Please improve this listing of available freeware PDF functionality

[Arlen _G_ Holder]

A recent thread asking for PDF-related freeware resurrected this listing...
o PDF editor needed, free and local software
<https://alt.windows7.general.narkive.com/sUfMQ96L/pdf-editor-needed-free-and-local-software>

All I ask in this thread is that the Usenet potluck members IMPROVE this listing...

[x] Fast PDF reader: (Sumatra PDF freeware replaces acrobat reader freeware)
[x] Archive sites (wkhtmltopdf freeware replaces Acrobat payware site archival)
[x] Add or concatenate pages (pdftk freeware replaces Acrobat payware ordering)
[x] Remove pages (pdfsam freeware & pdftk freeware easily remove pages)
[x] Rotate pages (Acrobat Reader freeware now rotates pages & allows a save)
[x] Renumber pages (Acrobat Reader freeware now allows renumbering pages)
[x] Remove restrictions (Ghostscript/Ghostview freeware in combination)
[x] Merge PDFs (pdfsam freeware & pdftk freeware both merge multiple PDFs)
[x] Extract images (PDF Exchange Viewer freeware)
[x] Edit PDF existing text (Acrobat DC commenting replaces Acrobat payware)
[x] Print sans username in the properties (Libre Office Writer, any others?)
[_] Print book format PDF (FinePrint payware but we need a freeware solution)
[x] Tile PDFs to print large posters (Posterazor freeware)
[x] Create new text (Irfanview or Paint.NET plugins + Ghostscript freeware)
[?] ??? what else ???

[Flasherly]

On Fri, 11 Oct 2019 17:15:23 -0000 (UTC), Arlen _G_ Holder
<_arlen....@halder.edu> wrote:

>All I ask in this thread is that the Usenet potluck members IMPROVE this listing...

Calbre Portable isn't so bad for conversions, for freeware, although
I'm still getting the swing of its simple text formatting output,
where the overblown PDF effigy can be dispensed with for excessively
demotic doodling. Nor that conversions can be other than more or less
stilted impediments. As Bowie is told in the film The Man Who Fell To
Earth -- "I wouldn't sell The Bible to Random House if I owned its
patent."

[wasbit]

"Arlen _G_ Holder" <_arlen....@halder.edu> wrote in message
news:qnqdbb$aid$1...@news.mixmin.net...

I'll post a separate list.

Do you know that I've been posting lists of freeware for years & they are
available from

Box.net - http://www.box.net/wasbitlists
Python Anywhere - https://wasbit.pythonanywhere.com

--
Regards
wasbit

[Lu Wei]

PDF reader and virtual printer: Foxit reader, PDF Xchange
PDF file management (scientific oriented): Mendeley
PDF OCR: PDF Xchange
Pictures to PDF: Freepic2pdf
pdf to djvu converter: pdf2djvu

--
Regards,
Lu Wei
IM: xmpp:luwe...@riotcat.org
PGP: 0xA12FEF7592CCE1EA

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <qnv7pt$5f1$1...@dont-email.me>, Lu Wei <luwe...@gmail.com>
writes:

>On 2019-10-12 1:15, Arlen _G_ Holder wrote:
>> A recent thread asking for PDF-related freeware resurrected this listing...
>> o PDF editor needed, free and local software
>>
>><https://alt.windows7.general.narkive.com/sUfMQ96L/pdf-editor-needed-fr
>>ee-and-local-software>
>> All I ask in this thread is that the Usenet potluck members IMPROVE
>>this listing...
>> [x] Fast PDF reader: (Sumatra PDF freeware replaces acrobat reader
>>freeware)

Foxit freeware too (earlier versions less bloated)

>> [x] Archive sites (wkhtmltopdf freeware replaces Acrobat payware site
>>archival)
>> [x] Add or concatenate pages (pdftk freeware replaces Acrobat payware
>>ordering)
>> [x] Remove pages (pdfsam freeware & pdftk freeware easily remove pages)
>> [x] Rotate pages (Acrobat Reader freeware now rotates pages & allows a save)
>> [x] Renumber pages (Acrobat Reader freeware now allows renumbering pages)
>> [x] Remove restrictions (Ghostscript/Ghostview freeware in combination)

Is that a generic "Ghostview", or a specific piece of software?

>> [x] Merge PDFs (pdfsam freeware & pdftk freeware both merge multiple PDFs)
>> [x] Extract images (PDF Exchange Viewer freeware)

I couldn't find that. I found the similarly-named
https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer (no leading
E) ("Replaced by PDF-XChange Editor", but the Viewer's still available),
but I looked through https://www.tracker-software.com/PDFVManual.pdf,
and couldn't find any mention of extracting images. There's saving a
page or part of a page _as_ an image, but that's not the same as
actually extracting an image.
(I use https://www.extractpdf.com/, which works very well [at least for
single images which someone has for some reason only provided as a PDF],
but is an online facility, so not suitable for confidential matters.)

>> [x] Edit PDF existing text (Acrobat DC commenting replaces Acrobat payware)
>> [x] Print sans username in the properties (Libre Office Writer, any others?)
>> [_] Print book format PDF (FinePrint payware but we need a freeware solution)

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (free) will send a booklet to a printer; I
presume you can use it with a PDF "printer".

>> [x] Tile PDFs to print large posters (Posterazor freeware)
>> [x] Create new text (Irfanview or Paint.NET plugins + Ghostscript freeware)
>> [?] ??? what else ???
>>
>PDF reader and virtual printer: Foxit reader, PDF Xchange
>PDF file management (scientific oriented): Mendeley
>PDF OCR: PDF Xchange

The above PDF Exchange Viewer freeware says it includes OCR too.

>Pictures to PDF: Freepic2pdf
>pdf to djvu converter: pdf2djvu
>

PDF "printer" (create PDF from anything that will print - probably what
Lu Wei means above by "virtual printer") - there are several; I use
pdf995, but CutePDF is another I think. Most require ghostscript if you
haven't already got it; most (certainly pdf995) have a copy downloadable
on the same page (pdf995 will offer to get it, and does so seamlessly if
you accept, the first time you use it if you haven't got it). I presume
there's something about the licencing of ghostscript that prevents it
being integrated into the downloads, even though it is just as free as
they are. Some pdf "printer"s don't need it - I presume either their
creators have incorporated ghostscript regardless, or they've written
their own equivalent.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"Victory does not bring with it a sense of triumph - rather the dull numbness
of relief..." - Cecil Beaton quoted by Anthony Horowitz, RT 2015/1/3-9

[wasbit]

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6...@255soft.uk> wrote in message
news:DsZg8BAy...@255soft.uk...

Thank you. Very helpful for those that don't know.
I've added ExtractPDF (https://www.extractpdf.com/) to my Online PDF
Utilities list.

--
Regards
wasbit

[~BD~]

On 14/10/2019 09:45, wasbit wrote:

> Thank you. Very helpful for those that don't know.
> I've added ExtractPDF (https://www.extractpdf.com/) to my Online PDF
> Utilities list.

Thank *YOU* for the link, 'wasbit'.

I've tried it on my Mac and it works exactly as I'd hoped. :-D

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <qo1ck6$83a$1...@dont-email.me>, wasbit

<wasbit...@hotmail.com> writes:
>"J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6...@255soft.uk> wrote in message
>news:DsZg8BAy...@255soft.uk...
>> In message <qnv7pt$5f1$1...@dont-email.me>, Lu Wei <luwe...@gmail.com>
>>writes:
>>>On 2019-10-12 1:15, Arlen _G_ Holder wrote:
>>>> A recent thread asking for PDF-related freeware resurrected this
>>>>listing...

[]

>>>> [x] Extract images (PDF Exchange Viewer freeware)
>>
>> I couldn't find that. I found the similarly-named

[]

>>software.com/PDFVManual.pdf, and couldn't find any mention of
>>extracting images. There's saving a page or part of a page _as_ an
>>image, but that's not the same as actually extracting an image.
>> (I use https://www.extractpdf.com/, which works very well [at least

~BD~ please note the above line was me (-:

>>for single images which someone has for some reason only provided as
>>a PDF], but is an online facility, so not suitable for confidential
>>matters.)

[]

>Thank you. Very helpful for those that don't know.
>I've added ExtractPDF (https://www.extractpdf.com/) to my Online PDF
>Utilities list.
>

You're welcome. (~BD~, I'm not surprised it "works" on a Mac, as it's an
online facility rather than anything local.) It does seem a very good
service! It even extracts some metadata as well as the image, sometimes.
(There is a maximum - file size, IIRR - but I've rarely hit it.)

I've mainly used it for genealogical research (for some reason, a lot of
people scanning old birth certificates and the like do so into PDF
rather than to an image format), so I'm not doing anything confidential;
however, if anyone _does_ know of an _offline_ utility that can extract
images from a PDF (_not_ "save pages or parts of a page from a PDF as an
image" - not the same thing!), please share; not only for those who have
something confidential to extract, but also it'd be useful to be able to
do it when not online.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"Address the chair!" "There isn't a chair, there's only a rock!" "Well, call
it a chair!" "Why not call it a rock?" (First series, fit the sixth.)

[~BD~]

On 14/10/2019 16:01, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> In message <qo1ck6$83a$1...@dont-email.me>, wasbit
> <wasbit...@hotmail.com> writes:
>> "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6...@255soft.uk> wrote in message
>> news:DsZg8BAy...@255soft.uk...
>>> In message <qnv7pt$5f1$1...@dont-email.me>, Lu Wei <luwe...@gmail.com>
>>> writes:
>>>> On 2019-10-12 1:15, Arlen _G_ Holder wrote:
>>>>> A recent thread asking for PDF-related freeware resurrected this
>>>>> listing...
> []
>>>>> [x] Extract images (PDF Exchange Viewer freeware)
>>>
>>> I couldn't find that. I found the similarly-named
> []
>>> software.com/PDFVManual.pdf, and  couldn't find any mention of
>>> extracting images. There's saving a page or  part of a page _as_ an
>>> image, but that's not the same as actually  extracting an image.
>>> (I use https://www.extractpdf.com/, which works very well [at least

> ~BD~ please note the above line was me (-:

Ah! OK, John. My sincere thanks to *YOU*!

>>> for  single images which someone has for some reason only provided as
>>> a PDF],  but is an online facility, so not suitable for confidential
>>> matters.)
> []
>> Thank you. Very helpful for those that don't know.
>> I've added ExtractPDF (https://www.extractpdf.com/) to my Online PDF
>> Utilities list.

> You're welcome. (~BD~, I'm not surprised it "works" on a Mac, as it's an
> online facility rather than anything local.) It does seem a very good
> service! It even extracts some metadata as well as the image, sometimes.
> (There is a maximum - file size, IIRR - but I've rarely hit it.)
>
> I've mainly used it for genealogical research (for some reason, a lot of
> people scanning old birth certificates and the like do so into PDF
> rather than to an image format), so I'm not doing anything confidential;
> however, if anyone _does_ know of an _offline_ utility that can extract
> images from a PDF (_not_ "save pages or parts of a page from a PDF as an
> image" - not the same thing!), please share; not only for those who have
> something confidential to extract, but also it'd be useful to be able to
> do it when not online.

The additional info. is both helpful and interesting. Thanks again.

--
David B.
Devon, UK

[Paul]

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

>

> I've mainly used it for genealogical research (for some reason, a lot of
> people scanning old birth certificates and the like do so into PDF
> rather than to an image format), so I'm not doing anything confidential;
> however, if anyone _does_ know of an _offline_ utility that can extract
> images from a PDF (_not_ "save pages or parts of a page from a PDF as an
> image" - not the same thing!), please share; not only for those who have
> something confidential to extract, but also it'd be useful to be able to
> do it when not online.

This isn't a good example, but shows a bit of the idea.
The first call to the tool, dumps the "objects" contained
in it, including (subset) fonts. The second call, the "extract",
extracts the numbered object. Which is object 26 in this example.
Object 35 might be the parent object.

mutool info sample.pdf

Images (6):
[Page] 1 (35 0 R): [ JPX ] 1600x1200 8bpc ICC (26 0 R)

mutool extract -r sample.pdf 26

The result is a 1600x1200 PNG file.

*******

Manual page:

https://www.mupdf.com/docs/manual-mutool-extract.html

The executable I have,

mutool --help

shows "info" as the keyword to use, whereas the documentation
page shows "show" as the keyword to display information about
a page. Presumably the keywords in the built-in help
are consistent with what actually works.

*******

I would never expect the colors to match, because
this involves computers... :-) You'll notice the info
shows "ICC" color space for the object I extracted. I don't
know if this tool makes an effort to maintain color
information or not.

Paul

[Susan Bugher]

On 10/14/2019 11:01 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

<snip>

> however, if anyone _does_ know of an _offline_ utility that can extract
> images from a PDF (_not_ "save pages or parts of a page from a PDF as an
> image" - not the same thing!), please share; not only for those who have
> something confidential to extract, but also it'd be useful to be able to
> do it when not online.

http://www.rlvision.com/ That's the home site. That version is
shareware but there is a last freeware version. (v 1.2) elsewhere.

Program: PDF Image Extraction Wizard
Company: RL Vision

http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/alphabetically.html
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page36.html#PIEW

Windows 95/98/NT4/ME/2000/XP; Windows Server 2003
Ware: (Donationware) (free) LFW (v 1.2)
<http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/files2/pdf_image_extraction_wizard_12_setup.zip>

Susan --
Posted to alt.comp.freeware (using WinXP-SP2, Win7professional-32 bit)
<http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.pricelesswarehome.org>

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <h0kd92...@mid.individual.net>, Susan Bugher

<sebu...@yahoo.com> writes:
>On 10/14/2019 11:01 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>> however, if anyone _does_ know of an _offline_ utility that can extract
>> images from a PDF (_not_ "save pages or parts of a page from a PDF as an

[]

>http://www.rlvision.com/ That's the home site. That version is
>shareware but there is a last freeware version. (v 1.2) elsewhere.
>
>Program: PDF Image Extraction Wizard
>Company: RL Vision
>
>http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/alphabetically.html
>http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page36.html#PIEW
>
>Windows 95/98/NT4/ME/2000/XP; Windows Server 2003
>Ware: (Donationware) (free) LFW (v 1.2)
><http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/files2/pdf_image_extraction_wi
>zard_12_setup.zip>

[]
Thanks for that. It installed on W7 OK.
Running, it has three stages:
Extracting images
Processing image format
Moving files to destination folder
with no progress bars. I am trying it.

Worked fine; thanks! (I'm puzzled what "Processing" it has to do; maybe
header tweaking? I did try it on a file with multiple images, and it
produced some .bmp and some .jpg, so presumably it gets the original
types.)

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

A good pun is its own reword.

[Arlen _G_ Holder]

On Sun, 13 Oct 2019 15:30:10 +0100, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

> Is that a generic "Ghostview", or a specific piece of software?

Hi JP Gilliver,

It has been a long time since I needed to remove all restrictions and
encryption from a PDF, where I just dug into the Usenet archives at
<http://tinyurl.com/comp-text-pdf>
To find this for you...

How to remove PDF permissions on Windows: (dated in December 2014)
1. Install GPL Ghostscript 9.00 for 32-bit Windows (gs900w32.exe)
http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/GPL/gs900/gs900w32.exe
2. Install GSview release v4.9 Win32 self extracting archive (gsv49w32.exe)
http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/ghostgum/gsv49w32.exe
3. Install ps2edit (pstoeditsetup350.exe)
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pstoedit/pstoeditsetup350.exe?download
4. Bring up GSView by clicking on its shortcut
5. File->Open->protected_pdf_file.pdf
6. File->Convert (pdfwrite, 600dpi, all pages, ok)

On Linux, the thread shows this (also December 2014, so things may have
changed in the interim with the versions of software & capabilities).

To remove pdf permissions from an encrypted PDF file on Ubuntu-based Linux:

$ sudo apt-get install pdf2djvu
(That installs djvups, among other things)
$ sudo apt-get install context
(That installs ps2pdf, among other things)

$ pdf2djvu secured.pdf -o temp.djvu
$ djvups temp.djvu temp.ps
$ ps2pdf temp.ps unsecured.pdf

$ okular secure.pdf
(File > Properties => Security = Encrypted)
http://i57.tinypic.com/6gwz6a.jpg
$ okular unsecure.pdf
(File > Properties => Security = Unencrypted)
http://i57.tinypic.com/t899op.jpg

Note that I'm not supplying the URL because I literally had to go to the
police when I was contacted by the publisher of these documents, where the
publisher threatened me with legal action, and where I brought it all to
the police the very next day - and he stopped after they contacted him,
where I left it at that.

--
Note that Marek Novotny, William Unruh, Jasen Betts, Jonathan Little, Paul,
and quite a few others participated on that rather long thread, which I
only took the summary above from the beginning page on Google Groups.

[Arlen Holder]

On Mon, 14 Oct 2019 17:45:44 -0400, Paul wrote:

> mutool info sample.pdf

Hi Paul,
We forgot to list free pdf optimization, aka shrinking the file size,
compression, making the file smaller, downsampling, whatever.

I generally use Acrobat payware to shrink, and, when the going gets rough,
I use ImageMagick (usually on Linux) or GhostScript, but your mutool
suggestion might be useful for free PDF shrinking.

Here are my logs if anyone has the need for a free PDF shrinker.
a. Test files
b. Log files

TEST FILES:
o Designing Analog Chips, by Hans Camenzind
<http://designinganalogchips.com/_count/designinganalogchips.pdf>
o Introduction to Programming using Python, by Y Daniel Liang
<https://doc.lagout.org/programmation/python/Introduction%20to%20Programming%20using%20Python%20%5BLiang%202012-01-12%5D.pdf>
o Building Blocks for Theoretical Computer Science, by Margaret M. Fleck
<http://mfleck.cs.illinois.edu/building-blocks/version-1.3/whole-book.pdf>
o Free to Choose, by Milton Friedman
<http://www.proglocode.unam.mx/sites/proglocode.unam.mx/files/docencia/Milton%20y%20Rose%20Friedman%20-%20Free%20to%20Choose.pdf>
o Designing automotive suspension systems
<https://tinyurl.com/advanced-vehicle-technology>

LOG FILES:
Usually when Adobe Acrobat fails to get a good size, ImageMagick wins:
o convert -density 200x200 -quality 60 -compress jpeg big.pdf small.pdf
o convert -density 200x200 -quality 60 -compress jpeg -resize 50% big.pdf
small.pdf
o convert -compress Zip -density 150x150 big.pdf small.pdf
o <http://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-options.php#compress>

If not, GhostScript works reasonably well on a lot of the PDFs.
o gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook
-dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=small.pdf big.pdf
o gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen
-dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dQUIET -sOutputFile=small.pdf big.pdf
o gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.5 -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer
-dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=small.pdf big.pdf
o gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.5 -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook
-dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=small.pdf big.pdf
o gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4
-dDownsampleColorImages=true -dColorImageResolution=150 -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH
-sOutputFile=small.pdf big.pdf
#!/bin/sh
gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER \
-sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
-dCompatibilityLevel=1.3 \
-dPDFSETTINGS=/screen \
-dEmbedAllFonts=true \
-dSubsetFonts=true \
-dColorImageDownsampleType=/Bicubic \
-dColorImageResolution=72 \
-dGrayImageDownsampleType=/Bicubic \
-dGrayImageResolution=72 \
-dMonoImageDownsampleType=/Bicubic \
-dMonoImageResolution=72 \
-sOutputFile=out.pdf \
$1

But each PDF is different.

There are LOTs of solutions in my logs that I've done over the years.
o <https://github.com/pts/pdfsizeopt>
o pdfsizeopt big.pdf small.pdf
o pdftk big.pdf output small.pdf compress
o <https://mupdf.com/docs/manual-mutool-convert.html>
o <https://mupdf.com/docs/manual-mutool-create.html>
o <http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/>
o qpdf --linearize big.pdf small.pdf
o pdf2ps big.pdf huge.ps && ps2pdf huge.ps small.pdf
o ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook big.pdf small.pdf
o ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer big.pdf small.pdf
o pdf2ps big.pdf huge.ps && ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen
-dDownsampleColorImages=true -dColorImageResolution=200
-dColorImageDownsampleType=/Bicubic huge.ps small.pdf
o ps2pdf -dDownsampleColorImages=true -dDownsampleMonoImages=true
-dDownsampleGrayImages=true -dColorImageResolution=300
-dGrayImageResolution=600 -dMonoImageResolution=1200
o <https://www.windows10download.com/4dots-free-pdf-compress/> <- stinks
o <https://github.com/gugli28/PdfCompressor>
o <http://www.nicepdf.com/products.html> shareware
o <https://www.timedicer.co.uk/programs/help/pdf-compress.sh.php>
o Open big.pdf in Libre Office; export as pdf; set "jpeg compression
quality" & "image resolution"
o etc.

In short, do you have a good free solution for resizing PDFs?

[Arlen Holder]

For the permanent Usenet record, see also:
o Desktop freeware to SHRINK (aka optimize) PDFs
<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.comp.freeware/AFRQTB_UX9E/f5nyAXlcCAAJ>

Please note that in the course of that thread, it was determined that
"shrinking" (i.e., reducing overall file size) is _different_ than
"optimizing", so consider the title a misnomer (shrinking the overall file
size using freeware was what the question was originally all about).

[Arlen Holder]

Update

For cross referencing, please see also:
o PDF editor
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.comp.freeware/sgVf0B5KuKc>
--
Usenet is a rich public web-searchable archive of solutions & tutorials.