Scanning and Creating PDFs: Help!

[lascaux]

Hello!

I'm interested in scanning some copyleft Frederic Rzewski scores for IMSLP (and possibly other stuff later on), and I am looking for information on scanning and pdf-creating procedures so that I get it right.

In terms of equipment, I have an HP d135 OfficeJet with scanning capabilities, but I'm not sure which software I should use (I am running Win XP). I have read out the IMSLP page on scanning scores, but as it is still a work in progress, I'm afraid it doesn't answer all my questions (the info on the talk page also went over my head for the most part). While I like to tell myself that I'm far from computer illiterate ( ) , I have no idea how to use Command Lines (which, as far as I can tell, is necessary to work with Imagemagick and PDFtoolkit, the two programs mentioned on the "Scanning Music Scores" page).

If anyone can answer any of the following questions, I'd be very grateful:

1. Do I have to use Imagemagick and pdftk in order to create pdf files that are of the quality and size of the average score found on IMSLP, or are there more newbie-friendly, GUI-oriented free/open programs that will do the same thing?

2. Assuming that I do have to use Imagemagick and pdftk or similar programs, is there a site that will explain how to use such Command Line based programs from the ground up on a PC running Windows XP? I have searched for such a site, but I have yet to find anything that resembles what I'm looking for (probably because I don't know enough about the topic to search with the right terms).

3. Okay, this one's a really dumb question: If I'm using a program like Imagemagick, does it interface with my scanner in order to acquire the scan in the first place, or do I have have to acquire the scanned file using another program? If I do have to use another program, do you have any freeware recommendations? While my OfficeJet does have its own software (an HP "48-bit Scan Utility"), it is absolutely terrible (the software that came with an ancient Plustek scanner I had years ago was actually better), and as far as I can tell, it will not allow me to get specific in terms of scanning resolutions etc.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Lascaux (long-time lurker and IMSLP-nut)

PS Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, or if these questions have already been asked elsewhere (I did search, honest!).

[emeraldimp]

Hello!

Hi there! Can't answer all your questions, but I'll get some of them knocked off...

1. Do I have to use Imagemagick and pdftk in order to create pdf files that are of the quality and size of the average score found on IMSLP, or are there more newbie-friendly, GUI-oriented free/open programs that will do the same thing?

No, and I dunno.

2. Assuming that I do have to use Imagemagick and pdftk or similar programs, is there a site that will explain how to use such Command Line based programs from the ground up on a PC running Windows XP? I have searched for such a site, but I have yet to find anything that resembles what I'm looking for (probably because I don't know enough about the topic to search with the right terms).

I'll try to write one up later; they're really quite straightforward.

3. Okay, this one's a really dumb question: If I'm using a program like Imagemagick, does it interface with my scanner in order to acquire the scan in the first place, or do I have have to acquire the scanned file using another program? If I do have to use another program, do you have any freeware recommendations? While my OfficeJet does have its own software (an HP "48-bit Scan Utility"), it is absolutely terrible (the software that came with an ancient Plustek scanner I had years ago was actually better), and as far as I can tell, it will not allow me to get specific in terms of scanning resolutions etc.

No, Imagemagick is only an image converter, so you'll have to use a separate program. I recommend the Gimp http://gimp.org/ that's not only free in price but also free-as-in-freedom. You can use the File->Aqcuire->TWAIN dialog (I think that's where it is) to scan if your printer's drivers support TWAIN (they should), although I believe it hands off the actual scanning part to something else (I only have ever had one scanner, so I can't really say). I scan at 300dpi B&W; others prefer higher resolution, but I've found that some of the programs *coughImagemagickcough* choke on files that are too big (at least on my computers); I then save to .png and use Imagemagick to convert to Group 4-compressed monochrome pdf files, and stitch the whole shebang together with pdftk.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Lascaux (long-time lurker and IMSLP-nut)

PS Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, or if these questions have already been asked elsewhere (I did search, honest!).

[imslp]

1. Do I have to use Imagemagick and pdftk in order to create pdf files that are of the quality and size of the average score found on IMSLP, or are there more newbie-friendly, GUI-oriented free/open programs that will do the same thing?

No, and I dunno.

There is a very nice GUI program that does exactly what pdftk does (in fact, they both use the same backend library); you can find more information on it here. Imagemagick is more of a problem; I don't think there is a nice GUI program that does the same thing... of course, if you can get the image to a PDF file in same way, you can let PDFsam do the rest.

2. Assuming that I do have to use Imagemagick and pdftk or similar programs, is there a site that will explain how to use such Command Line based programs from the ground up on a PC running Windows XP? I have searched for such a site, but I have yet to find anything that resembles what I'm looking for (probably because I don't know enough about the topic to search with the right terms).

I'll try to write one up later; they're really quite straightforward.

Indeed; I've also posted a link to a tutorial here, though it does not specifically say how to use imagemagick, but does answer most questions about the command line.

3. Okay, this one's a really dumb question: If I'm using a program like Imagemagick, does it interface with my scanner in order to acquire the scan in the first place, or do I have have to acquire the scanned file using another program? If I do have to use another program, do you have any freeware recommendations? While my OfficeJet does have its own software (an HP "48-bit Scan Utility"), it is absolutely terrible (the software that came with an ancient Plustek scanner I had years ago was actually better), and as far as I can tell, it will not allow me to get specific in terms of scanning resolutions etc.

No, Imagemagick is only an image converter, so you'll have to use a separate program. I recommend the Gimp http://gimp.org/ that's not only free in price but also free-as-in-freedom. You can use the File->Aqcuire->TWAIN dialog (I think that's where it is) to scan if your printer's drivers support TWAIN (they should), although I believe it hands off the actual scanning part to something else (I only have ever had one scanner, so I can't really say). I scan at 300dpi B&W; others prefer higher resolution, but I've found that some of the programs *coughImagemagickcough* choke on files that are too big (at least on my computers); I then save to .png and use Imagemagick to convert to Group 4-compressed monochrome pdf files, and stitch the whole shebang together with pdftk.

Indeed, you will have to let the printer driver do the actual scanning (though you can use another software besides the one the manufacturer provided). I would also recommend Gimp... and 600dpi You can even avoid having to use Imagemagick if you can get Gimp to save the image in TIFF, you can use tiff2pdf (which is MUCH faster than imagemagick) to convert the image to PDF, and use PDFsam (pdf split and merge) to combine the files. Of course, you'll still have to know how to use the command line (for tiff2pdf); but its easy!

If your computer still chokes on some part of the scanning process (maybe Gimp) due to the image size, you'll have to lower it I'd recommend as close to 600dpi as your computer can handle (maybe 400dpi?). 300dpi is the minimum for a scan that is considered to be printing quality.

In any case, tell us how the scanning with Gimp goes (remember to scan in monochrome!), and we'll go from there