Finally! PDF Scissors has answered my prayers

poppynogood · 10-06-2013, 12:13 PM

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to bring up this program because it does what I've been yearning for for months now. The program is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfscissors/.

It's free and lightweight and it allows you to 'chop' scanned, landscape photocopied double pages (as you often get for academic purposes) into single pages. And it arranges them in the correct order too! I can read any ugly, ancient photocopied pdf on my Onyx Boox M92 with ease now

I have had one difficulty with it however. Once I've 'scissored' my file into a lovely, legible pdf with single pages, running any sort of OCR on the pdf causes it to double up ALL the pages and go completely out of order! This happens in both Adobe Acrobat Pro and ABBYY Finereader Express.

Does anyone know why that might be?

jackie_w · 10-06-2013, 12:28 PM

I don't know but I can guess. Most of these PDF choppers & croppers don't actually remove anything. To chop a double page in half they duplicate the page and adjust the viewable area only. So one page has a 'window' only on the first half and the second page only on the second half.

I believe Adobe Acrobat Pro is one of the few programs with an option to actually remove the 'invisible' parts, but as I no longer have it installed I can't remember the exact command. Maybe a current user can oblige.

Edit: I think it was something like Examine Document followed by Remove Hidden Text

johnnyb · 10-06-2013, 07:16 PM

Actually, you get what you're looking for with briss, only that one works just fine with Acrobat OCR...I use it all the time...

forsooth · 10-07-2013, 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Actually, you get what you're looking for with briss, only that one works just fine with Acrobat OCR...I use it all the time...

Thanks.

caleb72 · 10-07-2013, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Actually, you get what you're looking for with briss, only that one works just fine with Acrobat OCR...I use it all the time...

Yeah, I use Briss when I only have the option of PDF for a book and I want to get rid of those pesky margins. Great little utility.

10-06-2013, 12:13 PM	#1
poppynogood Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: M92 Black Pearl	Finally! PDF Scissors has answered my prayers Hey everyone, I just wanted to bring up this program because it does what I've been yearning for for months now. The program is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfscissors/. It's free and lightweight and it allows you to 'chop' scanned, landscape photocopied double pages (as you often get for academic purposes) into single pages. And it arranges them in the correct order too! I can read any ugly, ancient photocopied pdf on my Onyx Boox M92 with ease now I have had one difficulty with it however. Once I've 'scissored' my file into a lovely, legible pdf with single pages, running any sort of OCR on the pdf causes it to double up ALL the pages and go completely out of order! This happens in both Adobe Acrobat Pro and ABBYY Finereader Express. Does anyone know why that might be?

10-06-2013, 12:28 PM	#2
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,212 Karma: 16534894 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo: KA1, ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E. PocketBook: TouchHD3	I don't know but I can guess. Most of these PDF choppers & croppers don't actually remove anything. To chop a double page in half they duplicate the page and adjust the viewable area only. So one page has a 'window' only on the first half and the second page only on the second half. I believe Adobe Acrobat Pro is one of the few programs with an option to actually remove the 'invisible' parts, but as I no longer have it installed I can't remember the exact command. Maybe a current user can oblige. Edit: I think it was something like Examine Document followed by Remove Hidden Text Last edited by jackie_w; 10-06-2013 at 12:33 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Finally thinking to buy an ebook reader, last questions, PDF's, large screen devices	fuzzy_dunlop	Which one should I buy?	2	10-06-2009 05:30 PM
I'm sure this has been answered somewhere...	JohnsnowNW	Sony Reader	6	12-18-2007 11:02 AM
Running with Scissors $2.00 ($11.20!)	evil_bunny	Sony Reader	3	11-26-2006 04:07 PM

10-06-2013, 07:16 PM	#3
johnnyb Cloud Reader Posts: 1,110 Karma: 4000066 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle Oasis, Kindle Scribe, iPad Pro 11	Actually, you get what you're looking for with briss, only that one works just fine with Acrobat OCR...I use it all the time...