PDF Conversion to an FG Module: Information Index

[Minty23185Fresh]

Update October 2022

At this point, this thread is most likely, seriously out of date.

There may still be relevant information in the thread, but personally, as the original author, I recommend you consider stop reading it right now.


The index is in posts 2 & 3 of this thread (below).



Begin pre-"ramble":
I'll start with: I am attempting my first conversion of a PDF that I bought on DriveThruRPG/DMs Guild to a Fantasy Grounds Module. The eventual intent is to present it to Smiteworks for resale through their store.

I'm finding this is an incredibly laborious task and fraught with pitfalls. There is a lot of information in the forum threads, but trying to find it, digest it and separate out the nuggets of insight, in threads that have been hijacked, digressed and polluted is often a challenge in itself.

I'm going to grab the banner and try to provide an index to those nuggets of information, and hopefully glean some information of my own here in this thread. A one stop shopping site so-to-speak. I have to work through this whole process, so I might as well document it.

When I first started working on the conversion I thought, here's a way to pick up a little bit of $$$. And now for the first nugget: The operative word here is little. I'm lucky if I can convert 10 pages a day. For a 300 page adventure, optimally that's a month's worth of worth. After percentage cuts and stuff, I'll be surprised if I make 10 cents and hour. So this is a labor of love, not a career opportunity.

Now for the crowd sourcing pitch.. If you have a thread or document you go back to time and again and would like to share it, please do, we'll all appreciate it.

Thanks for everyone's support.

[Minty23185Fresh]

After about two weeks of searching and reading the forum threads, this is what I have come up with (as of June 15, 2018):

Legal:
Wizards of the Coast / DMs Guild Content Guidelines
Wizards of the Coast / SRD & OGL Explained
Paizo / Pathfinder Sharing Agreement Announcement, post #68
Paizo / Pathfinder / OGL Private sharing of PFS scenario data

Guidelines
User Guides, FG Wiki
Adventure Module Creation, LordEntrails
Steps to Create a PFS Scenario, Trenloe - more generic than it sounds
How to import Adventures from pdf format?, damed, post #2

Useful tools
PDF Basic Rules Parser, valeros
PFS Stat Block Parser, Trenloe
Table Importer, celestian
CSV Table Importer, lokiare1
NPC Engineer and Spell Engineer, Maasq
4E Parser, valeros
5E Parser, kp9911 (not up to date)

Specific Issues
Black Background Issue: Capturing images from PDF docs
Black Background Issue: Copying images from Pdf, post #24
Graphics Resolution: Extracting graphics from a PDF
Image Size (maximum): Extracting graphics from a PDF, post #5
Image Resolution, Scaling, PPI, DPI, and File Formats: Extracting graphics from a PDF, post #6
Import Resolution (into Gimp): Extracting graphics from a PDF, post #4
Ligature: Extracting graphics from a PDF, post #11
Map Grid Alignment: Grid sizing, post#5 & 9
Tables: Transferring tables in a .pdf in to Fantasy Grounds
Text as an Image: AL module conversion from PDF to FG
Tokens: Change in module exporting with FG3?, post #1

Graphics:
Summarized in the following post.

[Minty23185Fresh]

This subject, graphics, by far, took the most time to research and was discussed more often in the forum threads than any other subject.

The following table of PDF applications is simply a list of applications I found mentioned among the FG forum threads. This is not intended to be a review of the applications. I don't have the time nor desire to load and test every program listed. If you use any of them, or one that is not listed and you'd like me to include that information please let me know. My forum name is listed in the row(s) of applications I have tried, though I don't necessarily endorse any of them.


PDF Document Applications

Application	Source	Cost	Image Extraction	Ignores Protection	Multiple Images	Recommended	FG Thread
Adobe Acrobat Reader	Adobe	Free	Copy to clipboard	No	No	Minty23185Fresh	here, now
Adobe Acrobat	Adobe	$$$				madman	Post #5
A-PDF Image Extractor	A-PDF	Free & $				darrenan	Post #16
ExtractPDF.com	ExtractPDF.com	Free	File upload to web site	Yes	Yes	Talyn	Post #13
Foxit	Foxit	Free & $$$				LordEntrails	Post #6
Microsoft Word	Microsoft	$$$			Yes	Llisandur	Post #78
Nitro	Nitro	Free & $$$			Yes	Trenloe	Post #1
Nuance Power PDF Standard	Nuance	$$$				Trenloe	Post #15
pdfimages.exe	Forum Posted	Free	Extracts to local PC	Yes	Yes	ColinBuckler & Minty23185Fresh	Post #1
PDF XChange	Tracker Software	Free & $$				Nylanfs	Post #5
Soda PDF Anywhere	Soda	$$				bestellen	Post #6
somepdf.com redirects to sedja.com	Sedja	Free	File upload to web site			leonal	Post #4
Application	Source	Cost	Image Extraction	Ignores Protection	Multiple Images	Recommended	FG Thread

Column Key:
Cost: Free & $: usually means free trial, $: <$20, $$ < $100, $$$ > $100
Recommended: usually recommended by many forum users, the person sited is usually the first person I found (sorry if you're not listed)

---

Oftentimes one might need to touch up an image, or separate the image from a page within the PDF because text and images are not separate entities. This occurs when books are manually scanned and saved as PDF documents. The following table of graphics editors applications is simply a list of applications I found mentioned among the FG forum threads. This is not intended to be a review of the applications.

Graphics Editors for use with PDF Document Images

Application	Loads PDFs	Ignores Protection	Multiple Images
Adobe Photoshop (& Elements)	Yes	No	Yes
Corel Painter (& Elements)	No	n/a	n/a
Gimp	Yes	Yes	Yes
Inkscape	Yes	Yes	Yes
Krita	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Paint	No	n/a	n/a
Paint.net	No	n/a	n/a

Column Keys:
Loads PDFs: when the program can't load the PDF file itself,
Ignores Protection and loading Multiple Images are both usually not applicable

---

A few links to threads of interest.
PDF Software Suggestions?
Map making software comparisons

(I did most of my work for the above table in this thread.)

[Minty23185Fresh]

Image sizes:
(by Trenloe) post 68

[Trenloe]

Some info here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...antasy-Grounds

[Minty23185Fresh]

Some info here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...antasy-Grounds

Thanks Trenloe. I didn't know this thread existed. Hence this thread.

[Minty23185Fresh]

(in-)Digestion at work:
How To Extract Images From A PDF (ColinBuckler)

Extracting graphics from a PDF (Varsuuk)

PDF Converter (to Word, Bidmaron)

ExtractPDF.com (post 13, Talyn)

Photoshop Elements, multiple image export (external site: Realm Works, post 1, Jay_NOLA)

[Talyn]

Add to that old post (I don't use that site anymore since I discovered this) Acrobat Reader (possibly only the Pro version, unconfirmed) has an image export tool built in. Just choose JPG or PNG and it will go through the PDF page by page and extract every single image in its original size. And that post already mentioned that it will do a text (both Plain and Accessible flavors) export as well.

[Minty23185Fresh]

Add to that old post (I don't use that site anymore since I discovered this) Acrobat Reader (possibly only the Pro version, unconfirmed) has an image export tool built in. Just choose JPG or PNG and it will go through the PDF page by page and extract every single image in its original size. And that post already mentioned that it will do a text (both Plain and Accessible flavors) export as well.

Thanks Talyn. I’ll give it a go. Though I don’t have Pro, so that will be a good test. Maybe their DC (Document Cloud) does the same.

I read on another thread in Realms Help about using Photoshop Elements to extract images. I tried it on an Adventurers League PDF that I bought through DriveThru. It failed because of DriveThru’s password protection (for the watermark I bet).

I just tried the export site you mentioned on the same PDF from DriveThru. No problem. It just ignored the password protection.

But the 14Mb limit is a problem. The real adventure I’m working on is 29Mb. Waaaah!

[Minty23185Fresh]

I’m sure everyone has a favorite. Hopefully others will chime in and I can distill it all down.