           PDF TO TEXT CONVERSION FOR DOS


This utility converts  the text part of PDF (Portable Document Format)
files -also called 'Acrobat' or 'Adobe' files- to text files (ASCII)
under DOS 6.x.
'Acrobat' and 'PDF' are trademarks of ADOBE SYSTEMS Inc.

After unzipping, the PDF-TXT1.ZIP file contains 10 files:

- PDF-TXT1.EXE .... The conversion utility.
- GZIP.EXE ........ To uncompress data converted by PDF-TXT1.EXE.


- README.TXT ...... The file you are reading now.
- PDF-TXT1.TXT..... Usage of PDF-TXT1.EXE.
- README1.......... On XPDF files
- README2 ......... On using GZIP.EXE with PDF-TXT1.EXE
- ANNOUNCE ........ Announcement to PDF-TXT1.EXE.
- CHANGES  ........ Changes in PDF-TXT1.EXE
- GZIP.DOC ........ Usage of GZIP.EXE
- COPYING  ........ GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENCE for GZIP and PDF-TXT1.EXE


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This package could not have been made without the cordial cooperation of:

- Derek B. Noonburg <derekn@foolabs.com>,
  for giving permission to use his original PDFTOTEXT.EXE.
  On http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf several PDF converters 
  for different OS's can be downloaded.
  
- Charles Sandmann <sandmann@clio.rice.edu>,
  for giving permission to integrate code of CWSDPMI.EXE 
  into PDF-TXT1.EXE.
  On ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2misc/csdpmi5b.zip
  the latest version of CWSDPMI can be found.

- Michael A. Richmond <Michael.A.Richmond.1@gsfc.nasa.gov>
  for integrating some of CWSDPMI's source code into PDF-TXT1.EXE

- Jean-loup Gailly <jloup@chorus.fr>
  for giving permission to use GZIP.EXE. 
  On http://www.gzip.org the complete GZIP package can be found 

THE REASON FOR THIS PACKAGE
Already for a long time I have been looking for a simple utility 
to convert PDF files (also known as 'Acrobat' or 'Adobe' files) 
to text files under DOS 6.x
Being visually impaired, I have trouble reading PDF files.
To my knowledge, the Acrobat Readers only exists for GUI systems and
Adobe only provides online conversion facilities.
With the PDF conversion utility you can convert PDF files yourself 
and read them with a braille reader, speech synthesizer, etc.

USAGE
Copy the files PDF-TXT1.EXE and GZIP.EXE into _one_ directory,
let's say c:\utils. The directory must exist in the PATH statement in
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Your path statement could look like:
PATH C:\DOS;C:\UTILS;C:\READER;C:\

Suppose you have a PDF file in c:\PDFDOCS named FOO.PDF
On the command line type:
PDF-TXT1 FOO.PDF <enter> to convert FOO.PDF.

In the directory C:\PDFDOCS you will find FOO.TXT, 
the converted PDF file.

PDF-TXT DOES NOT CONVERT.
In some cases the conversion will not take place: 
1. when a PDF file is password protected.
2. when a PDF file disallows conversion.
3. when something is wrong and an error message is produced.
4. when the PDF files contain fonts that do not have enough encoding
   information to be able to extract intelligible text.

DISCLAIMER
The package is offered on an "as-is" basis. It has been tested 
on a number of PDF files on various computers running DOS 6.x.
However, no one can take any responsibility whatsoever 
for any damages, data loss or other losses incurred by using the
files and/or it's combination.
No warranty, neither explicit nor implicit, is provided with the 
files and or it's combination.

Although I cannot give any help or service on the utility, 
I can be contacted via email. 

Dirk Schouten
schoutdi@knoware.nl