FreeSVG Documentation

Version 10-April-2003

Welcome to FreeSVG! FreeSVG is provided by Texterity to encourage the use of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) on the web and enable free, highly functional conversion of PDF documents into fully accessible and navigable SVG.

FreeSVG provides many useful features, however, for full functionality including "no plug in" access, searching across document collections, enhanced TOC, dynamic linking, indexing, single- and double-page display, full screen view, and website integration, you may need the full TextCafe SVG service.

FreeSVG will return a link to an SVG Package. The result includes SVG pages created with TextCafe’s PDF to SVG conversion technology, HTML, and JavaScript representations of the Table of Contents and search word list. You are free to modify and post results to your web site. FreeSVG converts only the first 25 pages of your PDF document at this time.

This document is organized as follows:

• Getting Started
• Submitting Your File
• Accessing the SVG Package
• Using the Results
• Reference

Getting Started

FreeSVG requires that you submit an Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) file for conversion. If you don’t have a PDF file, you must create one using the Adobe Acrobat application or other method (e.g., Macintosh OS X now allows you to create PDF files).

FreeSVG will convert all pages from your PDF into an “SVG Package” based on the following:

• Each PDF page is converted into an SVG page which looks identical to the original
• Page labels (also known as “folio” page numbers) are converted and available for navigation
• Links within the document (page links or web links) are converted into appropriate HTML web links
• PDF Title is converted into the HTML document title. To set the title, select File > Properties from within Adobe Acrobat; enter your document title in the “Title” text box.
• PDF Bookmarks are converted into a Table of Contents. To set your bookmarks, see the following section.

Creating Bookmarks in PDF files

FreeSVG uses the “Bookmarks” that are in your PDF file to create a Table of Contents. These can be placed by hand into the PDF file using Adobe Acrobat, or created automatically from applications such as Microsoft Word using the “Convert to Adobe PDF” feature.

Click on the “Bookmarks” tab in Adobe Acrobat to view the current set of bookmarks.

Submission Requirements for PDF Files

Your PDF file must satisfy the following requirements:

1. The PDF file cannot be password protected or encrypted.
2. The PDF file must have all the fonts embedded (except for the “standard” base 14 fonts). If fonts are not embedded, your file may not be able to be processed, or the results may appear incorrect.
3. The PDF file must not be an “image file”, that is, a collection of scanned images without any text.
4. Your PDF file may be of any length, however, only the first 25 pages will be converted using the FreeSVG service.

Submitting Your File

Once you have created a PDF file, you may submit it to the FreeSVG web site, located at freesvg.texterity.com.

To submit a file:

1. Proceed to http://freesvg.texterity.com.

2. Click the Browse ... button. Select the PDF file from your computer’s hard drive to submit. Make sure that your PDF file satisfies the submission requirements for the FreeSVG service.
3. Enter your Email Address. This is used to return back a link to you that will contain your SVG Package.
4. Select your Output Options. These are only required if you wish to customize your results.

·        Include Table of Contents based on PDF bookmarks. Checking this option will use the PDF file’s bookmarks to create a “Table of Contents” for navigation. If you don’t select this option, or your PDF file does not contain bookmarks, then the “Table of Contents” navigation pane will not be provided in the SVG Package.

·        Include Word Search (enables searching with highlighting). Checking this option will create a “word search” capability in the SVG Package. This feature transforms the XML word list generated by TextCafe into a javascript-compatible code base which is loaded automatically when you open the index.html file from the SVG Package. If you wish to reduce the size of the SVG Package, or improve loading time, then you may wish to uncheck this option.

5. Click the Submit PDF button. You will be directed to a screen that provides a short summary of your submission information. You may wish to print this page for reference.

6. Click the Submit Another File link to return to the previous submission page. Your email address and preferences will still be visible, and you can continue to submit files.
7. At this point, your job will be submitted to the FreeSVG service for processing. Within a short period of time you should receive an email notification message indicating the completion of your job, along with a link to download the results.

Email Notification

FreeSVG returns an email message that contains a web link to the SVG Package file.

The return email message includes:

• Submitter Email – original email address
• Input File Name – original input file name
• Date Processed – date and time that the file was processed (based on GMT –05:00 Eastern Time)
• Processing Messages (only if warnings or errors occurred)
• Warning messages may include notification of missing fonts, or that only the first 25 pages were processed.
• Error messages may include unable to open PDF file due to corrupt file format, encrypted file, or other processing problem.
• Link to retrieve file – Location of the “SVG Package” ZIP file.

To obtain your output click on the Link and a “ZIP” file will be downloaded to your machine. If any processing problems have occurred, they will be included in the message.

If you receive results that you believe are incorrect please notify Texterity via the “Feedback and Comments” page. Remember to include the Ticket Number of the job so that we may more easily help you.

Accessing the SVG Package

Opening and Using the SVG Package

The SVG Package is packaged as a “ZIP file”. The files can be extracted by using the WINZIP utility, which is often included in desktop systems. If you don’t have WINZIP, you may download it from http://www.winzip.com.

To open the package, click the link within the email. Either save the file to your desktop, or select to “Open” the file. At this point, WINZIP will display a dialog box listing the files to extract.

Click the Extract button, and then select the location to which you wish to save the files. You should make sure that:

• “All files” button is selected, and
• “Use folder names” is checked.

Click the Extract button again, and a folder named with the original file name (e.g., if your file was called “Paper.pdf” then the folder will be named “Paper”) will be created.

At this point, open the folder and click on the “index.html” file. This will start up your local web browser, and, if you have installed the Adobe SVG Viewer 3.0, the file should be available for use. If you have not installed the SVG Viewer, you will be prompted to do so.

Posting the Results on Your Web Site

If you wish to post the results on your website, the supplied structure will provide a “ready to go” version. Simply copy the entire directory structure to your web server, and point to the “index.html” file directly.

You will want to include a link for users to download the Adobe SVG Viewer 3.0.

In order to place The “Download SVG Viewer” link on your web site, you need to:

• Proceed to Adobe’s SVG Zone at http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install.
• Click on the “How to Distribute” and “How to use Logos” sections and fill out the required on-line forms. There is no charge for doing this. You can then place the Adobe link directly on your website for your user’s convenience.

Using the Results

All the results are accessible by clicking the “index.html” file in your folder. Once you open this file, you will have access to all the pages in your document, along with search and navigation features. The resulting HTML layout uses standard “icons” for navigating content. If you wish, you may modify the results to fit your needs, including adding custom headers.

Navigation Bar

The top of the page shows the navigation bar.

The navigation bar allows the user to:

• Search the document. If found, a list of the page numbers and “hits” (number of occurrences of the word or words on the page) will be shown in the “Search” tab.
• Move between pages in the document. There are four “arrow” keys that allow the user to move to the first page, last page, next page, and previous page of the document. Or, a specific page number may be used using the “Go to Page” pull-down selection.
• Zoom Factor. The zoom factor may be set to a preset value such as 50%, 100%, 125%, 150%, 200% or 300%. Or, the user may select the ‘Fit Width’ or ‘Fit Height’ option. Using SVG, the redrawing of pages is fast and easy, and maintains the quality of line drawing, vector graphics, and fonts.

NOTE: Self-serve navigation only provides a subset of what is available with the full TextCafe service. Full service options add viewing single or double-page layouts, full-screen viewing mode, and viewing without the SVG Viewer plug-in.

Contents and Search Window

The left-hand window shows the “Contents” and “Search” window. This area is used to display a multi-level Table of Contents (based on the original file bookmarks), and search results. Simply click on the different tabs to display their contents.

Page Display Window

The right-hand window shows the actual page contents. This window is where the SVG page is displayed, along with any search highlights. Any original links to pages or websites will be “hot linkable” in this area.

Reference

TextCafe is a service using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and XML to provide a better alternative to PDF files. TextCafe is a full-service solution including conversion of multiple document libraries, catalogs, magazines, and reference materials. The FreeSVG service is provided as an example of our capabilities. However, we encourage users to take advantage of the FreeSVG service and use its output on web pages.

SVG Package Details

The SVG Package provides an HTML/javascript framework enabling basic viewing and navigation of documents. The files and directories supplied are described as follows:

• index.html file. This is the ‘master file’ to display the content. The HTML uses a three-frame system and javascript to control the navigation, search, and zoom selections.
• SVG directory. Contains the individual SVG pages converted from the PDF files. Each page is named filename_xxxx.svg, where filename is the original name of the file submitted. Additional image files of type JPEG or PNG which are referenced by the SVG pages are also in this directory. If “word searching” is used, each page will contain a onload="initSVG();" statement within the header which is required for synchronization of the self-serve structure to support highlighting. Opening the SVG files directly in a browser will result in a Jscript run-time error when this statement is present.
• IMG directory. Contains the images used by the HTML framework, including the navigation bar and search/table of contents tabs.
• HTM directory. Contains the source code for the frames, as well as additional useful javascript routines for doing search, navigation, and browser checking.
• metadata.js – Contains document-specific information, including file name, number of pages, page number/folio match, and a list of all search terms and locations in the document. No attempt to optimize (compress) the search list is made in this example.
• toc.js – Contains the table of contents information.
• util.js – Contains various utility functions.
• index_pl.js – Left-hand frame code used to display table of contents and search window.
• index_pt.js – Top navigation bar code used to provide search term entry, page navigation, and zooming.
• index_pr.js – Window containing page content, dynamically generated to create SVG reference and highlighting.

About SVG

SVG is the W3C standard (see http://www.w3.org/graphics/SVG) for describing text and graphics in XML. By using PDF (Portable Document Format) as input and PDF to SVG conversion, users can create standard, open, and accessible documents that can be enriched with dynamic links, navigation, and other value-added functionality.