Is the PDF2DTP plugin for InDesign worth the money?
Thread poster: Diana Tarré
Diana Tarré
Diana Tarré
Portugal
Local time: 22:42
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Dec 1, 2014

Dear colleagues,

I hope you're all well.

I am thinking about getting PDF2DTP by Markzware to convert .pdf files from clients into .indd files.

Here is the product's website: http://markzware.com/products/pdf2dtp/

Does anyone have this? Is it worth the EUR 199?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Diana


 
Michael Grant
Michael Grant
Japan
Local time: 07:42
Japanese to English
With PDFs, there is no panacea... Dec 2, 2014

Diana,

I would be extremely hesitant to spend 200 Euro on software like this unless I was able to try it first.
See if there is a trial version you can use to test a few of your PDF files. At the very least, before you decide to buy, download the documentation (below) and read the "known limitations" (starting on page 61 of the "Perpetual Bundle" version of the PDF). For one thing, I know it does not convert hyperlinks.
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Diana,

I would be extremely hesitant to spend 200 Euro on software like this unless I was able to try it first.
See if there is a trial version you can use to test a few of your PDF files. At the very least, before you decide to buy, download the documentation (below) and read the "known limitations" (starting on page 61 of the "Perpetual Bundle" version of the PDF). For one thing, I know it does not convert hyperlinks.

http://markzware.com/downloads/documentation/PDF2DTP_for_InDesign_CS6_Mac-Win_Perpetual_Bundle_Manual.pdf

Even if you are lucky enough to have PDFs with selectable text (i.e. not scanned images), you are still likely to get resulting text that's out of order, runs off the end of the page, etc., etc. And no program can capture the formatting 100% accurately: you will still have to do a lot of checking and tweaking of textboxes and formatting no matter what.

PDFs are a mess of objects and "object ranges" that have no direct relation to the formatting of the document, so the developer needs to have an excellent understanding of the PDF specification in order to do a decent job of converting them.

In any case, see if you can try a trial version on your own machine; with your own PDF files, before you think of buying.

Michael

[Edited at 2014-12-02 08:36 GMT]
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Dominique Pivard
Dominique Pivard  Identity Verified
Local time: 00:42
Finnish to French
Ask for a trial Dec 2, 2014

It's the first time I hear about this program. My first reaction would be to be skeptical about it. Given it's not especially cheap, I'd definitely ask for a trial before making a financial commitment.

 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 19:42
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Some thoughts Dec 2, 2014

I assume your intent is to translate PDF files, and then fix DTP issues resulting from text swelling. I also assume you are an InDesign wizard.

I should be an InDesign wizard, after having used PageMaker (its father) for 25+ years. Colleagues have told me they think it should take me no more than a couple of hours to be flying high with InDesign. However I haven't yet faced a DTP challenge I couldn't do with PageMaker v6.52 (PM v7 is worse).

You ask whether PDF2DTP wort
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I assume your intent is to translate PDF files, and then fix DTP issues resulting from text swelling. I also assume you are an InDesign wizard.

I should be an InDesign wizard, after having used PageMaker (its father) for 25+ years. Colleagues have told me they think it should take me no more than a couple of hours to be flying high with InDesign. However I haven't yet faced a DTP challenge I couldn't do with PageMaker v6.52 (PM v7 is worse).

You ask whether PDF2DTP worth EUR 199. Well, you'd have to add the cost of InDesign to get to your final solution.

I have been doing the same, i.e. translating "distilled" PDFs and fixing layout issues with Infix Pro, USD 160, somewhat cheaper, yet self-standing. You can check a typical workflow on a walk-through I have published at http://www.lamensdorf.com.br/translating-a-pdf.html .

The truth is yes, I would do those DTP adjustments somewhat faster in PageMaker than I do them in Infix, but I guess that translation goes faster working on pure TXT than having a CAT tool going into an .indd file.

Infix's free demo is 100% functional, however it will rubberstamp all your pages with some 'done with a free demo' message. This stamp will disappear when you save it with the registered program.

At least now you have something to compare.
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Diana Tarré
Diana Tarré
Portugal
Local time: 22:42
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you for your replies Dec 2, 2014

Thank you for your replies, Dominique and José.

I might ask them for a trial, as Dominique suggested. Let's see if it works out. I'll keep you posted!

I will also try the demo version of Infix. Thank you for the tip, José.

I wish you both a great week.

Diana


 
Sorour
Sorour
Local time: 23:42
Italian to Arabic
+ ...
good plugin but not enough Dec 2, 2014

I have an old version under Indesign CS4, It work fine, but result PDF need a lot of work to be adjusted. it's a good for small pdf (few pages) but not really for long documents.

NB: there's 2 plugin to convert PDF to INDD: Recosoft and Markzware plug-in

link that may help
... See more
I have an old version under Indesign CS4, It work fine, but result PDF need a lot of work to be adjusted. it's a good for small pdf (few pages) but not really for long documents.

NB: there's 2 plugin to convert PDF to INDD: Recosoft and Markzware plug-in

link that may help:
http://indesignsecrets.com/recosoft-ships-pdf2id-conversion-tool.php

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1403817

Sorour


[Modificato alle 2014-12-02 12:20 GMT]
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Joakim Braun
Joakim Braun  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 23:42
German to Swedish
+ ...
Forget it Dec 2, 2014

Speaking as a professional designer, let me say this:

There is no magical solution that can turn a PDF into a print-ready Indesign file.
There can't be, because a PDF doesn't contain the information needed to recreate a useable Indesign file.


There are dozens of technical issues here: typography, styles, custom lines, color management, tables, image resolution, image editability, transparency, story threading, Open Type, overprint, etc etc.

... See more
Speaking as a professional designer, let me say this:

There is no magical solution that can turn a PDF into a print-ready Indesign file.
There can't be, because a PDF doesn't contain the information needed to recreate a useable Indesign file.


There are dozens of technical issues here: typography, styles, custom lines, color management, tables, image resolution, image editability, transparency, story threading, Open Type, overprint, etc etc.

There might be the occasional job with very simple layouts indeed where a conversion would be workable.

But any professional designer would prefer to recreate the entire file from scratch using a plaintext translation to working with some mess that a tool has created from a PDF. It would probably save time, too.

(Try the tool by all means, but learning how to use Indesign is a much better investment of time and money!)

[Edited at 2014-12-02 18:32 GMT]
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Is the PDF2DTP plugin for InDesign worth the money?






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