Yet another PDF to LRF converter

[thinredline]

Originally Posted by Fallen angel

I'm sorry, but I couldn't understand how is this application working ... could somebody give me some instructions?

The only thing happening when I'm running the pdflrf.exe file, is opening a dos window that closes within a sec ...

I borrow the instruction written by callall posted on a Chinese forum below (http://www.hi-pda.com/forum/viewthre...tra=page%3D1):

Follow the following steps:
1. save and unzip the file 'pdflrf.zip' to a folder such as "c:\pdflrf".
2. save a copy of the pdf file you want to convert to that folder. For example a file namded 'bullshit.pdf'.
3. click start-> run... and type in 'cmd'. You are in DOS mode
4. Type in 'cd c:\pdflrf'
5. Type in 'pdflrf -i bullshit.pdf -o stillbullshit.lrf -p -v -s'
6. you should have a file stillbullshit.lrf in that folder.
7. try other options and have fun...

[phookoo]

I second that request - I'm not a developer or programmer, but I am reasonably tech-capable.

Any chance of some instructions for non-programmers (idiot-proof would be even better )

[thinredline]

Here is the instruciton borrowed from a Chinese forum

Follow the following steps:
1. save and unzip the file 'pdflrf.zip' to a folder such as "c:\pdflrf".
2. save a copy of the pdf file you want to convert to that folder. For example a file namded 'bullshit.pdf'.
3. click start-> run... and type in 'cmd'. You are in DOS mode
4. Type in 'cd c:\pdflrf'
5. Type in 'pdflrf -i bullshit.pdf -o stillbullshit.lrf -p -v -s'
6. you should have a file stillbullshit.lrf in that folder.
7. try other options and have fun...

[astra]

Originally Posted by thinredline

Here is the instruciton borrowed from a Chinese forum

Follow the following steps:
1. save and unzip the file 'pdflrf.zip' to a folder such as "c:\pdflrf".
2. save a copy of the pdf file you want to convert to that folder. For example a file namded 'bullshit.pdf'.
3. click start-> run... and type in 'cmd'. You are in DOS mode
4. Type in 'cd c:\pdflrf'
5. Type in 'pdflrf -i bullshit.pdf -o stillbullshit.lrf -p -v -s'
6. you should have a file stillbullshit.lrf in that folder.
7. try other options and have fun...

'pdflrf -i bullshit.pdf -o stillbullshit.lrf -p -v -s'

Doesn't work. The resulting file is 0 kb

E:\>cd pdflrf

E:\pdflrf>dir

 Directory of E:\pdflrf

25/08/2007  16:22    <DIR>          .
25/08/2007  16:22    <DIR>          ..
30/01/2006  01:30           522,856 btp.pdf
25/08/2007  16:07            29,696 Follow the following steps.doc
24/08/2007  00:46         1,007,616 pdflrf.exe
               3 File(s)      1,560,168 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  30,384,414,720 bytes free

E:\pdflrf>pdflrf -i btp.pdf -o btl.lrf -p -v -s

E:\pdflrf>

[thinredline]

try this:

pdflrf -ibullshit.pdf -obullshit.lrf

This should work. There is no space between "-i" and "bullshit.pdf"

[cacapee]

Uploaded version 0.2. This version doesn't need ghostscript to be installed. Instead poppler (xpdf) is builtin and is used by default. Also preliminary support for cbz files (png, gif, jpeg) has been added. cbr will follow shortly.

Let me know if you have any questions, feedback etc.

[mdhuang]

Great work! A better replacement for RasterFarian . Thanks for your contribution!

[astra]

Originally Posted by thinredline

try this:

pdflrf -ibullshit.pdf -obullshit.lrf

This should work. There is no space between "-i" and "bullshit.pdf"

I didn't realise I needed ghostscript
Stupid me.

I am going to try again but with newer version which doesn't need ghostscript.

[astra]

It works now

Evene the first command works.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I have a request. A couple of my free PDFs have tiny marks right on the top and bottom edge of the page. This prevents it from being cropped. The one PDF I have done so far is about twice the size it should be. Can you figure out a way to fix it?

This is a really nice tool.

Can you post the source? I want to do a couple one-off mods in order to convert some of my PDFs.

I have another request. Are you able to access the title, publisher, author, etc of the PDF? Can you set that data to be written into the LRF file by default (so it doesn't have to be done by hand)?


Again, this is a really nice program.

[megacoupe]

Well, after messing with this program for a few conversions, I believe it to be the best PDF to LRF converter right now (I've only tried Book Designer and RasterFarian, but those are the big ones, right?).

One of my few complaints with RasterFarian was that no matter how you cropped your PDF, it would still create blank space to the right side of each page to force it into 4:3 proportions. Of course, RasterFarian had to do this so that all the text on a page would fit on your Reader screen.

The innovation that PDFLRF makes is that instead of adding blank space to the right of the page, it enlarges the text so that it fills the screen. Some lines end up being cut off at the bottom of the page because of the text enlargement but PDFLRF simply places it on the next page. You end up with half a blank page on every other page, but at least the text is legible! I don't mind that my 246 page book now shows 473 pages since it's much easier on the eyes.

In case my description above doesn't make any sense, I've take some screenshots.



The above is a conversion done with RasterFarian. Notice the the blank space on the right side, added by RasterFarian even though I cropped the page in Acrobat.



The above is a conversion of the same exact page using PDFLRF. As you can see, it now takes up two pages, but the letters are much larger, making it easier to read comfortably on the Reader screen.

Despite the fact that there is no GUI, this program is pretty damn great. The only complaint I have is the file size. The book I tested is a 7mb PDF; after a RasterFarian conversion, the same file would be a 8mb LRF. After a PDFLRF conversion, the book is a whopping 18MB. That could seriously reduce the number of books you can keep on your Reader at one time.

Nate the Great: You can set the title, author, etc. Type "pdflrf -h" into the command prompt and you will see a list of the metadata available for this program.

[Fallen angel]

Thank you really really much both for the instructions and the program! It is awesome!!

[yota]

Originally Posted by cacapee

Uploaded version 0.2. This version doesn't need ghostscript to be installed. Instead poppler (xpdf) is builtin and is used by default. Also preliminary support for cbz files (png, gif, jpeg) has been added. cbr will follow shortly.

Let me know if you have any questions, feedback etc.

Hello cacapee,

I have been using pdfread but your smartcut feature is cool!! and also the -r option. It always annoyed me when few lines overlapped when turning pages with pdfread.

But I'm on a Mac OSX. Could you post the source again please? I missed to download that when you had it posted.

Thanks.

[Paviko]

Hi cacapee!

Thank you for the best PDF to LRF converter.

I've noticed two things, don't know if these are bugs:

- with -p and --nocrop options the pdf page is not filling the whole screen (looks like it has not been fit to cover whole screen). There is lots of free space at the right and at the bottom margins.

- by default color parameter has 16 shades, but PRS can display only 4. The output on the computer screen looks beautifully with 16 shades, but Sony PRS-500 is doing dithering to render this and I think it's causing some quality degrading. When I choose 4 shades I end up with some pages that are not white but gray. Looks like the color map doesn't have pure white and black, but algorithm is choosing the best 4 shades that match original page. I think that Sony Reader is not able to display at once 4 shades from e.g. 256 palette, but is only able to display exactly 4 shades, which means that dithering here also apply even if output image has only 4 colors in the map.

Regards

[phookoo]

OK, clearly I'm a bigger dumbass than anyone here, but as I don't spend ANY time in DOS ever, using it is more than a little confusing.

No matter what I try, wherever I put the pdflrf exe, I try typing cd c:\pdflrf into the DOS prompt & hit return & it just returns the message -

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents>cd c:\pdflrf
The system cannot find the path specified

Bear in mind the 'C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents>' is already there & I can't overtype it. The exe is currently residing directly in the C drive, but I have also tried putting it in a new folder by itself & using that pathname with no more luck.

IDIOT-PROOF guide anyone?