PDF conversion bounding box margin issue

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grankin

PDF conversion bounding box margin issue

Post by grankin »

my situation exactly is this:

I have a 300 dpi jpeg that is 5400 pixels by 3600 pixels (so 18 inches X 12 inches) that I need to convert to a pdf file - our client's printing company requires the file in pdf form.

When i do (using ImageMagick 6.4.1):

Code: Select all

convert image.jpg final.pdf
the resulting pdf loads fine in adobe reader, but the printing company reported that there was a large bounding box problem. on their end they are using adobe acrobat professional to open the pdf and go to tools->print production->crop pages, and what they see is a pdf that would print out on 75 inches by 50 inches with the final image down in the bottom left corner.

Frustrated, i did a little math and found that 5400 pixels / 72 pixels per inch = 75 inches, which may explain the odd sizing problem, but not why the image is down in the bottom left corner.

I also tried changing the command to take density into account:

Code: Select all

convert image.jpg -density 300 final.pdf
Unfortunately this did not seem to change anything. the pdf was still 75 inches wide. I've also tried explicitly specifying the page size by adding -page 5400x3600 but that does not seem to have any effect.

I've heard of other people having this issue, but have not been able to find a satisfactory solution. one suggestion was to convert the image to postscript first and have ps2pdf turn the postscript file into a pdf. unfortunately i ended up with a pdf that (1) had tons of nasty jpeg compression artifacts, (2) used a standard 8.5 inch X 11 inch page (cropped my 18 inch x 12 inch image), and (3) ignored or lost the color profile i was applying to the image (which is very important to the printing company. they supplied an ICC file that was getting applied just fine to my pdf when using image magick but with the sizing issue it is unsatisfactory to them)

I would greatly appreciate some help or a suggestion to overcoming this problem. our client does not want to pay the printing company to crop the pdf before they print it and due to my lack of experience in these matters I have run out of options.
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fmw42
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Re: PDF conversion bounding box margin issue

Post by fmw42 »

you will need to provide examples for anyone to make sense of this and reproduce your problem
grankin

Re: PDF conversion bounding box margin issue

Post by grankin »

Thanks for your response.

a 5400x3600 jpg image at 300 dpi: image.jpg - approximately 1.3 meg

after the command:

Code: Select all

convert image.jpg final.pdf
I get this pdf: final.pdf - 300k

likewise, after this command:

Code: Select all

convert image.jpg -density 300 final_300.pdf
I get this pdf: final_300.pdf - 300k

while both pdfs appear fine in adobe reader, the crop-box tool in adobe acrobat shows this: screenshot.jpg - 77k

As I stated before, I'm using ImageMagick 6.4.1. please let me know if there is anything else I should provide
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