Using PDFs as images?

[Jim Wood]

I've got a CAD program with limited export capability. Its Windows Metafile
conversion is not good at all; lines have varying thicknesses and fonts
aren't true. The only thing I've been able to do is to print directly from
the program, scan the print and import that as a GIF or TIFF or even a JPG.
But that's a 2-step process with just-okay results. However, the CAD pages
can be 'printed' as PDFs with excellent conversion quality. Is there any way
to import a PDF page as an image file into Word? I've tried using Adobe
Illustrator to convert the PDF to a PostScript file, and even to a TIFF, but
results are not good... same old line thickness and font problem. What would
be nice is to substitute a PDF for a given page in a Word document. Possible?

 

[Jezebel]

I've got a CAD program with limited export capability. Its Windows Metafile
conversion is not good at all; lines have varying thicknesses and fonts
aren't true. The only thing I've been able to do is to print directly from
the program, scan the print and import that as a GIF or TIFF or even a JPG.
But that's a 2-step process with just-okay results. However, the CAD pages
can be 'printed' as PDFs with excellent conversion quality. Is there any way
to import a PDF page as an image file into Word? I've tried using Adobe
Illustrator to convert the PDF to a PostScript file, and even to a TIFF, but
results are not good... same old line thickness and font problem. What would
be nice is to substitute a PDF for a given page in a Word document.

Possible?

Sadly, no. For finished document purposes you can output the Word doc to PDF
also, then combine them using Acrobat.

 

[Jim Wood]

Sadly, no. For finished document purposes you can output the Word doc to PDF
also, then combine them using Acrobat.

Jez: Your answer came concurrently with a reply from a firm in the
Netherlands, Square One bv., that make a program that does just this. In
fact, I e-mailed my PDF to them and they returned a WMF file that pulled into
Word perfectly. I could resize it, etc., and results were spectacular...
much better than using the WMF that the original CAD program outputted (is
that a word?). Trouble is, their program costs about $400, which is too rich
for my blood, but it sure does a great job. A search of the Web, following
my original question here, turned up a number of similar utilities that
convert PDFs to various image formats. I downloaded the trial versions of a
couple, both in the $30/$40 range, but performance was lackluster. Sure wish
I could afford this one from Holland. Take a look at:

http://www.square1.nl/TGC-SITE/New-pdf2vector.htm

If you send them a PDF they'll convert it for you, just to prove how well
the program works. Thanks for your reply, -Jim

 

[Christina]

Thanks for the information, Jezebel. This may be just the solution we are
looking for as we often need to insert large pdf files into Word files (we
are a law firm). Hopefully, the resulting WMF is not large in file size.
Currently, we convert the PDF to TIFF and insert them into Word one page at a
time. However, with PDFs that have colour images, the resulting TIFF files
are very large.

I am going to check this program out today. $400 would be cheap if it works
well

 

[Jim Wood]

Christina:

.. That posting of mine was from last year! Glad the system prompted me
with your note. I have more info.
.. The Dutch firm rubbed me the wrong way; I told them I thought I might
buy the program, and without my final confirmation and commitment they set me
up for a download and billed my company. They got quite indignent when I
told them I'd changed my mind. Maybe Europeans place more emphasis on the
word 'maybe.'
.. Anyhow, I found a much less espensive alternative from another outfit,
called Software995.com. They have a utility OmniFormat that converts any
graphics-based file to any other graphics format. It destroys the original
file, so be sure you point it at a copy, however! I have been converting
PDFs to TIFFs and to JPGs with no loss of quality at all. I haven't had
occasion to try, but I'm pretty sure it supports multiple pages too. Give it
some consideration before you commit to the Dutch thing. -Jim

 

[Christina]

Thanks for the advice, Jim. I'll be sure to try it out.

 

[Christina]

Have you tried converting Word files to TIFF? If so, what was the quality like?

 

[jeroen]

I'm with the Dutch firm and was Jim's contact last year. To address his
comments about our business I will respond via this forum, but do so
only once to avoid a public argument - Jim, please email me directly if
you want to discuss this further. I'm sorry if we 'rubbed you the wrong
way', but it was an honest disagreement. You accepted my offer in much
more definite (written) terms than "maybe" and "might", and ended up
not paying anything for our software. That's fine - we ultimately
decided to let you have you the benefit of the doubt and not pursue it
further. We've since further tightened our criteria for accepting
orders to avoid such rare incidents.

We've been an honorable business for over 10 years, and have many happy
customers (large and small) around the world. And two sales offices in
the U.S., I might add. People can try our software for free (30-day
eval or sample file conversion), and buy with a Purchase Order, via our
secure online store or through a reseller.

Jeroen Dekker