Re: How to create a PDF-Printer from the command line
On Thu 18 Jan 2018 at 09:55:28 -0600, David Wright wrote:
> On Thu 18 Jan 2018 at 12:40:10 (+0000), Brian wrote:
> > On Thu 18 Jan 2018 at 09:44:51 +0000, Curt wrote:
> >
> > > On 2018-01-17, Chris Ramsden <chris.ramsden@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > On 17/01/18 21:42, Ben Caradoc-Davies wrote:
> > > >> On 18/01/18 10:37, Joel Wirāmu Pauling wrote:
> > > >>> Works fine for txt, although as it rasterizes things it's not going to be
> > > >>> optimized for size.
> > > >>
> > > >> Yes, typically, but for large fonts and low resolution outputs with few pages, rasterised pages may be smaller.
> > > >>
> > > >> Kind regards,
> > > >>
> > > > If I feed it a text file, it gives me an error:
> > > >
> > > > convert: improper image header `self_spam.txt' @ error/txt.c/ReadTXTImage/439.
> > > >
> > > > What's the trick to making it work with a text file as input?
> > >
> > > I ran into the same error (fixed in later versions, apparently, though I
> > > am in the dark as to what version you are using and how late is later).
> > >
> > > I read an explicit
> > >
> > > convert text:mytext.txt mytext.pdf
> > >
> > > works.
> > >
> > > But it doesn't work here.
> > >
> > > Also: all roads lead to Rome, but some may be more suitable for wagons than others.
> >
> > As is obvious, I hadn't realised imagemagick converted text to pdf.
> > However, the command you give works for me on stable and unstable.
> > It gives unsearchable PDFs.
>
> It serves more as a reminder of convert's way of specifying the
> contents of the file than much else. Adding -font unicode also dredges
> up the awful-looking ttf font. But given that the PDF produced is so
> blurry, that font is probably no worse looking than any other.
>
> The PDF is unsearchable because it's really just an image wrapped in
> a PDF container (like the output from some scanners). Being an image,
> there's no concept of wrapping long lines either.
Two strikes.
> I can't really be bothered to figure out what's missing on those
> systems of mine that say:
>
> $ convert -font unifont text:/etc/default/grub /tmp/grubby.pdf
> convert: not authorized `/etc/default/grub' @ error/constitute.c/ReadImage/412.
> convert: no images defined `/tmp/grubby.pdf' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3210.
I used FreeMono, with the full path to the font. Looks resonable until
it is blown up and the bitmapped nature of the PDF shows up clearly,
Strike three.
I can accept that imagemagick is excellent for processing images (not
that I have done much of that with it) but, for producing a quality PDF
from text, it has been crossed off my list.
--
Brian.
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