.tif to .pdf

Sure thing !

Adobe Acrobat Distiller 9.

also

http://www.acrobat.com and many other free online services

also

-- look, just search for TIFF to PDF in Google - ther must be a bazzilion of them

distiller will convert the files without ever having to touch your computer? I found a ton of batch convering software but could not find anything that can be installed on a server and do it for you without ever needing to touch the software except setting it up for the first time.

okay, having an application watch a folder on a network - is this an issue for you ? I ask this as perhaps your notion of a 'server' needs to be adjusted, as if a computer is available on a network, you can set it up so any user can drop files into a folder remotely, and that remote computer can then watch a folder/directory, have an application convert, then drop the converted file into another 'processed' folder....

Do you have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Professional (I use 9, but the Batch feature has been around for several versions...


you fail to mention what KIND of files you want to convert to PDF...

are they, JPEGs, TIFFs PNG - are the HTML, SWF - are they application files like WORD or EXCEL - what kind of INPUT files ?

you also fail to mention what KIND of PDF you want at the end of this 'watched folder process" - are you needing simple 'image to PDF" for distribution, are these images needing to be converted for POD or do these scans need to be OCRed so the scan files are then searchable ?

http://odeo.com/episodes/23097780-Batch-Processing-with-Adobe-Acrobat-9-Professional

or

http://cspodcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=360979#

( same podcast - )

Hope that helps.

I consult with a company that develops and sells a solution that converts images dropped into an FTP site or a watched networked server, applies image processing to the images (typically 600ppi TIFF files) and convert them to optimised page segmented PDF files to be used for Print - the black text is converted from the input scan (greyscale, RGB) to 1 bit, while all images are automasked and descreened. Customers who need to convert paper documents (books mostly) Amazon/BookSurge, Lightning Source and Bibliobazaar into 'ready to print" PDF files also buy the editing suite to touch/modify pages that may have has dirt or wringles that need to be repaired/removed.

But all you need to automatically convert an image file into a PDF using a drag and drop method over a network is Adobe Acrobat Pro. Version 9 offers the best feature set, and this works fine on XP, Vista or Macintosh.

Michael Jahn
Jahn & Associates
PDF Color Conversion Specialist
1824 North Garvin Avenue
Simi Valley
California 93065
Office: (805) 527 8130
Cell: (805) 217 6741
Email: michaelejahn [at] gmail [dot] com
Skype: michaelejahn
Twitter: http://twitter.com/michaelejahn

they are .tiff files that will be coming into the folder and they need to come out in a .pdf sheet. We were going to have a remote server take care of the files but if a computer can do it with Pro then we will do that. Does Standard not have the capability of doing this? I know my version came with distiller. Thanks

TIFF to PDF - no problem. This is done in ACROBAT, not using Distiller - this is a PDF Library that simply converts the TIFF to PDF (more like 'save as PDF" in Photoshop, you understand?) - since there is no PostScript to parce and translate into a PDF, no need for Distiller.

You will need Pro, sorry, Standard does not offer batch.

now, if you want really really fast performance...

http://www.elan-gmk.com/Products/Converter/

(I consult with them, Lawrence Livermore, the Air Force - people who need to process millions of image into PDF, they use this..)

Anthother developer of note (a friend of mine works there)

http://www.acrobatusers.com/acrobat_resources/plugins/bcltechnologies/

I have a silly page here to demo "web page to PDF";

http://elephantskinpithhelmut.blogspot.com/

(note that small button at top center of the page)

Learn more here;

http://www.bcltechnologies.com/

Two other solutions for TIFF to PDF that you may want to consider -

Adobe Capture
(Capture Cluster is particularly nice) and

AdLib Server

Be well...

@ daka630 - wha.. ?

why on earth would you recommend Adobe Acrobat Capture?

- the code base has not been updated since its release in 2003 (3.0.5) !

http://www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?WebPageID=872

It was crappy back then, I know of few people who use it today ...

but I like the sound of that AdLib Server

http://www.adlibsoftware.com/server-products.aspx

but if we want the buzzers and whistles for real "translation", you really can't beat the leader - http://www.abbyy.com/OCR-server/

(if you need the best OCR anyway)

but if it is just dropping TIFF into some folder and converting to a PDF - Acrobat 9 Pro running on some networked box is almost overkill

Hi Michael,
Yes, AdLib Server is sweet (subject to WAN congestion / Server "burbs" not resulting in lost production).
Adobe Capture? A co-worker & I have used Capture Cluster for sometime as well. Old code? Ok.
Regardless, once you have optimized your work flow profiles, the output is consistently good.
The output rate is brisk & never an issue of an "overnight burb" of the network resulting in lost production.
TIFF in with PDF - PDF with OCR - PDF with OCR & a text file of the OCR as our possible outputs.
So, old code - yes; but "paid for" and most acceptable output make it a reliable "work horse" for us even today. Over the past years it has served us well.

With that said, it is always nice to have contemporary applications, eh?
Just a question of who pays .Be well...

ahh

- well, not so much (on the 'always nice to have contemporary applications..")

ELAN Capture has a very old code base as well, but everyone who wants really fast conversion and millions of files - without restarting - ELAN Capture is a workhorse.

Now, if I had to buy a new Vista box for a project, that would be the differentiators - price or performance.

as for Capture Cluster's OCR - what engine did they licence - for some reason my brian cells keep saying Capture was a deal gone bad with ArbourText or something like that - ELAN is based on ParaScript - of course, if you are doing paper to eBook, it is off to India for Double Type services, as OCR is always problematic.

http://www.ioflex.com/imagecompare/Compare.asp?Image=00007.tif&Loc=6x5color printing with dots needs descreening (to avoid moire) and 'crispening' of the type (not USM)

Hey its simple, try using Magic PDF software. You can check it out at. www.magic-PDF.com.

This application does not seem to want to launch on Vista (x64).

This application does not seem to provide support for what the original post requested, which was a method to convert image files like TIFF into PDF but watching a folder - I do not see "holdfolder support" or "watched folder" listed as a feature.