[RESOLVED]: Converting PDF to GIF - poor quality output

[znabela]

I am converting Excel documents to PDF, so that ImageMagick along with GhostScript can convert it to GIF files (lowest filesize compared to JPG,PNG when used on intranet)

It has been working for me without problems, but 1½ weeks ago I did a complete format c: and reinstalled latest ImageMagick along with GhostScript.

Problem is now that the quality of the conversion from PDF to GIF is very poor. Tables in the Excel document look fine in PDF, but once converted, horizontal lines exists where no horizontal lines should be seen. Some are missing.

Command line as follows:
convert -verbose -trim +repage -density 125 INPUT.pdf OUTPUT_%02d.gif

Sample output:

[znabela]

Version: ImageMagick 6.4.9-3 2009-02-05 Q16

Just spotted ImageMacick 6.4.9-6 - will download and test this version first.

- update
No dice - quality of output is still bad.

[magick]

Try this command:

• convert -verbose -trim +repage -density 400 INPUT.pdf -resize 25% OUTPUT_%02d.gif

[znabela]

Tried that already using the PostScript info page ( http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/text/#postscript )

Command:
convert -verbose -trim +repage -density 400 "KL MAR.pdf" -resize 25% KL_TEST_%02d.gif

Result:
Horizontal lines are still present, even on what is supposedly blank areas of the page - new example with an old PDF that used to work using the first example above shown below.

Please note that this sample is one of 18 pages written to seperate .GIF files from 1 PDF file.

Only the last 8 pages (page 11-18) has this many horizontal lines - the first pages have 1-4 horizontal lines.

Code: Select all

C:\>convert -verbose -trim +repage -density 400 "KL MAR.pdf" -resize 25% KL_TEST_%02d.gif
[ghostscript library] Files/gs/gs8.63/bin/gswin32c.exe" -q -dQUIET -dPARANOIDSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dNOPROMPT -dMaxBitmap=500000000 -dEPSCrop -dAlignToPixels=0 -dGridFitTT=0 "-sDEVICE=pnmraw" -dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 "-r400x400"  "-sOutputFile=C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick--avFSV-f" "-fC:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-gka9jfg1" "-fC:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-b0U-GUf8"

[magick]

Can you post a URL to your original PDF image so we can download and reproduce the problem? Thanks.

[znabela]

I cannot disclose original PDF document, but I tested on a publicly available PDF file with same results.

I have uploaded the result, including the original PDF document - download here.

Copy of command line along with resulting log:

Code: Select all

C:\>convert -verbose -trim +repage -density 400 Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf -resize 25% CODENOM_%02d.gif
[ghostscript library] Files/gs/gs8.63/bin/gswin32c.exe" -q -dQUIET -dPARANOIDSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dNOPROMPT -dMaxBitmap=500000000 -dEPSCrop -dAlignToPixels=0 -dGridFitTT=0 "-sDEVICE=pnmraw" -dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 "-r400x400"  "-sOutputFile=C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt" "-fC:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-d59zW_Ir" "-fC:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-TzPEPeVb"
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[0] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 4.696u 1:36
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[1] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 4.415u 1:36
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[2] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 4.165u 1:36
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[3] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 3.900u 1:36
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[4] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 3.635u 1:35
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[5] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 3.370u 1:35
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[6] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 3.104u 1:35
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[7] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 2.855u 1:33
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[8] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 2.543u 1:31
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[9] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 2.262u 0:27
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[10] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 1.856u 0:23
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[11] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 1.279u 0:21
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[12] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.764u 0:20
C:/Users/rc/AppData/Local/Temp/magick-2oz77mUt[13] PNM 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.468u 0:19
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.016u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.016u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.016u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.016u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.016u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.016u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.031u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.031u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.031u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.031u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.031u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.031u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.031u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf[0] PDF 3400x4400 3400x4400+0+0 16-bit DirectClass 599.2mb 0.031u 0:01
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_00.gif[0] PDF 3400x4400=>809x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 66.9kb 27.316u 0:17
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_01.gif[1] PDF 3400x4400=>800x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 110kb 25.865u 0:17
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_02.gif[2] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 187kb 24.399u 0:16
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_03.gif[3] PDF 3400x4400=>800x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 162kb 23.135u 0:16
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_04.gif[4] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 161kb 21.684u 0:15
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_05.gif[5] PDF 3400x4400=>800x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 146kb 20.623u 0:15
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_06.gif[6] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1014 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 170kb 19.953u 0:15
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_07.gif[7] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1022 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 142kb 19.110u 0:15
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_08.gif[8] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 133kb 17.613u 0:14
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_09.gif[9] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 167kb 16.224u 0:14
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_10.gif[10] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1038 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 170kb 14.695u 0:14
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_11.gif[11] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 175kb 13.307u 0:13
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_12.gif[12] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1012 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 35.8kb 11.747u 0:13
Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf=>CODENOM_13.gif[13] PDF 3400x4400=>850x1067 16-bit Palette PseudoClass 256c 155kb 10.655u 0:11

ImageMagick Version: ImageMagick 6.4.9-6 2009-02-18 Q16 OpenMP
GhostScript version: Ghostscript 8.63
OS: Windows Vista 32bit Business edition

[magick]

We saw the lines in the distribution you provided, however, we cannot reproduce the problem We tried your command line with ImageMagick 6.4.9-6 and Ghostscript 8.64 on 3 different systems (XP, Windows 2003, Linux) and the rendered pages were free of artifacts.

[znabela]

Ghostscript 8.64 ?

Aha! Released on sourceforge but not on Ghostscript homepage.

Will test later tonight.

/Robert

Update: Tested - did not resolve the problem - download output here
Samme command line as before:

Code: Select all

convert -verbose -trim +repage -density 400 Codenomicon_Wireless_WP_v1_0.pdf -resize 25% CODENOM_GS864_%02d.gif

I'm baffled as to why it suddenly starts working like this, as it was working 2 weeks ago before I did a complete recovery of Vista.

[znabela]

magick: just uninstalled ImageMagick + GS, deleted the empty folders, reinstalled ImageMagick-6.4.9-6-Q16-windows-static instead of dll - and GS 8.64

No lines, no artifacts, nothing - everything is back to normal!

Thanks for the input, seems to me there was a hickup somewhere. Might be an installation problem, though I recall running both installations "As Administrator" before.

Problem solved itself somehow.