Summary: {Converting PDF to editable form}

["Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- QUODATA -dot- COM>]

Hallo:

Yes, converting PDF to editable form can easily be done *PROVIDED* the PDF
was created using Adobe Type I PostScript fonts and not TrueTypes. (I don't
know about the new Type III multiple-master fonts.)

I had no luck whatsoever getting editable or recognizable text from a PDF
that was created using TTFs. None. At all. I did not test all available
software, however.

If the PDF you need to convert, to ASCII or RTF or whatever, used Type I
fonts, then:


Use Adobe Acrobat Exchange version 3.x+ Edit|Copy file to clipboard. Then,
paste into the word processor of your choice (I used Word 97).

I also tested a demo version of the Gemini Export plug in
(http://www.iceni.com/salesSet.html). This worked quite nicely, too. (The
demo is disabled so you'd have to buy the full-blown plug in, which I'd
recommend.)

Let me restate that neither of the above methods works at all with TTFs.

Other information I found but did not test includes:

BCL Jade 4.0 (http://198.123.17.51/contents/PDFSolutions/jade40.htm)
PDFix 1.0 (http://www.trivium.de/pdfix_e.htm)

About GhostScript. GhostScript (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/) seemed very
fully-featured. I downloaded it and installed it. GhostScript/GhostView
would *not* open the PDF that Gemini and Acrobat Exchange did. Thus, I was
unable to test the software. GhostScript threw up an PDF-header error
message.

In closing, if anyone finds a utility that will created ASCII or RTF
editable text from PDFs that use TrueType fonts, please . . . please let me
know.

I hope this helps and all the best.

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=