Re: How to cut/crop a part of a PDF file
On Thu, 26 Oct 2006, Gregory Seidman wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 12:57:21PM -0400, Matthew Krauss wrote:
> } Stefan Monnier wrote:
> } >What tool can I use to extract some part of a pdf file?
> } >In kpdf, I can copy a piece of the PDF image and save it, but it's only
> } >saved as a bitmap, whereas I'd like to keep it in vector form.
> } >
> } > Stefan
> } You don't ask much, do you?
> }
> } <theory>
> } AFAIK: PDF is not strictly speaking a vector-graphics format. It is a
> } subset of Postscript, which is actually a programming language for
> } drawing documents. It is designed for output, not input or editing.
> } Therefor, it is *very* hard to convert from PDF to a structured document
> } format.
> } </theory>
> [...]
> } If anyone knows any better tools then these, I want to know!
>
> There is a tool, pstoedit, for (nearly) exactly this purpose. It converts
> PS or PDF files into a variety of vector formats. The least lossy
> are probably xfig and SVG. Once you have it in an editable vector format
> you can use an appropriate editor to extract the pieces you want and export
> to whatever format you need.
The skencil (was sketch) package has worked well for me in the past and
pstoedit can convert files to its native format.
Skencil's interface is still a little clunky but I found it worked better
than xfig when editing the converted files.
-- Brad
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