freeware Document Converter

F

FTR

Is there any freeware alternative for a converter that converts the
mentioned files into a graphics file ?

Thanks
Frank

Universal Document Converter

is virtual printer software that saves any document you print as an
image file. It lets you convert your Adobe PDF files, Microsoft Word
documents, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations or Autodesk AutoCAD
drawings into PDF, TIFF, JPEG or PNG as easy as sending them to your
printer!
 
F

FTR

socrtwo said:
Oops, sent it to user directly instead of group. Try Paperless
Printer:

http://www.rarefind.com/paperlessprinter/downloads.html

Does not always work as one would want so view results.

Paul Pruitt
s2services.com
Click to expand...
Thanks, I'll just downloaded and shall try it out.

During my ongoing research for document converter I found this one:

http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/
The U.S. National Library of Medicine's (NLM) document conversion tools make the exchange and use of biomedical library electronic information easier for librarians, library users, and the general public. The DocMorph Web site and MyMorph software are two free conversion tools that allow users to convert more than 50 types of files into alternative, usable formats. The DocMorph Web site allows users to convert files into PDF, TIFF, text, and synthesized speech. The downloadable MyMorph software allows users to mass migrate files to PDF only.

Both conversion tools were developed through document imaging research and development at the NLM's Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, Communications Engineering Branch.

* Click Here for DocMorph
* Click Here for MyMorph
Click to expand...

Over 50 Types of Files Handled by DocMorph and MyMorph

While DocMorph and MyMorph create PDF files from any of the types of
files listed below, neither accepts PDF files that are submitted to the
system.
 
S

socrtwo

Vic said:
Can you give us a review after you try it?
Click to expand...

I like DocMorph a lot, for doing OCR on images. It will do OCR on 50
dirrect kinds of files (Ariel Files, BMP Color, BMP24, DCM, DCX, DIB,
DIF, DOC, FPX, GIF, HTM, HTML, ICO, JBIG, JPEG Color, MCW, MTV, PDB,
PBM, PCD, PCX, PGM, PIX, PNG, PNM, PPM, PPT, PRE, PSD, "RAS, SUN", RTF,
SVG, TIFF(uncompressed), TIFF Group 3, TIFF Group 4, TIFF JPEG, TIFF
LZW, TIFF RGB, TIFF CMYK, TIFF PackBits, TXT, TTF, WBMP, WK1, WK3, WPD,
WQ1, XBM, XLS, XPM). A lot of OCR tools require TIFF images alone.

It's about as good as the OCR in MS Office's Imaging 2003 Tool (part of
MS Office Tools), which is a big improvement over the OCR in the same
app in Office 2002 (XP) and all previous versions. So for free, it's
pretty good. I think it is better than the free Simple OCR too. It
requires no installation and is done through an online service so it
qualifies as Webware. I don't have that much experience with MyMorph.

Paul Pruitt
http://www.socrtwo.info/tutorial.htm
 
F

FTR

socrtwo said:
Oops, sent it to user directly instead of group. Try Paperless
Printer:

http://www.rarefind.com/paperlessprinter/downloads.html

Does not always work as one would want so view results.

Paul Pruitt
s2services.com
Click to expand...

I used Paperless Printer to get a print paper page from an online
newspaper that allowed only to print but not to saveguard, although I
subscribed to the newspaper. Even with the highest solution of BMP and
JPG output of Paperless Printer a commercial OCR reader & the freeware
SimpleOCR got really nothing recognised. I only got a page full of
unrecognisable caracters. I tried with different resolutions of the same
page, but I guess the Paperles Printer resolution is just not high
enough - even at the best level - for a successful recognition.

The Html output was unusable, too.

When you print Paperless Printer ends with a nagging windows demanding
you to pay and, on another page, to enter the code. I dint know whether
this is a bad installation but it's not very clever when you want people
to make you buy your product.

The only way I succeded in the end was a pdf that Paperless Printer
faltlessly produced , and recreate the text by using a commercial
program whose name I dont dare to say as I dont want to decapitated
again ;-( (and noone asked me to)

Frank
 
S

socrtwo

FTR said:
Is there any freeware alternative for a converter that converts the
mentioned files into a graphics file ?
Click to expand...

There is a 2 step option really to produce faultless images.

1. Print to a PDF printer.

2. Convert the PDF pages into JPG, BMP, PN etc images via
GSView/Ghostscript.

Here are the steps:

A. install GSView and Ghostscript separately (is there a combined
package somewhere?) starting from links here:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/.

B. Install a free PDF printer like the nagware PaperlessPrinter,
PDF995, or the truly free ones CutePDF Writer
(http://www.acrosoftware.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp), PrimoPDF
(http://www.primopdf.com/), PDFill PDF Writer
(http://www.pdfill.com/pdf_writer_free.html - includes a trial software
which expires but PDF writer will still work afterwords), PDFCreator
(http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm - cool open source
project) and a few others. For a an extensive list, albeit old
information see my page here: http://www.socrtwo.info/freepdf.htm.

OR

You can also create PDFs online for free via Adobe itself
(http://createpdf.adobe.com/?Language=ENU - first 5 are free), DocMorph
(http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/docmorph.htm - truly free
government services), MyMorph
(http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/mymorph.htm - really an
application that uses the DocMorph services), PDF Online
(http://www.gohtm.com/), Neevia Document Converter eXpress
(http://convert.neevia.com/), PDFconvert
(http://www.pdfconvert.ch/index.asp?lang=e) and others.

OR

Use a free Office suite to produce your documents that allows you to
export to PDF. They are: Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/), 602
Office (http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/download.html),
EasyOffice (http://www.e-press.com/index.asp - Not sure if this is
still free).

C. Open the PDF File in GSView. Choose File Menu -> Convert...->
Choose your Image format on the left in the Device Part of the Convert
Window -> Choose your resolution (Web images 96 DPI, OCR and printers
need at least 300 DPI). Click OK and name your file. Be sure to put
the proper extension on the file as GSView will not do this
automatically like other programs! Also all images will need to be
printed out one page at a time except if you choose TIF images. The
program will let you choose to print more than one page at a time for
PNG, BMP etc., but it really doesn't do it and will just print out one
page.

Paul Pruitt
http://www.socrtwo.info/tutorial.htm
 
S

socrtwo

FTR said:
Is there any freeware alternative for a converter that converts the
mentioned files into a graphics file ?
Click to expand...

There is a 2 step option really to produce faultless images.

1. Print to a PDF printer.

2. Convert the PDF pages into JPG, BMP, PN etc images via
GSView/Ghostscript.

Here are the steps:

A. install GSView and Ghostscript separately (is there a combined
package somewhere?) starting from links here:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/.

B. Install a free PDF printer like the nagware PaperlessPrinter,
PDF995, or the truly free ones CutePDF Writer
(http://www.acrosoftware.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp), PrimoPDF
(http://www.primopdf.com/), PDFill PDF Writer
(http://www.pdfill.com/pdf_writer_free.html - includes a trial software
which expires but PDF writer will still work afterwords), PDFCreator
(http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm - cool open source
project) and a few others. For a an extensive list, albeit old
information see my page here: http://www.socrtwo.info/freepdf.htm.

OR

You can also create PDFs online for free via Adobe itself
(http://createpdf.adobe.com/?Language=ENU - first 5 are free), DocMorph
(http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/docmorph.htm - truly free
government services), MyMorph
(http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/mymorph.htm - really an
application that uses the DocMorph services), PDF Online
(http://www.gohtm.com/), Neevia Document Converter eXpress
(http://convert.neevia.com/), PDFconvert
(http://www.pdfconvert.ch/index.asp?lang=e) and others.

OR

Use a free Office suite to produce your documents that allows you to
export to PDF. They are: Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/), 602
Office (http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/download.html),
EasyOffice (http://www.e-press.com/index.asp - Not sure if this is
still free).

C. Open the PDF File in GSView. Choose File Menu -> Convert...->
Choose your Image format on the left in the Device Part of the Convert
Window -> Choose your resolution (Web images 96 DPI, OCR and printers
need at least 300 DPI). Click OK and name your file. Be sure to put
the proper extension on the file as GSView will not do this
automatically like other programs! Also all images will need to be
printed out one page at a time except if you choose TIF images. The
program will let you choose to print more than one page at a time for
PNG, BMP etc., but it really doesn't do it and will just print out one
page.

Paul Pruitt
http://www.socrtwo.info/tutorial.htm
 
S

socrtwo

FTR said:
is virtual printer software that saves any document you print as an
image file. It lets you convert your Adobe PDF files, Microsoft Word
documents, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations or Autodesk AutoCAD
drawings into PDF, TIFF, JPEG or PNG as easy as sending them to your
printer!
Click to expand...

There is a free online service that will do this! See:

http://convert.neevia.com/

The file formats it will convert are here:

http://convert.neevia.com/fileformats.html

Paul Pruitt
s2services.com
 
D

Denis

Is there any freeware alternative for a converter that converts the
mentioned files [PDF, TIFF, JPEG or PNG] into a graphics file ?
Click to expand...

I was looking for the same kind of program for a long time. The only image
printer driver I found which was free was Sk Image Printer 1.10 which can
only print colorless BMP files and a few demos with different limitations.
But the soution was so near....

Paul's solution was the best for the time being, but still complicated.

Today I found an old alt.comp.freeware-Posting by chance. Message-ID:
<[email protected]>.

The solution is quite simple. Just use your PDF-printer for printing, or
install one, e.g.:
PDFCreator (http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm) or
FreePDF / FreePDF XP (http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm)

At least these two should be abled to "print" out images files.

If you use PDFCreator, do this:
- Select print and then PDFCreator as the printer.
- A dialog appears where you can enter properties. Of course they are only
important for PDF files. Press the button Einstellungen/preferences/options
(I'm not sure what label the program uses if you use it in english)
- In Formate/Formats you can change the preferences for the format you want
to have your destination file in. Then press Speichern/Save
- Back to the last dialog, press Speichern/Save there
- The "save file"-dialog appears. Choose your destination filetype and make
sure that you delete the ".pdf" behind the filename the program adds
automatically.

That's it. Looks not simple, but it is (don't mind my 'novel' ;-)). The
only step more you have to take compared with creating a PDF is that you
have to change the file type (and maybe the preferences if you want to have
an image with a higher resolution).

Hope that helps and this thread isn't long forgotten. ;-)

Regards,

Denis
 
S

socrtwo

Denis said:
Is there any freeware alternative for a converter that converts the
mentioned files [PDF, TIFF, JPEG or PNG] into a graphics file ?
Click to expand...

I was looking for the same kind of program for a long time. The only image
printer driver I found which was free was Sk Image Printer 1.10 which can
only print colorless BMP files and a few demos with different limitations.
But the soution was so near....

Paul's solution was the best for the time being, but still complicated.

Today I found an old alt.comp.freeware-Posting by chance. Message-ID:
<[email protected]>.

The solution is quite simple. Just use your PDF-printer for printing, or
install one, e.g.:
PDFCreator (http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm) or
FreePDF / FreePDF XP (http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm)

At least these two should be abled to "print" out images files.

If you use PDFCreator, do this:
- Select print and then PDFCreator as the printer.
- A dialog appears where you can enter properties. Of course they are only
important for PDF files. Press the button Einstellungen/preferences/options
(I'm not sure what label the program uses if you use it in english)
- In Formate/Formats you can change the preferences for the format you want
to have your destination file in. Then press Speichern/Save
- Back to the last dialog, press Speichern/Save there
- The "save file"-dialog appears. Choose your destination filetype and make
sure that you delete the ".pdf" behind the filename the program adds
automatically.

That's it. Looks not simple, but it is (don't mind my 'novel' ;-)). The
only step more you have to take compared with creating a PDF is that you
have to change the file type (and maybe the preferences if you want to have
an image with a higher resolution).

Hope that helps and this thread isn't long forgotten. ;-)

Regards,

Denis
Click to expand...

I tried it out, it looks great. You must hit the print button for the
PDF printer before the dialogue box with the options button comes up.
It's not accessible through the properties button of the printer.
 
D

Denis

I tried it out, it looks great. You must hit the print button for the
PDF printer before the dialogue box with the options button comes up.
It's not accessible through the properties button of the printer.
Click to expand...

Yes, I forgot that line, sorry.
 

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