Processing PDF How to Go from PDF to

Processing PDF: How to Go from PDF to E-text to Audio Gaeir Dietrich Director High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges Foothill Community College District

PDF from Publishers l Portable document format (PDF) l Reads the same on any computer l Looks like the book l Smaller than TIFFs l Contains all the text – Always check to make sure the book is the right one! l Easy for publishers

Requesting through ATN l Access Text Network – Now free for requesting files from ATN- member publishers – Paid membership to exchange files – www. accesstext. org l Not all publishers – But ATN does have the largest ones

Other Resources at ATN l Accessible Textbook Finder – http: //www. accesstext. org/atf. php l Link to Publisher Lookup – http: //www. publisherlookup. org/ – Will have to contact non-ATN member publishers directly

Using Publisher PDFs l Sometimes students can use files directly l Most often files will need further processing for student use l At the very least, large files need to be broken into chapters

PDF Strengths l Good format for large print – Cropping – Fit to page on large pages – Print sections on large pages (tiling) l Adobe Reader has some nice features – Change colors – Reflow – Limited voicing l Easy for most publishers to create

PDF Weaknesses l Not always fully accessible – Screen readers do not always like them— even when they are text-based – Reading order can be problematic l May be graphics (pictures of text) l May have too much security

As an Aside… l When faculty create PDFs… – The PDF always started as something else…usually a Word file – Try to get the starting document – Security concerns? Word files can be password protected l Button > Prepare > Encrypt l

Types of PDF Documents l Text-based – Text can be selected l Graphical – Picture of text (i. e. , a graphic) – Text cannot be selected l Use text-select tool to tell the difference l Files may be “locked”

Processing PDFs l Adobe Acrobat Professional l Good OCR program – Abbyy Fine. Reader – Nuance Omni. Page l IF you are a Kurzweil campus, you will also need Kurzweil

Adobe Tools l Adobe Reader – Free – Useful for students who need minimal accessibility features – http: //www. adobe. com/products/reader/ l Adobe Acrobat Professional – Essential for alt media specialists – Extract text, create accessible PDFs, enabled Adobe Reader features – www. uscollegebuy. com Discounted Price

Acrobat Reader l Reads aloud – But does not highlight or track l Enlarges text – Nice reflow feature l Changes text/background colors l Text highlighting, sticky notes, and comments l Access text-based PDFs

Process with Acrobat Pro l Cropping l Enlargement for printing l Tiling l Combining l Some text extraction l Works with text-based PDF

Processing Graphical PDFs l Must run optical character recognition (OCR) – Computers cannot read pictures – OCR programs recognize the “characters” in the picture l How you process the file depends on the end format the student wants!

Various Options l Omni. Page or Fine. Reader – Fine. Reader generally easier to learn – Save to Word or HTML or Text based on student preference l Use virtual printer with Kurzweil – Create KESI files l R&W – Save as Word

Which One When? l Want a Word file? – Best choice is Omni. Page or Fine. Reader l Want a Kurzweil document? – Use Kurzweil to process the PDF l For students to do themselves? – Whichever program they prefer

Why? l OCR programs are designed to make extraction and editing easy l Document readers (R&W, Kurzweil, etc. ) are designed to make reading easy…NOT editing.

NEVER!!! l Do NOT run OCR with Fine. Reader or Omni. Page…save to PDF…and then take into Kurzweil, R&W, etc. l Kurzweil, R&W, WYNN will run their own OCR on the PDF! – Wastes time, adds error to do OCR twice

OCR Programs l Treat PDFs the same as a TIFF – If you OCR scanned documents, use the same process l Load image file l Select zones l Create templates as needed

PDF Bottom Line l Source files vs. end-user files – Source files = for you to create alt media from – End-user files = alt media formats l PDF – Consider PDFs as source files (files to process) that sometimes double as enduser files (for certain students with limited access issues)

Resource Info l Gaeir Dietrich l gdietrich@htctu. net l 408 -996 -6047 l www. htctu. net l Alt media listserv l Manuals online