Monday, January 7, 2013

JPG to PDF

So I have a scanner.  It was a hand-me-down.  I am grateful to have it, but for some reason it won't allow me to scan anything to PDF.  The option is available, but it won't do it.  Unfortunately, for some programs like Notability to work, the document must be a PDF.  This presents a small problem.  :)

Talking with some other teachers during a workshop, one demonstrated her use of a simple point and shoot app that instantly converts to PDF.  I can't remember what app she was talking about, but I went on a hunt today to find one.

This is what I found in order of preference...(free version for all)

My Scans:
This was a bit disappointing.  It is basic enough to understand and manipulate without too much hassle, but don't try to do anything except save to the iPad...if you email it, there is a HUGE watermark that renders the document practically useless...And I don't like the idea of someone putting their name on my work.  Grr.

Scan to PDF:
This works fine.  You can easily upload pictures and change them to pdf files.  Can't really do much other than save them to the computer or email them, though.


FasterScan HD:
This is a much more visually stimulating app.  There are a TON more choices about where to get the jpg and what to do with it, including opening it in certain apps and faxing it!  It is also much sleeker and sexier.  This is the app I ultimately chose to work with.  I highly recommend it!

For those of you interested in the process, these are my steps:
1. scan document, save to my computer.
2. email document to myself and open on iPad (I could take a pic of it but they usually are not as good)
3. save attachment to photo stream
4. open app, get photo from photo stream and convert
5. send back to email
6. open on desktop and save to my documents

I have dropbox and frequently use this at home, but the computer at work that has the scanner won't open dropbox.. :( so I have to email it to myself.  Please let me know if anyone has suggestions for how to improve this process!

4 comments:

  1. Try importing image(s) into a text document (Writer) in LibreOffice (or OpenOffice ) and exporting it as a pdf file.
    These office packages are free for all platforms.
    http://www.libreoffice.org/
    http://www.openoffice.org/

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  2. Also, you should be able to print file to pdf, instead to printer (paper).

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  3. I'm not able to download any program on my work computer. I've tried it at home, though. Works great.

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  4. Another easy way is to use JPG converter on smallpdf. It works great for single page scans.

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