Pdf copy & paste images question

[Amccombs3]

My current project gives me the pattern for parts 56 and 58a, two circles which are the backing for road wheel assemblies — that is, each wheel is built up on top of these plain circles, which are laminated onto 1mm board. I need 12 of one circle and 16 of the other. Each one is a little bigger than an American quarter, as shown.



My printer will scan the page and output it as a pdf file. I would like to copy and paste the part of the page with the circles, so I could print a whole page of them. I would like recommendations for the simplest free program that can do this. I’m trying to avoid a steep learning curve for what seems like a simple task. Thanks!

[whulsey]

If you have one of the last couple of versions of Windows with the 'snipping tool' you can use it to make a jpeg. Then just copy and paste as many as you need into a blank page in any of the office files, either OpenOffice or Word, etc.

[CharlieC]

Gimp will open a .pdf, one page at a time. You can create a new page - Gimp will give you exactly the same format as the page you opened. Then you can select the parts of the original image and paste them into the new image. You can save as a .pdf or print directly from Gimp.

if that's too daunting PM me.

Regards,

Charlie

[Siwi]

paint.NET is an excellent and simple to use image program. You can copy-paste your circles easily.

[SCEtoAUX]

You can use what you most likely already have on your computer. Since your printer generated the pdf it probably has no restrictions on it. Use the Take Snapshot tool in the pdf reader you use and drag the selection box over the circles. It will put the image on the clipboard. Then open Paint and paste the image multiple times.

[Laurence Finston]

Please see attachments. I just used the image you posted. I think the images are probably too big. If so, please post the original PDFs or a JPEG in the correct size and I'll do it again, unless you want to do it yourself. It's possible to scale them, either in GIMP or with EPSF (in the TeX file), but it's easier to just start with them in the correct size.

I used GIMP to cut out the individual circles. The command is "Crop to Selection" in the "Image" menu. Then I exported the resulting images to Circles56.eps and Circles58a.eps, respectively. Then I called the following commands at the command line:

tex Circles.txt
dvipdfmx Circles.dvi

That created Circles.pdf (attached).

The forum won't allow me to upload the EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files, so I exported the images again as JPEGs and uploaded them. Nor would it allow me to upload Circles.tex, so I made a copy and named it Circles.txt (attached).

I divided Circles.pdf into separate pages using this command:
pdfseparate Circles.pdf Circles%d.pdf

That created Circles1.pdf, Circles2.pdf and Circles3.pdf. I then loaded the first two into GIMP and exported them as JPEGs, just so they would be displayed as images at the bottom of this posting. Otherwise, there would have been no need to bother.

Hope this helps.

[Laurence Finston]

This is an ad hoc example of how one could make any desired number of circles of any desired size using only Free Software:

Circles1.ldf.txt (Remove the ".txt" suffix.): 3DLDF code for generating the images.

plainldf.lmc.txt (Remove the ".txt" suffix): A file of 3DLDF macros, included by Circles1.ldf.

Circles1.tex.txt (Remove the ".txt" suffix.): TeX code for including the EPS images generated by running 3DLDF and MetaPost.

Circles1.pdf: The result (5 pages, circles from 1in to 2in diameter in increments of .25in). I used 8 1/2 x 11in (US letter portrait) as the document format.

Circles1_1.jpg: The first page of Circles1.pdf as a JPEG image. Converted using GIMP. I used pdfseparate to extract the first page.

These are the commands:

3dldf Circles1.ldf
mpost Circles1.mp
tex Circles1.tex
dvipdfmx Circles1.dvi
pdfseparate Circles1.pdf Circles1_%d.pdf
gimp Circles1_1.pdf
In GIMP: "Export as", change suffix to "jpg", click export, etc.

Circles1.mp is generated by 3dldf from Circles1.ldf.

3DLDF is available here: 3DLDF - Summary [Savannah]
It can be cloned from the GIT repository using one of these commands:
git://git.savannah.gnu.org/3dldf.git
Index of /git/3dldf.git/
ssh://git.savannah.gnu.org/srv/git/3dldf.git

Tex is available here (among other places): TeX Live - TeX Users Group
MetaPost and dvipdfmx are included in TeXLive and I'm pretty sure pdfseparate is, too.

GIMP is available here: GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program

Since the drawings are 2D, it would, of course, be possible to generate them with MetaPost alone, instead of using 3DLDF. However, there are probably some slight differences in the commands. If one already knows MetaPost, it shouldn't be difficult. Otherwise, it would be a trade-off between learning it or installing 3DLDF.