these "line" objects back to Iliad's scribbles - so we could even delete/update them on Iliad! This would really make note taking a two-way process.

---
1. See "Comment and Markup" toolbar in Adobe Acrobat 8.0
2. See "Drawing Markup Tools" toolbar in Foxit Reader 2.0

narve · 04-09-2007, 02:30 PM

Just for fun, I tried to build and run this tool and it works well. Nice work! I will probably never use it because I don't use my scribbles that way (nobody but me can read my letters so I manually convert my notes to text), but still... just wanted to say it seems like a great product

Btw, I used itext 2.0.1 instead of 1.4.8, it compiled and ran perfectly (even a bit faster, perhaps? and the jar file is actually smaller). Perhaps the transparancy features somebody mentioned are in place now.

BACbKA · 04-09-2007, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by narve

Just for fun, I tried to build and run this tool and it works well. Nice work! I will probably never use it because I don't use my scribbles that way (nobody but me can read my letters so I manually convert my notes to text)

my most freq. use of this tool is the "only scribbled page" mode, to dump the pages I have scribbled during proofreading an article (or an e-book I've been preparing during leisure time), for subsequent viewing of the PDF and changing the original TeX accordingly.

A real killer application for TeX-centered proofreading might be an addon to the whizzytex package -- to be used supposedly with the original DVI equivalent to the scribbled on PDF -- so, browsing on the PC through the scribbles in the merger application (maybe just an add-on to a sophisticated enough DVI viewer), one automatically jumps to different spots in the original TeX file through the same DVI specials as in whizzytex.

nekokami · 04-09-2007, 05:30 PM

That would be extremely cool.

I really want scribbles for some documents other than PDF, myself.

ali · 04-25-2007, 09:31 AM

I just used your tool for the first time. I used the Iliad to correct a thesis draft a student gave me, and sent him his PDF back with bright red wonderful correction marks. I love it!

(Now if I could have calibration, I could even write annotations... Imagine "This ain't true! Try again!" using the Iliad... Mhhhhm)

04-07-2007, 06:27 AM	#39
Bert Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 2898 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Belgium Device: iRex iLiad, PRS-600	New update (v1.7.5): Using saved color mappings supported in command line mode (see -? for details, check the -cm switch). You'll have to use the GUI to create the color mappings. I also fixed a bug in the GUI version: the mapping selected at startup was the last saved mapping, not the last used. A few notes about these color mappings (in command line mode): The program searches for a file 'ColorMapPresets.xml' in the current directory and retrieves the mappings from there. I decided for now to use the current directory because I wasn't sure where to put the file otherwise ... I could put it together with the .jar, but I can't be sure if I have write rights in that folder (or do I ?). If it can find the xml file, the program will use the default mapping found in that file (this is the last used mapping in the GUI). Extra color switches (-c1 to -c4) can override parts or all of this default mapping.

04-09-2007, 02:30 PM	#42
narve iLiad fan Posts: 210 Karma: 3864 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: iRex iLiad	Just for fun, I tried to build and run this tool and it works well. Nice work! I will probably never use it because I don't use my scribbles that way (nobody but me can read my letters so I manually convert my notes to text), but still... just wanted to say it seems like a great product Btw, I used itext 2.0.1 instead of 1.4.8, it compiled and ran perfectly (even a bit faster, perhaps? and the jar file is actually smaller). Perhaps the transparancy features somebody mentioned are in place now. Last edited by narve; 04-09-2007 at 03:17 PM.

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02-28-2007, 03:14 PM	#32
kusmi Connoisseur Posts: 73 Karma: 16 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Zurich, Switzerland	Cool stuff, many thanks - I take a look, as one thing I was missing is support for transparency (not sure, if iText supports it though) - currently all drawings are opaque, so if you (by mistake) draw a line over some text, this text is no longer readable, so perhaps some light transparency might help :-)

04-04-2007, 04:40 PM	#33
Bert Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 2898 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Belgium Device: iRex iLiad, PRS-600	Another update (v1.6) - see front page for files & source: - Scifier noticed that bookmarks are lost when merging pdf's with scribbles (Well, he noticed that with the iLiad companion software - but this was also the case with my tool). This is fixed now. Instead of recreating a new pdf from he old one by copying all pages, I now copy the original and modify that one. This also preserves comments (author, description, ...), forms, ... - You can now drag & drop files & folders to the source & destination boxes. - Shows some indication when merging (wait cursor). Bert

04-05-2007, 05:29 AM	#34
BACbKA мокрец Posts: 52 Karma: 28 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Israel Device: palm, iliad	Thanks! Moderator: stick this thread, please.

04-05-2007, 05:52 AM	#35
yokos Pac-Man caught my iLiad. Posts: 807 Karma: 3595 Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany; next to Baltic Sea Device: Boox Max Lumi, iRex iLiad (RIP)	Thanks Bert for your update. Your scribble merger has more features than iRex's one.

04-06-2007, 01:14 PM	#37
BACbKA мокрец Posts: 52 Karma: 28 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Israel Device: palm, iliad	scifier: I'm satisfied w/ using the command-line options for mapping the colors, once and for all, and am generally using the tool from the command line.

04-06-2007, 05:54 PM	#38
Bert Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 2898 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Belgium Device: iRex iLiad, PRS-600	@Scifier: I created the app using NetBeans 5.5 (netbeans.org). Just open the complete directory in NetBeans and you can easily build & run the project. About the color maps: I myself always use the GUI, an it is a (little) hassle to always select the colors. So I decided to do just as scifier suggested, and implemented color map presets. Check version 1.7 for details (see first post for binary & source)

04-09-2007, 05:30 PM	#44
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	That would be extremely cool. I really want scribbles for some documents other than PDF, myself.

04-25-2007, 09:31 AM	#45
ali Addict Posts: 302 Karma: 116 Join Date: May 2006 Device: Iliad, dude!	I just used your tool for the first time. I used the Iliad to correct a thesis draft a student gave me, and sent him his PDF back with bright red wonderful correction marks. I love it! (Now if I could have calibration, I could even write annotations... Imagine "This ain't true! Try again!" using the Iliad... Mhhhhm)

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