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I’d love it if any PDF reader could simply reformat PDFs to be single column so they would be viewable on mobile devices. Essentially, as if they had never bee

by nailer 2y ago

I’d love it if any PDF reader could simply reformat PDFs to be single column so they would be viewable on mobile devices. Essentially, as if they had never been written in PDF in the first place. Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

coredog64 2y ago
Back in the early days of Sony e-ink readers (e.g. PRS-505) there were some apps that promised that capability. My recollection was that they were very fiddly and took a lot of time on your desktop before you got something readable.
felipefar 2y ago
I think that the main issue is that the columns in the PDF aren't identified as columns of sequential text, they are just rectangles. So there is no reliable way to reposition the text so that it doesn't use two columns. I've seen others propose to replace PDF in favor of more dynamic formats like EPUB. But I wonder if it wouldn't be more pratical to standardize tags and proporties that can be written to the PDFs, so that readers are better able to handle them.
- nailer 2y ago
  Yes. But it’s relatively easy to train a model as there is a huge quantity of before text and after PDF available.
- nbenitezl 2y ago
  Not true, PDF standard has concept of text flow, that's why when you highlight horizontally from a column all the way to next column then all text in the first column is highlighted.
gnicholas 2y ago
Adobe has a feature called Liquid Mode that does this: https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobat/ios/en/lmode.html https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobat/ios/en/lmode.html Note: they send your document to the cloud for processing.
- rossant 2y ago
  The cloud might be a no go to some.
hexomancer 2y ago
Sioyek developer here, we don't have the exact feature you ask for, but we have an alternative. Instead of modifying the PDF file (which kind of is against the point of PDF files in the first place, the point is the file looks the same in all devices) we have a ruler which can automatically highlight the line being read. If the line is larger than the window, then we move horizontally so the next part of the line is shown. If the line is such that it is larger than the current window but is smaller than the next horizontal movement, a red notch is displayed in the ruler which marks the location of the line which will be moved to the leftmost side of the window. I know I explained it poorly, here is a video which should clarify: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYUYMhvwN3U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYUYMhvwN3U
- nailer 2y ago
  > Instead of modifying the PDF file (which kind of is against the point of PDF files in the first place, the point is the file looks the same in all devices) I, as a reader, don't care about this. I want the document to be the most readable on all devices.
nbenitezl 2y ago
Not what you're asking for, but something that helps with displaying in mobile devices is removing margins, you can use this open source app for that https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.arminstraub.krop https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.arminstraub.krop .

by nailer 2y ago

coredog64 2y ago

Back in the early days of Sony e-ink readers (e.g. PRS-505) there were some apps that promised that capability. My recollection was that they were very fiddly and took a lot of time on your desktop before you got something readable.

felipefar 2y ago

I think that the main issue is that the columns in the PDF aren't identified as columns of sequential text, they are just rectangles. So there is no reliable way to reposition the text so that it doesn't use two columns. I've seen others propose to replace PDF in favor of more dynamic formats like EPUB. But I wonder if it wouldn't be more pratical to standardize tags and proporties that can be written to the PDFs, so that readers are better able to handle them.

nailer 2y ago
Yes. But it’s relatively easy to train a model as there is a huge quantity of before text and after PDF available.
nbenitezl 2y ago
Not true, PDF standard has concept of text flow, that's why when you highlight horizontally from a column all the way to next column then all text in the first column is highlighted.

gnicholas 2y ago

Adobe has a feature called Liquid Mode that does this: https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobat/ios/en/lmode.html https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobat/ios/en/lmode.html Note: they send your document to the cloud for processing.

rossant 2y ago
The cloud might be a no go to some.

hexomancer 2y ago

Sioyek developer here, we don't have the exact feature you ask for, but we have an alternative. Instead of modifying the PDF file (which kind of is against the point of PDF files in the first place, the point is the file looks the same in all devices) we have a ruler which can automatically highlight the line being read. If the line is larger than the window, then we move horizontally so the next part of the line is shown. If the line is such that it is larger than the current window but is smaller than the next horizontal movement, a red notch is displayed in the ruler which marks the location of the line which will be moved to the leftmost side of the window. I know I explained it poorly, here is a video which should clarify: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYUYMhvwN3U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYUYMhvwN3U

nailer 2y ago
> Instead of modifying the PDF file (which kind of is against the point of PDF files in the first place, the point is the file looks the same in all devices) I, as a reader, don't care about this. I want the document to be the most readable on all devices.

nbenitezl 2y ago

Not what you're asking for, but something that helps with displaying in mobile devices is removing margins, you can use this open source app for that https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.arminstraub.krop https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.arminstraub.krop .