2008-03-20 10:52:05

recently, I've come across some really good stuff available in pdf format. I'm thinking particularly of rule books for rpgs, found at ww.drivethroughrpg.com and even some of the old fighting fantasy gamebooks from http://www.fightingfantasygamebooks.com/

The thing is though, even when a pdf contains readable text, it doesn't seem to convert properly. Occasionally pages are out of order, or come out weerdly, which obviously for something like a gamebook is an absolute pest.

Is there a more ifficient way of converting pdfs to text than just using adoby acrobat reader? ------ and preferably one which will not cost an arm and a leg.

Thanks in advance.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2008-03-21 02:21:40 (edited by cx2 2008-03-21 02:23:27)

There used to be one on BlindProgramming.com but the site seems to have gone now, at least for the moment. Sent it by email to you. Small file that runs command line style.

It also ignores protection in the PDF file, which is permitted under both British and American law. Over here the way it is angled is that people can ignore copyright for the purposes of making something accessible, which you might well be aware of already. So long as we keep it to personal use we're safe.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2008-04-21 18:18:24

Dark,

You were interested in OCR and PDF for your doctoral work.
Did you ever find something that will read an image PDF, OCR it, and speak it for you?

John