Real Clutter-free PDF?

DEVONthink
1

How are clutter-free PDFs generated? To me it looks like they are really clutter-free Markdowns which then are just converted to PDF, because visually they are a lot closer to the normal Markdowns than to the normal PDFs.

Any way to tweak this, so that the clutter-free PDFs look more like the normal PDFs?

2

No, there are no user-defined controls for the clutter-free capture.

3

Thanks Jim.

I feared that, but good to know.

4

No problem.

5

No idea what youā€™re after exactly. What are ā€˜normal PDFsā€™ youā€™re referring to? Do you mean print-layout, full-page renders or something different?

You could try your luck with things like Readability.js (you can inject that in the viewer window e.g.) or Instapaper layout like mentioned here: Possible to view uncluttered bookmarked webpages in DTP? - #3 by acoyne

6

Sorry, if I was not clear: With ā€œnormal PDFā€ I meant a PDF the DEVONthink clipper generates when clutter-free is not ticked.

Cool. Didnā€™t know about the separate Readability.js.

My experiments with Instapaper Text and Safari Reader told me, this all works reasonably well for things like blog posts, but often it doesnā€™t perform well enough for product pages (from online shops, etc).

I really wish for a easy workflow for Browser image to PDF to DEVONthink!

7

Are you not just searching for a way to get normal PDFs? What extra functionality / stripping do you need? You can generate PDFs in a plethora of ways: Wrong text (layer) when capture PDF from viewer window - #15 by mdbraber

There are many examples of ways to capture PD on this forum, e.g. check out this script @mhucka made

1 Like
8

I do too. In the meantime, Iā€™m using Safariā€™s File > Export as PDF feature, which is a full-page screenshot with working links and text layer that saves the page as you see it in the browser (no ads when using content blockers).

There are no alternatives for that feature and every other solution has downsides.

9

Well, I have have different niggles:

  • As said for product pages the Clip to PDF often does not work well
  • If it works then you get a lot of white space in the margins (which you do not get with webarchives).
  • Sometimes I want to get ride of side menues, etc

I guess often I just need to try different ways to capture the webpageā€¦

Thanks for the links! :slight_smile: Will need to try things out.

10

Hey, thatā€™s a good one! Super thanks!

1 Like
11

You could

  • select a part of the website
  • drag it onto DEVONthinkā€™s icon in the dock
    (this creates a webarchive of the selected part)
  • convert the webarchive to PDF
    (Data > Convert > to paginated PDF)

Thereā€™s also a Smart Rule script which moves a webarchive into the current group and selects it so one can see whether everythings fine. If youā€™re capturing a lot webarchives thatā€™s a very comfortable way as you donā€™t need to select the destination group each time and the result can be checked without switching between Safari and DEVONthink.

2 Likes