What's the best PDF to HTML program?

Sean Ewington

I've tried some free ones, some online ones, Adobe Online (best so far), BCL's version, PDF Ripper, and PrimoPDF. There has to be something better. Is there?

Thanks, Sean Ewington The Code Project

Shog9 0

...Please define "Best". ;) (I just use PDF Download[^] - it's easy, and my needs are simple)

Sean Ewington

Fair enough. So say I have this in PDF:

32 [finishedSquiggles removeAllObjects]; // clear the array of squiggles
33 [self setNeedsDisplay]; // refresh the display
34 } // end method resetView
35
36 // draw the view
37 - (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect

When I make the conversion, I want it to come out looking as close to the above as possible. And not like this:

<
TABLE
align="center" border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2

<
TR

<
TH
align="left" width="25" valign="top" height="12"

88<
/TH

<
TD
align="left" width="448" valign="top" height="12"
// called whenever the user places a finger on the screen <
/TD
<
/TR
<
TR

<
TH
align="left" width="25" valign="top" height="14"

89<
/TH

<
TD
align="left" width="448" valign="top" height="14"

(void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event <
/TD
<
/TR

Which is how Adobe Online does it, and "the best" I've seen at doing this so far. Sadly :((

Thanks, Sean Ewington The Code Project

peterchen

Free, crap-free (as in, doesn't want to install G|A|Y toolbar or put e-bay links to random places), no hassle to set up or use, works on all PDF you come across, results look good in all mainstream browsers, fast enough, ideally can be automated. Now *that* was simple.

Personally, I love the idea that Raymond spends his nights posting bad regexs to mailing lists under the pseudonym of Jane Smith. He'd be like a super hero, only more nerdy and less useful. [Trevel]
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | µLaunch - program launcher for server core and hyper-v server

peterchen

Does it have to be .pdf? You can also save a whole page with all data to a single .MHT file that can be displayed in IE.

Personally, I love the idea that Raymond spends his nights posting bad regexs to mailing lists under the pseudonym of Jane Smith. He'd be like a super hero, only more nerdy and less useful. [Trevel]
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | µLaunch - program launcher for server core and hyper-v server

Sean Ewington

Yes sir, it has to be .pdf

Thanks, Sean Ewington The Code Project

Rama Krishna Vavilala

Are you doing an iPhone application for CP?

Shog9 0

Excellent! With that, we can rule out PDF Download for your needs: Before[^] After[^]

Hans Dietrich

Have you tried G|A|Y toolbar v2.0? It's much better than 1.0.

Best wishes, Hans

[Hans Dietrich Software]

Sean Ewington

That'd be cool, but not what I'm doing. I'm prepping a book chapter on iPhone development. But what kind of Code Project iPhone application would you want to see?

Thanks, Sean Ewington The Code Project

Sean Ewington

X|

Thanks, Sean Ewington The Code Project

Shog9 0

Yeah. ;-) FWIW, Google's even given up: they appear to have gone to using an odd little "viewer" built around images (similar to their book search) instead of offering "view as HTML" for PDF search results. Have you considered starting with HTML (or DocBook...), and just converting to PDF as-needed?

Sean Ewington

Starting out with HTML would be ideal, but in this case I only have PDF :( Thanks for trying though! I'm starting to think PDF to HTML is just a bad idea

Thanks, Sean Ewington The Code Project

Rama Krishna Vavilala

Shog9 wrote:

an odd little "viewer" built around images

That's one of the brilliant JavaScript + Web hacks I have seen. Lot of efforts to make it look like behave like PDF.

Shog9 0

Heh... I was tickled when I saw that I could actually select text in what appeared to be a static image. :-)

Shog9 0

Sean Ewington wrote:

I'm starting to think PDF to HTML is just a bad idea

Well, if you think about it, it's pretty low-level; even basic HTML has a lot more semantic / meta information encoded in it, and you just can't reliably recreate that from what ends up in a PDF. It'd be like trying to decompile a binary executable program without any information on which compiler originally created it...

Rage

peterchen wrote:

G|A|Y toolbar

:laugh: :laugh:

~RaGE();

I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb

CurtainDog

I've heard open office produces non-insane html from docs... maybe it could handle pdfs as well?

Alan Burkhart

Open Office to my knowledge doesn't import pdf. It'll export as pdf, but it doesn't import. That's as of version 3.1.

Terence Wallace

Have you tried Many2PDFX.dll from Gnostice? The offer a .NET, VCL, and Java components for PDF. http://www.gnostice.com/[^]

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." - Red Adair