RE: PDF Generation Utilities

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.
>>>>>
>>>>> This e-mail and any attachments to it are confidential and are 
>>>>> intended
>>>>> solely for use of the individual or entity to whom they are 
>>>>> addressed.
>>>>> If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender
>>>>> immediately and then delete it. If you are not the intended 
>>>>> recipient,
>>>>> you must not keep, use, disclose, copy or distribute this e-mail 
>>>>> without
>>>>> the author's prior permission. The views expressed in this e-mail
>>>>> message do not necessarily represent the views of Highmark Inc., its
>>>>> subsidiaries, or affiliates.
>>>>>
>>>> __________
>>>> View the list's information and change your settings at
>>>> http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
>>>>
>>>>
>>> __________
>>> View the list's information and change your settings at
>>> http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
>>>
>>>
>> __________
>> View the list's information and change your settings at
>> http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
>>
>>
> __________
> View the list's information and change your settings at 
> http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
>

-- 
Kerneels Roos
Cell: +27 (0)82 309 1998
Skype: cornelis.roos

__________
View the list's information and change your settings at 
http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind

__________
View the list's information and change your settings at
http://www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind

Other related posts: