PDFCropper

[rhadin]

Has anyone used a program called PDFCropper that supposedly reformats PDFs so they are easily viewed on the Sony Reader (among other devices)? There was a short post about it at Teleread (http://www.teleread.org/blog/2007/12...wio-potential/).

[vstefanyuk]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Has anyone used a program called PDFCropper that supposedly reformats PDFs so they are easily viewed on the Sony Reader (among other devices)? There was a short post about it at Teleread (http://www.teleread.org/blog/2007/12...wio-potential/).

I am author and owner of PDFCropper application.
You can ask me any questions about it.
Send me any pdf that you are interesting to read on device, I will send you back prepared via PDFCropper. So you will be able to value it.

And this is original post:

PDFCropper is the application, designed to solve the problem with preparing for reading normal sized (A4-like) pdf's on relative small (Sony Reader PRS500/PRS505, iRex Illiad etc.) devices.

The problem is that pdf is not reformat able by nature. Yes, there is reflow mode in Acrobat Reader, but at first Acrobat Reader is not available for most e-book readers (especially for e-ink devices),
and second even with reflow function reading of complex content (technical books, magazines etc.) is not comfortable. Bad formatted pdf's and wide white spaces make the situation even worse.

The only way how this problem can be solved (at least based on my experience) to cut original pages into smaller pages with removing white spaces.
This is exactly what program do. But comparing with similar software PDFCropper is much more flexible, that allows to prepare books with much better quality in a very short time.

Currently PDFCropper can produce text and image pdf's. Later additional output formats (lrf, lrs, wolf etc.) will be added.

PDFCropper web-site currently is under construction. But it is already available for downloading:

PDFCropper v1.0 RC2 - http://rapidshare.com/files/79718571/Setup.exe.html

Trial version of PDFCropper is fully functional, but output pages are shuffled and include watermark (which by the way displays registration code that you need for obtaining license).

There are no yet tutorial or help available. But I prepared "How To" demo-video:

http://rapidshare.com/files/79717770...ow_To.swf.html

Also, anyone interesting in software, can send me example pdf, and I will send back resulted pdf prepared via application.

You can ask any questions about using or installing software (and details about purchasing the license) via e-mail:
vstefanyuk@gmail.com

P.S. Application is implemented by using Java. You have to have installed Java environment version 1.5 or higher.
Also Ghostscript has to be installed. In case if it is not, application will propose you to download.

[rhadin]

Your note indicates that Ghostscript is required. It won't work with Adobe's print drivers? I went to Rapid Share to download the program but Rapid Share does not make it easy to get to the file. What is the price of the program?

[vstefanyuk]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Your note indicates that Ghostscript is required. It won't work with Adobe's print drivers? I went to Rapid Share to download the program but Rapid Share does not make it easy to get to the file. What is the price of the program?

Yes, it is based on Ghostscript, and doesn"t work with Adobe's drivers.

Send me request via e-mail vstefanyuk@gmail.com, will send you app directly.

And send me example pdf, I think it will be good for you to see what possible to do.

[vstefanyuk]

PDFCropper v1.0 RC3 - http://rapidshare.com/files/80272425...Setup.exe.html

And you can download and value an example of prepared (cropped) pdf:

This is original one - http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/d...ngspec-3.0.pdf

This is cropped one - http://rapidshare.com/files/80268186...ages_.pdf.html

And this is cropped as image pages one (only some pages are there, due large file size) - http://rapidshare.com/files/80268186...ages_.pdf.html

Also, anyone interesting in software, can send me example pdf, and I will send back resulted pdf prepared via application.

You can ask any questions about using or installing software (and details about purchasing the license) via e-mail:
vstefanyuk@gmail.com

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by vstefanyuk

PDFCropper v1.0 RC3 - [snip]
You can ask any questions about using or installing software (and details about purchasing the license) via e-mail:
vstefanyuk@gmail.com

Why not just tell us what the price is on this forum? Is that banned by forum policy? If not, it makes sense to me to make sure that a wide group of people know what the price is so they can decide if they want to find out if it will actually work.

[vstefanyuk]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

Why not just tell us what the price is on this forum? Is that banned by forum policy? If not, it makes sense to me to make sure that a wide group of people know what the price is so they can decide if they want to find out if it will actually work.

Sorry, forgot. Price will be 20 euro per license.

[ppxnouse]

Hi vstefanyuk,

I just wanted to let you know, that my virus scanner did not like the pdfcropper.dll that gets copied into system32 while running pdfcropper. (Downloaded RC3 from rapidshare)

It might be a false positive since most other scanners did not indicate any issue with the file. Anyway. AVIRA users will get a virus alert when they try to run PDFCropper.

Here the scan results:

A-Squared Found nothing
AntiVir Found WORM/IRCBo.260096.1
ArcaVir Found nothing
Avast Found nothing
AVG Antivirus Found nothing
BitDefender Found nothing
ClamAV Found nothing
CPsecure Found nothing
Dr.Web Found nothing
F-Prot Antivirus Found nothing
F-Secure Anti-Virus Found nothing
Fortinet Found nothing
Ikarus Found Suspect code-parts (probable variant)
Kaspersky Anti-Virus Found nothing
NOD32 Found nothing
Norman Virus Control Found nothing
Panda Antivirus Found nothing
Rising Antivirus Found nothing
Sophos Antivirus Found nothing
VirusBuster Found nothing
VBA32 Found nothing

[vstefanyuk]

Originally Posted by ppxnouse

Hi vstefanyuk,

I just wanted to let you know, that my virus scanner did not like the pdfcropper.dll that gets copied into system32 while running pdfcropper. (Downloaded RC3 from rapidshare)

It might be a false positive since most other scanners did not indicate any issue with the file. Anyway. AVIRA users will get a virus alert when they try to run PDFCropper.

Here the scan results:

A-Squared Found nothing
AntiVir Found WORM/IRCBo.260096.1
ArcaVir Found nothing
Avast Found nothing
AVG Antivirus Found nothing
BitDefender Found nothing
ClamAV Found nothing
CPsecure Found nothing
Dr.Web Found nothing
F-Prot Antivirus Found nothing
F-Secure Anti-Virus Found nothing
Fortinet Found nothing
Ikarus Found Suspect code-parts (probable variant)
Kaspersky Anti-Virus Found nothing
NOD32 Found nothing
Norman Virus Control Found nothing
Panda Antivirus Found nothing
Rising Antivirus Found nothing
Sophos Antivirus Found nothing
VirusBuster Found nothing
VBA32 Found nothing

There is nothing about virus. The reason is that this is Java application and java native dll's (jni libraries) can be located only in SYSTEM32. Before there was no installer, it is why app copy this dll during executing to SYSTEM32. But in next version (will be available today I think) I will copy this dll during app install.

In any case you can allow copying this dll, there is nothing about virus.

[vstefanyuk]

PDFCropper v1.0 RC4 links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/80778554...Setup.exe.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/518c4f/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RX5KXFPVor

And you can download and value an example of prepared (cropped) pdf:

This is original one - http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/d...ngspec-3.0.pdf

These are links to cropped one:

http://rapidshare.com/files/80267677...ation.pdf.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/bc2cb0/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FCJJYHHB

And these are links to the one cropped as image pages (only some pages are there, due large file size):

http://rapidshare.com/files/80268186...ages_.pdf.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/e7a856/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KKE7C1V3

Change log:

v1.0 RC4 - fixed bug with creating image pages pdf's in case if original pdf do not have contents list. Changed installation procedure, now PDFCropper.dll is installed during installation time (previously it was installed at program run time, but some anti-viruses treat is as suspicious action).

[vstefanyuk]

PDFCropper v1.1 RC1 links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/87491638...Setup.exe.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a07bc5/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JI7CM0N4

Trial version of PDFCropper is fully functional, the only thing - output pages include watermark (which by the way displays registration code that you need for obtaining license).

And you can download and value an example of prepared (cropped) pdf:

This is original one - http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/d...ngspec-3.0.pdf

These are links to cropped one:

http://rapidshare.com/files/87301097...ation.pdf.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/252400/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8KW32DJT

And these are links to the one cropped as image pages (only some pages are there, due large file size):

http://rapidshare.com/files/87486857...rtly_.pdf.html
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/d02ead/
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MJCYT8KH

Also, anyone interesting in software, can send me example pdf, and I will send back resulted pdf prepared via application.

License price per one computer is 20 euro. Payment can be made via PayPal or directly to bank account.

You can ask any questions about using or installing software and details about purchasing the license via e-mail:

vstefanyuk@gmail.com

P.S. Application is implemented by using Java. You have to have installed Java environment version 1.5 or higher.
Also Ghostscript has to be installed. In case if it is not, application will propose you to download.

Change log:
v1.1 RC1 - fixed the bug with adding table of contents (now appropriate menu item in Sony PRS 500/505 display table of contents correctly).
added separate option for adding clickable table of contents pages.
added displaying of table of contents in the left pane.
improved auto-framing functionality - added possiblty to create frames with size proportional to device size (paper size setting in Crop Settings dialog).
improved cropping funcionality - added possibility to remove empty frames in resulting pdf ("Skip empty frames" option in Crop dialog).
improved dialogs input errors displaying, errorness fields are highlighted by red.
fixed bug with deleting last unaccessible project reference from recent projects list.
added pdf restrictions checking during opening pdf. in case if there are no enough rights for pdf manipulating - program will ask pdf user password.
example pdf's are updated.
simplified trial mode - removed pages shuffling!

[rhadin]

I downloaded the latest version to give PDFCropper a try. I decided to try cropping a PDF I downloaded from Feedbooks. The Sample.JPG (attached) shows how PDFCropper would crop it. Note that part of the text is cut off. The Pages Cropped.jpg shows the output results using the default settings for the Sony 505. So I assume I must be doing something wrong but can't figure it out. Any suggestions?

[vstefanyuk]

Originally Posted by rhadin

I downloaded the latest version to give PDFCropper a try. I decided to try cropping a PDF I downloaded from Feedbooks. The Sample.JPG (attached) shows how PDFCropper would crop it. Note that part of the text is cut off. The Pages Cropped.jpg shows the output results using the default settings for the Sony 505. So I assume I must be doing something wrong but can't figure it out. Any suggestions?

It is heavy to tell what is wrong just based on these pictures. Send me example pdf to vstefanyuk@gmail.com. I will send you back prepared one and well as project file and explanation how it was made.

[vstefanyuk]

Originally Posted by rhadin

I downloaded the latest version to give PDFCropper a try. I decided to try cropping a PDF I downloaded from Feedbooks. The Sample.JPG (attached) shows how PDFCropper would crop it. Note that part of the text is cut off. The Pages Cropped.jpg shows the output results using the default settings for the Sony 505. So I assume I must be doing something wrong but can't figure it out. Any suggestions?

With closer look, seems that you just press Crop without any tuning Of course you have to play with it a little. Still waiting your e-mail.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by vstefanyuk

Still waiting your e-mail.

I sent the file a few moments ago. Thanks.

One thing missing from the program is a Help file or some kind of instructions for dummies like me . Seriously, for the less advanced user, PDF Cropper is not intuitive and a Help file would be useful.