[KLUG Members] printing pdf

[Andrew Thompson]

On Sat, 2007-04-14 at 19:01 -0400, Eric Beversluis wrote:
> I'm guessing that if the pdf were created by scanning a printed document
> rather than by converting a document file that would make it a bitmapped
> binary image? But, again, would there be any way to tell from the pdf
> itself?

There are many clues you can look for in a PDF document to see if it's
PROBABLY scanned. If you see any specks mingled in with the text, if the
letters look a little muddy or misshapen, if different instances of the
SAME letter look slightly different, or if the text itself seems even
slightly tilted, odds are good you're looking at a scanned document.

You could also compare the size of the file to that of other PDFs of the
same number of pages. I would suggest exporting a word processor
document of about the right size to PDF, if you can't find any others.
If the file you're wondering about is noticeably larger, like several
TIMES larger, then, again, it's probably a scan. Note: If any non-text
images appear in the document, it's going to be notably larger than one
that's all text, but even then, a document that's ALL scan would still
be much larger than that.

Good luck!

PS ...and yes, if you simply scan a printed document, and don't put it
through OCR (optical character recognition), you'll just get a bitmapped
image.

-- 
Andrew Thompson <tempes at ameritech.net>
The Imagerie