Varsuuk
April 29th, 2022, 16:55
I have usually only worked on code or xml with the most vestigial of art ;)
If I want to do something more properly, what are the tools to extract images from PDFs in the best way in order to allow later resizing. I presume extracting in the "native" image properties/resolution to some tiff/png etc? format.
What tools can be used to do this best or easiest or both? Please suggest free/open-source as well as paid if you know of both.
[
EDIT: all the meanderings of my poor memory and attempts to recreate something I might have done "wrong" to begin with ;) - the above is what is import:
1. If I want make a page(s) an image for later resizing - what do I use app wise and if it isn't obvious only - menu path. (Tips on resizing are welcome if there are best practices other than resize 1x only if can)
2. If I want to take a PDF page that is made of multple layers and want to extract each (or some if can choose) layers like in #1 - what app and option
3. If the image is already merged, then I would, what, save in some X fromat from the PDF then use a crop tool in the art app to grab the portion I wanted.
]
-------------------- meanderings on figuring out what I did 2 years ago are below... -----------------------
I started last night extracting images from a PDF for makign a thumbnail and using GIMP, I scaled it to 100x100 and then exported as png.
But when I was trying to recreate extracting of "subimage" stuff - I cannot recall what tools I used.
Just recently, I opened some PDFs in Acrobat and rightclicked a portait to save as and found it stored it as an 833x980 tiff. But this was part of a PDF I did the first pass (wanted to resize my tokens since I did them all at 256 - including adding one of those circles with tokentool (I HATE subjective stuff, never satisfied with placement centering or size lol... sigh). But I found my old "staging directory" filled with images I extracted with names that I am not sure if there the "automatic" name (I seem to recall I opened with and saved to "images" or I used a converter app to save to images - it's all hazy from May of 2020 :(
The above image I saved today, was the same as the "..._0002..." images below so - "save image" from within Acrobat saved it as 833x980
The file names I found were like:
WOTD -TheSurvivors_Page_01_Image_0001.png (pretty sure the method I used befofe extracted to TIFF files and then I saved as png but erased the tiffs at some point...)
WOTD -TheSurvivors_Page_02_Image_0002.png
WOTD -TheSurvivors_Page_02_Image_0003.png
...
But I am not sure. The above may have been me saving parts of the images extracted originally as TIFF. I DID find a directory where there were TIFF images, multiple per "page" of a PDF. In particular, it appeas like it saved each of the 3? layers - Portrait (in a character sheet), Bacxkground (of character sheet) and text (on character sheet) maybe other images extracted too - but I deleted all but the sheet and image/portrait I think. Eventually I must have deleted the TIFFs.
These had names like:
WOTD - Character Sheet - TheSurvivors (filled sheets)_Page_02_Image_0001 (9600x12596 for an unfilled char sheet layer part of next image)
WOTD - Character Sheet - TheSurvivors (filled sheets)_Page_02_Image_0002 (3341x3933 for an image of the character that was in a layer fititng in the "portrait" box of the character sheet.)
So it drives me nuts in 2 ways - 1) I have a crap memory and cannot recall what I did to "bulk extract" the images 2) I don't know what resolution is "right" as the start point before scaling/resizing. I SUSPECT the one with the weird names above because in the import, I recall something about a checkbox to "import native reso" or something similar.
So please, tips from those who convert from the PDF vs getting the original art.
Regards,
Vars
If I want to do something more properly, what are the tools to extract images from PDFs in the best way in order to allow later resizing. I presume extracting in the "native" image properties/resolution to some tiff/png etc? format.
What tools can be used to do this best or easiest or both? Please suggest free/open-source as well as paid if you know of both.
[
EDIT: all the meanderings of my poor memory and attempts to recreate something I might have done "wrong" to begin with ;) - the above is what is import:
1. If I want make a page(s) an image for later resizing - what do I use app wise and if it isn't obvious only - menu path. (Tips on resizing are welcome if there are best practices other than resize 1x only if can)
2. If I want to take a PDF page that is made of multple layers and want to extract each (or some if can choose) layers like in #1 - what app and option
3. If the image is already merged, then I would, what, save in some X fromat from the PDF then use a crop tool in the art app to grab the portion I wanted.
]
-------------------- meanderings on figuring out what I did 2 years ago are below... -----------------------
I started last night extracting images from a PDF for makign a thumbnail and using GIMP, I scaled it to 100x100 and then exported as png.
But when I was trying to recreate extracting of "subimage" stuff - I cannot recall what tools I used.
Just recently, I opened some PDFs in Acrobat and rightclicked a portait to save as and found it stored it as an 833x980 tiff. But this was part of a PDF I did the first pass (wanted to resize my tokens since I did them all at 256 - including adding one of those circles with tokentool (I HATE subjective stuff, never satisfied with placement centering or size lol... sigh). But I found my old "staging directory" filled with images I extracted with names that I am not sure if there the "automatic" name (I seem to recall I opened with and saved to "images" or I used a converter app to save to images - it's all hazy from May of 2020 :(
The above image I saved today, was the same as the "..._0002..." images below so - "save image" from within Acrobat saved it as 833x980
The file names I found were like:
WOTD -TheSurvivors_Page_01_Image_0001.png (pretty sure the method I used befofe extracted to TIFF files and then I saved as png but erased the tiffs at some point...)
WOTD -TheSurvivors_Page_02_Image_0002.png
WOTD -TheSurvivors_Page_02_Image_0003.png
...
But I am not sure. The above may have been me saving parts of the images extracted originally as TIFF. I DID find a directory where there were TIFF images, multiple per "page" of a PDF. In particular, it appeas like it saved each of the 3? layers - Portrait (in a character sheet), Bacxkground (of character sheet) and text (on character sheet) maybe other images extracted too - but I deleted all but the sheet and image/portrait I think. Eventually I must have deleted the TIFFs.
These had names like:
WOTD - Character Sheet - TheSurvivors (filled sheets)_Page_02_Image_0001 (9600x12596 for an unfilled char sheet layer part of next image)
WOTD - Character Sheet - TheSurvivors (filled sheets)_Page_02_Image_0002 (3341x3933 for an image of the character that was in a layer fititng in the "portrait" box of the character sheet.)
So it drives me nuts in 2 ways - 1) I have a crap memory and cannot recall what I did to "bulk extract" the images 2) I don't know what resolution is "right" as the start point before scaling/resizing. I SUSPECT the one with the weird names above because in the import, I recall something about a checkbox to "import native reso" or something similar.
So please, tips from those who convert from the PDF vs getting the original art.
Regards,
Vars