Adobe Illustrator - Bursting PDFs in individual GIF files?

Author

Bursting PDFs in individual GIF files?

AES

2006-08-06, 6:17 pm

I have a number of lengthy PDF documents __ seminar presentations
actually __ in which the individual pages contain primarily text and
vector graphics originally generated in Illustrator or from other
PostScript sources.

I want to burst/export/save/extract the individual pages of these
dcuments as images, to be used as individual pages on a web site (i.e.,
in an HTML gallery).

I've been led to believe that GIF is the best and most compact format
for displaying text and line art images of this type on the web -- but
Acrobat only seems to be able to export individual pages to JPEG format.

Is this correct? Any easy way around the problem? If I go through a
two-step process, PDF -> JPEG -> GIF, have I already lost the image
sharpness of the GIF format? Can GraphicConverter convert individual
PDF pages directly to GIF?

Or should I just stay with the JPEG images? (which don't seem that bad,
actually)

Calum

2006-08-06, 6:17 pm

AES wrote:

> I've been led to believe that GIF is the best and most compact format
> for displaying text and line art images of this type on the web -- but
> Acrobat only seems to be able to export individual pages to JPEG format.
>
> Is this correct?

Not necessarily, PNG can achieve better compression than GIF. GIF is
also limited to a 256 colour palette, although shouldn't matter too much
with monochrome line art.

> Any easy way around the problem?

If you're stuck on GIF, you could save the pages from Preview.app rather
than Acrobat-- it will save GIF files. Not sure if there's any way to
export the whole document at once, though, without resorting to AppleScript.

> If I go through a two-step process, PDF -> JPEG -> GIF, have I already lost the image
> sharpness of the GIF format?

Probably not noticeably, if you save the JPEGs at 100% quality.

> Can GraphicConverter convert individual
> PDF pages directly to GIF?

Yes.

> Or should I just stay with the JPEG images? (which don't seem that bad,
> actually)

Entirely up to you... compare the file sizes, compare the quality, and
choose the one that suits your purpose better.

steggy

2006-08-06, 6:17 pm

AES wrote:
> I have a number of lengthy PDF documents __ seminar presentations
> actually __ in which the individual pages contain primarily text and
> vector graphics originally generated in Illustrator or from other
> PostScript sources.
>
> I want to burst/export/save/extract the individual pages of these
> dcuments as images, to be used as individual pages on a web site (i.e.,
> in an HTML gallery).
>
> I've been led to believe that GIF is the best and most compact format
> for displaying text and line art images of this type on the web -- but
> Acrobat only seems to be able to export individual pages to JPEG format.
>
> Is this correct? Any easy way around the problem? If I go through a
> two-step process, PDF -> JPEG -> GIF, have I already lost the image
> sharpness of the GIF format? Can GraphicConverter convert individual
> PDF pages directly to GIF?
>
> Or should I just stay with the JPEG images? (which don't seem that bad,
> actually)

This one I am reading on the graphics.illustrator group.

Maybe that is why it could be handy to open your document in Illustrator
and save (export) it as you please.
PDF's do pretty OK in Illustrator.

I would go for JPEG. But take care, everytime you re-save a JPEG image
it gets worse, probably because of the compression.

steg

AES

2006-08-06, 6:17 pm

In article <4jn2goF8jhgsU1@individual.net>,
steggy <steggy2001@hotmail.com> wrote:

> This one I am reading on the graphics.illustrator group.
>
> Maybe that is why it could be handy to open your document in Illustrator
> and save (export) it as you please.
> PDF's do pretty OK in Illustrator.

Can "Open" a multi-page PDF document in Illustrator -- but SFAIK one can
only really Open and work on (or convert or export or save) one page at
a time -- and you have to select that one page as part of the initial
"Open" process.

AES

2006-08-06, 6:17 pm

In article <eb52i4$tek$1@reader01.news.esat.net>,
Calum <com.gmail@scottishwildcat.nospam> wrote:

>
> Not necessarily, PNG can achieve better compression than GIF. GIF is
> also limited to a 256 colour palette, although shouldn't matter too much
> with monochrome line art.

Thanks much for helpful reply.

I'm in the Mac world, and so have some but only limited experience with
PNG. Can most browsers these days display PNG as easily as GIF or JPEG?

Primary objective is to have individual pages (served from a university
Unix server) be easily readable and rapidly stepped through on most
platforms and browsers, without having to download the entire document
and then open it in some helper app outside the browser, as seems to be
the case for PDFs with at least some browsers.

Adrian

2006-08-06, 6:17 pm

AES <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote:

> Is this correct? Any easy way around the problem? If I go through a
> two-step process, PDF -> JPEG -> GIF, have I already lost the image
> sharpness of the GIF format? Can GraphicConverter convert individual
> PDF pages directly to GIF?

Graphicconverter can save PDF as GIF with various options. Even Preview
can save them as GIF, but with little control of output. Do not save as
JPEG first. As you suspect you will be losing quality at each stage.

--
Adrian

dorayme

2006-08-06, 10:16 pm

In article <siegman-00F735.08264606082006@news.stanford.edu>,
AES <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote:

> I have a number of lengthy PDF documents __ seminar presentations
> actually __ in which the individual pages contain primarily text and
> vector graphics originally generated in Illustrator or from other
> PostScript sources.
>
> I want to burst/export/save/extract the individual pages of these
> dcuments as images, to be used as individual pages on a web site (i.e.,
> in an HTML gallery).
>
> I've been led to believe that GIF is the best and most compact format
> for displaying text and line art images of this type on the web -- but
> Acrobat only seems to be able to export individual pages to JPEG format.
>
> Is this correct? Any easy way around the problem? If I go through a
> two-step process, PDF -> JPEG -> GIF, have I already lost the image
> sharpness of the GIF format? Can GraphicConverter convert individual
> PDF pages directly to GIF?
>
> Or should I just stay with the JPEG images? (which don't seem that bad,
> actually)

You will know that pics of text for website use is not as good as
real text, marked up in html. But, if you are determined, you
might know that you will need to picturise at a pixel size that
is convenient for your readers without using up unsustainable
bandwidth. How are you going to do this and cater for people with
different eyesights?

I strongly recommend you forget about it. Just make them
available for download as pdfs, many folk will be able to
actually read them in their browsers and adjust with quality the
text size, others wll download and read in the free Acrobat
Reader, what could be simpler?

But ... if you really persist...If the jpgs seem fine, leave it
at that. If you want to use gifs, which are often smaller in size
and clearer for text, you are on a Mac after all, excellent
facilities for screen shotting (Command+shift+4 and crop the bit
you want). Any decent image software package will convert to gif.

--
dorayme

Doug Winger

2006-08-06, 10:16 pm

In article <siegman-D89699.14195306082006@news.stanford.edu>,
AES <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote:

> I'm in the Mac world, and so have some but only limited experience with
> PNG. Can most browsers these days display PNG as easily as GIF or JPEG?
>
> Primary objective is to have individual pages (served from a university
> Unix server) be easily readable and rapidly stepped through on most
> platforms and browsers, without having to download the entire document
> and then open it in some helper app outside the browser, as seems to be
> the case for PDFs with at least some browsers.

Mac? Well, if you're dead set on slapping graphics up instead of the
proper text/html, load the pdf into Preview, and then Save As... You'll
find GIF format available there. It's the Poor Man's method, as it has
to be done a page at a time, and it's not the "right" way of presenting
documents (SEE: Text/HML above) but it will work.

I'd suggest looking into exporting from pdf (There's a few sites that
will do quick-and-dirty conversion to HTML online, but they're limited,
if free or try diddling around with the pdf suite of tools available/on
the Mac) and editing into real web-standard html. Your viewers will
thank you for that.

- Doug

AES

2006-08-06, 10:16 pm

In article <justdoug-A7D137.17124306082006@news-server.socal.rr.com>,
Doug Winger <justdoug@socal.rr.com> wrote:

> Mac? Well, if you're dead set on slapping graphics up instead of the
> proper text/html, load the pdf into Preview, and then Save As... You'll

In response to this comment and another from dorayme: Look, these are
*technical slides* -- they have graphics, plots, line drawings that are
the primary content of the slides, along with limited text mostly for
titles and labels.

And the idea is to enable interested individuals to do a quick pass
through the presentation, page by page, either to check something out
quickly or to decide if they want to go ahead and download the entire
PDF, which will be on the website also.

And finally, if looking at material like this in pixel form is so
horrible, how come millions of people spend hours every day in meetings,
seminars and classes, looking at similar slides with similar content
projected in low-resolution JPEG or GIF format using low-pixel-count LCD
projectors, with no major complaints about this?

inez

2006-08-07, 6:16 pm

Do you have Photoshop/ImageReady? Why not use Acorbat to burst (extract) the
PDF into separate pages to a folder, then use an action in PS to batch save
all the pages as GIF. PNG is not widely supported in browsers. JPEG with
compression for size will show nasty artifacts in solid areas of color,
including the white around text. I think GraphicConverter may also batch
process the pages, don't remember.

If in PS, I would test a few pages in Save for Web so find the ideal GIF
settings for size and quality. I don't know if these pages contain color,
gradients, etc. If they are grayscale, then use grayscale for your GIF. If
they don't use gradients, select No Dither, uncheck Transparency and set the
Matte color to the page/paper color that exists in the document. Then adjust
the amount of colors for file size/quality.

If you have a lot of pages that are B&W, some with grayscale gradients, some
with several colors, you might want to separate them into separate folders
and do different batches for quality/size.

hth,
inez

rpresser

2006-08-07, 6:16 pm

AES wrote:
> I have a number of lengthy PDF documents =AD=AD seminar presentations
> actually =AD=AD in which the individual pages contain primarily text and
> vector graphics originally generated in Illustrator or from other
> PostScript sources.
>
> I want to burst/export/save/extract the individual pages of these
> dcuments as images, to be used as individual pages on a web site (i.e.,
> in an HTML gallery).
>
> I've been led to believe that GIF is the best and most compact format
> for displaying text and line art images of this type on the web -- but
> Acrobat only seems to be able to export individual pages to JPEG format.
>
> Is this correct? Any easy way around the problem? If I go through a
> two-step process, PDF -> JPEG -> GIF, have I already lost the image
> sharpness of the GIF format? Can GraphicConverter convert individual
> PDF pages directly to GIF?
>
> Or should I just stay with the JPEG images? (which don't seem that bad,
> actually)

One-line ghostscript command:

gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -r100 -sDEVICE=3Dpnggray
-sOutputFile=3Dpresentation-pg%02d.png presentation.pdf

I used "-r100" to indicate 100dpi resolution, suitable for the web. You
may want to experiment.

Ghostscript can be found here:
http://www.ghostscript.com