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« Unixlinks in OpenOff... | Main | New PackageInformati... »
Monday, 30 Jul 2007
Completing PDF support in OOo
Kai Ahrens

Having a very well working and mature PDF export filter in OOo for several years now, it's time to take the final steps regarding full PDF support. Yes, you're right, we're speaking of implementing a native PDF import filter for OOo within the Sun OOo Graphics development team.

As trivial as this task might look like at the moment, there are several topics that need to be discussed in detail before development can be started. This begins with the OOo application, that the import filter will be written for and definitely doesn't end with the appropriate parser that will be used to read the PDF content itself.

I don't want to go into details of the current planning and development phase by now, but please be assured that the final solution is planned to be a total replacement of the currently available tools you normally use in your everyday workflow, preserving the layout as good as possible plus offering editing capabilities for the imported document, a feature that you don't get for free with most of your common tools. Sounds great, doesn't it?

I don't want to be too optimistic, but we're planning for the first prototype to be available within the next few months. Please stay tuned for more details to be provided by the involved development team members within the next days...




tags:

Posted by Kai Ahrens on 30 Jul 2007  |  PermaLink |  Bookmark to del.icio.us Bookmark to del.icio.us |  Digg this Digg this  |  Comments[16]

Comments:

very good idea indeed! </br> but i wouldn't call current pdf export "perfect". user can't use advanced options when using native filepicker in linux (don't know about windows). undiscoverable feature is not really a feature, right?

Posted by sven on July 31, 2007 at 12:50 AM CEST #

Hi Kai, does this include an import filter for EPS graphics too? I guess it's only a small step if there's already a working PDF import filter. Great news! Jörg

Posted by Jörg Wartenberg on July 31, 2007 at 09:43 AM CEST #

Hello, when you talk about an import filter, is it only for graphics or does it also include the text? The IPE editor has a pdftoipe feature that almost works for text, and it would really be great to have something like that in ooo.
Do you intend to use the xpdf-based poppler library for this filter?

Posted by Marc on July 31, 2007 at 02:41 PM CEST #

I am correct in guessing this impor filter is based on libpoppler?

Posted by nicu on July 31, 2007 at 03:49 PM CEST #

When you talk about "importing" PDF, does that mean that Open Office will become a full-fledged PDF editor? That is, will I be able to take an existing PDF file and edit it with OO? If that's the case, all I can say is--WOW!!

Posted by Neil on July 31, 2007 at 04:21 PM CEST #

Double Wow! That would solve a problem for me that I have searched for for a decade!

Posted by Rick on July 31, 2007 at 04:58 PM CEST #

I am not alone then in wondering if this addresses issue 10384 (editable input) or issue 45838 (import as graphics background). I am in favour of both, separately. But I do worry that those who want to edit pdfs will be dissapointed. I am not sure that all the people asking for it realise it cannot be a 2-way format, because the .pdf definition does not suppoort all the attributes like styles and numbering.

Posted by 195.137.63.170 on July 31, 2007 at 09:52 PM CEST #

I am not alone then in wondering if this addresses issue 10384 (editable input) or issue 45838 (import as graphics background). I am in favour of both, separately. But I do worry that those who want to edit pdfs will be dissapointed. I am not sure that all the people asking for it realise it cannot be a 2-way format, because the .pdf definition does not suppoort all the attributes like styles and numbering.

Posted by Bob Harvey on July 31, 2007 at 09:53 PM CEST #

Excelente. la idea me parece fenomenal. Abre las puertas hacia un formato compartido y sin restricciones. Saludos. Oswaldo

Posted by Oswaldo AC on July 31, 2007 at 11:44 PM CEST #

Good news. For the moment, you can use jarnal.

Posted by 202.175.108.98 on August 01, 2007 at 04:51 AM CEST #

Sven: I never used the word 'perfect', but you're right that there's still room for improvements. Fixing export issues for the PDF export filter is one of of the topics we have on our daily 'ToDo' list. Please don't hesitate to file new issues in case you'll stumble over them.

Joerg: we don't have EPS on our urgent list by now, but we should discuss this and take it into consideration.

Marc: as already said, the goal is to reach a quality so that the final document will look like in commonly used tools, e.g. 'Adobe's Acrobat Reader'. So the answer will be 'Yes, text will be included and in addition, it will be included as 'real' text that will be editable. That was meant by my statement '... plus offering editing capabilities for the imported document'. We don't want to use xpdf or derivatives for parsing the file.

Nicu: No, you're wrong (see above). The final filter will most likely not be based on xpdf etc., mostly due to license incompatabilites.

Neil: 'Full fledged' will be the final goal, that we most probably won't reach with the first release, but the first release will allow you to edit text as well as graphics within one document, preserving the layout, so that we can speak of an PDF editor in a kind of way.

Bob: Yes, you're right. That's why I talked of discussing the right application to write this filter for. Most commercial tools sell a derivative of their OCR tool and create a *.doc file as output, which will have more or less (in general more) layout errors. This will not be our solution. As said, preserving the layout comes first, but editing graphics and text will also be possible. This doesn't allow a solution of using 'floating' text like in Writer...

Posted by Kai Ahrens on August 01, 2007 at 09:57 AM CEST #

I need install Open Office but I can't install X11 from my Tiger DVD i don't now why, Any idea?

Posted by Luca on August 02, 2007 at 04:17 AM CEST #

Just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work from the OO.o team.

PS: Can't wait for PDF support.

Posted by nix on August 02, 2007 at 09:37 PM CEST #

Sounds very interesting. You might want to look on PoDoFo. A PDF parser implemented in PoDoFo. Doesn't do rendering, but has direct access to the PDF object structure. Contact the PoDoFo ML if you need more information best regards, Dom

Posted by Dom on August 02, 2007 at 10:14 PM CEST #

Sounds great :-) And thanx for OOo by the way...

Suggestion: What about including a two page view where the importet/converted page is shown on the left, and the corresponding original PDF page is shown on the right?

Looking forward to the improved PDF support.

Regards

/Peter

Posted by Peter Frandsen on August 03, 2007 at 09:21 AM CEST #

great

Posted by 200.88.6.123 on August 10, 2007 at 04:51 AM CEST #

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