[poppler] Prototype PDF import GIMP plug-in based on poppler

[Nathan Summers]

On 6/19/05, Leonard Rosenthol <leonardr at pdfsages.com> wrote:
> At 06:23 AM 6/19/2005, Nathan Summers wrote:
> >I've created an initial version of a PDF import plugin for GIMP that
> >uses poppler.
> 
>          Cool!
> 
> 
> >  Currently this version has little to offer compared to
> >the existing ghostscript-based PDF import plugin,
> 
>          Should be noticeably faster (and depending on the version of GS
> installed), higher quality.

I was refering mostly to the fact that there are several features that
the GS version has that the poppler version, being a prototype, does
not.  For instance, the version I put on the web has the resolution
hard-coded at 72 dpi, which isn't very reasonable.

> >While this version uses poppler to render whole pages, it would be
> >nice if it were possible to access individual elements, such as boxes
> >of text or images, and have each rendered into a separate GIMP layer.
> 
>          Interesting, but what purpose would it serve?   If GIMP had "real"
> text layers (ala PSD), then it might be interesting to create such from PDF
> - but otherwise, I don't see any use.

I'm not sure what you mean by "real" text layers. GIMP certainly can't
do text layout as well as a typesetting program yet, but you certainly
could click on a text layer, edit what the text says, and have the
gimp engine re-render the text.

>          What did you have in mind?

It would be nice for different parts to be rendered into separate
layers so they can be manipulated individually. GIMP already has some
vector graphics features, and it is growing more constantly.  Being
able to inport paths actually as paths, etc, would be a very useful
thing to have.  Furthermore, if you only need a specific part of a
large file, the ability to just import a few elements instead of the
whole thing makes the workflow much easier.

Rockwalrus