Producing pdf files with copyable text

[Paul Smith]

On 8/11/07, Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> > When using Acrobat Professional, the pdf files that I obtain from,
> > e.g., a web-page of a newspaper contain text that one can copy to a
> > word processor. However, in Linux, with
> >
> > 1. print to a ps file;
> > 2. use ps2pdf to convert to pdf from ps,
> >
> > the pdf files does not contain copyable text, as the text is
> > bitmapped. Can one obtain, in Linux, pdf files with copyable text? Any
> > ideas?
>
> I suppose that depends on the creation method.  For instance, you can
> use OpenOffice to "export" a document as PDF, and you can install a PDF
> printer driver for CUPs, and "print" a PDF.  You get different results
> both ways, you might want to try that.  But I found exporting a document
> resulted in a PDF with copyable test, printing to the CUPS-PDF driver
> resulted in uncopyable.  I picked a non-standard font for my test, just
> to see if one would still be copyable if I didn't use the basic fonts
> commonly employed in PDFs.
>
> I'd imagine how you created your PostScript file would have made a
> difference, too.  Whether it's controlled text, or pre-rendered
> graphics, possibly the use of some fonts might be a potential problem.
>
> Info from the cups-pdf RPM:
> --------------------------
> "cups-pdf" is a backend script for use with CUPS - the "Common UNIX
> Printing System" (see more for CUPS under http://www.cups.org/).
> "cups-pdf" uses the ghostscript pdfwrite device to produce PDF Files.
>
> This version has been modified to store the PDF files on the Desktop of
> the user. This behavior can be changed by editing the configuration
> file.

Thanks, Tim. Maybe, the problem is in the creation of the PS file, as
CutePDF (a freeware PDF printer tool for MS Windows) uses ps2pdf to
produce PDF documents, which with copyable text. See

http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Paul