Scanning Documents to PDF

[hbsnam]

I have just discovered that you can use IrfanView, a free graphics program to scan documents and save as PDF files. When downloading IrfanView, remember to download the plugins.

Quality not 100% but not bad, only problem I see is that in IrfanView the page is shown as quite large, however Adobe Viewer shows as a normal page size.

I tried another freeware program Scan2PDF, but it does not do a great job, at least on my scanner, does not want to recognize and scan from the doc feeder (Canon MF).

Hope this helps.

[limbo]

Cheers for the heads up. Irfanview is a nice bit of openware. I wonder if the GIMP can do the same?

[D_Blackwell]

What kind of file sizes are you getting comparatively with IrfanView? Scanned documents to PDF are notoriously gigantic. 'Document Printers' that have PDF scanning 'capability' are a constant problem because of people sending me garbage mega-files. One or two page text only (no color, no graphics) at over 1MB when 50kb is easily attainable. Fixing garbage PDF files is a real PITA.

If you don't have the full Abobe Acrobat program - worth every penny - Create Abode PDF Online is a $10 a month service that does a very good job and provides high quality with very reasonable file sizes. I should get a cut as many clients as I have had sign up for this - life changing for some.

Any junk associated with IrfanView, i.e., bloated program, unwanted 'bonus programs'?

When conversion of hard copy to PDF remains a problem, it is often a lot easier to get much higher quality by just starting over recreating. I'm open more options on this, but most 'scan to PDF' are junk (IMO)

For existing digital files, will still probably send clients in need to Create Abobe PDF, but always on the lookout. Free doesn't matter to me. If it's good I'll pay - or the client will pay.

Massive PDFs are usually inexcusable, and I get a ton of them.

<edit>Clarification.</edit>

[edited by: D_Blackwell at 8:54 pm (utc) on Aug. 5, 2008]

[bcolflesh]

The free PDFCreator is my favorite Windows tool for this:

[sourceforge.net...]

Will add a virtual PDF printer, so you can scan in any Windows program (I use GIMP typically, but you could use Word, or any other prog with a scan/acquire menu) and then output to PDF.

[thecoalman]

Any junk associated with IrfanView, i.e., bloated program, unwanted 'bonus programs'?

Irfanview is a fabulous program, it's one of those gems. For anyone doing basic things with digital images its the only utility program you need. Resizing, exif support, batch operations, the list is endless. How well it stacks up for PDF's I don't know.

[hbsnam]

Whilst the scanned docs do seem large in IrfanView, once you open them in Adobe Acrobat they show as normal sized docs, no problems with unwanted stuff that I noticed.