Copying images from Pdf

[Hermundure]

Hi all,

in some long forgotten tutorial concerning FG adventure creation for personal use I saw the youtuber copying images directly out of pdfs with the help of some program, does anyone might have an idea on what tool might be used for such a task?
Taking screenshots has been a bit of a cumbersome progress so far :-/

Thx for the tips in advance.

[Zacchaeus]

I use pdf XChange Viewer which lets you take a snapshot of a page or an image and then paste that into PS or GIMP, do any cropping etc and then export it out as a jpeg.

I think the snapshot tool is available in most pdf readers but I can't swear to that. I think there are packages which say that they'll strip images out of a pdf and I did try one or two of the free ones but none of them worked.

[Trenloe]

Or load the PDF directly into GIMP. GIMP can open PDFs directly.

[Zacchaeus]

Or load the PDF directly into GIMP. GIMP can open PDFs directly.
Now you tell me! Can Photoshop do that too?

[LordEntrails]

Now you tell me! Can Photoshop do that too?
Trenloe HAS told us that before. That's how I know it. (err, unless maybe it was dulux, or damned, or...)

But don't worry, at least I don't expect you to retain 100% of all the things the Immortals share with us :) (Cause I certainly don't!)

[kalmarjan]

Now you tell me! Can Photoshop do that too?

Yes it can :)

[Mortar]

Now that's 2 things i didn't know before.

[Nickademus]

PDFs are Adobe's document format. Photoshop is made by Adobe. I believe almost all the Adobe products can open and utilize the data of all the file formats of other Adobe products.

[JohnD]

Bonus... makes sense which is probably why I never thought to try.

[Varsuuk]

You guys who use Photoshop, I assume use the real deal? I'm bummed I didn't see the subscription model info in time to buy a last nonsub CSx for my wife.I last got her CS4... so it's old.

I also have the simple ps/premier elements bundle (newest...15? unno, haven't opened it yet, got it at $79 for her to use for vids and she misses some views that cs4 didn't offer way she liked it.)But it's part of her xmas stuff.

[kalmarjan]

Photoshop costs 9.99 USD/month as part of a photographer deal, and comes with Lightroom and Bridge as part of the deal. Best investment ever.

Adobe Acrobat pro will allow you to do things to a PDF more than the reader though. There are other's out there. I use Foxit myself.

[LindseyFan]

Now that's 2 things i didn't know before.
"The Hoover Dam was built to last 2,000 years. The concrete in it will not even be fully cured for another 500 years."

[Maspalio]

Photoshop CS4 is not outdated professionnaly speaking. You got a bunch of great things in it and i use it on a daily basis. You can open pdfs directly and specify the resolution of the page you want to convert. Also you can do this with illustrator and get the vector stuff if there is any, which is even better.

[kalmarjan]

Photoshop CS4 is not outdated professionnaly speaking. You got a bunch of great things in it and i use it on a daily basis. You can open pdfs directly and specify the resolution of the page you want to convert. Also you can do this with illustrator and get the vector stuff if there is any, which is even better.

If you can't afford illustrator, Inkscape can do this as well.

[Hermundure]

Now you tell me! Can Photoshop do that too?

Dont be sad Zachh, I work with Photoshop every day for painting stuff but didnt know this pdf thingy ;-)
Also, I have no idea on how to color correct or photobash pictures with PS, its a huge program, hehe.

Oh, edit: Thank you for these tips! (Almost forgot the reason for my reply here!) :-)

[darrenan]

How much of the above info applies to password-protected PDFs? I just tried opening a Paizo PDF in Photoshop and it required a password. I usually use one of two programs in this case: extractpdf.com (website) or A-PDF Image Extractor.

[Zacchaeus]

How much of the above info applies to password-protected PDFs? I just tried opening a Paizo PDF in Photoshop and it required a password. I usually use one of two programs in this case: extractpdf.com (website) or A-PDF Image Extractor.

Protected documents will always be protected of course so the above is only useful for unprotected documents.

[Topdecker]

Nitro Reader 3 (https://www.gonitro.com/pdf-reader)(which has a free version) has the ability to export a PDF out as image files. It does a fair job of this - far from perfect - but good enough to warrant mentioning. I tend to use this when I believe that the embedded images are bigger than what my screen can display and therefore getting the actual images out is beneficial.

[Hurske]

I'm really surprised no one mentioned Gyazo, its a lifesaver for myself whenever I need to screen capture anything. It installs on your pc, and all you do is click a shortcut then mouse drag to select what you want Saved. It auto uploads it so you can share it or save the pic.

[Trenloe]

Yeah, there are many screenshot apps - Windows now comes with it's own ("snipping tool"), I use SnagIt a lot. But, it's nice to be able to get the original image out of the PDF.

[Varsuuk]

Photoshop CS4 is not outdated professionnaly speaking. You got a bunch of great things in it and i use it on a daily basis. You can open pdfs directly and specify the resolution of the page you want to convert. Also you can do this with illustrator and get the vector stuff if there is any, which is even better.

I have ADHD issues ;) never got around to replacing one of her disks. I immediately made a copy onto burned CDs but it seems the original had something wrong (can't recall what - was installed many years ago and again when she went to Win10, reos cos her PC was FULL of leftover crud) and I always have trouble when installing.

It installs, and she uses it (less so now that she no longer does the "Baby Books", for photo edits, she had been using Elements instead - these days since I cannot find her discs for 10, I ordered 15 for her which will give as stocking stuffer) every once in while.

I'm always afraid it will NOT install some day (also, no clue why it gets an error yet finishes and so far never caused her an issue running - prob cos she doesn't use that part?) - do you have any idea if can get ISOs of CS4 somewhere that isn't some pirate site? We have the keys and I can even photograph the Box it came in (I keep her original CDs in it and the old Premier Elements we got back then - hey, it's a nice pretty orange slipcase)

It would be a nice load off my mind to know that she won't eventually be forced to switch (well, until some OS reason she can't run it...)

Not looking to scam anything - no "cracked version" please. She got it pretty cheap, relatively speaking - cost me prob $200 for her? Student discount (of course, she rarely used anything other than Acrobat for school - she is now on Graduate Economist course study ... been a long haul... kid and late life career changes hehe)


Glad to know it is still good to use. If I recall it was 64 bit except some apps in it. I dunno, I don't use it - it's on her PC. Only time I ever load a PSD (not to DO anything lol - to see it) is with Gimp.

[Andraax]

If you can't afford illustrator, Inkscape can do this as well.

As does GIMP.

[gqwebb]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwik3bnD34HRAhUG1CYKHfPKDnIQ0EMIHA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irfanview.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNHUS2rDnW5eC14YE7BxCpDK186zhA&sig2=t70t4VYqP5Pc0bYPE_fHdA&bvm=bv.142059868,d.eWE This program is great for basic picture everything.

[LordEntrails]

So, I've got the same need here. To get images out of a pdf. What I do is to select the picture in Acrobat Reader and then Paste into Gimp.

Works great except for images that use transparency. Instead of coming in with a transparent background, they come in with a solid black background. Is there a way in Gimp to fix/resolve/correct this?

[darrenan]

If the PDF is using transparencies then typically there are two different images in the PDF that are being combined. In this case you will need to use one of the aforementioned tools (see my post above for a couple free options) to extract images from the PDF, in which case you will get both the image and a B/W mask image with the same dimensions. Example:

17934

If GIMP is anything like Photoshop, you would paste the image into one layer, paste the mask into a layer above that and invert it, and then set the combine mode to "Screen" (it might be called something else in GIMP, just experiment with the different available modes for combining two layers). Perhaps the GIMP experts can chime in here...

Without the mask, you can try doing a fill in the black areas. But it won't look 'clean' without the mask.

[Andraax]

Why don't you just open the PDF in GIMP?

[LordEntrails]

Why don't you just open the PDF in GIMP?

Because if I do that then I get the image overlaid on the page background and loose the transparency. It works fine for a map or rectangular image, but not for something like this;
17935

FYI, it comes in looking like this;
17936

Will try the fill and the other tools mentioned before.

[Andraax]

Once you get it in, just use the "select foreground" tool to pull out the image.

[LordEntrails]

Once you get it in, just use the "select foreground" tool to pull out the image.
I didn't know that!

[Andraax]

https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-foreground-select.html

[Topdecker]

Nitro Reader 3 - which has a free demo - has a single button export that will extract all of the images in whatever format they were stored in. It will look a little odd as the various wing-dings, page elements, and semi-transparencies will get dumped out as well as the larger images you want.

[Nickademus]

Nitro (which I use) crashes a lot and sometimes removes words from images due to them being on a different layer. Not always what you want, but another option.

[mhorgunn]

Yes it can :)l

That's what I love about this forum ... you are always learning something.

[Ken L]

mutool extract <pdfname>

Linux, perhapd Mac and Windows with shell environs; extracts all PDF images and their separate alpha layers for recombination though grayscale blending. I answered a post about this awhile ago with image examples somewhere.

[LordEntrails]

mupdf extract <pdfname> <destination>

Linux, perhapd Mac and Windows with shell environs; extracts all PDF images and their separate alpha layers for recombination though grayscale blending. I answered a post about this awhile ago with image examples somewhere.
Yea, I saw that. Was hoping to avoid having to go to that length though. We'll see. :)

[Ken L]

Yea, I saw that. Was hoping to avoid having to go to that length though. We'll see. :)

It's not really that difficult, and actually I wrote the command wrong (it's been awhile since I needed to do this), I've edited my prior post with the correct command.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?28011-Capturing-images-from-PDF-docs&highlight=pdf+export

^ there is the said topic.

[pindercarl]

@Varsuuk You can download legacy applications directly from Adobe. https://www.adobe.com/downloads/other-downloads.html