Quote:
Originally Posted by Efendija
Why all the fuss? I've maybe done this for maximum 6-7 images (digital booklet "scans") that I've uploaded here, and only for here, I don't have a need to 'deconstruct' loads of pdf files so why would I download source files of that tool, compile a package (if it can be done for windows, never used linux), use a command line on something that I have spent some 10 minutes altogether?
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You miss the point: This was about you claiming that your method is "quick". I've just proven that this is entirely wrong. Your argument about the "setup time" doesn't hold, this is easily amortized by the time you save not clicking around through loads of pages. The amount of digitally distributed albums containing a "booklet" is going to increase in the next years, so this is very much a valid argument.
See also:
dancey's post
138MB PDF, probably quite the page count. You don't want to apply your "method" here.
Furthermore:
You don't need to compile anything. You can easily use a precompiled binary. E.g. there are Win32 binaries of the xpdf tools directly available
here. Also every LaTeX distribution includes these tools, e.g. TeXLive. For a more complete toolkit you can also use CygWin. Both CygWin's and TexLive's installation don't require any special knowledge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Efendija
I really, _really_, REALLY hope you don't think everybody wants or even knows how to use command line tools  |
You're suffering from the "shiny new hammer" syndrome, everything looks like a nail to you. You fail to see that different problems require different tools. And greenshot which is essentially a screenshot tool is not optimal for this job. Yes, it might work for you, with a lot of strings attached. However it's not what you want here, which is a PDF to bitmap renderer or simply a PDF bitmap extractor. The second problem here is that greenshot offers no batch functionality for this kind of job.
I'm not saying that pdftoppm is the optimal tool for the job. But it's much more optimal than greenshot. And no, I don't want to convince anyone to use commandline tools. But I want to convince you to choose a proper tool for a given job.
And in this case this commandline tool does the job perfectly. And you can easily add it to your Explorer's (or whatever filemanager you use) context menu and apply it from there. You won't even see the commandline that way.
This constant fear of Windows users concerning the commandline is totally irrational btw. I'm a happy linux user and I also don't start screaming when I use an application with a graphical interface. Use what's best for the job and saves you time -- time you can invest in more important things (like writing long posts, or listening to game music *g*).