I have five apps that I regularly use to read and manipulate pdfs. They are: Skim, PdfPen, PDF Expert, Acrobat Reader and Preview. Of these, I like the user interface of Skim the best, but the app that most reliably gives me usable text when I copy from the OCR layer is PdfPen. I don’t know if the copying is controlled by the MacOS Toolbox or is implemented separately by each app.
I wish that Skim could copy text as reliably as PdfPen. It is nice that Skim normally wraps line-endings (though hyphens, not shown here, befuddle it). But I have macros that I use to remove the line-endings, making the result from PdfPen most easily usable. For each pdf reader I get the following results when copying from a scanned dissertation and pasting into a text editor (TextMate). Note that Skim and Preview give identical results, which I suspect means that they are using the same code. I OCR’d this document using PdfPen. I tried to enclose the page from the dissertation as an attachment, but the message was rejected by the list serve. Copied using PdfPen: The Cañon Santo Tomás contains the lower 16 miles of the arroyo, traversing the rounded coastal hills of the flanking Rosario formation. Sills of the outcropping Alisitos formation constrict the canyon at several spots, forcing ground water to surface for segments of a mile or more, before the water percolates into stretches of uncompacted alluvium that mark the arroyo channel. Finally, a fresh water marsh terminates the lower 3,000 meters of the arroyo, caused Copied using Skim: The Cañon Santo Tomás contains the lower 16 miles o f the arroyo, traversing the rounded coastal hills of the flanking Rosario formation. S i l l s of the outcropping Alisitos formation constrict the canyon at several spots, forcing ground water to surface for segments of a mile or more, before the water percolates into stretches of uncompacted alluvium that mark the arroyo channel. F i n a l l y , a fresh water marsh terminates the lower 3,000 meters of the arroyo, caused Copied using Acrobat Reader: The Cañon S a n t o Tomás c o n t a i n s t h e l o w e r 1 6 m i l e s o f t h e arroyo, t r a v e r s i n g t h e rounded c o a s t a l h i l l s o f t h e f l a n k i n g R o s a r i o formation. S i l l s o f t h e o u t c r o p p i n g A l i s i t o s f o r m a t i o n c o n s t r i c t t h e canyon a t s e v e r a l s p o t s , f o r c i n g ground w a t e r t o s u r f a c e f o r segments of a m i l e o r m o r e , b e f o r e t h e w a t e r p e r c o l a t e s i n t o s t r e t c h e s o f uncompacted a l l u v i u m t h a t mark t h e a r r o y o c h a n n e l . F i n a l l y , a f r e s h water marsh t e r m i n a t e s t h e l o w e r 3 , 0 0 0 m e t e r s o f t h e a r r o y o , c a u s e d Copied using PDF Expert: The Cañon S a n t o Tomás c o n t a i n s t h e l o w e r 1 6 m i l e s o f t h e arroyo, t r a v e r s i n g t h e r o u n d e d c o a s t a l h i l l s o f t h e f l a n k i n g R o s a r i o formation. S i l l s o f t h e o u t c r o p p i n g A l i s i t o s f o r m a t i o n c o n s t r i c t t h e canyon a t s e v e r a l s p o t s , f o r c i n g g r o u n d w a t e r t o s u r f a c e f o r segments of a m i l e o r m o r e , b e f o r e t h e w a t e r p e r c o l a t e s i n t o s t r e t c h e s o f uncompacted a l l u v i u m t h a t m a r k t h e a r r o y o c h a n n e l . F i n a l l y , a f r e s h water marsh t e r m i n a t e s t h e l o w e r 3 , 0 0 0 m e t e r s o f t h e a r r o y o , c a u s e d Copied using Preview: The Cañon Santo Tomás contains the lower 16 miles o f the arroyo, traversing the rounded coastal hills of the flanking Rosario formation. S i l l s of the outcropping Alisitos formation constrict the canyon at several spots, forcing ground water to surface for segments of a mile or more, before the water percolates into stretches of uncompacted alluvium that mark the arroyo channel. F i n a l l y , a fresh water marsh terminates the lower 3,000 meters of the arroyo, caused Alan Harper a...@alanharper.com ← for people l...@alanharper.com ← for machines
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