PDF Creation Software

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

WROTE BY dngrs1

Anyone know of a good PDF creation and PDF page merging software? Software I can use to convert JPG to PDF and merge pages together to create a PDF document (without watermarks)?

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

WROTE BY Jay

The Cadillac is Adobe. 

My experience however is that unless you are using adobe they all have had some glitches. Depending on what tool was used to creat it the codes and master templates from different sources conflict. You might merge a couple successfully but when you go to modify the content later some font takes over and your whole document looks screwy.

When we get a PDF that we want to modify and don't have the orginal source we would first use a converter to change it to a .DOC (word) make our mods, adds, merges  and then write it out to a new PDF.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Well, Jay, what I have been doing is  scanning a page on my scanner and it becomes a JPG. I then open it in Photoshop and save it as a Photoshop PDF. I downloaded a program called PDF tools 3.5 from download.com and I use it to merge all of the Photoshop PDF pages into one PDF document. This seems to work well except for the watermarks from the free program and the end result PDF document is huge! I've tried reducing the size of the JPG before converting to PDF but when you zoom in the document pixilates.  I'm a rather cheap bastard so I would like to find software that will convert JPG to PDF and not sacrifice image quality for document size, on the cheap.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

What image resolution are you scanning in ??
My quick scans are 200dpi (fax quality)  but my scanner is capable of 1600dpi.
The problem with the latter is the obscene size that it becomes.

A couple of things you can try. Once you have the PhotoShop PDF.
If you open this with the adobe reader can you zoom in appopriately if so then the problem is with the merge software.

On the other hand if its just as bad here then perhaps you should try a making a super sized hi-rez scan and see if this is treated any different.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I am scanning 200dpi grayscale (black and white). I end up with a JPG of approx. 785kb. If I reduce the size in Photoshop prior to making it a PDF, it will pixilate after zooming in twice. This is of major concern if it is a board schematic as you cannot read the values of components. If I leave it at 785kb and there are 10 pages, then I end up with an 8MB document. I have seen other PDF documents here that are 1 or 2 MB, 20 pages and don't have this problem. I was wondering what programs they were created with.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

It could be the way that you are reducing the size in photoshop.

In word I would simply stretch the document to size (selecting the image option of maintaining aspect ratio). Then I do a PRINT and choose the Adobe PDF driver......

Try importing the JPG into word post scan. Stretch to size. Copy/paste into Photoshop and then without further modification write them out to the PDF. This avoids the re-sizing function in photoshop. Are your results any better ?

We just want to isolate where you are seeing the degenration. One other test you might want to attempt is to use a BMP format from the scanner and lets see if that format degenerates equaly.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I only have an Acrobat reader so I can't make a PDF with Adobe except with Photoshop. The original scan in grayscale comes in at 224k, will only save as JPG, no other options. If I open it in Photoshop and save as a PDF without reducing the size of the JPG, it increases to 814k. If I reduce the size of the JPG to, say 15k, then I have a totally blurred and unreadable document. I think I am lacking the neccesarry, basic software to do this effectively. Importing into Word then to Photoshop doesn't change the size of the final document. I seem to always end up with a half-meg PDF page. Oh woe is me

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

With Word you would use IMPORT, PICTURES, FROM FILE.
You should not need any kind of add in.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I am scanning 200dpi grayscale (black and white). I end up with a JPG of approx. 785kb. If I reduce the size in Photoshop prior to making it a PDF, it will pixilate after zooming in twice. This is of major concern if it is a board schematic as you cannot read the values of components. If I leave it at 785kb and there are 10 pages, then I end up with an 8MB document. I have seen other PDF documents here that are 1 or 2 MB, 20 pages and don't have this problem. I was wondering what programs they were created with.

If it's just a board schematic, why not change it to 1 bitplane? That should reduce your JPG to about 95kb.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

O.K. Opening it in Word then copy-paste to photoshop, then converting to PDF doesn't change the size at all.
  Printing in Word prints. Thats it, no options. The best I can get, scanning in B/W (1 bit) @ 100dpi is about 500kb. (per page). I can cut this down to around 200kb and it is still barely readable. I know this is hard to figure out not being here and I appreciate all the help. I will continue tinkering with this and I WILL figure it out, eventually. Thanks again for all the advice. 

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I wasn't trying to get the size (as measured in MB) down what I was working on was the readbility of the graphics by going through the resize in word vs photoshop.

Once we see where its loosing the quality we can play with the final output size.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I have had good luck with a program called Cute PDF. You should be able to do what you are looking for with this program

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

You will find a free and good pdf creator under this address:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I use Open Office, from http://www.openoffice.org/.
Has Word Processor, Spredsheet, Etc.
Converts DOC to PDF.
And its FREE.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

for about $50 you could get Scansoft (I use it - have no problems with it - Also able to open most PDF files in word)
ScanSoft PDF Converter instantly converts PDF files into documents, spreadsheets and forms that look just like the original – complete with all formatting and graphics! Information is set free – free to be edited & free to be integrated into your documents. Improved formatting, image-only PDF handling and page-range selection mean you’ll save more time than ever before. Whether you have a 1 page color PDF form, a 50 page financial report, or a 500 page technical document, PDF Converter will save you and your organization time and money. If you need more from PDF than "Paper trapped behind glass" - then you need PDF Converter!

Precise Conversion of PDF into Microsoft Word, Excel and Corel WordPerfect-- PDF Converter Professional instantly turns PDF files into fully-formatted documents – complete with text, columns, tables and graphics. Leveraging the world’s best document conversion technology from ScanSoft, users have the option of duplicating the original with flowing columns and wrapped graphics, or creating a true-page representation using text and graphics boxes.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Some things to try.  After scanning, try converting to Tif. first, then back to pdf.  Make sure the LZW compression option is not checked.  It's called Lozzy compression for a reason.  YOu loose clarity.  If you have distiller, then convert your jpg, to eps and drop that into distiller.  It will not only retain clariity, but you end up with a smaller file.  Plus, distiller (acrobat distiller, sorry) has some nice options such as a print, screen and web setting that will allow you to pick the resolution you want.  If all else fails, email me direct.  I have Acrobat and would not mind helping you at all.

Good luck

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Have a look at PDF Factory. Works great for me.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I'm a rather cheap bastard

Sounds like me...

I put all my docs on a USB key and put them on my work laptop. We have a printer driver installed that sends the print jobs to a server that converts them to a .pdf and emails it back to you.

Free is cheap bastard approved!

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Not offhand... I'll check with our support folks & see if they know.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

In digging around on the laptop, it's part of the CEPS environment... It's the CEPS PDFwrite printer driver...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ceps

RJ

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

In digging around on the laptop, it's part of the CEPS environment... It's the CEPS PDFwrite printer driver...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ceps

RJ

Hmm, looking over the developer's note, the CEPS is just a managemente environment for printers.  It does not cotain in and of itself printer drivers.  I believe the CEPS is just passing the queue data to the acutal PDF application.  The CEPS just makes for easier network wide deployment.  I think the actual software that does the pdf conversion and mails it back to you is another application.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Check here: http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/ceps/scripts/?only_with_tag=r3-14&sortby=rev
http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/sourceforge/usr_ceps_libexec_Tree.html
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=2650278

There are entries for pdfwrite on those pages...

Now, I'm not a linux/unix nut so I couldn't tell ya the first things about those scripts or libraries...

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

ok, I understand now.  I'll have to compile the source and give it a try. Another open source success story!!!

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I create docs in MS-Word and then convert them once complete. 

Here is a link to a nice (free) tool for creating the PDF docs. I've used it for about a year...installs like a printer.  You can get rid of the advertisement by upgrading.

http://www.pdf995.com/

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Along the same lines I use is pdfcreator ....   http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/

It works as an installed printer allowing you to print from any windows application into a pdf document