Re: Editing PDF files?

2005-08-22 Thread Joseph Alotta
I think someone needs to build an editor for PDF files.  Maybe macros  
for emacs or vim.



On Aug 21, 2005, at 4:16 PM, Sherm Pendley wrote:


On Aug 20, 2005, at 7:52 PM, Rich Morin wrote:



I'm interested in being able to perform simple edits on PDF files.
For example, I might want to be able to change the colors of some
characters and output the changed version.



I looked ad Apple's PDFKit, thinking there might be a solution, but  
no. Lots of stuff for searching, annotating, and rearranging pages  
- but no low-level editing functions like you describe. Which makes  
sense - PDF is really more of a delivery format than an editing  
format.


Do you have control over the source of these PDF documents? If so,  
you could make your changes there, and maybe use Automator to build  
up a workflow to create and manage the PDFs.


sherm--

Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org






Re: Editing PDF files?

2005-08-22 Thread Arntzen, Torkjell
Hello..


This have been a problem as long as PDF has existed. The PDF format was
initially created as a simpler and smaller format than PostScript. It's like
PS not a format that was intended to be editable

There are some applicarions thought that you might like to try out.
The commersial Solvere from the german company One Vision
You may also try to parse a PDF into Illustrator, but then the structure
will be lost

Both are pretty expensive solutions and are not very good soulutions but
still.

So I could not agree more: Build a simple, small,  inexpensive editor...


Regards
Torkjell Arnzten



On 22-08-05 17:59, Joseph Alotta [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 I think someone needs to build an editor for PDF files.  Maybe macros
 for emacs or vim.
 
 
 On Aug 21, 2005, at 4:16 PM, Sherm Pendley wrote:
 
 On Aug 20, 2005, at 7:52 PM, Rich Morin wrote:
 
 
 I'm interested in being able to perform simple edits on PDF files.
 For example, I might want to be able to change the colors of some
 characters and output the changed version.
 
 
 I looked ad Apple's PDFKit, thinking there might be a solution, but
 no. Lots of stuff for searching, annotating, and rearranging pages
 - but no low-level editing functions like you describe. Which makes
 sense - PDF is really more of a delivery format than an editing
 format.
 
 Do you have control over the source of these PDF documents? If so,
 you could make your changes there, and maybe use Automator to build
 up a workflow to create and manage the PDFs.
 
 sherm--
 
 Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
 Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org
 
 
 



Re: Editing PDF files?

2005-08-21 Thread Sherm Pendley

On Aug 20, 2005, at 7:52 PM, Rich Morin wrote:


I'm interested in being able to perform simple edits on PDF files.
For example, I might want to be able to change the colors of some
characters and output the changed version.


I looked ad Apple's PDFKit, thinking there might be a solution, but  
no. Lots of stuff for searching, annotating, and rearranging pages -  
but no low-level editing functions like you describe. Which makes  
sense - PDF is really more of a delivery format than an editing format.


Do you have control over the source of these PDF documents? If so,  
you could make your changes there, and maybe use Automator to build  
up a workflow to create and manage the PDFs.


sherm--

Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org



Re: Editing PDF files?

2005-08-21 Thread Rich Morin

At 5:16 PM -0400 8/21/05, Sherm Pendley wrote:

PDF is really more of a delivery format than an editing format.


Yeah, but Acrobat now supports mark-up, etc.  I have also edited
PostScript files in the past, which is the same basic idea.  I
COULD convert the files to PS in order to edit them, then convert
back to PDF.  But that's pretty ugly...


Do you have control over the source of these PDF documents?


No; I need to deal with random PDFs that I find on the web, etc.

-r
--
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; phone: +1 650-873-7841
http://www.cfcl.com- Canta Forda Computer Laboratory
http://www.cfcl.com/Meta   - The FreeBSD Browser, Meta Project, etc.


Editing PDF files?

2005-08-20 Thread Rich Morin

I'm interested in being able to perform simple edits on PDF files.
For example, I might want to be able to change the colors of some
characters and output the changed version.

If I had the ability to import and export PDF files as Perl data
structures (and a reference to what I'd be encountering :-), I'm
pretty sure I could do the rest.  Looking at the CPAN, I see a
number of modules that _might_ be useful for this, but I'm hoping
that someone here will know which ones are the most relevant.

Help?  Clues?  Sugestions?

-r
--
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; phone: +1 650-873-7841
http://www.cfcl.com- Canta Forda Computer Laboratory
http://www.cfcl.com/Meta   - The FreeBSD Browser, Meta Project, etc.