But I didn't know that it doesn't do pdf's.
So, can anyone recommend a good converter for all my pdf files so I can get this reader going for my books/documents?
Is there a pdf converter/alternative for FBreader?
Is there a pdf converter/alternative for FBreader?
Just got Muggins's FBreader pet working (great job Muggins!) as an sfs file.
But I didn't know that it doesn't do pdf's.
So, can anyone recommend a good converter for all my pdf files so I can get this reader going for my books/documents?
But I didn't know that it doesn't do pdf's.
So, can anyone recommend a good converter for all my pdf files so I can get this reader going for my books/documents?
Last edited by steve_s on Mon 09 Nov 2009, 22:49, edited 2 times in total.
steve_s,
you could try some of the suggestions here. Although it seems the result is dependendent on how complex the images in the .pdfs are.
On the fbreader website they say that fbreader support for .pdfs:
you could try some of the suggestions here. Although it seems the result is dependendent on how complex the images in the .pdfs are.
On the fbreader website they say that fbreader support for .pdfs:
This format is not supported. Files in this format may contain just text as well as image representation of pages. We plan to include PDF support in FBReader: first support for files that are using text only.
steve,
i've attached pdftohtml for you to test.
my experience: it is more a tool to do a quick and dirty conversion, the result won't be anything you will want to use regularely. if your pdf-files are text-only, it might be a solution.
but test it yourself and post your obesrvations.
aragon
i've attached pdftohtml for you to test.
my experience: it is more a tool to do a quick and dirty conversion, the result won't be anything you will want to use regularely. if your pdf-files are text-only, it might be a solution.
but test it yourself and post your obesrvations.
aragon
PUPPY SEARCH: http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html
thank you both; good stuff.
Aragon: I noticed that tool referenced other places while searching around, the one you posted as a pet file...I saw it on the Ubuntu stuff. Good post; glad you put it there.
Yeah, it is a little quick and dirty, but it did great on a test run book that was mostly text, converted like a champ to html.
But now we begin to get into the what-exactly-am-I-looking-for area, so that may end my search depending upon feedback.
I mean, for html viewing seamonkey/firefox are fine. For viewing pdf stuff, epdfviewer works just fine, and it is very easy to convert stuff to pdf via an OpenOffice sfs file, so nothing installed.
Converting to anything usable on FBreader is tricky; html to plucker file (pdb) I did not have success with. Converting pdf to text (pdftotxt) is sporadic at best, not as good as the html conversion, then from txt to pdb never worked well enough for either FBreader or for gpe-plucker. Also tried out ecub for converting txt to other formats and had limited success again, certainly nothing FBreader did well with.
But, like I said, I began to wonder why I was doing it at that point, unless just to see if I could (I do that sometimes).
So, I'll keep FBreader around for those formats it supports, and I'm open to suggestions about other available readers and formats, but Puppy does a good job of taking care of most of the files out there and the pdf reader may be just fine as is, unless there is something about one of the ebook readers that I just HAVE to use instead of epdfviewer to get the job done. So far I haven't seen anything completely revolutionary.
Anyway, thanks for the new tools and experiences with this one, and this as good a thread as any to post other ebook conversion tools and other ebook reader ideas, but other than that I think we are good.
Aragon: I noticed that tool referenced other places while searching around, the one you posted as a pet file...I saw it on the Ubuntu stuff. Good post; glad you put it there.
Yeah, it is a little quick and dirty, but it did great on a test run book that was mostly text, converted like a champ to html.
But now we begin to get into the what-exactly-am-I-looking-for area, so that may end my search depending upon feedback.
I mean, for html viewing seamonkey/firefox are fine. For viewing pdf stuff, epdfviewer works just fine, and it is very easy to convert stuff to pdf via an OpenOffice sfs file, so nothing installed.
Converting to anything usable on FBreader is tricky; html to plucker file (pdb) I did not have success with. Converting pdf to text (pdftotxt) is sporadic at best, not as good as the html conversion, then from txt to pdb never worked well enough for either FBreader or for gpe-plucker. Also tried out ecub for converting txt to other formats and had limited success again, certainly nothing FBreader did well with.
But, like I said, I began to wonder why I was doing it at that point, unless just to see if I could (I do that sometimes).
So, I'll keep FBreader around for those formats it supports, and I'm open to suggestions about other available readers and formats, but Puppy does a good job of taking care of most of the files out there and the pdf reader may be just fine as is, unless there is something about one of the ebook readers that I just HAVE to use instead of epdfviewer to get the job done. So far I haven't seen anything completely revolutionary.
Anyway, thanks for the new tools and experiences with this one, and this as good a thread as any to post other ebook conversion tools and other ebook reader ideas, but other than that I think we are good.
steve,
yes to fathom possibilities in puppy could be addictive.
in general i do like epdfview very much, aside from that it is a lame duck if it goes to larger pdf-files.
fyi: http://www.fbreader.org/docs/formats.php says, that the devs plan to implement pdf.
aragon
yes to fathom possibilities in puppy could be addictive.
in general i do like epdfview very much, aside from that it is a lame duck if it goes to larger pdf-files.
fyi: http://www.fbreader.org/docs/formats.php says, that the devs plan to implement pdf.
aragon
PUPPY SEARCH: http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html
as i'm daily checking freshmeat for new/releases/versions i just found this one
http://themes.freshmeat.net/projects/gp ... ase_307787
gPDFText is a text editor for GTK+ that ... he reader.
will try a compile today.
aragon
http://themes.freshmeat.net/projects/gp ... ase_307787
gPDFText is a text editor for GTK+ that ... he reader.
will try a compile today.
aragon
PUPPY SEARCH: http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html
Oh, that would be sweet...keep us posted. I'm hacking away on this side as well...have played with OpenOffice (has an extension that will create fb2 from odt documents, but no real love so far) and Koffice (handles pdf's better than OO but hasn't led to other formatting/conversion).aragon wrote:as i'm daily checking freshmeat for new/releases/versions i just found this one
http://themes.freshmeat.net/projects/gp ... ase_307787
gPDFText is a text editor for GTK+ that ... he reader.
will try a compile today.
aragon
Ok, here are some items of interest.
The issue is that epdfviewer doesn't show some pdf's very quickly, and some not at all. FBviewer doesn't do pdf's and I can't find a very viable linux ebook reader that does pdf's well (anyone set up plucker for puppy? gpe-plucker didn't cover this well enough).
One option is to use a wine sfs (which I have) and use some little windows program, like Sumatra. This is NOT my favorite option as I would prefer something native, but it does need to be mentioned.
Small exe file, doesn't install, ran with wine from command (you could of course set up a desktop file if you wanted). Small pdf's it was very fast with, but even my most graphically advanced pdf's (a lesson for my church's sunday school class, oddly enough) it only took a few seconds to render (epdfview just freezes when I try to use it to open these and/or it takes like 5 minutes). See attached picture. So very small, nothing installed (including wine since I'm using an sfs) and did the job.
**edit: I should mention that I'm using a PIII laptop. Not ancient, but certainly not new and fast (except with Puppy, of course ).
To aragon (and all): Puppy pdfedit does a GREAT job of taking a pdf and just straight converting it to text, essentially extracting text. So, if it is not graphically oriented, this is a good option for simpler text pdf's. Of course, epdfviewer reads these just fine as pdf's.
However, I am looking at making a good html settup of the graphic intense pdf's using an extension in OpenOffice, then seeing if seamonkey does a good job of presenting 'em. I'll post back results. Takes a little bit longer (not much), but keeps it in the Linux family.
The issue is that epdfviewer doesn't show some pdf's very quickly, and some not at all. FBviewer doesn't do pdf's and I can't find a very viable linux ebook reader that does pdf's well (anyone set up plucker for puppy? gpe-plucker didn't cover this well enough).
One option is to use a wine sfs (which I have) and use some little windows program, like Sumatra. This is NOT my favorite option as I would prefer something native, but it does need to be mentioned.
Small exe file, doesn't install, ran with wine from command (you could of course set up a desktop file if you wanted). Small pdf's it was very fast with, but even my most graphically advanced pdf's (a lesson for my church's sunday school class, oddly enough) it only took a few seconds to render (epdfview just freezes when I try to use it to open these and/or it takes like 5 minutes). See attached picture. So very small, nothing installed (including wine since I'm using an sfs) and did the job.
**edit: I should mention that I'm using a PIII laptop. Not ancient, but certainly not new and fast (except with Puppy, of course
).To aragon (and all): Puppy pdfedit does a GREAT job of taking a pdf and just straight converting it to text, essentially extracting text. So, if it is not graphically oriented, this is a good option for simpler text pdf's. Of course, epdfviewer reads these just fine as pdf's.
However, I am looking at making a good html settup of the graphic intense pdf's using an extension in OpenOffice, then seeing if seamonkey does a good job of presenting 'em. I'll post back results. Takes a little bit longer (not much), but keeps it in the Linux family.
- Attachments
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- sumatra.jpg
- (87.22 KiB) Downloaded 2473 times
Ugh... 
Opened that bloated pdf in OpenOffice, er, rather, didn't open it. It tried to do it on this PIII, but it took like ten minutes, trying to open this...terrible.
Ran it from command, pdftohtml, it just seemed to convert it to text, even though it ended up as html. Granted, I don't know this tool to well and need to try it out more...maybe I'll post back that it rocks.
So, still looking for a pure linux alternative for those big pdf's...
...I am looking forward to see if aragon comes up with that one he mentioned...that could be helpful as pdfedit doesn't organize like the one he is suggesting...
Opened that bloated pdf in OpenOffice, er, rather, didn't open it. It tried to do it on this PIII, but it took like ten minutes, trying to open this...terrible.
Ran it from command, pdftohtml, it just seemed to convert it to text, even though it ended up as html. Granted, I don't know this tool to well and need to try it out more...maybe I'll post back that it rocks.
So, still looking for a pure linux alternative for those big pdf's...
...I am looking forward to see if aragon comes up with that one he mentioned...that could be helpful as pdfedit doesn't organize like the one he is suggesting...
native linux foxit reader works well
native linux foxit reader works well on PIII class machine for big pdf files.
Note that it needs you to use Xorg 24 bit colour though (not 16 bit) or it crashes
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/deskli ... nload.html
Note that it needs you to use Xorg 24 bit colour though (not 16 bit) or it crashes
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/deskli ... nload.html
github mcewanw
mcewanw: Nice! It's even faster!! I even use foxit on my win boxes, but never knew they had a linux version. Great find!
Did a quick sfs from the deb file...nice!
Did a quick sfs from the deb file...nice!
- Attachments
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- foxit-linux.jpg
- (93.37 KiB) Downloaded 2494 times
ok, tested failed. needs updated gtk2 and such. but will look at it, when 4.4 is up.steve_s wrote:Oh, that would be sweet...keep us posted. I'm hacking away on this side as well...have played with OpenOffice (has an extension that will create fb2 from odt documents, but no real love so far) and Koffice (handles pdf's better than OO but hasn't led to other formatting/conversion).aragon wrote:as i'm daily checking freshmeat for new/releases/versions i just found this one
http://themes.freshmeat.net/projects/gp ... ase_307787
gPDFText is a text editor for GTK+ that ... he reader.
will try a compile today.
aragon
aragon
PUPPY SEARCH: http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html
-
technosaurus
- Posts: 4853
- Joined: Mon 19 May 2008, 01:24
- Location: Blue Springs, MO
- Contact:
It's less than 2MB UPX'd
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/desklinux/eula.htm
Please read the end user license agreement before using it.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/desklinux/eula.htm
Please read the end user license agreement before using it.
Check out my [url=https://github.com/technosaurus]github repositories[/url]. I may eventually get around to updating my [url=http://bashismal.blogspot.com]blogspot[/url].
I have FBReader installed here, and ma happy with it, but my needs are met by what it does do. I have about 4,000 ebooks, mostly in Plucker format, but with a fair number in MobiPocket format and a few that are ePubs. It's not perfect in its support of those formats, but it does well enough to be quite usable. Plucker format support was a major win.steve_s wrote:But now we begin to get into the what-exactly-am-I-looking-for area, so that may end my search depending upon feedback.
I mean, for html viewing seamonkey/firefox are fine. For viewing pdf stuff, epdfviewer works just fine, and it is very easy to convert stuff to pdf via an OpenOffice sfs file, so nothing installed.
Converting to anything usable on FBreader is tricky; html to plucker file (pdb) I did not have success with. Converting pdf to text (pdftotxt) is sporadic at best, not as good as the html conversion, then from txt to pdb never worked well enough for either FBreader or for gpe-plucker. Also tried out ecub for converting txt to other formats and had limited success again, certainly nothing FBreader did well with.
Converting to Plucker wouldn't help you. Plucker is a free, open source offline HTML viewer for Palm OS devices. It's designed to "pluck" websites and convert them to a form readable on the PDA. The desktop is in Python, and cross platform. The viewer is a Palm OS app that doesn't run under Linux. (There is a third-party viewer for WinCE that reads Plucker files, and a chap on the Plucker dev list talking about a possible iPhone app.)So, I'll keep FBreader around for those formats it supports, and I'm open to suggestions about other available readers and formats, but Puppy does a good job of taking care of most of the files out there and the pdf reader may be just fine as is, unless there is something about one of the ebook readers that I just HAVE to use instead of epdfviewer to get the job done. So far I haven't seen anything completely revolutionary.
Plucker Desktop works file on locally stored content as well as web sites, so I get content in HTML format from places like the Baen Free Library and Project Gutenberg and convert,
Converting PDFs to something else is a pain. I do it occasionally under Windows using the free MobiPocket Creator application, intended for creating MobiPocket ebooks. It can take Word/RTF, HTML, and PDFs as input.
How well it works on PDFs depends on the PDF. Simple PDFs with one column of text and in-line illustrations convert reasonably well. Anything beyond that is problematic. Mobi Creator works by ripping to HTML, and building the Mobi book from that. (The Mobi format is essentially encapsulated HTML.) So you could theoretically stop after ripping to HTML, edit the HTML for better results, then convert to Mobi, or simply read the HTML in a browser.
MobiPocket briefly issued a beta Linux command line version of the creator app, but I don't have it installed on Linux at the moment and can't comment on how well it works. (I can upload it if anyone wants to play with it.)
For your purposes, you are better reading the PDFs "native", using Adbi's Linux version, or Foxit Reader than trying to convert.
______
Dennis
Downloaded and Installed Foxit.gz, but NOGO
I click on the application (after making it executable in properties) and a window launches.
However, when I click on File, Open and select a PDF, the application just disappears.
Appreciate suggestions on what I have done wrong (or not right).
Steve
However, when I click on File, Open and select a PDF, the application just disappears.
Appreciate suggestions on what I have done wrong (or not right).
Steve
Foxit works - I forgot about 24-bit
After I posted, I saw the message about Foxit crashing if xorg wasn't set to 24-bit color.
After I changed that with xorgwizard, it displayed a pdf handily.
Sorry (but if anyone else was unaware of this requirement, then maybe it is useful).
Steve
After I changed that with xorgwizard, it displayed a pdf handily.
Sorry (but if anyone else was unaware of this requirement, then maybe it is useful).
Steve