[scribus] large pdf file

[John Culleton]

On Fri, 10 Apr 2015 10:34:09 +0930
Ray <strathrr at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Folks,
> As an 82 yr old I have a task from someone to
> edit a large 500page, 300+MB PDF file.
> I know Scribus opens pdf files but not this
> one, presumably 'cause of its size.
> I have tried other programs too but they won't
> open it either. I am using Mint 17.1 OS and
> Scribus 1.4.3.svn. Is there some way (or pdf
> program) I can use to open the file and maybe
> break it down into smaller groups of pages, so
> that Scribus will then open it for editing? Ned
> 
> 

The Texlive distro has several useful pdf tools.
I use pdftotext and pdftk on a regular basis.
The statement:
pdftk file.pdf burst
yields a whole fistful of one page pdf files
called pg_0001.pdf, pg_0002.pdf etc.

There is also a pdf editor called Master PDF Editor that you can
download that is a bit quirky but helps in some
situations. 

My technique with pdf files is to reduce them
to text and then edit and format them them from
that point on. On my current project of updating
a very fancy 208 page book that is what I am
doing. with a file of this size my basic layout
program is the Context version of TeX but I use
Scribus and/or Gimp to massage or even recreate
the fancy pages. 

To reduce a pdf file to text I can use Okular (a pdf viewer) or
pdftotext.

This book was set up in MSWord and then laid
out in InDesign. Since MSWord output varies a bit
from machine to machine I start with the pdf version 
and reduce it to text. 

I too am 82 and getting a bit forgetful. So I
depend on lists like this one to help me out.  



-- 
John Culleton
Wexford Press
Free list of books for self-publishers:
http://wexfordpress.net/shortlist.html
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