Creation of a PDF/A1-b document from an image scan

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   Hi there,

I have to create a PDF/A1-b doc from a tif file, which comes from a scanner. I've read in the developers guide how to create such a doc from the scratch using SetPDFAMode(2) and DrawText, but I cannot find a description of how to involve the image file.

Of cause, I did an OCR on the image and so I know the characters and words of the scan and also their positions. But what now?

Thanks for help!

Dirk

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dsch Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 09 Aug 13 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote dsch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Creation of a PDF/A1-b document from an image scan Posted: 09 Aug 13 at 10:55AM
	Hi there, I have to create a PDF/A1-b doc from a tif file, which comes from a scanner. I've read in the developers guide how to create such a doc from the scratch using SetPDFAMode(2) and DrawText, but I cannot find a description of how to involve the image file. Of cause, I did an OCR on the image and so I know the characters and words of the scan and also their positions. But what now? Thanks for help! Dirk

Ingo Members Profile Find Members Posts Moderator Group Joined: 29 Oct 05 Status: Offline Points: 3524	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ingo Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Aug 13 at 11:05AM
	Hi Dirk! You should read here: AddImageFromFile: http://www.debenu.com/docs/pdf_library_reference/AddImageFromFile.php With this function you can write all tif-pages into a pdf using a loop. Cheers and welcome here, Ingo

dsch Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 09 Aug 13 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote dsch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Aug 13 at 12:28PM
	Hi Ingo, thanks for the warm welcome! I already read about that, but still I'm not sure about the way how to do. Am I right with the following? And is that the best practice? 1. Create a pdf document 2. Calling SetPDFAMode(2) 3. Add scan page with "AddImageFromFile" 4. Add all words (or all characters? What's best?) to the page using "DrawText" 5. continue with 3. until there is no page left Thank you, Dirk

Ingo Members Profile Find Members Posts Moderator Group Joined: 29 Oct 05 Status: Offline Points: 3524	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ingo Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Aug 13 at 12:40PM
	Hi Dirk! Don't use visible DrawText 'cause one of the a1-b-specs tells me not to change the original layout and it will be very difficult to create absolutely identical pages. So you should use your points 1-3 to create similar visible pages. But the a1-b-specs wants the searchable textcontent, too. So "i" would use the DrawText with the same colour as the background colour on a separate layer/content group. Another idea: Use the DrawText with 100% transparency. I don't know if this would be absolute a1-b-specs-like ;-) Perhaps there are experts dealing with PDF/A here to post a more professional help ;-) Cheers, Ingo

dsch Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 09 Aug 13 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote dsch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Aug 13 at 2:50PM
	Hi Ingo, it seems to me that "SetTextMode(3)" will do the job for invisible text. But I still don't know, if the result will be (really) pdf/a1-b compliant. One Question i.e. is, whether I need a special layer (contentstream/-group) for the text data or not? It would be nice to have a short (pseudo-) code snippet for the creation of such a type of document. Strange, that no one from quickpdf deals with this subject... Thank you, Dirk

dsch Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 09 Aug 13 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote dsch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Aug 13 at 3:16PM
	I just tried some code that seems to be correct (in my opinion). It will result in a searchable pdf but all the online validators don't like the output file and they agree in the fact, that it is NOT a pdf/a1-b file. Any idea what's wrong? PDFLib.SetPDFAMode(2); iImgID := PDFLib.AddImageFromFile(ImageFileName, 1); PDFLib.SelectImage(iImgID); iWidth := PDFLib.ImageWidth; iHeight := PDFLib.ImageHeight; PDFLib.SetPageDimensions(iWidth, iHeight); PDFLib.SetOrigin(1); PDFLib.DrawImage(0, 0, iWidth, iHeight); PDFLib.SetTextMode(3); PDFLib.SetTextSize(20); PDFLib.DrawText(100, 200, 'Hallo'); PDFLib.SaveToFile('xxx.pdf');

dsch Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 09 Aug 13 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote dsch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Aug 13 at 4:02PM
	One more interresting thing: the sample code for pdf/a1-b creation, provided by the QuickPDF developers guide, also produces a file, that is NOT pdf/a1-b compliant (as said by various online-validator-tools): /* Create a new PDF/A document */ // Call SetPDFAMode to tell Quick PDF Library that you want to // create a PDF/A document. Specify which version of PDF/A it // should use. QP.SetPDFAMode(2); // Add some simple text QP.DrawText(100, 600, “This document is PDF/A-1b compliant.”); // Save the PDF/A compliant doc to disk QP.SaveToFile(“my_pdf-a_doc.pdf”);

Ingo Members Profile Find Members Posts Moderator Group Joined: 29 Oct 05 Status: Offline Points: 3524	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ingo Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 10 Aug 13 at 9:35PM
	Seems there's no other way than read the specs regarding attached files ;-)

AndrewC Members Profile Find Members Posts Moderator Group Joined: 08 Dec 10 Location: Geelong, Aust Status: Offline Points: 841	Post Options Post Reply Quote AndrewC Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Aug 13 at 5:12AM
	Dirk, The 14 base fonts are not allowed to be used in a PDF/A1b file. All fonts need to be embedded in the PDF/A1b file so the following code change should improve things. PDFLib.SetPDFAMode(2); iImgID := PDFLib.AddImageFromFile(ImageFileName, 1); PDFLib.SelectImage(iImgID); iWidth := PDFLib.ImageWidth; iHeight := PDFLib.ImageHeight; PDFLib.SetPageDimensions(iWidth, iHeight); PDFLib.SetOrigin(1); PDFLib.DrawImage(0, 0, iWidth, iHeight); PDFLib.SetTextMode(3); // Invisible text mode PDFLib.AddTrueTypeFont("Arial", 1); // ADDED : Embed the Arial font. PDFLib.SetTextSize(20); PDFLib.DrawText(100, 200, 'Hallo'); PDFLib.SaveToFile('xxx.pdf'); Andrew.

dsch Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 09 Aug 13 Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote dsch Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Aug 13 at 5:51PM
	Thank you Andrew and Ingo. It seems that the version 8.15 was unable to produce correct pdf/a-1b files. It's ok with 9.15 Regards, Dirk