[PLUG] Editing PDF files

Steve Bonds 1s7k8uhcd001 at sneakemail.com
Thu Jun 13 08:11:55 UTC 2002


Heh, I remember sending that OHSU application monstrosity several months
ago.  Never heard back.  Not even a "thanks for sending us that brick of
paper" message.  I figure it was their loss.  ;-)

You might try editing the raw PostScript file.  Not the prettiest way to
go about things, but it's definately in the UNIX spirit.  I'm sure some
poor fool has built a lisp PS-mode for Xemacs...

I recall seeing a Perl module that parses PostScript.  I have not tried it
though.  My motivation to save my DMV fill-in PDFs in a permanent form
gave out before I actually put it to use.

In any case I would avoid converting it to an image format.  It will not
look good when printed when compared to the crisp text of the original
PDF.

  -- Steve

On Wed, 12 Jun 2002, Mark Allyn allyn at well.com XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

> 
> Hello:
> 
> I have been playing around with this for a while and I
> still don't like the results.
> 
> I need to be able to take a pdf file, read it into something
> where I can add stuff to it; write it out to a file (I don't
> care what kind of file, as long as it can be printed); and then
> print the file.
> 
> The pdf file that I am working with is an employment application.
> It has blanks for name, employers, etc. They expect me to print
> it, write by hand the information, and then send it in. I am
> hopeing to figure out a way to read the file into something that
> would allow me to enter my information in the blanks and then
> print/mail the results in via snail mail.
> 
> I tried exporting the file to .ps (via the acroread utility);
> reading the file into ghostscript to convert it into .pgm and
> then reading that into xpaint. I seem to lose some detail
> in the file and the tiny prints gets garbled up.
> 
> I tried to read in the file using gimp, but gimp is very
> hard to work with.
> 
> I tried using xfig, but xfig does not seem to have any
> capability to read in either jpg,pgm,tiff,ps, or any
> other file except its own format. (Please tell me that
> I am missing something obvious.
> 
> I currently have only linux (no windows whatsoever).
> If there is some sort of solution that I have missed,
> I would love to know about it.
> 
> As I am still looking for work, I don't want to shell out
> the $100 for the commercial software that is used to make
> the pdf files.
> 
> For any of those who are familiar, the pdf files are for
> the OHSU employment application.
> 
> Thanks for any help
> 
> Mark Allyn
> 
> 
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