Is there a GUI to convert/extract images to/from pdf?

Question

I am looking for something like a graphical interface / front end for Imagemagick or a simpler application that would allow converting/extracting images from pdf files through the interface (not in the Terminal).

Solution 1

A GUI to convert images to/from pdf is gscan2pdf.

I found about it here. More here.

It allows importing a pdf and saving images in (various) formats,

and also importing images and saving them in pdf-format

So, the program is able to convert between the following formats: pdf, gif, jpeg, png, pnm, ps, tif, djvu.

Solution 2

(The question poser added 'not in the terminal' only after I had posted this; however, it still stands as a relevant answer and useful for people, particularly regarding the evince point, which is a graphical app)

You can extract individual pictures from the pdf reader evince just by clicking and dragging them onto the desktop; sometimes you have to click more than once, but it generally works and I have found it really useful! Also, if you right click the image in the pdf you can save it in another image format instead of the default .png.

To extract all images from a pdf, you can use pdfimages, which is part of the poppler-utils, and is in the repository, although you probably have it installed anyway. That package has a number of other tools as well. To extract images in jpg (and the program's native format,ppm), just enter pdfimages -j name.pdf <picture name>. Call the picture name whatever you want, and the images will be successively labelled as dog1.jpg, etc. You can obviously specify absolute locations if you want with pdfimages -j ~/KeyGuides/TSENG.PDF ~/Scripts/DOG (where DOG is not a directory, but the name the pictures will use).

Pdfimages is quite a simple program, but I'll see if I can find any other tools, as I manipulate images/pdfs a lot too.

Comments

[Admin]

It might be possible to write a script that would do that, so I'll have to think about it. Do you mean you want a lot of the pictures in the same pdf?

[Admin]

yes. Thank you, but don't bother. that works ok with imagemagik, so I was just wandering whether I may be ignoring something like Gimp but that saves as pdf. You know, a program already created that I might find by asking here. The answer is 'no' to that I guess.

[Admin]

I'll see if I find some other program, as I am interested in a gui alternative, even though imagemagick and pdfimages are very good tools.

[Admin]

(sorry, but mentioning 'GUI' from the start I was excluding the terminal: " A graphical user interface (GUI) is a human-computer interface (i.e., a way for humans to interact with computers) that uses windows, icons and menus and which can be manipulated by a mouse (and often to a limited extent by a keyboard as well).GUIs stand in sharp contrast to command line interfaces (CLIs)"). your answer stands and I upvoted it

[Admin]

Mik,if you're interested, i found a GUI

[Admin]

Yes, I was just about to install it- thanks- I should have known about it! Great find.

[Admin]

let us continue this discussion in chat

[Admin]

I checked my own answer as the definitive because the question demanded:1. a graphic (GUI), not a command line (CLI) interface for a program that - 2. would convert/extract both ways between pdf and images

[Admin]

Nice answer, @Mik! "You can extract individual pictures from the pdf reader evince just by clicking and dragging them onto the desktop; sometimes you have to click more than once, but it generally works." I try this on a scanned pdf, and the image crated by mouse dragging from evince has no content but a completely transparent picture. Also it seems like I cannot select a region except a full page.