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PDF Viewer, which is better?
08-26-2010, 03:52 PM
On old Adobe Reader 8.something, I had the ability to select and pull images straight out of the Reader. Now, with version 9.something, I can't do that.
So, I need to find a PDF reader that can. I tried looking at the Foxit tool, but I couldn't tell whether or not it could do what I wanted before I downloaded it. Plus, I'm sure with the experience that has accrued here, someone would know of what I need.
So! To humbly ask, is there a low-cost(preferably free) PDF viewer that I can use to pull images out of documents?
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With Foxit, you can select an area of the PDF and copy it to the clipboard. You then have to drop it into Paint or something.
I like Foxit, even though it has a small section of the toolbar that gets devoted to advertising other Foxit stuff. It's better than Adobe by a longshot.
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Seconding the Foxit recommendation. We migrated to using it at work, in fact. It's simply better than Adobe. (And far less intrusive.)
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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Is there any way I can take just the pictures, and not any overlying text?
I'm trying to rip maps from Adventure Paths to use in a RPG campaign, and the maps have text (room # and such) over the map picture itself.
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Well, as far as I know, those would be part of the image itself and not overlay text. That's how it usually is, at any rate.
Regardless, Foxit can grab text either by reading the source directly, or, if the PDF is protected, by doing a screen-cap of the selected area and turning that into text. I suspect it does OCR magic but I'm not sure.
You cannot select a protected image and simply rip it -- that would sort of defeat the entire purpose of it being a PDF instead of, say, an HTML document -- but you can box-select an area of the screen and copy that as an image to the clipboard, for pasting into your favorite image editor.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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That's kinda odd, Sofa. I've ripped images out of this companies pdfs before (Again, Maps) with Adobe Reader 8. But I'll try foxit and see if I can do the same there, then. Thanks for the info, all!
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Well, I was talking about protected PDFs (I don't know if that's the type you're using), in which the author has elected to disable copy/paste ability. It's part of the PDF standard, meant to... well, prevent people from doing exactly what you're trying to do. 
If it's an unprotected PDF, then I dunno. Adobe reader has a snapshot tool much like Foxit (though I've noticed that Reader is remarkably more draconian about what it will and won't let you copy, even on unprotected files), and I -think- I remember a die-select tool? Something like that -- for images.
Foxit doesn't have such a beast, but it'll still let you do either the select text or select snapshot actions, regardless (as far as I've seen) of PDF protection status.
--sofaspud
-- "Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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Well, Paizo likes people to use their maps more easily, so as I've noticed, they haven't protected their pdfs. But anyway. Tried Foxit, and while I can take a snapshot of the whole picture, it drags along the text thats above it too. So unless I can get my hands on a copy of Adobe reader 8, it looks like I'll have to do it this way and tell my players to 'Ignore that "S" on the wall. You haven't found any secret passages here.... yet.'
Le Sigh. Thanks again, Sofa! At the very least, I've got a less bloaty pdf reader.
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drogan niteflier Wrote:So unless I can get my hands on a copy of Adobe reader 8, Which you can do at OldVersion.com. http://www.oldversion.com/Acrobat-Reader.html]Here's their Adobe Reader page.
(I'm still using version 7.0...)
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CattyNebulart
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I personally like ocular which can save a selection as an image file or do it to clipboard. of course I'm reasonaly sure that okular requires KDE so probably not for you 
I don't use windows enough to give you a better windows variant, sorry.
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