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Thread: RE: PDF conversions?

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From: MacKay, Graham (JUS)
Date: Thu, Oct 17 2002 4:45PM
Subject: RE: PDF conversions?
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Glenda, our department is battling this very topic right now... It is a HUGE
task, depending on the complexity of the document. The product you're
interested in is called "Capture" from Adobe, I believe there also a plug-in
(not sure if it is free or not) from Adobe for Acrobat called the "Paper
Capture Plugin".

Some things you should know: to be accessible, all pictures must have ALT
TEXT defined in Acrobat for the image, the files must be "tagged PDF files",
they must contain structure information and formatting information, etc.
There are a few good documents on the W3C site, in particular one aimed at
developers which sheds some light on the scope of this issue called "PDF
Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and 2.0" also two
docs on Adobe accessibility site called "How to Create Accessible Adobe PDF
Files" and "Advanced Techniques for Creating Accessible Adobe PDF Files".
But beware, there is more than meets the eye than in the Adobe manuals...
also, if you're dealing with FORMS... good luck :) They are NOT easy.

Lastly, there is no COMPLETELY automatic solution to converting them. While
"Capture" like products help a lot, they still must be manually edited and
checked.


Cheers,
G




-----Original Message-----
From: Glenda Watson Hyatt [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]

A potential client needs image PDFs converted into accessible HTML. Is
there a fairly neat and painless way of doing that? I'm ASSUMING original
documents were scanned and saved as PDF, now they need to be made
accessible.

Any thoughts?




--
Graham MacKay
Web Developer (OIP I&IT Intern)
Enterprise Application Services
Integrated Justice Information Technology Division
Ministry of Public Safety and Security
The Provincial Government of Ontario

18 King Street East, 18th Floor
Toronto, ON M5C 2X1

Email: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Phone: 416.326.9993
Fax: 416.314.0216


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