Copying images from pdf files

Hey all, I used to have Acrobat 7 and just needed to right click on an image in the pdf and it would bring up a menu where I could select Save Image As... and presto save the jpg in my campaign folder and I could pull it up during a session. Now I have a new computer with vista and failed at installing my older Acrobat, and the new version seems to lack the feature. I also downloaded the Foxit Reader, but both will only allow me to save the image to the clipboard.

So am I missing something? How can I select and save images from pdf files for use in FG2? The pdf maps are much better than my hand drawn disasters, and it's frustrating cause it used to be so easy, help :cry:

I have not played around much with ripping maps from PDF. However if you can copy it to your clipboard, you should be able to open photo editing software and paste it to a new blank image.

Also, If I am not mistaken on my copyright law, maps and floor plans can not be copy protected. The image itself is copy protected, but you could use a program like Dundjinni to recreate the map freely.

Obviously any text that goes with the map is copyright. But I dont think that fall into the bounds of the question at hand.

In Acrobat reader you need to activate the selector tool then you can copy paste.

I paste them into Paint.NET and rescale and remove keys to create battle maps and save a seperate copy as the GM copy.

The best way I have found to pull all images in the best format possible is to use xPDF's pdfimages.exe command line tool and tell it to spit out JPG files for each image stored in the PDF. Drop the results into a folder and then it will do the entire PDF at once. You just need to locate the one you want and then rename it as appropriate or resize it as needed.

Download xPDF here: https://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

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Originally Posted by CampbellR66

In Acrobat reader you need to activate the selector tool then you can copy paste.

I paste them into Paint.NET and rescale and remove keys to create battle maps and save a seperate copy as the GM copy.

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I went this route...seems to work fine. bummer that you need to have a new program to do something older versions of adobe did on its own. but oh well, thanks for the help

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Originally Posted by philth

I went this route...seems to work fine. bummer that you need to have a new program to do something older versions of adobe did on its own. but oh well, thanks for the help

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I think I if recall correctly there is also an option in preferences that enables graphics to be selected before text using the regular selection tool. You could try that.

Be warned if you use the snapshot tool (icon of a camera), the graphics original dimensions will be ignored in favour of the current view zoom setting.

When I was porting across pdfs to FGII on some PDFs I could just select the picture and paste it into Gimp, on others I had to use a screen grabber tool.

I think it all depends on the security set upon the PDF to begin with...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ddavison

The best way I have found to pull all images in the best format possible is to use xPDF's pdfimages.exe command line tool and tell it to spit out JPG files for each image stored in the PDF. Drop the results into a folder and then it will do the entire PDF at once. You just need to locate the one you want and then rename it as appropriate or resize it as needed.

Download xPDF here: https://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

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Thanks! That's pretty slick!

Unfortunately, there's a lot of files created and it's hard to navigate. I modified a BAT file from another user on the boards to convert the files to PNG format. Then, you can turn on the "Thumbnail" option in Windows Explorer to find the one you need and delete the ones you don't.

Requires ImageMagick (see this thread) and the above mentioned XPdf

Code:

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PATH=%PATH%;c:\program files\ImageMagick-6.5.7-1
for %%f in (*.ppm) do mogrify -format png "%%f" "%%f"

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doswelk

When I was porting across pdfs to FGII on some PDFs I could just select the picture and paste it into Gimp, on others I had to use a screen grabber tool.

I think it all depends on the security set upon the PDF to begin with...

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Although security may be playing a part I believe it's also down to how the original authoring software produced the PDF and the layering of the objects within the PDF document itself.