Nice: A 100% pure Java PDF rendering library

posted 07:16PM Dec 13, 2007 with tags java opensource pdf by Lars Trieloff

Via DZone I found pdf-renderer, a 100% pure Java library for rendering PDF files. Unlike existing libraries like iText or FOP, which concentrate on creating and writing PDF files, this library allows to display PDF files on screen and conversion into images. This - together with the upcoming Java Runtime enhancements would make it possible to create an applet-equivalent of Adobe Flashpaper easily. pdf-renderer is LGPL-licensed, which makes it possible to embed it into proprietary applications, but not Apache projects.

pdf2png, pdf2jpg on Mac OS X

posted 09:48AM Oct 25, 2006 with tags jpeg macosx pdf png by Lars Trieloff

I spend an evening looking for a decent tool that creates images out of PDF documents. I tried Imagemagick, Ghostscript and some other obscure tools, but in the end I found out that I had to look no farther than the Mac OS X Preview application which allows you to save any file it can open as PDF, PNG, JPEG and some other formats.

PDF is the new Paper

posted 12:18PM May 18, 2006 with tags pdf by Lars Trieloff


paperpiles
Originally uploaded by SophieMuc.

Tim O'Reilly writes about the increasing preference of users for PDF documents compared to hardcopy books when it comes to reference books: Gentlemen Prefer PDFs. His entry lists the most important reasons for PDF documents:

  • PDF is searchable
  • PDF is portable
  • PDF is more timely. HTTP shipping beats UPS
The most important sources for technical information are according to Marc Helund:
  • PDF copies of books
  • Mailing Lists and their archives
  • Source code from repositories or Google
Wikis are a distant forth because of the inferior quality of the documentation that can be found in most wikis.