[softwarelist] Re: pdf-import

In message <94dbe87b4e.martinv@xxxxxx>
          Martin Vethake <martinv@xxxxxx> wrote:

> In message <b2f1e77b4e.martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>           Martin Wuerthner <public@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
>> In theory yes, but not if text is involved. If you save as Draw from
>> !PDF, then each character becomes an individual Draw object. This
>> means that you can barely do even the most basic editing and there is
>> no way to insert anything and reflow the text.
>> 
>  Exactly, the 'D' in 'PDF' has always annoyed me. PDF is by no means
> a 'Document', it is rather a _printed_ document. You better have the
> original somewhere or may be screwed royally.

True. PDF focuses on the visual representation of the document. Still, 
the producer can store a lot of high-level text flow information in 
the PDF file (to improve accessibility, for example). The problem is 
that !PDF goes down to a particularly low level (single characters) to 
ensure accurate rendering. It could preserve more of the text 
structure at the expense of not preserving the original formatting 
exactly, but then, this is not what it was written for. Besides, the 
Draw format imposes limits, too.

So, to sum it up: OvationPro (or any other word processor) with PDF 
import could do a much better job. Of course, it would never be 
suitable for round-trip editing (simply because PDF really is a 
graphical format, so it is likely to contain lots of things that OP 
cannot represent), but at least one would be able to quickly import an 
existing PDF document as a starting point for reproducing it.

Martin
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Martin Wuerthner          MW Software          martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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