RE: PDF Generation Utilities
- From: "Homme, James" <james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:20:43 -0400
Hi Kerneels,
If you put your cursor over one of those space characters that doesn't read
anything, Hit the say character key three times to see if it has a different
number than 32.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kerneels Roos
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 6:02 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: PDF Generation Utilities
Hi. The EdSharp PDF version of the Manuel looks fine from the little bit
I can see of it, but it's a simple HTML file with no special layout so
it should convert well in any tool. By default it also comes up with a
hyperlinked menu to the various sections to the left of the page. This
menu stays there even when you navigate to a section. My Adobe Reader
might be setup to display such a table of contents when available -- I'm
not sure -- I mean I'm not sure if the PDF opens up the table of
contents automatically or if my reader is just setup to open it if
available.
What I do notice, and I've seen this in other PDF files also, is that
when I read it there is often times a character left out of a word here
and there, with a space between the character and the rest of the word
when it is rendered by the synthesizer. Yet, when I move very slowly
over the sentence there does not seem to be a space, but spaces are not
read so you can't tell.
Anyone know what I can do to resolve this? Is it perhaps a font anti
aliasing issue or something? It's very frustrating and even happens in
professional documents such as PDF versions of books I baught.
Cheers
On 8/16/2011 1:00 PM, Jamal Mazrui wrote:
> Unfortunately, I have not yet found any free or command-line utilities
> that generate tagged PDFs. If anyone else knows of something, please
> let us know.
>
> Jamal
>
>
> On 8/16/2011 6:58 AM, Homme, James wrote:
>> Hi,
>> It seems like so many things get put into LaTeX, then into something
>> else. That's why I was asking. Another thing I'm wondering about the
>> PDF conversion utilities out there is whether or not any of them tag
>> PDF for accessibility.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jamal Mazrui [mailto:empower@xxxxxxxxx]
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 6:55 AM
>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Cc: Homme, James
>> Subject: Re: PDF Generation Utilities
>>
>> Definately if you want to do significant work with math or science
>> material. For other purposes, other markup languages, such as Markdown,
>> are probably easier to learn, e.g., as a convenient way of generating
>> HTML. In case this helps, a collection of text tutorials on LaTeX is
>> available at
>>
>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/latexdoc.zip
>>
>> Jamal
>>
>>
>> On 8/16/2011 6:28 AM, Homme, James wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> Is there much benefit in learning LaTeX?
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Jamal Mazrui [mailto:empower@xxxxxxxxx]
>>> Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 6:26 PM
>>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Cc: Homme, James
>>> Subject: Re: PDF Generation Utilities
>>>
>>> Indeed. I just reviewed the Pandoc documentation, and one cannot go
>>> directly from HTML to PDF. One can go from HTML to Markdown, and then
>>> get to PDF with additional help from a MarkdownToPDF utility that is
>>> also included in the distribution. For that to work, moreover, a LaTeX
>>> distribution has to be installed.
>>>
>>> On Windows, I have successfully done this with the LaTeX distribution
>>> available from
>>>
>>> http://MikTeX.org
>>>
>>> In fact, if one installs that distribution, including the pdflatex
>>> support, EdSharp may be used to convert from Markdown to PDF, after
>>> adding another directory to the search path, e.g.,
>>>
>>> c:\program Files\MiKTeX 2.8\miktex\bin
>>>
>>> Even one more configuration step is needed, telling MikTex not to
>>> prompt
>>> whether to search for additional LaTeX support packages on the net each
>>> time it is run. Off hand, I forget how I set that configuration
>>> option.
>>>
>>> As a test, I converted the EdSharp manual, EdSharp.htm, to Markdown
>>> format, EdSharp.md, and then to PDF, which I posted at
>>>
>>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/EdSharp.pdf
>>>
>>> I have no idea how visually acceptable the resulting PDF is.
>>>
>>> Jamal
>>>
>>> On 8/15/2011 3:49 PM, Homme, James wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> According to the front page at the site, it can turn HTML into PDF,
>>>> but I don't see that option in the documentation. I do see MarkDown
>>>> to PDF. So I guess you could go from HTML to MarkDown, then from
>>>> MarkDown to PDF.
>>>>
>>>> Jim
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Jamal Mazrui [mailto:empower@xxxxxxxxx]
>>>> Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 10:59 AM
>>>> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Cc: Homme, James
>>>> Subject: Re: PDF Generation Utilities
>>>>
>>>> The free Pandoc utility can convert from HTML or Markdown to PDF.
>>>>
>>>> http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/
>>>>
>>>> Jamal
>>>>
>>>> On 8/15/2011 8:05 AM, Homme, James wrote:
>>>>> Hi Don,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for this info. This sounds and looks like a great utility
>>>>> to work
>>>>> with PDF. The thing I want to do is work with HTML files, and convert
>>>>> them to PDF.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>
>>>>> Jim
>>>>>
>>>>> *From:*programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Don
>>>>> Marang
>>>>> *Sent:* Monday, August 01, 2011 10:50 PM
>>>>> *To:* programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> *Subject:* Re: PDF Generation Utilities
>>>>>
>>>>> I am not sure how you plan to send the request to the Linux server or
>>>>> how to specify more than one web page. What language are you
>>>>> planning to
>>>>> make this request? Is it for a specific site or a general utility?
>>>>>
>>>>> In the Ubuntu repository, there is a command line utility to
>>>>> manipulate
>>>>> and build pdf files. The command and package name are pdftk.
>>>>>
>>>>> To install, type:
>>>>> sudo apt-get update
>>>>> sudo apt-get install pdftk
>>>>>
>>>>> Reading the man page will give you some information:
>>>>>
>>>>> man pdftk
>>>>>
>>>>> I imagine you could transfer the file from the web site to the
>>>>> server at
>>>>> the beginning of the script using wget, strip out the unwanted
>>>>> links at
>>>>> the as desired (or convert them to bookmarks), and build the pdf
>>>>> file. I
>>>>> do not know whether it would be easier to send the file back to the
>>>>> browser computer or just notify when processing is complete. Then
>>>>> it can
>>>>> present a Save As dialog and download the file from the server.
>>>>>
>>>>> There are probably many approaches to this problem, this is how I
>>>>> would
>>>>> approach it.
>>>>>
>>>>> *Don Marang*
>>>>> Vinux Software Development Coordinator - vinuxproject.org
>>>>> <http://www.vinuxproject.org/>
>>>>> There is just so much stuff in the world that, to me, is devoid of
>>>>> any
>>>>> real substance, value, and content that I just try to make sure
>>>>> that I
>>>>> am working on things that matter.
>>>>> -- Dean Kamen
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 7/29/2011 9:53 AM, Homme, James wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> Here is what I'd like to do.
>>>>>
>>>>> Send an accessible HTML file to a server that has a utility
>>>>> running on
>>>>> it that would then spit back a PDF document that I can print. The
>>>>> utility may need to be fed a collection of HTML documents that it
>>>>> would
>>>>> assemble into a single file to print. I would settle for code
>>>>> libraries
>>>>> that can work with this stuff. I believe that the server environment
>>>>> would be your normal Linux/Apache type server, but I need to make
>>>>> sure
>>>>> of that.
>>>>>
>>>>> Here is the process flow.
>>>>>
>>>>> The customer would click a hyperlink in the current HTML file they
>>>>> are
>>>>> reading.
>>>>>
>>>>> The utility would do some stuff to make the file look nicer, such as
>>>>> strip navigational elements to other pages, and whatever else is
>>>>> necessary to make it look nicer to print.
>>>>>
>>>>> The HTML file, I suppose, would need to communicate to the utility
>>>>> that
>>>>> it is a part of a collection of files that the utility needs to get.
>>>>>
>>>>> The customer would then be directed to that dialog that asks if they
>>>>> want to download or save the document.
>>>>>
>>>>> None of this, or as little as possible, must run on the client
>>>>> computer.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>
>>>>> Jim
>>>>>
>>>>> Jim Homme,
>>>>>
>>>>> Usability Services,
>>>>>
>>>>> Phone: 412-544-1810.
>>>>>
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--
Kerneels Roos
Cell: +27 (0)82 309 1998
Skype: cornelis.roos
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