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(Created page with "PDF explorations taking a Autoethnography media approach (a hands on approach makes no sense, PDF is a '''portable document format''', not written as programming language as PostScript) what do PDFs mean to us in our lives? ==prompt #1== * find how many pdfs are saved on your computer, we can use python for this * get a list of filenames of all these pdfs * generate filename posters with PostScript and Python ==prompt #2== * pick one pdf from your computer * select...")
 
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what do PDFs mean to us in our lives?
what do PDFs mean to us in our lives?
Before we start, let's install some PDF manipulation tools:
* pdftk: https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-server/
* pdfinfo/pdftotext/pdfimages/pdffonts: http://www.xpdfreader.com/about.html
* pdfunite: <code>$ brew install poppler</code>


==prompt #1==
==prompt #1==
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* pick one pdf from your computer
* pick one pdf from your computer
* select one page, take one that represents the pdf somehow, or just one you like
* select one page, take one that represents the pdf somehow, or just one you like
* extract this page from the pdf with pdftk https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-server/
* extract this page from the pdf with pdftk  
* take 10 minutes to interview each other about this pdf: ask each other any kinds of questions about it! keep it short, 5 min each
* take 10 minutes to interview each other about this pdf: ask each other any kinds of questions about it! keep it short, 5 min each
* make a pdf of the interview text in PostScript with Python
* make a pdf of the interview text in PostScript with Python


==prompt #3==  
==prompt #3==  
* install http://www.xpdfreader.com/about.html
* select 5 pdfs from your computer
* select 5 pdfs from your computer
* use pdftotext and pdfimage and pdfinfo to extract material from these pdfs
* use pdftotext and pdfimage and pdfinfo to extract material from these pdfs

Revision as of 22:39, 27 January 2025

PDF explorations

taking a Autoethnography media approach

(a hands on approach makes no sense, PDF is a portable document format, not written as programming language as PostScript)

what do PDFs mean to us in our lives?

Before we start, let's install some PDF manipulation tools:

prompt #1

  • find how many pdfs are saved on your computer, we can use python for this
  • get a list of filenames of all these pdfs
  • generate filename posters with PostScript and Python

prompt #2

  • pick one pdf from your computer
  • select one page, take one that represents the pdf somehow, or just one you like
  • extract this page from the pdf with pdftk
  • take 10 minutes to interview each other about this pdf: ask each other any kinds of questions about it! keep it short, 5 min each
  • make a pdf of the interview text in PostScript with Python

prompt #3

  • select 5 pdfs from your computer
  • use pdftotext and pdfimage and pdfinfo to extract material from these pdfs
  • make a selection of the materials: make a new folder, copy images in that you want to use, and make plain text (txt) files with text you want to use
  • make a new pdf with these materials using PostScript and Python

prompt #4

  • search for a pdf of a book
  • select one page from the book
  • make a visual pageborder in postscript ....
  • decorate your page and stamp your lovely pageborder onto your pdf with pdftk stamp
  • (you can do the whole book too with pdftk multistamp)

prompt #5

  • pdf imposition


Upload what you made to: /var/www/html/SI26/PDF/ so it appears at https://hub.xpub.nl/cerealbox/SI26/PDF/

We will pdfunite this into one PDF again!

(and compress it... because it will be large probably)