Batch PDF to TIFF(TIF) Converter

[TheyCallMeJohn]

This isn't exactly an AutoCAD questions but since it relates to being used in AutoCAD I think it is okay...

 

Sometimes I have to save PDFs of details to tiff because a PDF won't come out right when its referenced into AutoCAD and plotted. I am looking to see if anyone has a suggestions of a free Batch PDF to Tiff Converter to use.

 

Thanks!

 

John

[tzframpton]

I use this free online link for quick conversions: http://pdf.my-addr.com/free-online-pdf-to-tiff-convert.php

[SLW210]

Why not just print the PDFs? Why do you need to bring them into AutoCAD? Try Ghostscript and GSview.

 

 

I do not have any problems printing PDFs when underlayed or as an OLE from AutoCAD.

Edited February 21, 2011 by SLW210
Additional info...

[tzframpton]

I know I have to reference raster files all the time. TIFFs work much better when referenced in AutoCAD vs. PDFs when it comes to output and performance. I feel the O.P.'s pain in that issue.

[SLW210]

To me TIFFs are a pain. All of our aerials are TIFFs reffed into dwgs and they take forever to open, they are way to large for etransmit. I had to convert them to bitmaps or PDFs when sending out. Maybe you could enlighten me on reducing the size of the TIFFs, it sure would make my life easier.

[tzframpton]

To me TIFFs are a pain. All of our aerials are TIFFs reffed into dwgs and they take forever to open, they are way to large for etransmit. I had to convert them to bitmaps or PDFs when sending out. Maybe you could enlighten me on reducing the size of the TIFFs, it sure would make my life easier.

You're probably not using the monochrome compressed TIFF format. TIFF has many different compression formats it can use from what I've learned through the years. Nothing beats the performance of a raster reference file than a monochrome TIFF in my opinion. Plus, the plot output is processed way better from a CTB file as well, such as dithering and so forth. This is simply with my personal experience with TIFFs is all.

[SLW210]

I have no idea how the TIFFs were created, they are aerial photos, some covering a square mile or more. When I have time I will look into getting them in a more AutoCAD friendly format.

[tzframpton]

I have no idea how the TIFFs were created, they are aerial photos, some covering a square mile or more. When I have time I will look into getting them in a more AutoCAD friendly format.

Just as a quick check, a monochrome TIFF that is a 42"x30" at 300dpi usually sits at around 100KB-200KB in filesize.

[SLW210]

Just as a quick check, a monochrome TIFF that is a 42"x30" at 300dpi usually sits at around 100KB-200KB in filesize.

 

If only, they are around 250,000KB +

[tzframpton]

That's what I was thinking. They are huge high res photo files. No wonder you don't like TIFFs in your line of work.

[SLW210]

And I need to figure out something with getting them emailed, and there seems to be a 10MB limit on attachments here. The department heads do not seem to be able to follow a link to the file on the network, they want the file emailed.

[TheyCallMeJohn]

I am looking for something where I can select like 20 files and it creates 20 tiffs from those files with the right file name.

[BIGAL]

We do images all the time in our drawings but we import JPG's rather than tiffs and are colour aerial photos we are starting to use now georeferenced so the maintain true world co-ordinates, our surveyors have a new gps.

 

We save tiffs to our corporate system but generally make them black and white even if they have colour, we have a pretty good system can pull drawings instantly over 15 years old (juke box) use the black and white tif to get project number and load original if we need a print.

 

Maybe ask for jpg's instead of tiffs

[irneb]

Are you sure you need the high resolution? The idea is to think of the final size you want the hard-copy to be - remember the human eye can't easily distinguish dots at more than 100DPI (a screen is usually 70-90DPI), 150DPI to be on the safe side (for those 20-20+ guys out there). If they're going to use magnifying lenses then go for 300DPI, higher than that is just silly (most printers can't even print that fine, no matter what their "specs" tell you)!

 

You could perhaps reduce the res using some image editor (a nice one I like to use is XnView - just google for it, it's free). It's even got a very powerful batch processor: resize, remap colours, convert to different format, etc. - all-in-one. BTW if you don't like the artefacts generated when converting to JPG, try PNG instead - it's lossless (like TIFF) but compresses better than TIFF, also has transparency (unlike JPG), and the transparency works in ACad even on coloured PNG's (as long as you're using indexed transparency and not alpha).

 

XnView can convert PDFs to images, but only the 1st page - and the DPI isn't always what you expect. For PDF to image I prefer using PDFCreator - simply drag-n-drop the files into the PDFCreator window. Change your settings to use TIFF (or whatever other image format you want) and click the print button. It will open each in your default PDF viewer (e.g. Acrobat Reader), and then print it to a file named the same as the original (if more than one page it creates an increment number at the end of the image file's name).

[SLW210]

I am looking for something where I can select like 20 files and it creates 20 tiffs from those files with the right file name.

 

That is not going to happen for free. Maybe you should try answering my question regarding the problems you are having plotting the PDFs.

 

Why not just print the PDFs? Why do you need to bring them into AutoCAD? Try Ghostscript and GSview.