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Windows Tutorial to annotate & print family calendar at home on 8.5x11 paper (please improve for all to benefit)
New tutorial to annotate & print family calendar at home on 8.5x11 paper
(*Please improve with on-topic value for all to benefit*, as always) GOAL: A. Find an editable source for the basic USA calendar template B. Add holidays, anniversaries, birthdays & other family events C. Print as needed & email to family members CONSTRAINTS: a. Need a *better* more _editable_ original starting file format! b. Need better conversion/editing software for PDF edits! c. Standard caveats: freeware, no ads, no login, no personal data online! First-pass (alpha) solution (please improve to beta level!): 1. Point a web browser to http://print-a-calendar.com/july-2019 2. Optionally, press "Add Holidays" (if desired) 3. Press the print button & save as a landscaped 8.5x11" PDF file 4. Repeat for as many months as desired 5. PDFtk concatenate individual PDF files into a single PDF file 6. Intelligently convert/edit the PDF file to add family & local events 7. Print to landscaped 8.5x11-inch paper (email to the rest of your family) Concatenation: 1. The first method I tried worked wonderfully, which is PDFtk 2. Download & install PDF Toolkit freeware (the server GUI is fine) 3. https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/ Conversion of PDF to Microsoft Office: 1. The first method I tried worked but it required payware 2. So it is not a general purpose solution that all others can use 3. What we need is a better STARTING FORMAT than PDF! Editing of the PDF using Irfanview and/or Paint.NET 64-bit freewa 1. Download & install Ghostscript (match the 64-bit to your editor!) 2. Ghostscript is confusing in that there are too _many_ sources! 3. I installed the -1 version below, which also worked with Paint.NET https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl-downloads/releases/download/gs926/gs926aw64.exe Editing of the PDF text using Irfanview: 1. Install 64-bit Irfanview & 64-bit plugins as you would normally 2. https://www.irfanview.com/ (it will "see" Ghostscript in the Registry) 3. Irfanview + Ghostscript can add text to the multi-page PDF calendar Editing of the PDF text using Paint.NET (much better than Irfanview): 1. Install Paint.NET (which will install .NET Framework) 2. https://www.getpaint.net/download.html 3. Install the PDF open/save plugins for reading/editing/writing PDF files 4. https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/22863-portable-document-format-filetype-plugin-pdf/ Editing of the PDF text using Adobe Acrobat DC reader (for existing text): 1. Install Adobe Acrobat DC (reader) using the full offline installer 2. https://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/?scid=social46788336 3. Edit using the "comment" feature as kindly explained by Keith Nuttle: o Better way to edit PDF forms with any desired font using freeware? https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.comp.freeware/LkL6FcxJCD0/TSw7nA_ZAwAJ Installing the PDF open plugin for Paint.NET (needs Ghostscript!): 1. Obtain the imPDF.Open Paint.NET plugin zip file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ol6yw90do7ciwkv/ImPDF.Open.FileType%20v1.1.zip Choose "Direct Download" (no need to log in). 2. Extract "ImPDF.Open.FileType v1.1.zip" to "ImPDF.Open.FileType v1.1": OptionBasedLibrary v0.6.dlc (put this in the Paint.NET\ folder) OptionBasedLibrary v0.6.dll (put this in the Paint.NET\ folder) --- ImPDF.Open.FileType.dlc (put this in the Paint.NET\FileTypes\ folder) ImPDF.Open.FileType.dll (put this in the Paint.NET\FileTypes\ folder) --- ImPDF.Open.FileType.ReadMe.txt 3. Copy two "OptionBasedLibrary" dll/dlc files to the Paint.NET folder: "C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\OptionBasedLibrary vX.X.dll" "C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\OptionBasedLibrary vX.X..dlc" 4. Copy two "OpenFileType" dll/dlc files to the Paint.NET folder: "C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\ImPDF.Open.FileType.dlc" "C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\ImPDF.Open.FileType.dll" Installing the PDF save plugin for Paint.NET (needs Ghostscript!): 5. Obtain the imPDF.Save Paint.NET plugin zip file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jb7gy8h3jvkfks7/ImPDF.Save.FileType%20v1.4.zip Choose "Direct Download" (no need to log in). 6. Extract "ImPDF.Save.FileType v1.4.zip" to "ImPDF.Save.FileType v1.4": ImPDF.Command.exe (put this in the Paint.NET\FileTypes\ folder) ImPDF.Save.FileType.dll (put this in the Paint.NET\FileTypes\ folder) ImPDF.Save.FileType.readme.txt 7. Copy two "SaveFileType" dll/exe files to the Paint.NET FileTypes folder: "C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\FileTypes\ImPDF.Save.FileType.dll" "C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\FileTypes\ImPDF.Command.exe" Reason for Ghostscript: It's needed for Irfanview & Paint.NET to edit/save PDF. Advantage Irfanview: Far faster saving of files than any other known method. Advantage Paint.NET: Far better PDF text annotation than any known method. Disadvantage Irfanview: Horrid text editing (the worst of the worst in fact). Disadvanrtage Paint.NET: Net Franework & the PDF save is painfully slow. General purpose PDF editing summary of use to all Windows users: [x] Fast PDF reader: (Sumatra PDF freeware) [x] Archive sites (wkhtmltopdf freeware, Acrobat payware) [x] Add or concatonate pages (pdftk freeware, acrobat payware) [x] Remove pages (pdfsam freeware, pdftk freeware) [x] Rotate pages (Acrobat Reader freeware) [x] Renumber pages (Acrobat Reader freeware) [x] Remove restrictions (Ghostscript/Ghostview freeware) [x] Merge PDFs (pdfsam freeware, pdftk freeware) [x] Extract images (PDF Exchange Viewer freeware) [x] Edit PDF existing text (Acrobat commenting freeware, Acrobat payware) [x] Print sans username in the properties (Libre Office Writer) [_] Print book format PDF (FinePrint payware) [x] Tile PDFs (i.e., to print large posters) (Posterazor freeware) [x] Create PDF new text (Irfanview or Paint.NET freeware plugins + Ghostscript freeware) Tested with the following software versions: o 64-bit Windows 10 Pro 1809 o 64-bit Ghostscript version 9.26 (notice this is the penultimate version) o 64-bit Paint.NET version 4.2 (latest version) o imPDF Open & Save plugins, version 0.6 (latest version) o 64-bit Irfanview version 4.50 (slightly older version) Improvements for a general purpose family calendar solution suggested: 1. *Need a better (more editable) starting format.* 2. If we use PDF, *we need better PDF text annotation editing freeware.* 3. Best would be a usable *free PDF conversion tool to MS Office.* -- The goal is a "general purpose" solution, which almost always means freeware, where, in addition, the goal is to be intelligent so as to store zero personal data on the Internet. Note that "editing" in this sense means "adding" text, such as family birthdays, anniversaries, and local events. (Removing text is trivial - but "changing" existing text is not expected.) |
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