[Gimp-user] Extracting images from a PDF

[rich404 <forums gimpusers com>]

> Hello. I am Carlos and its my first question to this board, wich i
> think it will
> be great because it´s so great as the articles and tutorials and
> downloads i am
> watching ...
>
> The thing is...
> When i open a PDF file, and extracting the images and saving the
> images...
> 1) wich one should I choose? Open in layers, or image?
> 2) is there a way to save/export the image in the size of the pdf?
> because i saw
> there is a default size (width and height) wich is saved, but u can
> edit that
> size ... so ---
> My question basically is : when i go to file / export it have specific
> size (the
> image to be exported). Is that size the original quality from PDF, or
> it is the
> default from gimp?
>
> Thank you and i wish you understood my question.

There are some things to remember for a PDF.

It is a 'finished' format meant for viewing or printing. The document size, A4 ,
US Letter...is a property.  For printing pixels-per-inch (ppi aka dpi) has an
effect but not always an easy way to determine the original size. see screenshot
https://i.imgur.com/g8IP95S.jpg Scanned documents in particular can have various
original ppi.

A PDF document can be in forms, vectors  or a bitmap ( say a scanned image) or a
mix,  image a bitmap + text.

Gimp is not always the best tool, It might be possible to open in some other
application and copy an image "as original" to Gimp . This example using
LibreOffice https://i.imgur.com/a9N3Mtx.jpg but not if the document comes from a
scan.

Gimp is a bitmap editor. Open a PDF in Gimp and it is converted to 100% bitmap
regardless of original format.

Open a PDF in Gimp and the default ppi is 100. For quality, change this to 300
ppi. Only need a specific page? Then select just that page. screenshot:
https://i.imgur.com/OH5Sw2s.jpg

Then use the rectangular select tool, position and size over the image, Edit ->
Copy for the contents. Edit -> Paste-As -> New image. Export that as required.

Not the same size in pixels as an extracted image? All depends on the ppi.

-- 
rich404 (via www.gimpusers.com/forums)