Merging PDF's into one document

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 12 Nov 2012 17:49

Can anyone recommend free software for merging a number of individual pages into one easy to read document? I have scanned 76 pages of my mother's hand written life story and would like to share them around the family as one document.At the moment these ar jpegs but I'm pretty certain converting individual pages to pdf format is not a problem (is it?) I see on Google there are many programs available but would prefer a recommendation from a member or members.
Dagwood

ID:6582

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 12 Nov 2012 18:27

I recommend Irfanview which has options to create multi-page images in various formats including PDF. Just search for it on this site or in Google.

jeemo · Post by **jeemo** » 12 Nov 2012 21:20

Try PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com/). It has an option to 'append to existing document'. Take care when installing to untick all the various addon options.
There's a user guide at http://www.primopdf.com/pdfs/PrimoPDF_V5_User_Guide.pdf which also has download and installation instructions

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 13 Nov 2012 11:47

Peter, John , Many thanks for your responses. I will have a look at both. I seem to recall Irfanview beiNg recommended on a photography website quite frequently so it appears to be a quite versatile program.
Thanks again
Dagwood

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 18 Nov 2012 08:17

I must have been impressed with what I read about Irfanview some time ago as searching for it on my PC I find I have it already. Having fired it up I don't see anything that would enable me to combine a set of jpegs (76 in all) into one PDF document. When I look at Irfanview's website I can see a series of plugins one of which mentions mPDF's.
My questions are:
Would I be advised to completely erase/uninstall everything to do with Irfanview and start all over again? Would a fresh download have what is necessary to do the job re PDF 's or would I need to start adding plugins to the download?
Dagwood

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Nov 2012 12:17

Similarly, with IrfanView I could only convert individual JPEG files into individual PDF files, albeit in a batch.

I have just tried Free JPG to PDF 1.2 on the FH Sample Project Media images, and it worked fine, producing one PDF with one image per page.
The only 'problem' was that, with a mixture of 'portrait' and 'landscape' images, they won't all fit neatly on the pages.
However, you have fixed size A4 pages, so 'portrait' will work just fine.

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 18 Nov 2012 13:26

Irfanview does have an option to create multipage PDF images, e.g. from JPEG files, but it does require a plug-in:

It is very simple to download and install all the available Irfanview plugins, but I recommend using the latest version, currently 4.35.

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Nov 2012 14:27

OK, yes that works for me too.

Sometimes IrfanView features are difficult to find.

Even the Help > Index/Search sometimes needs a bit of lateral thinking to find the topic.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 18 Nov 2012 16:39

Thanks for your replies I was just beginning to read about something called
BATCH PDF PRO 1. 9. 26 but will stick with the obviously successful Irfanview for the moment and see how I get on with that. Point taken re version 4.35 would that include plugins or are they added after download?
Dagwood

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 18 Nov 2012 17:10

There is a separate single download (one large EXE) for all of the IrfanView PlugIns; the link is on their home page. Having installed IrfanView to the default location, you just need to run this EXE.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 19 Nov 2012 08:06

Many thanks Peter, I'll have a go at that later today and will let you know how I get on.
Dagwood [smile]

Wilfreda99 · Post by **Wilfreda99** » 20 Nov 2012 16:25

Thanks for the information re Irfanview, I have now successfully joined together jpegs of my fathers typewritten (not word processed) memoirs. The search facility does not work so is it possible to create some sort of index, book-marks, keyword list, to enable readers to find a reference to a particular word or topic? Up to now I have been converting the jpegs to Word via OCR software, which works well but takes a long time and I find it hard to resist editing some of Dad's remarks - which would probably be useful, but is a different project.

Post by **tatewise** » 20 Nov 2012 18:26

JPEGS, and the PDF derived from them, are just like photographic images, so the PC sees them just like any other images, and cannot extract any text, perform text searches, or the like.

The only solution, as you have discovered, is Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, which scans the images searching for pixel patterns of character fonts.

Some OCR packages are better than others, but it also depends on the quality of the original typed text, and the scanned image resolution.

Having captured the text I would insert it into the Source Record as a transcript in the Text From Source field, and then you can add any 'editorial' comments in the Note field.

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 20 Nov 2012 18:37

IrfanView can also do OCR provided you have the plug-in called KADMOS.

A Word document containing text can be converted to a PDF document in which the text is still fully searchable. If this is done using Save As PDF in Word 2010 (don't know about earlier versions) the links in Word's Table of Contents continue to function (don't know about Word's Indexing links, but I couldn't get manual Bookmarks to work properly).

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 21 Nov 2012 22:41

Earlier I tried to open Irfanview but had some error messages re folder not found so uninstalled everything with that name and then reinstalled ( ie fresh download) taking the opportunity to download the plugin folder.
Irfanview appears to be working ok inasmuch as I have used it for scanning and for editing. When it comes to converting a batch of jpegs to pdf I seem to have failed somewhat. The method I have been trying is to use File>Batch Conversion/Rename; I find the files in their folder ,nominate a destination ,and see the jpg to pdf conversion 'appear' to run. Afterwards there appear to be no new pdf's.
Does anyone use a different approach or am I missing a trick here and approaching this from the wrong direction?
Dagwood[confused]
Edit: Of course the earlier post showed a Multipage approach! I'll try again!!

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 21 Nov 2012 23:55

As you may also have noticed, with the latest version of IrfanView there is an easier way to start the process of producing a multi-page image. You use IrfanView Thumbnails and select the required image files, and then, on the File menu, Start Multipage-PDF dialog with selected files ...:

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 22 Nov 2012 08:21

Thanks for pointing that out Peter. I had noticed the Thumbnails icon had appeared on the desktop but had not got round to investigating what it is for yet. I obviously need to spend some time finding out what Irfanview can do once I've had another go at the PDF's.
Dagwood

Post by **tatewise** » 22 Nov 2012 09:52

You can also reach the Thumbnails screen from within IrfanView itself, so it does not need to clutter your Desktop.

Either use File > Thumbnails, or just the T key on your keyboard.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 22 Nov 2012 22:16

Gosh, am I impressed with Irfanview! The thumbnails worked beautifully, displaying discs and folders like Windows Explorer, such a time saver and aid to file selection.
Using Thumbnails I located the 65 pages of my mother's life story and in just two or three steps had created a single document in PDF format.
I had especially wanted to be able to open it on my iPad so located it into Dropbox ,clicked on Open In , selected iBooks, and there it was Kindle style with 'flickable' pages! I should just say that before I opened it in iBooks I noticed that it opened in a continuous scroll format...still easy to read though.
I am so impressed with how easy it was, and am very grateful for all the advice given. Many thanks!
Dagwood

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 23 Nov 2012 22:24

Back again! While the scanner is linked up and I'm in IRFANVIEW mode I tried to scan some photos to support the PDF I have just created. Previously if I scanned for example four 6x4 photos on the platen and then opened the resulting image in Elements I could split the scan into four separate images in one operation needing only to give each image a file name before saving it. Today I have scanned the four photo setup using Irfanview and whilst I get four individual images on the screen in the preview phase once the scan is complete I can see only one of the images. When I save that I cannot see the other three and it seems as if they have not been scanned or at least I cannot find them.
Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?
Dagwood[confused]

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 23 Nov 2012 23:58

In the IrfanView File menu, did you click on Acquire/Batch Scanning... and then select Multiple images (Batch mode): Save acquired images as files?

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 24 Nov 2012 08:03

I'm on my iPad at the moment so will double check later but am pretty certain I did follow the same route you suggest albeit whilst I'm certain it was Multiple Images I selected I cannot be 100% certain I Saved Aquired Images to file. I'll come back later. Thanks
Dagwood

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 24 Nov 2012 10:24

Problem solved! In playing around with settings I had not noticed that the default is single image and that it had reset. Paying more attention after your post I kept it at Multiple and found all three images in the folder I had designated.
Many thanks
Dagwood[smile]

Wilfreda99 · Post by **Wilfreda99** » 26 Nov 2012 14:44

tatewise said:
JPEGS, and the PDF derived from them, are just like photographic images, so the PC sees them just like any other images, and cannot extract any text, perform text searches, or the like.

The only solution, as you have discovered, is Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, which scans the images searching for pixel patterns of character fonts.

Some OCR packages are better than others, but it also depends on the quality of the original typed text, and the scanned image resolution.

Having captured the text I would insert it into the Source Record as a transcript in the Text From Source field, and then you can add any 'editorial' comments in the Note field.

Wilfreda99 · Post by **Wilfreda99** » 26 Nov 2012 14:49

Thanks, Tatewise. I use 'FreeOCR' which works very well I find.
I don't generally want to paste it into FH, my purpose being to create an electronic version of the memoirs, all 12 A4 lever arch files of it - more akin to the message posted today re (auto)biographies. However joining several images into one Iran view image will still save time overall so thanks for the very useful advice.

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