> If I have to paste from pdf's, which I do quite often, I use xpdf.
Ever wanted to extract the text out of Portable Document Format (.pdf) file (also known as an Adobe Acrobat file)? You can use Adobe's utilities for this purpose, but chances are your system already contains a neat little utility that can do the job too. It's called pdftotext. The following command extracts the text from report.pdf, and writes it to a file named pdf.txt:
pdftotext report.pdf > report.txt
Like to extract the graphics? The pdfimages command works the same kind of magic for the pictures in the file; it writes each of them to a file that's named with a root filename, an automatically appended number, and a suffix that's appropriate for the type of file that's written (by default, Portable Pixmaps or Portable Bitmaps). The following command extracts the images from report.pdf:
pdfimages report.pdf report
The extracted images are named report.001.ppm, report002.ppm, etc.
> If I have to paste from pdf's, which I do quite often, I use xpdf.
The bonus to that method is that if the person who created the PDF decided to use one of the annoying "security" features (like no copy or print), then xpdf ignores it. In fact, I think it doesn't even undersand that stuff to begin with. Very nice.
Roberto C. Sanchez
encrypted, unprintable, copy-protected, or otherwise broken PDF file
Dragging the mouse with the left button held down will highlight an arbitrary rectangle. Any text inside this rectangle will be copied to the X selection buffer.
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,comp.text.pdf
> Sometimes when I need to extract a figure from a .ps file I've > been able to locate it with an editor in the .ps file and > copy paste the lines into an .eps document. > > Is there any way, possibly using Acrobat, to do this for > a .pdf file?
This is indeed possible with Acrobat Reader:
select the `T' button (next to the looking glass)
select the rightmost option (selection box)
select your image with the mouse
right-mouse button (under Linux at least) gives a `Print…' window
print to desired file
Herman
I know how to copy images in the acroread, but I need to know what tools that will accept the image content copied from the acroread.
From acroread' manual:
,----- | To copy an image or text in image format using the Snapshot tool: | Select the Snapshot tool , and do one of the following: | | Click in the page to capture the content displayed on-screen. | Drag a box around the text, images, or a combination of both. | Drag a box within an image to copy just a portion of the image. | | Colors in the selected area are inverted momentarily to highlight | the selection. You can open a file in another application and | paste the copied selection directly into the target document. `-----
The problem is that I'm yet to find this "another application" that will accept the image content copied from the acroread.
My first guess is gimp, but it won't work. All that I got is the following in the log (no images shown):
offered type: TIMESTAMP offered type: TARGETS offered type: MULTIPLE [...] checking pixbuf format 'gif' - checking mime type 'image/gif' checking pixbuf format 'jpeg' - checking mime type 'image/jpeg'
T
> taking a snapshot should definitely work.... > ... > i cant imagine that not working
Sure it works, but…
Screenshots are not quite the same, however, because they are limited by the screen size and resolution. I.e., if you copy graphics from Acrobat Reader the bitmap will only be in the resolution you are viewing it. Whereas an image-capture tool in the PDF viewer can use a higher resolution and color depth.
T
I was able to copy images from a pdf in acroread into the following programs:
Kword OpenOffice.org 2.0 (Writer and Impress) And, yes, The Gimp does work for me. Not sure why it doesn't work for you.
chemdawg Distribution: Mandriva
resolution you are viewing it. You can print the selection to a Postscript file though and thus get the full resolution. But it doesn't seem to work all the time…
Another annoying thing is that you still can't paste an image copied from acroread into Gimp. (In Unix that is, it allegedly works in Windows.) It works with Xpaint though.
> It works with Xpaint though.
No it doesn't, tested 2005.11.29.
T