I would like to scan a multi-page document into one PDf file. But I've
been forced to work one page at a time and then combine the results.
Is there a better way?

I'm using the PaperPort software that came with my scanner. Each page
of the source document is scanned into a separate image. I can "stack"
the images, but that doesn't seem to help me. I export them from
PaperPort as JPEG files. I'm using IrfamViewer to print the JPEGs
one-at-a-time to the Acrobat Distiller. Then I use the append function
in Acrobat to combine the individual PDF files into one multi-page
file.

Thanks for your help.

JPEG isn't a very good format for scanned text. TIFF is much better,
especially with CCITT Group 4 compression.

If you can make TIF's, you can import them one at a time into Acrobat

"Marshall D Abrams" <MarshallAbrams@alumni.CarnegieMellon.edu> wrote in
message news:p81rqvgl1jmb6o6kq332639bd33vjkmu56@4ax.com...
> I would like to scan a multi-page document into one PDf file. But I've
> been forced to work one page at a time and then combine the results.
> Is there a better way?
>
> I'm using the PaperPort software that came with my scanner. Each page
> of the source document is scanned into a separate image. I can "stack"
> the images, but that doesn't seem to help me. I export them from
> PaperPort as JPEG files. I'm using IrfamViewer to print the JPEGs
> one-at-a-time to the Acrobat Distiller. Then I use the append function
> in Acrobat to combine the individual PDF files into one multi-page
> file.
>
> Thanks for your help.

In article <p81rqvgl1jmb6o6kq332639bd33vjkmu56@4ax.com>,
Marshall D Abrams (MarshallAbrams@alumni.CarnegieMellon.edu) wrote:

> I would like to scan a multi-page document into one PDf file.

Any particular reason you want it as a PDF rather than as a multi-page
TIFF? Software to view TIFF files is no more difficult to acquire than
Acrobat Reader, and PDF isn't really meant for this sort of thing.

Is this just for your personal use, or are you making files that will be
distributed to others?

> But I've been forced to work one page at a time and then combine the
> results. Is there a better way?

Yes, but it depends on the equipment and software that you have.

> I'm using the PaperPort software that came with my scanner. Each page
> of the source document is scanned into a separate image. I can "stack"
> the images, but that doesn't seem to help me.

I can't comment on your scanner or PaperPort, because I'm not familiar
with either one. For example, I don't know what "stack" means in this
context, but it sounds like it might be a way to associate multiple
scans as being a single job.

> I export them from PaperPort as JPEG files.

JPEG is not a very good format for scanned pages of text. It's meant for
photographs, and it is very good for that. Also, JPEG limits you to one
image (or page) per file, which is obviously not what you want.

I would look for a way to use your scanner and software to scan a
multi-page job into a single TIFF file, ideally one that uses fax4
compression. Unlike JPEG, a TIFF file can contain multiple images, and is
an excellent format for storing scanned pages of text.

I wouldn't be surprised if the software you have can do that, since it's a
common thing to want to do. If it can't, there's a good chance you could
find other software that can drive your scanner and make a single TIFF from
multiple scanned pages.

> I'm using IrfamViewer to print the JPEGs

I think that IrfanView is good software and use it myself for some things.
I'm nearly certain that it can handle multi-page TIFFs, for example, so
maybe you could just scan your stuff and use IrfanView to work with the
TIFFs themselves, with no need to make PDF files.

> one-at-a-time to the Acrobat Distiller. Then I use the append function
> in Acrobat to combine the individual PDF files into one multi-page
> file.

Acrobat can actually open multi-page TIFFs itself directly, although it's
pretty slow to do so -- the Mac version of Acrobat 4, which is the only
version I've tried for this, is _really_ slow. But once it's done, you
can (obviously) save the results as PDF.

--

Marshall D Abrams schrieb:
> I would like to scan a multi-page document into one PDf file. But I've
> been forced to work one page at a time and then combine the results.
> Is there a better way?
> 
> I'm using the PaperPort software that came with my scanner. Each page
> of the source document is scanned into a separate image. I can "stack"
> the images, but that doesn't seem to help me. I export them from
> PaperPort as JPEG files. I'm using IrfamViewer to print the JPEGs
> one-at-a-time to the Acrobat Distiller. Then I use the append function
> in Acrobat to combine the individual PDF files into one multi-page
> file.

not solving your problem, but accelerating your work:
most of the scanners have a "copy" funktion, so you can scan and print
by pressing one button only.
select PDFwriter as your printer and scan directly to PDF.
thats very easy and fast, but you still have to combine the files manually

greetings Bertram


-- 

Bertram Geiger,  Graz - AUSTRIA
Private Mail: remove the letters "b a d" from my reply address

Thanks to the suggestions, I went back to Paper Port. It does support
TIFF. By experimentation I found that if I stacked several scans
(treated them as an entity) I could export them as a multi-page TIFF.
I have options of uncompressed, class F, and group 4. I have no idea
what these different compressions refer to.

I went into Acrobat and used the file option Open as Adobe PDF. The
TIFF files all converted into multi-page PDFs. I couldn't see any
difference as to which TIFF format I used. But since space is not an
option, I assume that I'll get the best by using uncompressed TIFF.

If the pages that you are scanning are mostly text, or text and line art (no
photos), then TIFF Grp4 is your best option. This compression algorithm is
used for transmitting faxes.
"Marshall D Abrams" <MarshallAbrams@alumni.CarnegieMellon.edu> wrote in
message news:lnatqvcoovtg58f6gbp9fgoe9dufc5obuh@4ax.com...
> Thanks to the suggestions, I went back to Paper Port. It does support
> TIFF. By experimentation I found that if I stacked several scans
> (treated them as an entity) I could export them as a multi-page TIFF.
> I have options of uncompressed, class F, and group 4. I have no idea
> what these different compressions refer to.
>
> I went into Acrobat and used the file option Open as Adobe PDF. The
> TIFF files all converted into multi-page PDFs. I couldn't see any
> difference as to which TIFF format I used. But since space is not an
> option, I assume that I'll get the best by using uncompressed TIFF.

On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 16:05:47 -0500, Marshall D Abrams wrote:

> By experimentation I found that if I stacked several scans
> (treated them as an entity) I could export them as a multi-page TIFF.
> I have options of uncompressed, class F, and group 4. I have no idea
> what these different compressions refer to.

If you export your multi-page TIFF with group 4 compression, you can run
c42pdf put a PDF wrapper round them:

http://c42pdf.ffii.org

Another option is to use Eric Smith's Tumble, which will convert TIFFs
compressed other ways, or multiple TIFFs and JPEGS into one PDF:

http://tumble.brouhaha.com

Both programs are free.

-- 
Paul