pdf2ppt's Introduction

pdf2ppt

Convert PDF Slides to PowerPoint Presentations (PPT)

Motivation

LaTeX users can easily convert the beamer slides in PDF to PPT.

Features

vector graph (highest resolution) in generated PPT
metadata (including title, author) conversion
auto-detection of slide size and aspect ratio

Dependency

Python >= 3.9: This project heavily relies on python-pptx. (Other required packages: pypdf, tqdm. Check requirements.txt)
pdf2svg: used for converting PDF to SVG
Inkscape: used for converting SVG to EMF

Technical Implementation

The first step is to create SVG from PDF via pdf2svg.
Due to the limitation of python-pptx, we need to convert SVG to EMF via inkscape.
Insert EMF into PPT via python-pptx.

Note

python3, pdf2svg and inkscape should be in your PATH. Alternatively, --pdf2svg-path and --inkscape-path options can be used to specify their paths.

Usage

Installation

Use git to clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/Teddy-van-Jerry/pdf2ppt.git --depth=1

If you only want the latest Python script, you can directly download the source file.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Teddy-van-Jerry/pdf2ppt/master/pdf2ppt

For non-Windows users, use make install to install the script to /usr/local/bin (which should be in your PATH variable).

Tip

Make sure you have the dependency installed.

Command Line Options

You can use pdf2ppt -h to view all options.

Quick Start

Note

If you have not installed pdf2ppt to your PATH, you need to use ./pdf2ppt in the correct directory.

Specifying the output file name.

pdf2ppt input.pdf output.pptx

Without specifying output file name. The output will be input.pptx under the same directory of input.

pdf2ppt input.pdf

Toggle verbose mode.

pdf2ppt input.pdf output.pptx --verbose

Known Issues

Transparent Background

Unfortunately, elements with transparency are not supported by the project, due to limitations of the dependency. You will receive a warning when such issues are detected, and you can copy the generated SVG manually to fix the problem. View #1 for more details.

License

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pdf2ppt's Issues

Failed to run pdf2svg!

i have a issue for
sh: 1: pdf2svg: not found
ERROR: Failed to run pdf2svg!

Option to Use PNG Output Instead of EMF

Proposed Enhancement

Add the option to use PNG instead of EMF in PPT. This can bring better compatibility.
Add the option to use PNG for affected pages in #1.

Filters in SVG Not Exported Correctly to EMF

Problem Description
When the exported SVG contains filter, for example filter="url(#filter-remove-color)" and filter="url(#filter-color-to-alpha)", Inkscape will ignore the filters, resulting in display errors in EMF.

Problem Causes
Let's analyze the problem step by step. It is a chain of dependency issues that we can hardly mitigate in this project.

Firstly, when the PDF contains some images with transparency, pdf2svg will convert them as <image /> with filters used. This behavior, unfortunately, goes down to its own dependency.
dawbarton/pdf2svg#22
When Inkscape ignores filters, the transparency is gone, resulting in black blocks which are annoying.
https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/3858
https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/2275
As such, the generated PPT file is not accurate and requires manual editing.

Mitigation Thoughts

The first thing to avoid is using transparency in creating PDF (I think you are using LaTeX with the beamer class), though this can be hard. Avoid PNG with transparency. Avoid using PDF generated from other applications (which can contain transparency somewhere you are unaware of). The alternative is to always favor TikZ, which produces better quality. Note that try to reduce the use of opacity in TikZ as well, and use pseudo-opacity, like blue!10 on a white background.
I will do some checks on SVG in the pdf2ppt project to produce warnings on affected slide pages, so you can copy and paste the original SVG to PPT manually.

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teddy-van-jerry / pdf2ppt Goto Github PK