Search code examples
ruby-on-railsrubyruby-on-rails-3rubygemsruby-on-rails-plugins

Rails Document Conversion Suggestion

Hi I am currently learning rails, day to day i get more attached. I would like to use Rails to build a Web app with similar functionality like http://www.scribd.com/ or docstoc . What components/gems/plugins/libraries in Rails or Ruby could be used to create a web app with similar functionallity. The web app should be have the

  • Epub coversion to image(jpeg) as well as pdf *PDF conversion to image (jpeg) as well as epub **PDF to Epub

I would just like suggestion on the libraries or plugins etc to use to obtain the above functions using Rails.

Looking forward to your answers soon Thanks

Solution

  • I recommend rmagick. Just install ghostscript as well, and you should be up and running with PDF to JPG/PNG or more or less any image format.

    More about rmagick: http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/

    rmagick uses ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick, which are two powerhorses for image handling. Both can use PDF through GhostScript.

    As for Epub, I do think you need to look into doing epub -> pdf -> jpg/png. You can read about epub conversion on *nix here: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1491373

    Most likely you can use this tool epub2pdf.com to do command line conversion of a epub to pdf, then use rmagick for a png/jpg.