Scanning to pdf

[expatCM]

On Windows I use HP Director to scan multi page documents and save them as a single pdf.

With Ubuntu 7.04 I have my scanner working together with xsane. What I cannot work out is how to scan multiple pages and save them in a pdf file. I found a program called Scanner Utility which seems to support pdf but it also hangs.... I am also not convinced that it will support multiple pages....

Is anyone aware of any program I can use for this task?

[stubbe]

You can surely use openoffice. If it's image yu want to convert to pdf just paste it to writer then select export to pdf. Now it even support encryption and security passwords for the pdf

cheers

[expatCM]

How?

sure OO can save as a pdf but it does not control a flat bed scanner.

What I need is a program to control the scanner and capture a multiple page document as one file.

Sane will scan but appears to only support single pages. Having 100 scanned pages to merge into one file, in the correct order, then convert to pdf is not something I want to do manually. Windows can do this ... no problem. Linux I am sure can also .. but I do not know which program...

[stubbe]

Windows can do that? Heh, I never know that. What's the software on windows that can do such thing? So why not just use windows for such task. I'm still dual booting myself.

What i mean is that you scan the pages as images, then insert them on OO. Either Writer or Draw. then, export to pdf.

[expatCM]

In Windows you can use HP Director which is free software bundled with HP scanners. When you scan a document you are prompted to keep scanning if you have additional pages and whether you want to save all as a pdf.

I really want to retire Windows which is why I would like the Linux solution. Perhaps I should try running the HP software under wine

[stubbe]

Linux don't have quite good support on HP. I do think that's why it needs a collection of drivers on its own (hplib whatever) separated from cups.

Let alone you're using their own custom built software. I don't think I encounter a scanner software that does such task before. Maybe imaging softwares do. Go search on commercial softwares under linux, maybe they have similar function or something.

for HP director itself, I doubt it'll run in wine. But take a shot. You never know.

hope that helps

cheers

[expatCM]

Well it installs

But .... sigh ... it does not run

[Agent-X]

In Windows you can use HP Director which is free software bundled with HP scanners. When you scan a document you are prompted to keep scanning if you have additional pages and whether you want to save all as a pdf.

I really want to retire Windows which is why I would like the Linux solution. Perhaps I should try running the HP software under wine

Never liked that Windows program. It crashes if you don't have enough RAM or SWAP on hand. If you ask me, I wouldn't want to be doing 100 pages at a time with it. You could use a various scripting languages to accomplish the task.

[expatCM]

You could use a various scripting languages to accomplish the task.

Any suggestions by any chance?


I have found gscan2pdf which appears to be excellent. However, my scanner does not work with the program which is annoying .....
gscan2pdf-0.9.16

[ianj001]

Open Office 2.3 writer can scan an image.
Open writer:
Insert->Picture->Scan->Select Source..

You should be able to scan into a document then export as a PDF.

Try it, let us know if you have success or if it doesn't work for you.