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Blurry text, especially when outputting to PDF - Printable Version

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RE: Blurry text, especially when outputting to PDF - Reasonable Listener - 03-25-2019

(03-25-2019, 04:42 PM)rich2005 Wrote: Can you pin down in your workflow where some blurring might come in.
My workflow was, import the scanned PDF into GIMP and then output it as a PNG and then a PDF. The compression on the PNG is set to 5. [Does this make any difference? Setting the compression at 9 gives me virtually the same size file. Only when you go down to 0 do you get a much larger file.] Automatic Pixel format, save color values, save resolution, save creation time, save background color.  

The PDF has the auto-selected options of apply layer masks, convert bitmaps, and omit hidden layers. 

What PDF property utility are you using?


[Sorry, this part of the post disappeared, and in case I need to check it again, I want to make sure the options I chose/were chosen for me for export are posted somewhere.]


RE: Blurry text, especially when outputting to PDF - Reasonable Listener - 03-25-2019

(03-25-2019, 05:17 PM)Blighty Wrote:
(03-25-2019, 05:02 PM)Reasonable Listener Wrote: But if I'm starting from a text-heavy PDF, what should I use? Or should I scan it as a TIFF or something uncompressed like that and edit from there?

Best is to use the software that created the pdf in the first place.

Otherwise use LibreOffice to open the pdf.

If you scan the text will be converted to a bitmap image and will no longer be editable as text, no matter what format you use.
Will Libreoffice work like Word? When I opened the PDF in Word, it mostly retained the text as is (bolding some of it), but it garbled the non-text stuff.


RE: Blurry text, especially when outputting to PDF - Blighty - 03-25-2019

(03-25-2019, 07:00 PM)Reasonable Listener Wrote: Will Libreoffice work like Word? When I opened the PDF in Word, it mostly retained the text as is (bolding some of it), but it garbled the non-text stuff.

pdf was designed to be a one way creation. Some app (word processor, etc, etc) creates the pdf. It was never intended that pdfs be opened for editing.

Many apps reverse engineer the creation process so that the pdf can be edited. With varying degrees of success. As you have found out Word is not perfect in opening your pdf. The only way to know how good LibreOffice will be is to test it. But don't expect 100% success.