PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

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Misty
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PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by Misty »

Hi, everyone! I've made an updated Windows version of PDFBeads, using the latest version 1.0.9, which you can download right here. Testers needed! I haven't had the chance to try this out on a computer that doesn't have Ruby installed.

Requirements:
ImageMagick installer from here: http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/6 ... 6-8-Q8.zip
Don't worry about installing the gem - I took care of that for you. But you must install ImageMagick itself using the .exe file from that installer, and choose the "update executable search path" option.

jbig2enc from here: http://soft.rubypdf.com/software/window ... -jbig2-exe
This is optional, but you won't gain access to the superior JBIG2 compression without using this. You should place this somewhere that's accessible from your PATH environment variable. If you don't know what that means, then put jbig2.exe in c:\windows

pdfbeads is a commandline program, so you should run it from cmd.exe. Basic usage is something like this:

Code: Select all

pdfbeads *.tif > mybook.pdf
Your PDF will be output to the standard out, so remember the arrow when you choose the output name! Otherwise you'll get a lot of garbage in your terminal. ;)
The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
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Misty
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Re: PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by Misty »

By the way, here's how I did it:

* I installed Ruby using the Rubyinstaller.org binaries.
* I `gem install`ed PDFBeads and its dependencies: rmagick and hpricot.
* I also `gem install`ed ocra, the tool that packages up the .exe files.
* I navigated to the directory that contains PDFBeads - within your Ruby directory, that would be in lib\ruby\gems\(1.8 or 1.9)\gems\pdfbeads-1.0.9\bin
* I edited the pdfbeads file to add

Code: Select all

require 'rubygems'
- without this, the final file won't work on Ruby 1.8.
* Finally, I ran this command:

Code: Select all

ocra pdfbeads --gem-full
That produces a pdfbeads.exe file in the same directory, which should work.
The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
victoriaaustralia
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Re: PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by victoriaaustralia »

Thank for you work on this Misty. I downloaded and followed instruction as best as possible. My skill level is low with computers with nil programming experience.

I downloaded and set up imagemagic, Jpgbic2 and your program as per your post.
On opening your program I get a command window that does not allow me to type anything.
Image

This stays open for twelve seconds then closes with the message:

Image

Any ideas what I am doing wrong (Windows Vista Home Premium, Service Pack 1)
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Re: PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by Heelgrasper »

victoriaaustralia wrote: Any ideas what I am doing wrong (Windows Vista Home Premium, Service Pack 1)
You're not telling PDFBeads which files you want it to proceed. It's a command prompt type of program so you can just run it like that. Sorry to say that I can't help you out more than that but I run it indirectly so I have no clue to running it "pure".
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victoriaaustralia
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Re: PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by victoriaaustralia »

But the problem is that the command line does not allow me to type anything. I can bash away on the keyboard for all I am worth but nothing appears on the command line. Then after the twelve seconds delay the command window closes, seemingly no matter what I try and type or press.

As compared to your program Heelgrasper (HOmer) where my typing does appear on the command line screen.
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b0bcat
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Re: PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by b0bcat »

I'm going to try installing pdfbeads to Windows XP SP3 but the lateness of the hour means I'm somewhat befuddled so I will need to study the install steps later, however as it conceivably may assist with your install / run problem please see this if not yet watched, I found it when searching for some complete and detailed steps on how to instal pdfbeads under Windows. I'm guessing the path isn't correct (video explains) but I should have thought you could tweak the path manually anyway in My Computer / System Properties / Advanced / Environmental Variables / System variables):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtZ061GVz34
How to Install PDFBeads on Windows
Uploaded on 1 Feb 2011
May be other videos exploring same.
NB its date and that it says near start you must use Ruby 1.8.6 (if I heard him right - check) not earlier or later. That and/or other versions/steps conceivably may have changed. Also as it looks like pdfbeads is command line I'm assuming as per usual that to run it you need first to open a "DOS" (sort of) box by Start / Run... / typing cmd [enter] and as necessary navigating to where the pdfbeads executable is so you can execute it with the required arguments, operands or whatever you need to feed it like input file names and redirect to write a file as explained in posts above.

I'm sorely tempted to look into getting pdfbeads working as even the older Adobe Acrobat Professional versions produce quite fat PDFs of text under image using input 300dpi A4 monchrome tiffs. I have Advanced PDF Tools v2.0 which reduces file size a bit but not much and was thinking of trying Pstill (shareware) for attempting more aggressive reduction of pdfs (anyone using it?) but reviewing its manual I can't find any shortcut explaining how to do same so starting afresh may make more sense. Then add text layer (with tesseract a la Homer?) or do OCR in Adobe or in PDF-XChange PDF Viewer from http://www.tracker-software.com/ although the latter doesn't seem to rotate landscape pages to try OCRing them and offers no means of reviewing cases of marginal recognition accuracy.
b0bcat
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Re: PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by b0bcat »

Summary: pdfbeads-created PDFs -- readable on Kindle, Sony Reader etc?

A question of my own I forgot to ask last night - has anyone experience of the ability (or otherwise) of Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader etc etc portable e-ink / other readers to display properly or at all PDFs created using pdfbeads? My question arises in connection with the point I noted in DRAFT MUG's GUIDE: Converting old books to PDF http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... =19&t=2759 -- highlighted at #6. Creating very small pdf files is tempting, but for me, not so much if they cannot be read on these devices.
abmartin
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Re: PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by abmartin »

VictoriaAustralia,

When you are launching the program, are you double-clicking on the pdfbeads file? It looks to me like you might be. As I have neither used this program nor have windows on which to test, I'm going to take a stab in the dark that this is what you were doing. What you should do instead is to open the command-line manually. (run prompt, cmd) It is here where you will launch the program. CD to the directory containing the binary, type the name of the file and the options needed (like the location of the images), then press enter. You might also be able to CD to the directory of the images and launch the exe file from there by typing the \path\to the program.

Command-line tools like this rarely are interactive, meaning you have to type the options in before launching. It may seem a bit inconvenient, but it's much easier for other folks to build tools on top of in the future. Djvubind, for example, was built this way enabling another programmer to develop a GUI interface. (I don't actually remember how far that project went)

If you were doing it correctly before, I apologize! But from the scrot, that's how it appeared.
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JonEP
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Re: PDFBeads 1.0.9 for Windows

Post by JonEP »

Hi all,

I've seen that JBIG2 does not work on an x64 platform. Previously someone had compiled a version for x64 but the links are now dead. I am not a programmer and don't know how to do things like "compile"... Could someone help?

I'm using this tutorial to install PDFBeads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtZ061GVz34

Alas, it seems a bit out of date, and there are a lot of new versions of the various components out there. I wonder if anyone has new information about how to install an up-to-date version of PDFBeads?

Thanks so much for your help - I'd love to cut down the file size of some of these big PDFs I'm producing.
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