Adobe PDF

PDF files be a popular option fer storin' and printin' chord charts and lyrics sheets, savvy? Ye may have been usin' PDF files fer years t' catalog yer digital library. Th' Adobe PDF file format be great fer accurately representin' th' printed page and be portable between different computer platforms. Let's take a look at some challenges with this file format and ways we can extract text fer best results, matey.

Adobe PDF files be displayed "as-is" in OnSong and can't be edited, formatted, or participate in low light mode. While these files may contain text, it be placed on th' virtual page in a way that enables it t' be printed, and not easily understood or modified by other apps. In addition, PDF files can also be comprised o' graphics or scanned images, or any combination o' these. They can also be encrypted, protectin' their contents from bein' extracted. Because o' this, every PDF file be different so there be no way t' handle perfect conversion into a text-based document.

Ye can extract th' text o' a PDF file within OnSong usin' th' Song Editor and tappin' on th' Extract Text button in th' Conversion Toolbar that appears before th' on-screen keyboard be revealed. OnSong will attempt t' extract th' text from th' PDF file first, and if no text be available, it will process th' file usin' Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Th' result will most likely end with text, but ye will need t' review and tweak th' text into a file format that OnSong understands. In addition, if th' file was encrypted, th' result o' th' extraction may result in garbled characters. These files be not able t' be extracted due t' th' protection applied t' them by th' authoring software.

Here be some issues ye may have with extracted PDF files:

Bad Spacin'

Ye may find that some text be placed out o' order, or with poor spacin'. This be because PDF files may use text shortcuts t' align text usin' multiple text fragments. OnSong works t' place these text fragments in proximity t' each other usin' frame proximity calculations, but there may still be issues that require ye t' manually correct this.

Chords with Extra Spaces

Every chord chart be created differently dependin' on th' author and th' software used. Fer instance, th' original file may have had multiple space characters used t' align chords above lyrics. If a variable-width font be used, this may result in many more spaces bein' used then th' lyrics below. Use Fix Alignment Spaces found in th' Text Tools Menu found in th' Menubar o' th' Song Editor t' bring those chords back closer t' their position and then manually adjust as needed.

Compressed Chords

Another problem may be chords that be too close together on a line above th' chords. This can happen if chords were originally placed into text boxes and then aligned above chords. Ye will need t' manually align those chords over th' correspondin' lyrics in th' Song Editor.

Garbled Characters

If ye attempt t' extract text from an encrypted PDF document, it may result in a screen full o' characters. Ye will need t' revert th' extraction process or cancel out o' th' Song Editor and find a different way t' extract text.

Unrecognized Characters

If OnSong cannot extract th' text from th' document directly, it may need t' submit th' document t' optical character recognition (OCR). This means that a computer will attempt t' "read" th' document visually. Dependin' on th' quality o' th' PDF, this may result in th' improper character bein' used. Fer instance, if yer document had a flat symbol, it may be interpreted as a lowercase letter "b", or if th' PDF was scanned, faded text may result in other characters. Review th' document and make these manual changes as needed in th' Song Editor.