be aware, there are 2 kinds of PDF out there: 1. text formatted 2. graphically scanned.
the first is generally easy to deal with most times and any methods described here work fairly well. The second type (image scanned) are a lot more problematic. As far as voiceover is concerned, they are blank. the only way to get any useful information out of them is to run them through an OCR program and then try to clean up the results into something semi-coherent. It is unbelievable the number of image scanned documents there are on government sites. the PDF document type has been around almost as long as the Americans with Disabilities at, and yet only 5% of those are even accessible. That, BTW, is only a rough estimate. The problem I see is that most government (and private sector) types don't like to take the slightly harder (but time saving) effort of creating a text version of any documents. they prefer the easy (and often more time wasting buy our standards) of scanning documents as images and simply saving them as a PDF. Most times, these scans are of such poor quality that OCR will often fail (or at the very least produce almost unusable results). The only exception I have seen to this are the major hard disk manufacturers. They use a combination of embedded images and real text (like a magazine or newspaper). There are some other manufacturers that also do this as a matter of course. They have come to realize that some of the people who use their products may be blind and have seen the wisdom of doing things right the first time Now if others would just see this point, life would be infinitely easier for everyone. anyway, enough of my soapbox. -eric On Mar 26, 2015, at 7:05 PM, Phil Halton wrote: > another way is to copy all text in the document with command A, then open the > preview menu, enter the services submenu and press enter on “new textedit > window with selection”. > It does exactly what it sounds like. > First make sure you’ve interacted with the pdf text area and can read the > text with the VO commands just to make sure you’re in the right place and can > select all. > >> On Mar 26, 2015, at 8:14 PM, Georgina Joyce <g...@gena-j.me.uk> wrote: >> >> >> >> Hello, >> >> I don’t know if there’s a better way. But I highlight the text cmd+a then >> copy cmd+c then open text edit and paste cmd+v into a new document. Not nice >> but it works for me. >> >> Gena >>> On 26 Mar 2015, at 23:37, Lorie McCloud <lorice...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> I can do it with preview if I interact with the image group. I’d like to >>> know how to save a pdf as text. >>> My Youtube Channel: “www.youtube.com/LorieMcCloud >>> >>>> On Mar 26, 2015, at 6:24 PM, Chris Moore <chris.w...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hello, >>>> What are some options for reading PDF files on the mac? >>>> Chris >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
