Air Berlin – CGM to TIFF
High Quality Previews of Mechanical Drawings
Air Berlin, Germany’s second largest airline, integrated the FLY SDK into an internal application to enable viewing and printing of CGM technical drawings as TIFF images.
- Published in CGM, testimonial, TIFF
Swiss Life – PostScript to TIFF
Swiss Life, a leading international specialist for risk, life and pensions solutions, automates archival of upwards of 20,000 pages of print correspondence per day in the TIFF format. They are delivered as PostScript print files and run through a conversion service based on FLY Batch Server based in Zurich.
- Published in PostScript, testimonial, TIFF
TIFF Format Overview
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a widely supported high-quality raster image format, and a standard in areas like faxing, imaging and archiving. TIFF files can be viewed on just about every computer using a variety of applications. They can be single-page or multi-page, black & white or full color, high resolution for printing or low resolution for screen display.
TIFF file formats are used for storing high quality images. They can be very large. It is the favored image format in many graphic applications. These include FAX, archival and scanning applications, image manipulation programs, desktop publishing and 3-D imaging applications. A TIFF version called GeoTIFF is used to store geo-referenced raster images.
Support Notes:
- Supports CCITT G3 and G4 encoding, LZW and MacIntosh RLE (packbits) encoding
- Supports 1-bit B&W, 8-bit colormap and 24-bit True Color
- Output to any resolution (dpi)
- Supports output to single-page, multiple single-page, single multi-page
- Option to output to standard or custom page size or as a cropped portion
- Source files may include vector graphics, raster images, text and fonts
- Published in TIFF
TIFF
TIFF traces its origins to the 1980 where it was proposed as a standard for the emerging desktop scanner market. Originally, it was a simple format and could only understand black & white. Now, it is a robust format which handles high color, greyscale and large files like a breeze. Today, TIFF is a popular format for high color-depth images, along with JPEG and PNG. It is also a flexible, adaptable file format for handling images and data within a single file, by including header tags indicating size, compression, etc. It is regularly used in FAX and archive applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
TIFF
- The image formats used on web sites are JPEG (or JPG), PNG and GIF. JPEG is best for images with many colors such as photos. GIF is best for line art, illustrations and drawings with limited color. PNG is the most versatile and can be used quite broadly on web-sites.
- The image formats used in documents follow a similar rule. GIF, TIFF and PNG are best for images with fewer colors and JPEG is used for images with many colors such as photos. The best test is to use pdf2image to convert to a few different formats and then view them both on-screen and in print to see which gives you the desired result.
- It’s also important to determine what formats your application can import. If the program you want to use only accepts BMP, then you need to convert to this format, even if it produces larger files than PNG.
- Published in formats
Microsoft Native Graphic Formats
Currently, Microsoft supports a variety of graphics formats in their Windows Imaging Component which provides a framework for working with images and image metadata. The standard image formats are TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, ICO and HDPhoto. A single, consistent set of interfaces is used for all image processing, regardless of image format, so any application using the WIC gets automatic support for new image formats as soon as the codec is installed. The extensible metadata framework makes it possible for applications to read and write their own proprietary metadata directly to image files, so the metadata never gets lost or separated from the image.
Visual Integrity outputs: TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP
In the Microsoft Developers Network, the following formats have been declared legacy formats. They are obsolete and should not be used in new applications.
- GDI
- GDI+
- Monitor Configuration
- OpenGL
- Picture Acquisition
- Windows Color System
- WPF Bitmap Effects
- Published in BMP
Formats
File Formats
There are two basic formats for graphics – vector and image. Vector graphics are made up of objects, lines, curves and text while images are made up of a collection of dots or pixels. Images are also referred to as bitmaps or rasters.
Visual Integrity can convert most PDF files into either vector or image formats. It’s important to know which is best for the job you are doing.
If you need to break a PDF file down into objects and text for editing, then you want to choose a vector format. The vector formats supported in our software are DXF, PDF, PS, EPS, SVG, WMF, EMF, CGM, HPGL and MIF.
If you do not need to edit the file and simply want a sharp copy to insert into a document or to publish on a web-site, you’ll want to go with image formats. The image formats that we support are TIFF, GIF, PNG, JPEG and BMP. If you will be printing the graphic on a laser or ink-jet printer, convert at 150 or 300 dpi (dots per inch) resolution. If publishing to a web-site, use 96 or 72 dpi is best for screen display. Keep in mind that the higher the dpi (resolution), the larger the file size. It’s best to use the lowest resolution which achieves the level of quality you want.
Note! Scanned images can not be transformed by vector mode into lines, text and other vector objects because they are not vector source files. Instead, you will get an exact replica of the PDF as an image that can be used as a tracing layer which aids in the duplication effort. To convert scanned images into vector objects, you need a special class of software called “raster to vector”.
WMF, or Windows Metafile, is the original 16-bit metafile format. It is the native vector graphics format for the Microsoft Windows platform. It is also the standard format for scalable graphics in Microsoft Office and many other Windows applications. Even though it has been enhanced and extended as a 32-bit format (EMF -Enhanced Metafile), WMF is still the most widely used and supported metafile format on the Windows platform.
It is easy it is to create a PostScript file from virtually any application on a PC. Most PC’s are likely to have a PostScript printer driver configured in its printers settings. If not, you must Install a PostScript Printer Driver before going any further.
- Open your file within your application and then select “File…”, “Print”
- Choose your PostScript printer. Note that you can use any PostScript driver included with Microsoft Windows without having the actual printer since you will simply be printing to a file.
- Press “OK” to print to file. Note that the PostScript tab under Properties should be set to Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) for best results.
- You will be prompted for a file name and location. If you do not assign .ps as the extension, the default in Windows will be .PRN. Both are valid input extensions.
- Open your Visual Integrity software and when prompted for a PostScript file to convert, go to the location chosen in Step 4 and select the new .ps or .prn file for conversion.
TIPS:
- The extension does not matter – Some systems give printer files a default extension, like .prn or .plt. This does not matter. If the file has been created using a PostScript printer driven, the result will be a PostScript file that Visual Integrity software can convert.
- Watch out for PCL: Most HP printers use a printer language called PCL. The default mode on HP PostScript printers is usually PCL. PCL can not be converted by TGC. Be sure that your HP printer is in PostScript mode to ensure a successful conversion.
- Save directly as PostScript or EPS files – Many applications allow you to save your files as PS or EPS through their “Save as…” menu. A few even produce PostScript by default. This results in good input for our conversion engine.
- Fonts – Try to use standard PostScript fonts like Helvetica and Times New Roman. Non-PostScript fonts, such as Type 1 fonts and TrueType fonts should be embedded so that the text data is available in the PostScript file. This gives our software the best chance to preserve the fonts during conversion.
The Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) file format is used to render graphics in a wide range of technical applications. It is output by many specialized programs in the aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing, automotive and telecommunications industries. CGM is most commonly used in these organizations for product operation, maintenance, repair and other technical manuals. It is also used in the petroleum industry for mapping, lithology cross-sections, seismic traces and well logs. The U.S. military uses CGM for simple redlining on top of raster (map) data. CGM is a format supported both in print and on-line (IETMS). CGM is typically used for technical illustrations in SGML/XML documentation systems, and now, more and more, for Web-based systems like IETMS (Illustrated Electronic Technical Manuals) and e-Catalogs. Outside of these specialized, technical industries, CGM has largely been superseded by formats such as SVG and DXF. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed WebCGM, a profile of CGM enjoying specialized use of on the Web.
Over the years, several different versions of CGM have been spawned to meet the needs of various industries. There are specific industry profiles (ATA, MIL, PIP) and four different levels as well as WebCGM. As a result of this diversification, interoperability is often a problem: the target application is unable to reliably interpret the particular flavor of CGM generated by the source application. Many content creation applications have started outputting Level 3 or 4 CGM. However, many applications on the receiving end have not yet implemented full support for these higher levels.
Visual Integrity helps industry manufacturers, suppliers and software vendors turn graphical data into the CGM format. It does so for many source applications which do not offer CGM output, and also for applications which already do – but are incompatible with the end user’s target application. Input formats include PDF, PostScript, EPS, WMF and EPS.
CGM files generated are compliant with all levels and industry profiles. By default, our software produces the common denominator subset of CGM (we like to call it ‘vanilla CGM’) to ensure optimal interoperability with the viewing, authoring, and publishing environment downstream. This ‘vanilla CGM’ handles files typically produced and used in technical industries.
Notes on Visual Integrity’s Support of CGM:
• Output supports choice of CGM Levels 1-2-3-4
• Compliant with ATA, MIL and PIP industry profiles
• Supports vector graphics, raster images and font-based text
• Supports both metric and abstract scaling
• Curves are retained in Level 3-4 compatible output
- Published in QA
pdf2image
pdf2image
Sometimes there is no output file produced or it may seem as though the software has quit working. This has to do with an invalid page range setting.
All of our products can convert one page, all pages or a page range. By default, they convert all pages. If you choose a page rage, you must reset it to all pages when done since the software remembers the last settings you used. If a conversion is attempted with an invalid page range, it will not produce a resulting file. It may seem as though it is not working. Once you go to “Options, Page” and adjust Page range to “All Pages””and re-attempt the conversion, you will produce a file.
If you want to edit the graphics in a PDF file in Microsoft Office or Visio, you’ll want to try pdf2picture. It operates in both vector and image mode and you can choose which is most appropriate at the time of conversion. Vector mode explodes the file into editable text and objects while image mode makes a high-fidelity copy of the file in an MS Office friendly format.
pdf2image is also available as a low cost option when you just need to use raster image formats. It is ideal for those who work on websites or printed publications like newsletters, brochures and customer bulletins.
To use the graphics produced by either pdf2image or pdf2picture in MS Office, you use Insert > Picture > From File… to add the converted graphics into your document. If you used vector mode (Windows Metafile WMF/EMF), you can now edit text and graphic elements using the Office drawing tools.
Note: Neither pdf2image or pdf2picture are for converting Word documents or reports heavy in text.
The software has been designed to be very easy to use and involves just a few simple steps:
- Select the PDF file you want to convert
- Change or customize settings by clicking on the Options button
- Change the name and location of the output file, if desired
- Convert!
If you are using a desktop product, there is a Help file included with the software. Just click on the Help button found in the bottom right corner of the software dialog. A new screen will open, with a table of content for all the available topics. You can expand the outline to find the section on Conversion Options or search the index using the Find command. Depending on which product you are using, there will be General Options, Page Options, Size Options and Format Specific Options.
For Developers – In the “docs” directory of the Conversion SDK installation, each option is explained in “options flysdk.pdf”. In addition to the description, for each option, the corresponding API function is listed.
For example:
rotate(0) STDAPI VgRotate(INT rotate)
rotate(0) Rotate the drawing using the angle specified. Default = 0, no rotation.
Converting multiple files is also called batch mode and all of our products support it. To specify more than one file, use the “Add” button. Once you have specified your first files, you can remove files and add files until you have the batch of files together that you want to convert.
When adding files, pdf2image, pdf2picture and pdf2cad will only display files with a .pdf extension. If the file you want to convert has a different extension, but you are sure that it is a PDF file, you should rename it to include a .pdf extension. PDF FLY is capable of digesting more input formats so it expects files with a .pdf, .ps, .eps or .prn extension.
If you do not need to edit the text, you can create a perfect vector object for each character. You can choose this by checking the “Convert Characters to Curves” option in the General tab of the Options menu. Every character will then be rendered with curves as a graphical representation of the character using the font information stored in the PDF. If a font was not embedded in the PDF, pdf2picture will refer to the /fonts/ directory in the pdf2picture installation folder. You can add Type 1 or TrueType font to this folder as needed to ensure a perfect match. To outline only specific fonts during conversion, email support@pdf2picture.com for instructions.
If you do not need to edit the file at all, another option is to use the bitmap mode in pdf2picture or use pdf2image which creates a high-quality image of the file in four popular web and publishing formats..
After conversion, if you can not edit text, chances are that the text was already stored as graphics in the PDF original. It was probably converted to curves or plotted as pen strokes when the PDF file was created. It is no longer text, just vector curves that look like text. This often happens for example with PDF drawings are created from CAD, EDA or GIS applications as well as with print advertisements from a DTP-package to ensure font display accurately. Text is often converted to curves to ensure accurate print results and to protect against font incompatibilities. Once the text has been turned into curves, there is no way for pdf2picture to retrieve it as real text. If the text is still searchable in the PDF file, we can produce it as editable text in the conversion output.
Tip: To see if the text is searchable and convertable or not, open your PDF file in Acrobat Reader and try to “Select” some text. If you can mark it, you can convert it.
pdf2image is perfect for the job since it outputs PNG, the native format for MusicPad. By setting the width for conversion at 600 pixels, you can generate a file which will be accepted using the MusicPad Pro import feature. It can be used to convert any PDF music file.
PNG is the native format of the MusicPad Manager so you would first need to use pdf2image to convert all your music to this format. Once you have generated all of the PNG’s, you should be able to import them directly by opening the MusicPad Manager application. Then just select File/Import.
MusicPad Pro expects the files that are imported to be 600×800. This can be set by choosing width = 600 pixels under the “Options” button during conversion in pdf2image.
If you have any trouble converting your music, please email a sample PDF file to support@pdf2image.com and we will return it to you in PNG format ready to import along with any special settings that you need to select.
There are two important issues at play here.
First – make sure you choose the correct image format for your file type. If your PDF file is mostly text, you should choose GIF or PNG since they render images with few colors sharply. JPEG is better suited for photographic images which use many colors.
The second consideration is resolution or “dots per inch” (dpi). The resolution you choose determines the quality (and the size) of the output. Although a high resolution will yield a super-sharp image, it will also product a large file size which may impact performance. The rule of thumb is to use the lowest resolution which delivers the quality you need. Some guidelines are:
- For screen display (web or office) – use 96dpi.
- For images that will be printed on laser or inkjet printers – use 150 dpi
- For images that will be printed professionally – use 300 dpi
If you want to adjust the resolution, simply increase the dpi setting in the Options menu.
The font glyphs of the 13 standard PostScript fonts are included.
If you need to convert to an image format or the text to curves/polys (= emulate) in a vector format either the font must be one of the 13 standard fonts or the font should be embedded within the PDF or PostScript file. Contact support@visual-integrity.com if you want to add font glyphs.
13 Standard PostScript fonts:
- The image formats used on web sites are JPEG (or JPG), PNG and GIF. JPEG is best for images with many colors such as photos. GIF is best for line art, illustrations and drawings with limited color. PNG is the most versatile and can be used quite broadly on web-sites.
- The image formats used in documents follow a similar rule. GIF, TIFF and PNG are best for images with fewer colors and JPEG is used for images with many colors such as photos. The best test is to use pdf2image to convert to a few different formats and then view them both on-screen and in print to see which gives you the desired result.
- It’s also important to determine what formats your application can import. If the program you want to use only accepts BMP, then you need to convert to this format, even if it produces larger files than PNG.
- If you are generating images for use on web sites, convert at 72 dpi (dots per inch) or 96 dpi. These settings match screen resolution pixel for pixel for the best match and sharpest display.
- For general office printing, choose 150 dpi. This will generate a crisp image with the smallest file size.
- For office publishing and high quality laser printing, choose 300 dpi. The files will be larger but the images will be very clear.
- For professional printing, choose 300 dpi – 1200 dpi. It’s best to ask your printer who will recommend the best resolution to match his equipment.
- Published in QA