FAQ

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Non-technical

Languages and libraries used in pdf2htmlEX

• C++ (most part)
• C (wrapper of Fontforge)
• HTML (output)
• CSS (complicated enough to be considered as a language)
• Javascript (UI actions/effects)
• Python (scripts for testing / packaging)
• Poppler (PDF parsing)
• Fontforge (font manipulation)
• jQuery (for the default UI)

pdf2htmlEX doesn't work for my pdf file

• Bug reports are always welcome, please file an issue with the link to the broken pdf file.
• However there are several exceptions when the bug cannot be fixed in time (or at all)
  • The file does not follow the PDF standard (it might still be displayed correctly in PDF viewers)
  • Something wrong with libraries used by pdf2htmlEX (poppler / fontforge)
  • There are a few technical limitations of pdf2htmlEX. See this page

I want more features!

• Create a patch, or hire someone to do so.
• Best hackers do not work for free.
• But great ideas are more valuable than money.

How can I help pdf2htmlEX

• Add a star in the project page, at the top-right corner.
• Tell others about it, using your social power.
• Suggest interesting PDF files which can be used as demos.
• Use it and enjoy it.
• Find bugs and report them.
• Make a donation.

How to install pdf2htmlEX on Windows

• There is no binary package so far, so do not expect an easy click-and-install. There are 2 options:
• Install Linux in a virtual machine, then install pdf2htmlEX
• Build the source through Cygwin (recommended) or MinGW
• If you can help maintain binary packages for Windows, or at least find an easy way to do this, please contact me.

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Pitfalls

I cannot compile pdf2htmlEX

• Make sure you have installed all required packages (and headers), see Readme.
• Make sure poppler has been compiled with --enable-xpdf-headers
  • Especially when you see something about goo/GooString.h
• Make sure C++11 is supported by your compiler
• Fontforge has not been linking friendly until recent:
  • Git version is recommended
  • If there's something wrong about 'spiroentrypoints.h', install header files of libspiro
  • If there's something wrong about 'undefined reference of Py_xxx', install header files of python-2.x
  • If there's something wrong about 'libintl.h', install gettext and set your system include path accordingly.

'Cannot open the manifest file'

• Run 'sudo make install' or 'make install', depending on your environment.

There is no image generated

• Make sure you did not specify --process-nontext 0
• Make sure libpng (and headers) is installed BEFORE poppler was compiled.

The generated HTML file looks ugly

Check if your browser meets the requirements.

The generated HTML file freezes my Firefox

• Don't zoom in too much
• Use a smaller value for --font-size-multiplier

Something wrong with text in the generated HTML file, I cannot even read them

• Install ttfautohint and run pdf2htmlEX with --external-hint-tool=ttfautohint
• Try --auto-hint 1 carefully, which is experimental now.

I got incorrect text after copy & paste

• try run with --tounicode 1
• Make sure you CAN copy & paste with a PDF viewer

Generated text are too small to read

• try run with --zoom 2

Images are blurred

• try run with --hdpi 288 --vdpi 288