How to make a text searcheable pdf from latex/dvi/ps

[vasa...@hotmail.com]

Hi, I am a newbie.

There are three cases depending on whether I have latex source, dvi or
just postscript.

I have observed that when pdf is made from the postscript, it is not
searcheable. This must be a systematic phenomena and not an accident
of nature.

Please explain what to do about it.

Vasantha

[Scott Pakin]

vasa...@hotmail.com wrote:
> There are three cases depending on whether I have latex source, dvi or
> just postscript.
>
> I have observed that when pdf is made from the postscript, it is not
> searcheable. This must be a systematic phenomena and not an accident
> of nature.

It works when I try it (using ps2pdf).

I believe Acrobat Reader does not search text written in Type 3 fonts,
only Type 1 fonts. How are you producing the PostScript? From a DVI file
using dvips? If so, then try configuring your TeX system to use Type 1
fonts. (If you're using the default Computer Modern fonts, you can test
this by passing -Pcmz -Pamz to dvips. Also, the pkfix script can replace
Type 3 fonts with Type 1 fonts in PostScript files produced by dvips even
if you don't have the original DVI file.

-- Scott

P.S. I removed comp.graphics.algorithms and gnu.emacs.help from the list
of cross-posted newsgroups. Those are really not relevant newsgroups to
this question.

[vasa...@hotmail.com]

Scott, Thank you for your help. I will try it and get back to the
newsgroup if I have any problem.

On Oct 10, 3:01 pm, Scott Pakin <scott+...@pakin.org> wrote:

[Dan]

On Oct 10, 3:33 pm, vasan...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Hi, I am a newbie.
>
> There are three cases depending on whether I have latex source, dvi or
> just postscript.
>
> I have observed that when pdf is made from the postscript, it is not
> searcheable.

Since there are hundreds of ways to make PDF from PS
(as well as many ways to produce the PS to begin with),
this statement cannot possibly be true as stated.

Assuming dvips makes the PS, one should try to ensure
the fonts used will pass easily to the PDF file. Scott
addressed this in his reply.

Assuming GhostScript makes the PDF (via a script ps2pdf,
perhaps) one needs to ensure that GS will pass font shapes
as text (rather than as, say, rendered bitmaps). This may
require a sufficiently recent GS. GS versions 7.x are still in
use today (amazingly) but versions 8.x do a better job of
producing PDF.

Other methods of converting PS to PDF may have their own
strictures.

> This must be a systematic phenomena and not an accident
> of nature.

It is an accident of the methods used and their configuration.
Like Scott, my versions of dvips and ps2pdf produce searchable
PS, at least with most text.

Dan