how best to convert a pdf to a high-res jpg?

[Bryan O'Neal]

You can set up a redirect printer using things like ghost tools.  The
application thinks it is printing to a printer. This way you actually
convert the image into a ps printer file and then convert that file into
the image format of choice.  I use the windows version quite often and
have it set up on my office Linux box as well. 

-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of
Josef Lowder
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 2:13 PM
To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Cc: dennisk at member.fsf.org
Subject: RE: how best to convert a pdf to a high-res jpg?

.
Well, thanks to all the helpful suggestions, I'm learning a lot of neat
new tricks, but I still don't have the result that I need. 

When I use the following convert syntax, as suggested: 
> $ convert -quality 100 most.pdf most.jpg

I get the result shown here: http://mostessential.com/mostblue.jpg
(I renamed it because of the strange colors I get as a result)

== Jeremy C. Reed suggested: 
> The tool "pdfimages" from xpdf suite can extract images from a PDF.
> Use convert or gm to convert the resulting Netpbm PPM file to JPEG

I tried that ($ pdfimages -j most.pdf most.jpg) and that worked great to
produce an excellent, high resolution result (27.5-meg) with this
name: most.jpg-000.ppm ... but with only part of the original pdf
content showing. Some layers vanished. 

I used: convert most.jpg-000.ppm most2.jpg and got a result 1/10th the
ppm file size: 2,736,590 -- great resolution, but missing parts.

== Bryan O'Neal suggested:
> A cheap trick is to print it directly to a jpg.
> Example: http://projects.cornerstonehome.com/bryan/most.jpg

I can't find any way to print a jpg from adobe acrobat reader. 
As far as I can tell, my 'reader' only gives the option to print a pdf
file to a printer, not to a file as a jpg. 

== Daniel Stasinski suggested: 
> Gimp will natively load and render a PDF file to any size specified.

I tried that and yes, it will load, but when I export from Gimp to a jpg
file, the result I get is not a good quality image.

== Dennis Kibbe asked (and suggested):
> What exactly do you want to convert? Is there an image in the PDF that

> you want to extract? Or is it the text that you want?

I just need the complete image that I see in the pdf as a jpg. 
I do not need to extract any images or text from the pdf. 

> If the original image file is of low quality ...

The original components and the pdf are very high quality & resolution.

> You could try enlarging in 10% steps. 

Not sure what you mean by that.  I don't think I need to "enlarge" 
anything.  I just need a jpg with high enough resolution to make a good
photo print. 


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