how to rescale a. PDF with text overlay?

littlerock

I am producing a newsletter for a group I belong to. I have been asked to include a map (with some printed place names) on the back cover. This has been given to me in the form of a. PDF. The newsletter is to be A4 and I am using a simple software package designed for newsletters. Basically I just load the text into preassigned blocks. For the back cover I have chosen the full page picture option.

Unfortunately the .PDF is a complete A4 size and the pre formatted page in my software is slightly smaller. So I am losing a small margin all around the page including part of the legend.

I thought I could fix this by rescaling it in Photoshop elements but this does not work as the text seems to be a separate overlay. OH has had similar issues with CorelDraw. I wonder if it was originated on an Apple as this is not how my software creates them. I cannot contact the originator at present.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Le_Kirk

If it is a true .pdf, how can it have a text overlay? Try printing the .pdf and scale it at time of printing, then scan the print. You may lose a little quality, so scan at high dpi.

Ainsley1

I too find it odd that there is text overlay as part of a PDF.

As an alternative method to the above how about printing go an eke tronic version that you can resize such as through PDF creator (or similar free doftware) and then it will be a true PDF -providing that really can loaded into your publishing software - thus not really losing quality and will give you the ability to scale as a whole unit.

....but are you sure the original is a PDF of that your publishing software does not do some sort of conversion upon import? Can you select the graphic and the text 'overlay' separately?

littlerock

I too have not come across this type of PDF before but it's file ext. is .PDF.

We are a local history group and the map PDF was created for us to use in our newsletter by the local council' s in house cartographer (who has since left) . He knew we were expecting a plain vanilla no frills pdf version for our amateur newsletter.

I think he worked on an Apple which is why I wondered if text overlays which are separate from but integral to the actual image, are some special Apple PDF feature.

Our newsletter software is very basic and does not itself have any scaling options just cropping, which is not an option here as the map PDF supplied is a full A4 page.

ChiefGrasscutter

Standard PDF's can either be
A flat scanned pdf

OR as sounds more likely here to be a text searchable pdf which does indeed create the text as a separate "layer" within the pdf after the document has gone though the OCR process quite separate from the image layer.
All this is totally invisible to the viewer of a pdf file.

The full Acrobat program can certainly so far as I can remember convert a flat pdf with images and text in it into a searchable pdf file which will then have these two layers.

Edit
It all depends on how the pdf was created and was it specified to be a text searchable one in the software or a flat one.
I use an IX500 fast document scanner and that can create either versions - is just a tick box to change in the software.

grumbler

Le_Kirk wrote: »

If it is a true .pdf, how can it have a text overlay?

It can - if you open it in Adobe Photoshop.

Try printing the .pdf and scale it at time of printing, then scan the print. You may lose a little quality, so scan at high dpi.

Is it not easier to take a screenshot? Or use 'Save as Image' option in Acrobat Reader?

Le_Kirk

grumbler wrote: »

It can - if you open it in Adobe Photoshop.

It must have been created with separate layers then. I have just opened several .pdf's in PSE 12, including a map and they are just one layer.

Ainsley1

I had forgotten about the more complex PDF features!!:(

Screenshot might be OK if the resolution is sufficiently high, but save as image could be the best solution but will require reader to be installed OP. That surely ought to be a first step then there will be several options?

littlerock

Thanks everyone. I have now, as Grumbler suggested, printed it, scaling it at time of printing, and scanned in the result. I never about embedded text overlays on .pdfs before.