Reading PDF documents

[Graham Samuel]

On Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:39:32 +0200, Mark Schonewille <m.schonewille at economy-x-talk.com> wrote:

> 
> Richmond,
> 
> SuperCard and LiveCode and all other Mac-compatible platforms can display PDF files in QuickTime players. It might also be possible to use a browser control. 
> 
> HyperStudio lets you drop PDF files onto the window and the first page of the PDF will be displayed as a picture.
> 
> As I wrote earlier, ImagaMagick is the perfect solution for this problem. I wonder why everybody ignored that post of mine.
> 
> --
> Best regards,
> 
> Mark Schonewille

Mark, I for one have not ignored your recommendation to use ImageMagick, but in my particular circumstances as I have already pointed out, it seemed to me (and admittedly I am pretty ignorant about it) that ImageMagick on Windows is a resource hog which would not be amenable to being installed along with my app without complications for the user. For this particular project my sole aim is to make life easier for busy teachers with no particular love for computers, who are often forced to work with old and underpowered PCs. Just installing the app should be a one-button process, and using it should be as simple as finding the file (a PDF in the present discussion), opening it in an entirely conventional way, and then manipulating it by looking at a visual representation - basically extracting a tile from the PDF display using a kind of cookie-cutter approach, where an oversize image will be reduced rather than scrolled.

When I tried to install ImageMagick on an XP machine myself, it seemed to demand other background software that certainly would not have been within the repertoire of my ideal user. I am going round this loop again to make sure I wasn't put off too easily, but the above expresses my current concerns about ImageMagick.

You can also see by the way that QuickTime would not be an appropriate path either, as the average school PC doesn't have it installed, and the school's computer technician (if any) probably doesn't want it either.

Graham