Copying from PDF

[Richard Henry]

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

 

On Apr 3, 10:26 am, "Richard Henry" <pomer...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

You're probably copying as a bitmap, which is bad.
You need to copy as vectors. I think it depends on the PDF itself.
The only way to work these things I aware of, in Windows, is to open
the clipboard viewer and use a program called Metafile Companion.
Metafiles are Window's way of encapsulating all kinds of image
information.
I was able to create vector clip art for Office by copying from
Autocad's screen and pasting into Companion.
Then you can re-size with no quality penalty. Thing is, they look as
bad on-screen as before, but they print out nice.

BTW disk space is pretty much free these days no? 500G for less than
200$. That's a lot of PDFs.

 

[Jim Thompson]

On 3 Apr 2007 07:26:46 -0700, "Richard Henry" <pomerado@hotmail.com>
wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

Are you cutting just a portion of a page, or a whole page?

If whole page, use Adobe to extract that page.

If partial, perhaps use something like Universal Document Converter to
make a GIF that you can manually edit/crop?

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

 

[Robert Latest]

Richard Henry wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD.

To extract single pages, I use pdftops to convert the multi-page PDF into a
PS file, then I extract the page(s) that I want using psselect, and convert
the resulting PS back to PDF. All wrapped nicely into a shell script.

robert

 

[Richard Henry]

On Apr 3, 8:25 am, Jim Thompson <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-I...@My-Web-
Site.com> wrote:

On 3 Apr 2007 07:26:46 -0700, "Richard Henry" <pomer...@hotmail.com
wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

Are you cutting just a portion of a page, or a whole page?

If whole page, use Adobe to extract that page.

If partial, perhaps use something like Universal Document Converter to
make a GIF that you can manually edit/crop?

I have come across two types of Adobe documents in this effort. In
some, I can use the Acrobat reader snapshot tool to get a piece of a
page. In others, the snapshot is disabled, so I have used the Windows
Printscreen function to get a bitmap I can crop down to the part I
need.

I am including in the SCD the URL for the origianl docuemnt, and a
link to the copy of the document where it is stored on our network.
Unfortunately, all networks (including our own) are temporary, so I
wnat to include in the SCD itself as good an image as possible of the
information in the original pdf, then print it out and store it in a
real steel file cabinet.

 

[Jim Thompson]

On 3 Apr 2007 15:38:03 GMT, Robert Latest <boblatest@yahoo.com> wrote:

Richard Henry wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD.

To extract single pages, I use pdftops to convert the multi-page PDF into a
PS file, then I extract the page(s) that I want using psselect, and convert
the resulting PS back to PDF. All wrapped nicely into a shell script.

robert

Even early versions of Adobe will extract single pages.

I think the problem is how to compactly get just a portion of a
page... if you "crop" a PDF page the file size DOES NOT reduce.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

 

[Robert Latest]

Jim Thompson wrote:

I think the problem is how to compactly get just a portion of a
page... if you "crop" a PDF page the file size DOES NOT reduce.

Depends. If the PDF contains a bitmap (such as a scanned page), you can
extract that bitmap, crop out the section of interest with an image editor,
and convert the result back to PDF. The file size will reduce accordingly if
you use the same (or even a better) compression scheme as the original.

If the PDF is a vector document, cropping out a part can be hard or
impossible. But vector docs typically occupy much less space than bitmaps
anyway.

robert

 

[John Larkin]

On 3 Apr 2007 07:26:46 -0700, "Richard Henry" <pomerado@hotmail.com>
wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

Adobe, as usual, works against us.

If you open a doc in (the incredibly stupid) Adobe Reader8, you can
zoom in and print the current view. If you have the Microsoft Office
Document Image Writer, or the Universal Document Converter, you can
then print to a file. It looks pretty good, not perfect but better
than snapping a bitmap.

You can't print the current view to CutePDF, pity.

John

 

On Apr 3, 7:26 am, "Richard Henry" <pomer...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

Adobe photoshop can open a PDF. If it is multipage, you can select
which page to open. You can set the resolution that you want for
rendering.

I haven't use ghostview in some time, but it may be pdf tools as well.
This is an alternative if you don't have photoshop.

 

[Richard Henry]

What I figured out...

I converted the word document which is the company standaqrd format
for SCDs (title page and rectangular frame on following pages) to a
pdf, extracted one page from the catalog using Adobe Acrobat, cropped
it, and pasted it into the SCD pdf document as background, scaling it
down a little to fit in the frame.

It looks and prints as good as the original catalog page. The only
unwanted consequence is that the final document is a pdf instead of a
Word document, but CM has agreed to accept it.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On 3 Apr 2007 07:26:46 -0700, the renowned "Richard Henry"
<pomerado@hotmail.com> wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

Drop the document into Adobe Frust^H^H^H^H Illustrator, select the
relevant page and get whatever vector art you need. You can convert it
to a bitmap at whatever resolution you need.

 

[Ross Herbert]

On 3 Apr 2007 07:26:46 -0700, "Richard Henry" <pomerado@hotmail.com>
wrote:

I am trying to create electronic source control drawings from pdf
vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

I haven't read all the other replies but I have had no problems using
Adobe Reader's 'Select' function for selecting text and pictures and
then pasting them direct into a MS Word doc.

 

[Robert Latest]

Richard Henry wrote:

I converted the word document which is the company standaqrd format
for SCDs

Then you're sunk anyway. A few Word updates down the road you won't be able
to open your documentation files any more.

Use OpenOffice; it has an open document format (which means that you can
still get at the content of your docs even in case of future version
incompatibilities -- heck, it's XML, you can open it with any text editor),
is available for free, it exports directly to PDF and can import and export
several Word formats.

Don't chain yourself to proprietary software for important business matters.

robert

 

[Marte Schwarz]

Hi Richard,

vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Just Copy &Paste extracts a bitmap with screen resolution. You may improove
this by zoom after select. then you get the hole selected picture with a
resolution of the zoomed section. But remember this will also be a bitmap.
Vector graphics - only if the pictures are as a vector graphic included in
PDF (extremely seldom) - may be exported with the toolchain gsview,
ghostscript, pstoedit. It's all free and very useable, a must in all
computers
Simply open your pdf with gsview, select your page and convert the sheet to
emf, wmf or any other vector format you are able to handle later. I use emf
and import these in OpenOffice.org Draw. There I ungroup the picture and
have all I need. The only drawback is, that OOo Draw have a preselection
that makes mistakes with texts. The frames around the Texts are to small
after ungrouping and the preselection is to shrink the font size to frame.
So I have to click all text elements and reszies the frames and adjuats the
text- options to resize the frame as needed to draw the fonts to original
size.

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

Another tip: search about djvu compressor. Its impressive how small
documents can be compressed with very good quality.

Marte

 

[mpm]

On Apr 3, 8:50?pm, Spehro Pefhany <speffS...@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat>
wrote:

Drop the document into Adobe Frust^H^H^H^H Illustrator, select the
relevant page and get whatever vector art you need. You can convert it
to a bitmap at whatever resolution you need.

You have got to be kidding! Right?!
-mpm

 

[Richard Henry]

On Apr 4, 12:10 am, Robert Latest <boblat...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Richard Henry wrote:
I converted the word document which is the company standaqrd format
for SCDs

Then you're sunk anyway. A few Word updates down the road you won't be able
to open your documentation files any more.

Use OpenOffice; it has an open document format (which means that you can
still get at the content of your docs even in case of future version
incompatibilities -- heck, it's XML, you can open it with any text editor),
is available for free, it exports directly to PDF and can import and export
several Word formats.

Don't chain yourself to proprietary software for important business matters.

I agree with you in theory, but as a practical matter I don't get to
decide (yet) what the company's policies are for office software
tools.

Also, I can edit text fields in teh PDF documents within Acrobat
itself, which at least moves the problem out of Microsoft's domain.

 

On Apr 4, 1:54 am, "Marte Schwarz" <marte.schw...@gmx.de> wrote:

Hi Richard,

vendor catalog pages. I want to copy a small piece of the pdf and
paste it into the SCD. Most of the time, the results are marginally
readable, especially the printouts. Are there known techniques to
improve the quality of this process?

Just Copy &Paste extracts a bitmap with screen resolution. You may improove
this by zoom after select. then you get the hole selected picture with a
resolution of the zoomed section. But remember this will also be a bitmap.
Vector graphics - only if the pictures are as a vector graphic included in
PDF (extremely seldom) - may be exported with the toolchain gsview,
ghostscript, pstoedit. It's all free and very useable, a must in all
computers
Simply open your pdf with gsview, select your page and convert the sheet to
emf, wmf or any other vector format you are able to handle later. I use emf
and import these in OpenOffice.org Draw. There I ungroup the picture and
have all I need. The only drawback is, that OOo Draw have a preselection
that makes mistakes with texts. The frames around the Texts are to small
after ungrouping and the preselection is to shrink the font size to frame.
So I have to click all text elements and reszies the frames and adjuats the
text- options to resize the frame as needed to draw the fonts to original
size.

Our backup method at this time is to include a full copy of the pdf
file in the SCD folder in the the CM area of our network. It goes
without saying that that uses up a lot of disk space.

Another tip: search about djvu compressor. Its impressive how small
documents can be compressed with very good quality.

Marte

Lizardtech dropped the free djvu encoders some years ago. [I have the
old programs fortunately.] However, I found jpeg2000 to be better.
http://www.ermapper.com/ProductView.aspx?t=235
This is free, but it might be crippled in some manner. [I have the old
version with the file size limit.]

The easiest free high quality compressor to use is the ECW format in
Ifranview.
http://www.irfanview.com/

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On 4 Apr 2007 07:57:48 -0700, the renowned "mpm" <mpmillard@aol.com>
wrote:

On Apr 3, 8:50?pm, Spehro Pefhany <speffS...@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat
wrote:
Drop the document into Adobe Frust^H^H^H^H Illustrator, select the
relevant page and get whatever vector art you need. You can convert it
to a bitmap at whatever resolution you need.

You have got to be kidding! Right?!
-mpm

Kidding about what?

It works, and a lot of us need Illustrator for our work anyway. It's
often best to keep it in vector format, but not always possible or
desirable.



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

[Marte Schwarz]

Hi Miso,

Another tip: search about djvu compressor. Its impressive how small
documents can be compressed with very good quality.
Lizardtech dropped the free djvu encoders some years ago.

I can't follow this. I downloaded my djvu encoder few weeks ago. It was
free.

However, I found jpeg2000 to be better.
http://www.ermapper.com/ProductView.aspx?t=235

Should I have to look for ...

This is free, but it might be crippled in some manner.

Oh no, thanks...

The easiest free high quality compressor to use is the ECW format in
Ifranview.
http://www.irfanview.com/

the good old irfan... even nice to view djvu and many more...

But I will give ECW a try... Thanks

Marte

 

On Apr 5, 7:25 am, "Marte Schwarz" <marte.schw...@gmx.de> wrote:

Hi Miso,

Another tip: search about djvu compressor. Its impressive how small
documents can be compressed with very good quality.
Lizardtech dropped the free djvu encoders some years ago.

I can't follow this. I downloaded my djvu encoder few weeks ago. It was
free.

I can't find a link for the encoder, just decoders.

However, I found jpeg2000 to be better.
http://www.ermapper.com/ProductView.aspx?t=235

Should I have to look for ...

This is free, but it might be crippled in some manner.

Oh no, thanks...

The easiest free high quality compressor to use is the ECW format in
Ifranview.
http://www.irfanview.com/

the good old irfan... even nice to view djvu and many more...

But I will give ECW a try... Thanks

Marte