Remove text from PDF
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Pierre
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Pierre-Branka Posted messages 7 Status Membre -
Pierre-Branka Posted messages 7 Status Membre -
Hello,
Your article "How to edit a PDF for free?" published in the latest issue of Comment ça marche.net is very useful. However, often one needs to make selections (cuts) in PDF texts to delete them, and then fill the gaps with the remaining text they want to keep. This problem arises frequently since we only want to keep the part of the text that is digitized or received that is of interest and delete the rest. What free software can you recommend? Thank you.
Best regards,
P. Volkov
E-mail: ***@***
Your article "How to edit a PDF for free?" published in the latest issue of Comment ça marche.net is very useful. However, often one needs to make selections (cuts) in PDF texts to delete them, and then fill the gaps with the remaining text they want to keep. This problem arises frequently since we only want to keep the part of the text that is digitized or received that is of interest and delete the rest. What free software can you recommend? Thank you.
Best regards,
P. Volkov
E-mail: ***@***
1 réponse
Hello Pierre,
To effectively edit a PDF, you need to modify the source document and reconvert it into PDF.
For your information, a PDF editing software is not a document creation software. Its main function is to simulate printing into a file while preserving the layout and formatting of the original document, regardless of the operating system used.
Over time, features such as document editing have been added.
However, even with Adobe Acrobat Pro, modifications remain tedious and do not allow for reformatting a document as a word processor would, for example.
That said, you can try Inkscape, a free vector drawing software that seems to yield good results with PDF modification: https://inkscape.org/fr/
or attempt Nitro Pro (the trial version as it is not free):
https://www.gonitro.com/fr/pro
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C-Claire
To effectively edit a PDF, you need to modify the source document and reconvert it into PDF.
For your information, a PDF editing software is not a document creation software. Its main function is to simulate printing into a file while preserving the layout and formatting of the original document, regardless of the operating system used.
Over time, features such as document editing have been added.
However, even with Adobe Acrobat Pro, modifications remain tedious and do not allow for reformatting a document as a word processor would, for example.
That said, you can try Inkscape, a free vector drawing software that seems to yield good results with PDF modification: https://inkscape.org/fr/
or attempt Nitro Pro (the trial version as it is not free):
https://www.gonitro.com/fr/pro
--
C-Claire
Thank you for your explanation, which is very well written and very clear.
As for the source document, which you mentioned at the beginning, it is when you digitize a document at home, and that is the most common case. In this case, we can use various OCRs, but the free ones are of low quality.
Then there is the possibility of the scanner saving either in PDF or JPG. The JPGs can be processed with photo editing software (Adobe Photoshop and others) - make cuts, move things around, increase contrast, etc. But the cost is high - the JPG file size is large.
The second solution is to use the PDF output from the scanner. In Adobe or Foxit Reader, we copy the text to paste it into a new document opened in Word. However, this DOC (or DOCX) text needs formatting and corrections - there is work involved. But we benefit from the formatting and presentation we want and especially a very reduced file size.
However, if we do not want to rework the text, the PDF format is unbeatable in terms of size and the acceptance of low scanning resolution (150 dpi is often sufficient).
I am attaching the table below, which illustrates the various possibilities: the PDF format, the JPG format, the JPG format obtained from the PDF (with Photoshop), and the DOCX format obtained from the PDF file.
Would it be possible for you to give your opinion? Thank you in advance.
Best regards,
Pierre
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The DOCX text is smaller in size than PDF. But one must factor in the work of verification and formatting in Word, DOCX - there is work!
Example of A4 page with text 50% + images 50%
Color Example of A4 page with text 100%
B/W
JPG file size PDF file size Word DOCX file size + JPG images JPG file size PDF file size Word DOCX file size
With
150 dpi (low quality) With 300 dpi With 150 dpi
(well readable) With 300 dpi With 150 dpi
(still acceptable) With 300 dpi With 150 dpi
(well readable) With 300 dpi
1.38 MB 4.93 MB 0.34 MB 1.2 MB 0.59
MB 0.824 MB 1.86
MB 0.48 MB 0.98
MB 0.02 MB
115% 411% 28.3% 100% 49.2% 84% 189% 49% 100% 2%