PDF output is searchable with Adobe Reader but not with Mac Preview

cptnemo · 08-21-2013, 03:58 AM

Hello,

I converted an .epub into a .pdf. Once I try to search the text with Mac Preview (but also with Skim) I can't find any correspondence. Also when I try to copy some text from the .pdf I get a blank string. I can highlight the text normally.

All the above problems disappear when I use Adobe Reader. I can search and copy.

Should I select different options for the conversion?

kovidgoyal · 08-21-2013, 06:31 AM

That;s because mac preview has no support for unicode cmaps, a feature that was introduced to PDF over six years ago.

cptnemo · 08-21-2013, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That;s because mac preview has no support for unicode cmaps, a feature that was introduced to PDF over six years ago.

Any easy way to change the character encoding of the pdf output in Calibre? (Or hasn't it anything about the problem? I saw there are options for the input encoding, but can't find for the output...)

kovidgoyal · 08-21-2013, 07:47 PM

No .

cptnemo · 08-21-2013, 09:40 PM

Thanks.

I found I could use a workaround for my character encoding problem. Maybe someone is interested. So see below.

If you want to copy & paste from the PDFs using Preview.app or Skim.app you can't use calibre to generated the PDF. I don't grasp all the technicalities but, in few words, the problem has to do with the encoding: calibre produce PDF with text with encoding "Identity-H", while Preview.app and Skim.app need "Ansi" encoding. Then you can:

1) Convert with calibre to HTMLZ.
2) Replace the .htmlz extension of the file with .zip
3) Unzip the file
4) Create the PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro using "Create from webpage"

(I tried also Word and LibreOffice, problem here they don't keep the internal links)

t04sty · 08-26-2014, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

No .

So close, but this is a dealbreaker. A PDF that isn't searchable in MacOS Preview and lacks the ability to copy content is useless to me. The Calibre PDF output looked very nice once I tweaked the epub in Sigil, though.

Thanks for your efforts in developing Calibre, but I guess I will have to look for a different software package that can do what I need.

(The HTMLZ workaround breaks the ToC if I open it in Word, so it's back to square 1)

t04sty · 08-26-2014, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cptnemo

Thanks.
I found I could use a workaround for my character encoding problem. Maybe someone is interested. So see below.

If you are looking for a fast solution and don't mind sacrificing the internal links, simply open the Calibre-produced PDF in Mac OS Preview, go to the Print dialog, and from there "Save as PDF". This will produce a PDF that is searchable, with copyable content, but which lacks the internal links.

Todd Fincannon · 01-01-2015, 12:36 AM

On OS X Yosemite, I was able to work around the problem and still retain the TOC and internal links. Do File > Duplicate, then File > Save. This may work on earlier versions of OS X, but I haven't tried it.

JHavermans · 02-18-2015, 04:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd Fincannon

On OS X Yosemite, I was able to work around the problem and still retain the TOC and internal links. Do File > Duplicate, then File > Save. This may work on earlier versions of OS X, but I haven't tried it.

Hi Todd,
I have the same issue with the cmaps and so. I tried to duplicate but it doesn't work for me. Can you tell me what fonts you did use in Calibre when you click on convert books and then in the left column on pdf output?

Thank you
Johan

dwig · 02-18-2015, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t04sty

So close, but this is a dealbreaker. A PDF that isn't searchable in MacOS Preview and lacks the ability to copy content is useless to me. ...

Then a lot of PDFs produced by a lot of apps will also be problems. MacOS's Preview supports only a modest subset of PDF attributes and functionality. It is particularly limited in its font support.

IMHO, Preview is too poor a viewer to use it for PDF on a regular basis. The only time I view a PDF in Preview is to see if clients using a Mac with only Preview as their viewer will have difficulty. When I view a PDF for myself on a Mac I use a good viewer, usually Adobe Reader.

JustinCarone · 05-13-2015, 11:54 AM

Todd's fix worked for me. Notice that it does increase file size fairly considerably, and requires that you use an embedded font during the Calibre conversion process that Preview can use. I don't have a list of compatible fonts, but Georgia does work for me. If anyone finds a list of compatible fonts let everyone know.

There is probably a way to write an Apple Script to automatically replace the Calibre outputted file with a Preview searchable one... but I might have to leave that to someone else for now. I'll try it with Automator later, but that's about the limit of my ability. Is there a way for Calibre to automatically accomplish this without going through the external process with Preview? I know I'd appreciate it.

JustinCarone · 05-13-2015, 12:09 PM

After the duplication/save process is complete you can then open the PDF in Acrobat and save as a reduced sized PDF and searching in Preview persists but the file sized is reduced to near it's original size after Calibre conversion. Copy and paste also still works... An apple script for all of these processes would be great, or somehow making it part of Calibre.

eschwartz · 05-13-2015, 01:04 PM

The fact that Mac OSX comes with a builtin default PDF viewer that is lousy, should not be an excuse to use it!!!

JustinCarone · 05-13-2015, 01:16 PM

Okay, figured it out. If you run a Quartz Filter on the PDF after a compatible font is embedded during the Calibre conversion process it will make the content of the PDFs searchable and copyable. I made an Automator script that takes any files and adds an image filter to them that is ostensibly set to reduce the size of images, but I just set it to "uncompressed" so that there is no impact that I can discern on the images. You can process a ton of files quickly this way.

As for eschwartz’s comment, this isn't just for Preview. This also makes PDFs searchable on my iPad using PDF Expert, in Papers 3 on Mac and iPad, and entirely indexable by the above applications as well as Alfred and Spotlight. For my purposes being able to call up all documents with specific keywords or names through a central interface is absurdly useful, and not possible if I don’t make it compatible with Preview and other applications like it which don’t have the full capabilities of some readers. Not to mention making it compatible with the broadest range of possible applications, not just the newest, leaves options open for other ways of using the file that I might not have thought of yet. It also has no negative impact on how I use the files, so I see only positives and no downsides for my personal use.

Pkoetsie · 11-28-2017, 08:37 AM

I had the same issue with a couple of PDFs that were created with Calibre, and managed to fix it by transforming them using Ghostscript.
I ran the following command to have Ghostscript recreate the PDFs:
gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile="<New PDF file>" "<Original PDF file>"

08-21-2013, 03:58 AM	#1
cptnemo Enthusiast Posts: 35 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2011 Device: Kindle 3	PDF output is searchable with Adobe Reader but not with Mac Preview Hello, I converted an .epub into a .pdf. Once I try to search the text with Mac Preview (but also with Skim) I can't find any correspondence. Also when I try to copy some text from the .pdf I get a blank string. I can highlight the text normally. All the above problems disappear when I use Adobe Reader. I can search and copy. Should I select different options for the conversion?

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08-21-2013, 06:31 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	That;s because mac preview has no support for unicode cmaps, a feature that was introduced to PDF over six years ago.

08-21-2013, 07:47 PM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	No .

08-21-2013, 09:40 PM	#5
cptnemo Enthusiast Posts: 35 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Thanks. I found I could use a workaround for my character encoding problem. Maybe someone is interested. So see below. If you want to copy & paste from the PDFs using Preview.app or Skim.app you can't use calibre to generated the PDF. I don't grasp all the technicalities but, in few words, the problem has to do with the encoding: calibre produce PDF with text with encoding "Identity-H", while Preview.app and Skim.app need "Ansi" encoding. Then you can: 1) Convert with calibre to HTMLZ. 2) Replace the .htmlz extension of the file with .zip 3) Unzip the file 4) Create the PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro using "Create from webpage" (I tried also Word and LibreOffice, problem here they don't keep the internal links)

01-01-2015, 12:36 AM	#8
Todd Fincannon Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2015 Device: Kindle	On OS X Yosemite, I was able to work around the problem and still retain the TOC and internal links. Do File > Duplicate, then File > Save. This may work on earlier versions of OS X, but I haven't tried it.

05-13-2015, 11:54 AM	#11
JustinCarone Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2015 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iPad 3	Todd's fix worked for me. Notice that it does increase file size fairly considerably, and requires that you use an embedded font during the Calibre conversion process that Preview can use. I don't have a list of compatible fonts, but Georgia does work for me. If anyone finds a list of compatible fonts let everyone know. There is probably a way to write an Apple Script to automatically replace the Calibre outputted file with a Preview searchable one... but I might have to leave that to someone else for now. I'll try it with Automator later, but that's about the limit of my ability. Is there a way for Calibre to automatically accomplish this without going through the external process with Preview? I know I'd appreciate it.

05-13-2015, 12:09 PM	#12
JustinCarone Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2015 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iPad 3	After the duplication/save process is complete you can then open the PDF in Acrobat and save as a reduced sized PDF and searching in Preview persists but the file sized is reduced to near it's original size after Calibre conversion. Copy and paste also still works... An apple script for all of these processes would be great, or somehow making it part of Calibre.

05-13-2015, 01:04 PM	#13
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,422 Karma: 85397180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	The fact that Mac OSX comes with a builtin default PDF viewer that is lousy, should not be an excuse to use it!!!

05-13-2015, 01:16 PM	#14
JustinCarone Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2015 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iPad 3	Okay, figured it out. If you run a Quartz Filter on the PDF after a compatible font is embedded during the Calibre conversion process it will make the content of the PDFs searchable and copyable. I made an Automator script that takes any files and adds an image filter to them that is ostensibly set to reduce the size of images, but I just set it to "uncompressed" so that there is no impact that I can discern on the images. You can process a ton of files quickly this way. As for eschwartz’s comment, this isn't just for Preview. This also makes PDFs searchable on my iPad using PDF Expert, in Papers 3 on Mac and iPad, and entirely indexable by the above applications as well as Alfred and Spotlight. For my purposes being able to call up all documents with specific keywords or names through a central interface is absurdly useful, and not possible if I don’t make it compatible with Preview and other applications like it which don’t have the full capabilities of some readers. Not to mention making it compatible with the broadest range of possible applications, not just the newest, leaves options open for other ways of using the file that I might not have thought of yet. It also has no negative impact on how I use the files, so I see only positives and no downsides for my personal use.

11-28-2017, 08:37 AM	#15
Pkoetsie Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2017 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2015	I had the same issue with a couple of PDFs that were created with Calibre, and managed to fix it by transforming them using Ghostscript. I ran the following command to have Ghostscript recreate the PDFs: gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile="<New PDF file>" "<Original PDF file>"