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#1 2007-05-31 05:08:23

matt_man22
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-04-28
Posts: 54

Printed PDF not able to copy text

This is a weird problem I've had on a few distros, and I am trying to find out what is going on.

When I print a PDF from Firefox, Kate, etc. to either cups-pdf or kprinter's pdf function and then open it in Adobe Acrobat, any text that I highlight and copy comes out as weird characters that are mostly blocks.  I cannot seem to find a way to have the text appear as the actual text.  I am using all default settings for both pdf printers.  If I do an export pdf from OpenOffice, I can copy and paste the text fine from acrobat.  Therefore, it's not acrobat, but the pdfs that are being created.  Is there any way to solve this and does anyone else have the same behavior?

Thanks.

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#2 2007-05-31 21:43:24

matt_man22
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-04-28
Posts: 54

Re: Printed PDF not able to copy text

No one can reproduce this behavior?

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#3 2007-06-01 06:45:30

somedrew
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2007-05-14
Posts: 140

Re: Printed PDF not able to copy text

Hadn't noticed this before, but I can reproduce it. Moreover, Evince will not even allow me to select text from PDFs generated by cups-pdf. Not familiar with Kprinter, could it be using cups-pdf as a PDF backend (couldn't determine that from Kprinter's handbook)? Maybe something with the PPD?

Last edited by arbrown (2007-06-01 07:03:47)

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#4 2007-06-01 07:08:15

gradgrind
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2005-10-06
Posts: 921

Re: Printed PDF not able to copy text

Yes, the output of these print-to-pdf programs seems to produce non-copyable text. The obvious solution would be to use openoffice if you need this feature ...

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#5 2007-06-01 14:51:55

matt_man22
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-04-28
Posts: 54

Re: Printed PDF not able to copy text

Ok, the answer was as I expected.  It's a shame there isn't a decent pdf printer driver.  Openoffice will do, but it involves copying and pasting and losing some formatting.

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#6 2007-06-02 02:50:33

iBertus
Member
From: Greenville, NC
Registered: 2004-11-04
Posts: 2,228

Re: Printed PDF not able to copy text

What happens when you print to a file (.ps) and then use ps2pdf for conversion?

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#7 2007-06-02 03:41:59

matt_man22
Member
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2007-04-28
Posts: 54

Re: Printed PDF not able to copy text

When using ps2pdf:

Printing from firefox gives the same problem.  I'm guessing it is trying to output the text as an image maybe?
When printing from kwrite/kate, there actually was text, but it was scrambled and in no logical order.

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