PDF – Linux Hint https://linuxhint.com Exploring and Master Linux Ecosystem Fri, 12 Mar 2021 15:08:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6.2 How to convert PDF to Google doc https://linuxhint.com/how-to-convert-pdf-to-google-doc/ Fri, 12 Mar 2021 12:54:36 +0000 https://linuxhint.com/?p=94148 Sometimes, we need to convert pdf files to Google docs in order to edit and share the files with other users. We can easily convert the pdf to Google doc using Google Drive. However, remember that converted documents may not always look perfect. It all depends on the formatting and layout applied to the file likes tables, list, header, footer, etc. The more formatting you have applied to your file, the less are the chances of proper conversion.

In this post, we will look at two methods for converting Pdf to Google Doc. Let’s get started.

Converting Pdf to Google Doc

Method 1:

In this method, we will first upload the pdf file to Google Drive, and then using Google drive we, will convert the file to Google Doc.

  1. Sign in to Google Drive account.
  2. Now upload the desired file to Goggle Drive. To do so, click the New button as highlighted by arrow in the below screenshot.

3. From the menu that shows up, click the File upload option.

4. Now a File Upload dialog will show up. Select the pdf file from your system and click Open in order to upload the file to your Google Drive.

5. At the bottom right of the window, you will see a progress bar displaying the progress of the upload process. After the pdf is uploaded, you will see the “upload complete” message as shown in the below screenshot.

6. Now you will see your pdf file listed in Google Drive. Right-click the file to convert it into Google Doc. By doing so a menu will appear, select Open with, and then select Google Docs.

7. The pdf file will be converted to the Google Doc format keeping the original text and formatting preserved. Now you can easily edit and format the converted document.

Method 2:

In this method, we will first convert the pdf file to the .docx format using Microsoft Word. Next, we will upload the word file in .docx format to Google Drive and then convert it into Google Doc.

Open Microsoft Word on your system. We are using Microsoft Word 2016.

Click the File tab in your Word document and then click Open. It will open a file explorer dialog for you to locate your desired pdf file. Once you have located the pdf file, click Open to load it into your Microsoft Word.

Now an information dialog will appear informing you that Word will transform the PDF to an editable word file. Click OK to close this dialog.

At the top of the document, you will see a message telling you that document is in protected mode. Click Enable Editing to edit the document.

To save this converted file as a .docx file, go to the File menu and click Save As. Then a Save As dialog will show up. Make sure Word Document (*.docx) is selected as Save as type. Name the Word file and select a location to save your document. Then click the Save button.

It will save the file with a .docx extension in your selected location.

Now open your Google Drive account. Click the New button as highlighted by the arrow in the below screenshot.

From the menu that shows up, click the File upload option.

Now a File Upload dialog will show up. Select the converted .docx file from your system and click Open to upload it to your Google Drive.

At the bottom right of the window, you will see a progress bar displaying the progress of the upload process. After the word document is uploaded, you will see the “upload complete” message as shown in the below screenshot.

Now you will see your .docx file listed in Google Drive. Right-click the file to convert it into Google Doc. By doing so a menu will appear, select Open With, and then select Google Docs.

The .docx file will now open in the Google Doc. Now you can easily edit and format the converted document.

That is all there is to it! Using either of the two methods discussed above, you can easily convert a pdf to Google Doc. Hope it helps!

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How to digitally sign a PDF document https://linuxhint.com/how-to-digitally-sign-a-pdf-document/ Fri, 12 Mar 2021 12:11:38 +0000 https://linuxhint.com/?p=94107

Introduction:

Signing a document is considered extremely important especially in case of a legal agreement between two or more parties. All of us are familiar with the regular hand-drawn signatures that we do on paper, however, since these days we are supposed to deal with electronic documents very frequently such as PDFs, therefore, it becomes a necessity to figure out a way of digitally signing a document. In this article, we will discuss with you the method of digitally signing a PDF.

Method of Digitally Signing a PDF:

For digitally signing a PDF document, you need to perform the following steps after opening the PDF file that you want to sign:

Click on the signature icon located on the taskbar as highlighted in the image shown below:

Clicking on this icon will cause two options to display on your screen. You need to choose the “Add Signature” option from these options as shown in the following image:

After doing this, a dialogue box will appear on your screen in which you will have the following three tabs: Type, Draw, and Image. The “Type” tab allows you to type in your signature in the form of alphabets and your PDF reader will automatically transform it into a visually appealing signature. The “Draw” tab provides you with a pen with which you can manually draw your signature in the same manner as you do on the paper. The “Image” option enables you to select an image from your computer system and upload it to your PDF document as your digital signature. This dialogue box is presented to you in the image shown below:

Now we will walk you through all the three tabs of this dialogue box one by one. First, we will select the “Type” tab and will type some alphabets as our signature as shown in the following image. You can also change the default style of the signature by choosing one from the Change Style dropdown list. Once you are satisfied with the generated style of the signature, you can simply click on the Apply button.

When you will click on the “Apply” button, you will be able to place your newly generated signature anywhere on your document as shown in the image below:

If you wish to draw your signature manually, then you will need to switch to the “Draw” tab as highlighted in the following image. After switching on to this tab, you will be presented with a pen with which you can do a free form drawing. You can draw any signature of your choice after which you need to click on the “Apply” button.

Once you will click on the “Apply” button, you will be able to place your newly drawn signature anywhere on your document as shown in the image below:

Lastly, if you wish to choose an image as your digital signature, then you need to switch to the “Image” tab. As soon as you will switch to the “Image” tab, you will be allowed to choose any desired image from your computer system. After selecting an image as your digital signature, click on the “Open” button as highlighted in the following image:

Now you need to click on the “Apply” button as highlighted in the image shown below:

When you will click on the “Apply” button, you will be able to place your signature image anywhere on your document as shown in the following image:

Conclusion:

In this article, we shared with you the complete method of digitally signing a PDF. This method can prove to be really effective if you intend to make online agreements with your clients or employers as you can conveniently show your interest in something by signing it digitally.

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Top 7 Free Multi-Platform PDF Editors https://linuxhint.com/top-7-free-multi-platform-pdf-editors/ Sat, 09 Jan 2021 20:32:38 +0000 https://linuxhint.com/?p=85094 The recent rise in popularity of eBooks has led to the emergence of several different file formats, of which the most popular and the most widely used is the Portable Document Format, or PDF for short. PDFs are one of the most reliable and efficient formats of documents that can easily be shared across computer systems. These files are also secure enough to prevent people from easily updating file contents. This article looks at seven of the best PDF Editors available on all major platforms.

LibreOffice Draw

LibreOffice Draw is one of the applications that comes included with LibreOffice, a free and open-source office suite. LibreOffice Draw is one of the best multi-platform PDF editors available, as it is completely free and open-source. This application has several PDF editing tools bundled inside of it. It sports a simple and easy-to-use interface that is extremely user-friendly and will look quite familiar to users of Microsoft Word. You can easily change the layout and move around different components and toolbars, according to your style and preferences.

LibreOffice Draw allows you to change page properties such as format, orientation, margin, background, and more. You can add different shapes, such as arrows and rectangles, and change the styles of both text and images. You can manipulate and alter existing content, whether it is a text or an image. The red rectangular region in the image below shows the different sections that you can alternate between:

Image Alter Properties:

Okular

Okular is another excellent free and open-source choice for a PDF Editor. This application was developed by the people working at KDE, and it is the default document reader in the KDE system. Okular is extremely lightweight and offers a very easy-to-use and user-friendly interface that is easily customizable. This PDF editor offers some excellent features, such as text and area selection tools, which allow you to copy and search for the selected text or area.

Moreover, Okular possesses an extremely detailed annotation tool that allows you to add notes, highlight text or images, draw polygons, add or delete text, and even add stamps to anywhere in the document you would like.

Text Selection Tool:

Editing Tools:

Inkscape

Inkscape is a vector graphics tool that is widely used by professional graphic designers around the world. This PDF editor is a free and open-source product that is available for all the major platforms. With Inkscape, you can add or delete text, change the font size and family, draw shapes such as rectangles, lines, etc., and add annotations to your PDFs.

Master PDF

Master PDF is another lightweight and easy-to-use PDF editor that offers dozens of outstanding features to users. You can create, edit, and merge files, as well as add comments and signatures, to PDF files. Master PDF even has an encryption feature that you can turn on to protect your PDF files. This PDF editor also has some powerful annotation tools that allow users to insert notes, highlight text, and add different shapes, such as arrows and rectangles, to PDF files. Master PDF even allows you to edit scanned documents, which is not a feature that is available in many PDF editors.

Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is a freemium PDF reader that has become immensely popular among the community. This PDF editor is extremely fast and provides some great PDF editing tools to users. Foxit has some excellent annotation tools that allow users to highlight, strikeout, underline, and replace and insert text. Since Foxit is cloud-based, it also allows you to share your documents across systems, promoting collaboration among users.

PDFsam

PDFsam another excellent PDF editor that is available for all the major platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. What sets PDFsam apart from the other editors is that it falls under the second category of PDF editors that allow users to split, merge, rotate, and extract pages within PDF files. PDFsam also contains splitting and merging functions that allow you to split a PDF either by size or bookmarks, as well as merge two or more PDF documents in different orders.

Scribus

Scribus is a free and open-source publishing software that is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Scribus provides several different PDF editing tools to users, of which the most notable features include highlighting, moving, and adding text; creating PDFs and lists; and making PDF files more interactive by adding text fields, checkboxes, and more. This is a property unique to Scribus, setting it apart from other PDF editors in this list.

Which Is the Best Multi-platform PDF Editor

There are several great multi-platform options available in the way of PDF editors these days. Each PDF editor offers its own unique features and functions. All seven PDF editors mentioned above are among the most popular and widely used alternatives, each providing users with exceptional features. All in all, any choice from among the above seven would be worth considering.

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Best PDF Page Cropping and Edit Tools for Linux https://linuxhint.com/page_cropping_tools_linux/ Wed, 28 Oct 2020 12:00:25 +0000 https://linuxhint.com/?p=74372

When it comes to presenting and sharing documents reliably, only one file format comes to the rescue and that is the Portable Document Format (PDF). It is considered the most popular and widely used file format shared universally, unless you know Adobe’s Acrobat Pro, which offers nearly all of the same features typically for standard graphic use. With the free version of Acrobat you get the security but you cannot edit your files, nor can you compress them and engage a wide variety of edit options, as you can with Acrobat Pro which is costly.

When looking for an alternate means of cropping, merging, or splitting pdfs that can be used with Linux, I offer these tools below.

Krop

Krop is a simple, easy to use GUI tool for Linux users and its distros permitting the cropping of PDF files. It is feature-rich offering a wide variety of graphic support operations.

The Krop site advises that you can: ‘…automatically split pages into subpages to fit the screen size of devices such as eReaders.’ This feature is handy when eReaders do not support scrolling. They offer that: ‘It is written in Python and depends on PyQT, python-poppler-qt4 and PyPDF2 for full functionality on Linux systems.’

It is available as a snap package which you can easily install from Snap Store or from Terminal by running the following command.

$ sudo snap install krop

 

PDF Mix Tool

PDF Mix Tool is an open-source PDF editing tool for Linux and its distros. The site indicates that: ‘It is a simple and lightweight application that helps you perform common editing tasks on PDF files.’ Some of its features include: merging two or more files, rotating pages, and combining multiple pages into a single page.

With PDF Mix Tool you can also generate booklets, add white pages to PDF files, delete unwanted pages, and extract pages from a PDF file. PDF Mix Tool encourages that: ‘It is available as a snap package and you can download it from their link below.’

Download Here

Master PDF Editor

Master PDF Editor is a multifunctional cross-platform PDF editor application which is very easy to use. Along with basic edits you can modify texts and objects, annotate PDF documents, create and fill PDF forms and add digital signatures.

Using this tool, you can merge several files into one, split a PDF document into multiple documents, and also encrypt PDF files. It is a feature-rich tool that integrates well with Linux and its distros and is very reliable. ‘This tool comes in two versions, one is free to use which is ideal for the home user,’ according to their website. The other is a commercial version which is ideal for enterprise users.

Download Here

PDF Arranger

PDF Arranger is a lightweight python-gtk tool for Linux users that helps you merge/split PDF documents and rearrange the pages with rotate, crop and rearrange tools. PDF Arranger promises that ‘Its GUI is quite simple and very easy to use even for the novice user.’

Also known as PDF Shuffler, it is a simple tool with simple features which lets you carry out simple editing tasks on PDF files.

Download Here

PDF Quench

PDF Quench is a GUI tool for Linux and its distros which helps you edit PDF documents. It is written in Python which enables users to crop and rotate pages.

It is a very simple tool but doesn’t come with many features you normally expect in an ideal PDF page cropping tool.

Download Here

This writer considers these the best PDF page cropping tools for Linux and its distros such as Ubuntu. You can share your experience with crop and edit tools at @linuxhint and @SwapTirthakar.  

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How to Merge PDF Files on the Command Line? https://linuxhint.com/merge_pdf_files_command_line/ Thu, 22 Oct 2020 13:51:16 +0000 https://linuxhint.com/?p=72759 PDF is the most frequently used file format all over the world. This file format is not only used for personal documents but also for professional documents. At times, you might have multiple inter-related PDF files, and you wish to integrate them all as a single PDF file. Therefore, today we will be explaining to you the different methods of merging PDF files on the command line.

Note: All three methods of merging PDF files via the command line have been demonstrated on Linux Mint 20.

Methods of Merging the PDF Files on the Command Line:

For using the “pdftk” utility for merging PDF files via the command line in Linux Mint 20, we will go through the following series of steps:

We have two PDF files in our Home directory named “PDF1.pdf” and “PDF2.pdf”. These files are highlighted in the image shown below:


Double click on the first file to view its content, as shown in the following image:


Now double click on the second file to view its content as well as shown in the image below:


Our goal is to merge these two files for which we will launch our Linux Mint 20 terminal by clicking on its icon as shown in the following image:


Now we have to install the “pdftk” utility by running the following command in our terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install pdftk


Since you are installing a new package on your Linux system, therefore, your terminal will ask you for a confirmation, which you can provide by typing “Y” in your terminal and then pressing the Enter key as shown in the image below:


Once the “pdftk” package has been successfully installed on your system, your terminal will hand you over the control back so that you can easily execute the next commands as shown in the following image:


Now when you are all set to use the “pdftk” package to merge your files, you have to execute the below-mentioned command to achieve this goal:

$ pdftk PDF1.pdf PDF2.pdf cat output PDF3.pdf

Here, you can mention as many PDF files before the “cat” keyword that you want to merge separated by a space. The file name followed by the “output” keyword will be the name of a newly created PDF file, which will be an integrated version of all the files that are mentioned before the “cat” keyword. It means that running this command will create a new PDF file named “PDF3.pdf” which will have the merged contents of both the files “PDF1.pdf” and “PDF2.pdf”.


After running this command, you can verify if a merged PDF file has been created or not by going to your Home directory. Here, you will be able to find “PDF3.pdf” as highlighted in the following image:


Now double click on this newly created PDF file to ensure if it has the merged contents of “PDF1.pdf” and “PDF2.pdf” or not as shown in the images below:


Method # 2: Modified Usage of the “pdftk” Utility:

As we have already mentioned in the name of this method that it is simply a modified version of the “pdftk” method; therefore, we do not need to install any new package this time. This method is used when you want to merge all the PDF files present in any directory, and you want to save yourself from the effort of mentioning the names of all those files separately. This can be done by running the following command in your terminal:

$ pdftk *.pdf cat output PDF3.pdf


Here, the “*” symbol before the PDF extension indicates that you want to merge all the PDF files present in the current directory, whereas PDF3.pdf is the output file where all of your PDF files will be merged. After running this command, you can verify its output in the same manner as we did in the method above.

Method # 3: Using the “poppler” Utility:

This is another method of merging PDF files in Linux Mint 20 which can be used as follows:

First, you need to install the “poppler” utility with the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install poppler-utils


Once this command finishes its execution, the “poppler” utility will be installed on your Linux Mint 20 system as shown in the image below:


After installing this utility, you can use it to merge files via the terminal in the following manner:

$ pdf unite PDF1.pdf PDF2.pdf PDF3.pdf

Here, all the PDF files except for the last one are the ones that you want to merge, whereas the last one indicates the new output file. After running this command, a new PDF file named “PDF3.pdf” will be created that will be an integrated version of the files mentioned before it, and it can be verified in the same manner as explained above.

Conclusion:

By choosing any method of your preference from the ones discussed in this article, you can easily merge two or more PDF files via the command line while using Linux Mint 20. These three methods are, in fact, extremely convenient ways of merging the PDF files and that too very quickly.

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Best PDF Editors for Linux Mint 20 https://linuxhint.com/best_pdf_editors_linux_mint_20/ Fri, 04 Sep 2020 17:28:14 +0000 https://linuxhint.com/?p=67263 PDF stands for Portable Document Format, and it is indeed the most widely used document format because of its ease of access and display. It is highly advisable to convert your documents to PDF format these days before uploading them somewhere or even before printing them. This is because oftentimes, the formatting of the documents get messed up when you try to process the file in one way or another. The PDF file format gives you the ability to share your documents, either in hard copies or softcopies, without messing up the formatting. This article reviews the three best PDF editors for Linux Mint 20.

The features of these three PDF editors for Linux Mint 20 are discussed in the sections below.

PDF Studio

PDF Studio is a feature-filled PDF editor designed for Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems. Although this is a paid PDF editor, its exceptional features prove that the price is worth it. This PDF editor comes in two different editions, i.e., the Standard Edition and the Professional Edition. The prices of both these editions differ from one another because of the features come with each of these two editions. The Professional Edition comes with more advanced features than the Standard Edition. You can even experience a free trial with this program before buying the paid version.

However, for this discussion, we will only focus on the features that are common in both these editions. PDF Studio allows you to create, review, and annotate your PDFs very conveniently. If you have any document to edit in PDF format, this editor also allows you to make changes to the file and save it. You can even secure PDF documents with passwords and permissions in this program. You can also add watermarks to your work to claim its originality. Moreover, this PDF editor allows you to generate Adobe compliant PDFs.

Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is a feature-rich PDF editor designed for Linux, Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android operating systems. Its versatility can be perceived by the number of different platforms that it supports. This PDF editor comes in four different editions, i.e., Free, Standard, Business, and Mac. As the name implies, the Free version is absolutely free of cost, with limited features compared to the other editions. However, the features of this version are still enough to perform all the necessary functions with PDF documents.

Foxit Reader allows you to create, read, edit, and print PDFs very easily. This program enables you to integrate with Google services to provide you with real-time sharing and collaboration features. You can even encrypt and sign your PDF documents to claiming their authenticity. You are also provided with the liberty of adding comments and bookmarks to your documents. These features are specially designed to enhance the user experience to its fullest.

Master PDF Editor

Master PDF Editor is yet another paid PDF editor with a free trial version. This software is designed to be used with Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems. You can conveniently modify text and objects in a document with this PDF editor. Master PDF Editor also allows you to annotate your documents by adding sticky notes, measuring tools, and shapes to them. This software supports the most useful editing features, such as underline, strikethrough, highlight, etc.

The Optical Character Recognition feature of this PDF editor enables you to search for text much more efficiently, as compared to any other PDF editor. You can even add bookmarks to your documents for easier accessibility. Master PDF Editor also comes with a virtual printer, through which you can export your PDF file in many other formats, depending on your requirements. Lastly, you can add digital signatures to your PDFs to ensure their safety and security, and also to protect them from unauthorized modification.

Conclusion

By using any of the three PDF editors discussed in this article, you can easily create, read, edit, or print your PDF documents while using Linux Mint 20. All three of these editors are really simple and convenient to use, and you can easily get used to them, even if you are not a very professional computer user. This ease of use owes to the user-friendly nature of all three of these products.

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How to Optimize PDF Files for Better Readability on Mobile Devices https://linuxhint.com/optimize_pdf_files_readability_mobile_devices/ Thu, 30 Jul 2020 04:37:14 +0000 https://linuxhint.com/?p=64365 Editing PDF files to make them mobile-friendly can be a cumbersome task. Usually, PDF files are designed to be used “as is,” without any modifications to their layout. This leads to poor reading experience on handheld devices with small screens. This article will show you how to make PDF files more mobile-friendly using a free and open-source tool called K2pdfopt.

About K2pdfopt

K2pdfopt is a free and open-source PDF manipulation software developed by Willus. This software supports standard PDF editor features, such as PDF resizing and cropping. However, the main highlight of this tool is its ability to convert PDF files into formats that are accessible to mobile devices. K2pdfopt can optimize simple, text-based PDF files; complex, multi-column PDF files; and can extract text from PDF files containing images with OCR technology.

This article will only cover optimizing simple, text-based PDF files for small screens. K2pdfopt comes with numerous options and hundreds of combinations that can be used according to your requirements. It is not realistic to cover them all here, so the focus of this article will be converting single-column PDF files containing text only. You can always experiment with this tool by following an in-depth explanation of its options available here.

Installing K2pdfopt in Linux

To install K2pdfopt on Ubuntu, run the command below:

$ sudo apt install k2pdfopt

Note that the version available in official repositories of Ubuntu may be outdated. You can install the latest version of the K2pdfopt executable binary for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions here.

Converting a Simple, Text-Only PDF File

Run the command below to launch K2pdfopt:

$ k2pdfopt file.pdf

If you downloaded the binary, use the following commands instead:

$ chmod +x k2pdfopt
$ ./k2pdfopt file.pdf

K2pdfopt features a well-made interactive command-line utility that makes it easy to enter customization options. After launching K2pdfopt, you should see the following layout:

Every option mentioned in the output above is preceded by an abbreviation code. All you need to do is enter these codes, as per your requirements, and follow the on-screen prompts. The interactive tool will also output the correct command-line switches that you can use directly on the binary.

For instance, to wrap text for better readability on mobile, enter “w” and follow the on-screen prompts. If you are not sure about a prompt, you can just hit the <Enter> key to select the default value. The screenshot below shows some of the prompts you will get after entering “w:”

You can enter any valid abbreviation code, any number of times. You will keep getting interactive prompts to customize the conversion behavior. Once you are satisfied with the options, hit the <Enter> key.

Take note of the “Selected options” line, which outputs the command-line parameters you selected from the interactive tool. The next time you want to use the same set of options, you will not be required to go through the interactive tool again. You can just use the stated options directly. For example:

$ ./k2pdfopt file.pdf -wrap+ -hy -ws -0.2

If you are happy with the “Selected options,” hit the <Enter> key once again to start the conversion process:

Wait for the process to finish, you should get a new file suffixed with the term “k2opt.” In this instance, you will get a file called “file_k2opt.pdf.”.

Before conversion, the file looks like this on my device:

After conversion, the file becomes:

For reference, I use the command below for my Android device:

$ ./k2pdfopt file.pdf -c -neg- -wrap+ -hy -ws -0.2 -dpi 550 -idpi -2 -fc- -w
1080 -h 1920 -om 0.1,0.1,0.1,0.1

This command wraps the text for a better mobile reading experience, enlarges the text size by increasing the DPI values, sets margins on all four sides to 0.1 inches wide, and optimizes the file for 1920×1080 resolution. You can check the exact specifications of your device by installing a system information app, such as “CPU-Z.”

Book Reader Android App

If you do not have a Linux PC to work with, you can use the free and open-source Book Reader Android app to make PDF files mobile-friendly on-the-fly. The Book Reader app includes support for K2pdfopt and works fine for optimizing simple, text-based PDF files. The experience is not as smooth as a pre-optimized PDF file, and lags can be observed when scrolling and performing on-the-fly conversions. However, it gets the job done, supports a dark theme, and includes an option for increasing and decreasing font size.

Below is an example showing the mobile-friendly layout in the Book Reader app. Before optimization, the file looks like this:

 

You can click on the hamburger-style icon in the top bar to optimize the PDF. After optimization, the file looks like this on a mobile device:

Note that the Book Reader app does not convert the original PDF file, and is kept intact.

Conclusion

Some PDF viewers on mobile devices support text reflow mode. This mode tries to improve readability by wrapping the text. However, I found them to be poorly optimized with an uneven layout and bad hyphenation rules. K2pdfopt, on the other hand, is much more customizable and efficient at text wrapping, and can completely remove hyphenation. Hopefully, this article taught you about how to convert PDFs into more readable formats on your mobile device.

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How to Convert a PDF into a Set of Images https://linuxhint.com/convert_pdf_to_images/ Wed, 01 Jan 2020 09:17:20 +0000 https://linuxhint.com/?p=52934 PDF to image file conversion methods are often used to convert an entire PDF or to extract images from a PDF file. These extracted images are mostly used in slideshow apps, presentation software, or on the web. This article will list various ways to convert a multi-page PDF file to a group of images.

LibreOffice Draw

Most Linux distributions ship LibreOffice office suite by default. If not, you can download it from here. Using the “LibreOffice Draw” app, you will be able to convert a PDF file into a set of images.

LibreOffice Draw, as the name suggests, allows you to create drawings, sketches, graphics, annotations and so on. By default it supports exporting PDF file to various image formats, however it only converts the first page of the PDF file. To fix this, you will need to install “Export as images” extension from here. This extension adds a new “Export as Images…” entry to “File” dropdown menu and it supports exporting multiple PDF pages.

Once you have downloaded “oxt” file from the link above, add it to extension manager. Go to “Tools” > “Extension Manager…”, as shown in the screenshot below.

Click on “Add” button to add the “oxt” extension file to LibreOffice Draw.

After successfully adding the “oxt” file, a new entry will appear in the list of extensions.

A new entry “Export as images…” will be added to the “File” dropdown menu.

Open a PDF file in LibreOffice Draw and then click on “Export as images…” menu entry to start the conversion process. You will see a new window popup that will allow you to customize export options. Change the options as per your needs and click on “Export” button.

That’s it. Each page in your PDF file has now been exported as a separate image. This is by far my favorite method. The setup is quite easy and LibreOffice Draw even allows you to edit and annotate PDF files before exporting.

ImageMagick

ImageMagick is a command line tool to convert, edit and manipulate image, PDF, and SVG files. It comes with many advanced options and the app itself is quite powerful. You can see it as a FFmpeg equivalent, but mostly for image files.

ImageMagick ships with a “convert” command that can be used to convert files into different formats. To install ImageMagick in Ubuntu, run the following command:

$ sudo apt install imagemagick

By default, PDF conversion is disabled in ImageMagick. To enable it, open the file “/etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml” in a text editor and comment out all the lines under “disable ghostscript format types”:

To convert a PDF file to a set of images using “convert”, use a command in the following format:

$ convert -density 150 input_file.pdf -quality 100 output_file.png

Where:

  • -density stands for the DPI at which the PDF input file be loaded by the “convert” command
  • pdf is the PDF file you want to convert
  • -quality determines the quality of resulting images (0-100, with 100 being best)
  • png is the prefix for output files (change the “png” extension for any other format like “jpg”)

Pdftoppm (PDF to PPM)

Pdftoppm is a simple command line utility dedicated to convert PDF files into PPM, PNG and JPEG file formats.

To install pdftoppm in Ubuntu, run the command below:

$ sudo apt install poppler-utils

To convert a PDF file to a set of images using pdftoppm, use a command in the following format:

$ pdftoppm input_file.pdf output_file -png -rx 150 -ry 150

Where:

  • pdf is the PDF file you want to convert
  • output_file is the prefix used for output files
  • -png is file format for converted output files
  • -rx 150 -ry 150 is the DPI at which PDF file be loaded by pdftoppm (equivalent to imagemagick’s density option)

Inkscape

Inkscape is a free, open source, and cross-platform software for creating and editing vector graphics. Using Inkscape’s built-in export function, it is possible to convert a PDF file to a bunch of images.

Note that support for exporting multiple pages was added to inkscape only recently. So the package shipped with your distribution probably won’t work. The minimum required version you need is 1.0.0. Latest beta build of Inkscape with multi-page support can be downloaded from here in the form of AppImage. Make sure that you mark the file executable from the file manager.

To convert a PDF file into images using Inkscape, run a command in the following format:

$ for i in {1..10}; do  ./Inkscape-2b71d25-x86_64.AppImage input_file.pdf -z
--export-dpi=300 --export-area-page --pdf-page=$i --export-file="output-$i.png";
done

Where:

  • {1..10} are page numbers of PDF, you need to specify this correctly otherwise the command won’t work (change the values as needed)
  • ./Inkscape-2b71d25-x86_64.AppImage is the name of Inkscape AppImage file you downloaded from the link above (change the name as needed)
  • pdf is the name of input file to be converted (change the name as needed)
  • -z is for using a headless inkscape without a GUI (leave as it is)
  • –export-dpi=300 is the density at which PDF file be loaded by Inkscape (change the value as needed)
  • –export-area-page is for exporting entire PDF page (leave as it is)
  • –pdf-page=$i refers to the page number to be exported (leave as it is)
  • –export-file=”output-$i.png” is the prefix for output files (change the “output” part as needed)

Conclusion

These are the main methods you can use to convert a PDF file to multiple images. There are a few other methods and apps that can be used for conversion, but they require a lot of steps without bringing anything new to the table, so I have omitted them from this list.

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Install PDFtk on Ubuntu https://linuxhint.com/install_pdftk_ubuntu/ Mon, 19 Nov 2018 07:25:32 +0000 https://linuxhint-com.zk153f8d-liquidwebsites.com/?p=32596 PDF is an integral part of our everyday life. It’s a document format that’s trusted by every single platform. Often times, important documents and books are in PDF format. It’s so widespread that without an appropriate PDF tool at hand, no system is complete. Ubuntu offers a great flexibility in terms of software availability. It’s also one of the most popular Linux distros for being so simple yet powerful and fast, extremely suitable for new to moderate Linux users. Let’s grab PDFtk – the ultimate PDF toolkit you’ll ever need!

PDFtk

There are 2 versions of PDFtk available – Free, Pro ($3.99) and Server. The Pro version offers all the additional features like rotating the PDF, stamping etc. The Server version is the command-line utility for performing various tasks.

PDFtk is available in the default Ubuntu software repository. However, on the latest Ubuntu releases, it’s not accessible directly. You have to use a little trick to get in on your system.

Method 1

Run the following commands –

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:malteworld/ppa
sudo apt update

sudo apt install pdftk

Method 2

You can also download and build PDFtk by yourself. For doing so, you need the Java build tools and dependencies.

Run the following commands –

sudo apt install default-jre-headless libcommons-lang3-java libbcprov-java

sudo apt install git default-jdk-headless ant \
libcommons-lang3-java libbcprov-java

git clone https://gitlab.com/pdftk-java/pdftk.git
 
cd pdftk
mkdir libs
ln -st libs /usr/share/java/{commons-lang3,bcprov}.jar

ant jar
java -jar build/jar/pdftk.jar --help

Method 3 (recommended)

Install the PDFtk snap –

sudo snap install pdftk

Note that this is the “Server” version of PDFtk.

Using PDFtk

After the installation is complete, check out the app working perfectly –

pdftk

In fact, running this command will show a short guide you can use. For the long, in-depth guide, run the following command –

pdftk --help

For checking out the guide later, export it to a text file –

pdftk --help > ~/Desktop/pdftk.txt

Here are some of the most used tasks you can do with PDFtk.

Encrypt a PDF (128-bit encryption)

pdftk dummy.pdf output dummy.128.pdf owner_pw foo user_pw 123

Decrypt a PDF

pdftk dummy.128.pdf input_pw 123 output dummy.unsecured.pdf

Join multiple PDFs into one

pdftk dummy1.pdf dummy2.pdf cat output dummy_merged.pdf

You can also use wildcard –

pdftk *.pdf cat output combined.pdf

Rotate PDF document (must be 1 page document)

# 90° clockwise rotate
pdftk dummy.pdf cat 1east 2-end output dummy_90.pdf

# 180° rotate
pdftk dummy.pdf cat 1-endsouth output dummy_180.pdf

Enjoy!

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PDFCreator 2.5.1 Bugfix released to address Microsoft Outlook issue https://linuxhint.com/pdfcreator-pdf-converter-tool/ https://linuxhint.com/pdfcreator-pdf-converter-tool/#respond Tue, 21 Mar 2017 23:45:36 +0000 https://linuxhint-com.zk153f8d-liquidwebsites.com/?p=18575 PDFCreator 2.5.1 recently released, is free, Open Source software PDF converter tool that enables you to convert every printable document to PDF and many other formats. Such formats includes PDF, JPG, PNG, TIF and more.

You could also look at the software as a virtual printer, that can convert anything to PDF that you can print. Simply print your document to the PDFCreator printer to start the conversion.

PDFCreator

Key Features

  • Convert your Documents to PDF, JPG, PNG, TIF and more
  • Merge multiple documents to one file
  • Profiles make frequently used settings available with one click
  • Use automatic saving to have a fully automated PDF printer
  • We take care of the complexity and make converting PDFs simple for you
  • Compress and resize images to reduce the file size
  • Encrypt your PDFs with AES and protect them with a password
  • Prevent unauthorized access to your PDFs by changing the security settings
  • Use the COM interface to control app from your application
  • Coming soon: With our corporate subscription you will get access to our MSI setup for easy deployment through Active Directory

v2.5.1 Changes

When using the e-mail client action with Microsoft Outlook, the e-mail address of one of our developers was always set as recipient. This bug had been fixed in v2.5.1 and you are advised to update as soon as possible.

Download PDFCreator

Download: PDFCreator 2.5.0
Website: PDFCreator Website

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