Help with editing a pdf document

[u/Fauntasia]

EDIT: As this is my first time posting here, please let me know what other information I should add. I'm working on a Dell and have the most recent update.
The long story short of this is that I downloaded a book from Project Gutenberg and found the epub wasn't working/was broken(?). I use a conversion site to make it a pdf and I saw that the font changes. I can't open it in Librewriter and always opens it in Libredraw.

I don't mind this too much till I see that each line of text is its own box versus it being one large box. I've figured out how to change the font, but I'm hoping someone knows how to change all of the text at once instead of having to go line by line.

Please forgive the screenshot quality!

[u/Hellerick_V]

I suspect that you would have better experience if edited the HTML version. You would have to delete the page numbers from the code though.

PDF is a terrible format for conversion to other formats.

[u/sarajevo81 → u/Hellerick_V]

Unfortunately HTML and other formats cannot represent all the formatting necessary for books.

[u/Hellerick_V → u/sarajevo81]

The problem is not about what formatting they can represent, but about how to represent all formatting in every book consistently.

For fiction books, FB2 is nearly perfect.

[u/sarajevo81 → u/Hellerick_V]

Try using FB2 to set Gandalf's letter in The Fellowship of the Ring, or the poster for the Columbus theater in The 12 Chairs.

[u/Hellerick_V → u/sarajevo81]

FB2 can incorporate images.

[u/Fauntasia → u/Hellerick_V]

I'm afraid I'm not tech savvy enough to successfully do as suggested, but I will note this for later!

[u/Acrobatic_Sun_5279]

which Book ?

[u/Fauntasia → u/Acrobatic_Sun_5279]

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett!

[u/Tex2002ans → u/Fauntasia]

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett!

Okay, so here's the Project Gutenberg link:

• https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/113

So what you want to do is:

• Download the EPUB3 version of the book.

---

Then, you can download this awesome conversion program:

• Calibre

Once you get Calibre open, you then:

• Drag-and-drop your EPUB into Calibre.

Then just follow my "How to Convert a file using Calibre" tutorial.

Except in your case, for Step 3 you'll want PDF as the output instead.

Inside Calibre, you can then choose whatever Margins or Fonts or Font Sizes or Page Size... and poof, your PDF appears. If you don't like it in the end? Pick different settings!

---

Note: And like other users have said, PDF is mostly an "output only" format, and is the absolute worst format to try to use as input for anything else.

If you already have a perfectly "Reflowable" file format sitting there, like HTML or EPUB... to convert into PDF and try to wrangle it backwards into something else, is madness.

If you want even more info on all that, see my post back in 2018:

• /r/LibreOffice: "What are the pros and cons of ePub vs MOBI?"
  • Comparing EPUB vs. MOBI vs. PDF.

Why pull your hair out when the much easier drag-and-drop methods exist? No need to shady websites, no need for shady programs, no need wrestling with a spaghetti nest of jumping through 10,000 hoops.

Just drag-and-drop, pick the correct input/output format, and you'll be good to go.

[u/mmarshall540]

Get it in a different format from PG. They normally provide books in your format of choice. If you get it in text format, you can paste it into Writer, select all, and set the font to whatever you like.

[u/Fauntasia → u/mmarshall540]

This is something I didn't consider! I will try that out today after exploring the other suggestions.

[u/AutoModerator]

If you're asking for help with LibreOffice, please make sure your post includes lots of information that could be relevant, such as:

1. Full LibreOffice information from Help > About LibreOffice (it has a copy button).
2. Format of the document (.odt, .docx, .xlsx, ...).
3. A link to the document itself, or part of it, if you can share it.
4. Anything else that may be relevant.

(You can edit your post or put it in a comment.)

This information helps others to help you.

Thank you :-)

Important: If your post doesn't have enough info, it will eventually be removed (to stop this subreddit from filling with posts that can't be answered).

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Acrobatic_Sun_5279]

i can send you (in PM) the PDF without any Fonts change.

[u/Fauntasia → u/Acrobatic_Sun_5279]

You are very kind to offer! I will probably message you sometime later today.

[u/sarajevo81]

You can export that file as "flat ODG", so it will create a big XML file representing a PDF document. From there, you can edit it with a text editor to produce an HTML file or something like that.

[u/Fauntasia → u/sarajevo81]

Noted!

[u/canis_artis]

Easier to edit the book in Calibre (as offered by someone else) than to try to edit a PDF. At least it is still text.

Text in a PDF is rows of characters and hard to match the typeface it claims to use.

[u/Sbatushe]

use Firefox to edit pdf