We're excited to now be offering PDF2IMG - our class-leading PDF rendering software - for instant evaluation and subscription in our online store. We've been offering PDF2IMG for almost fifteen years now, and companies across many different industries worldwide have come to rely on its rendering capabilities. Today, we'd like to write a bit about why you might want to convert a PDF into an image form, and why PDF2IMG should be your first choice when you need to do so.

PDF2IMG in a Nutshell

PDF2IMG is a scriptable server tool that converts PDFs into image files. Using the Adobe PDF Library – the same technology used in Adobe Acrobat, Document Cloud, and Creative Cloud – PDF2IMG interprets and renders PDF files. Intended for automated workflows and for product integration, PDF2IMG may be used from scripting languages such as bash and Powershell. PDF2IMG also includes APIs for C/C++ and .NET programming usage.

PDF2IMG comes in three different editions: Standard, Pro, and Premium. What’s the difference between these?

PDF2IMG Standard is intended to help you get up and going quickly and simply. PDF2IMG Standard includes a curated set of PDF rendering functionality that brings the performance and capability of the Adobe PDF Library to users in a wide variety of different workflows and applications. With PDF2IMG Standard, you can easily generate thumbnails, previews, and renderings of PDF files for many purposes and uses.

PDF2IMG Pro increases the flexibility and configurability of PDF2IMG. Intended for print/pre-press users and for developers creating internal-deployment applications, PDF2IMG Pro includes an expanded set of output formats color processing configurations.

PDF2IMG Premium is intended for developers who wish to integrate PDF2IMG’s capabilities into their own applications for distribution, or who wish to use PDF2IMG in their external-facing ASP and SaaS deployments.

PDF2IMG Use Cases

While I’ll fully admit to a bias towards PDF, there are a number of different situations where one wants to transform a PDF into a simplified format. Some of these situations include:

• Generating PDF file previews and thumbnails: many applications require users to preview documents, including PDF files. File management applications, document management systems, and web applications all have users who need to take in, at a quick glance, the form and content of a document in order to decide how to handle it. With PDF2IMG, your application can generate high-quality previews at the best resolution for the situation, and with smoothing and anti-aliasing for the most useful and useable results.
• Converting PDFs which use advanced functionality for viewers: support for advanced PDF features varies across different viewing environments. Calibrated color, transparency, complex blending rules, and multi-channel colors – these are just a few of the features that may be present in PDFs, but which you user’s viewer may not properly support. When you need to retarget complex PDF files to a broad audience, one typical way is to render the PDF to an image format such as JPEG where the complexity can be “flattened out” into a final rendered form. With PDF2IMG, your application can render PDFs with the highest possible color and rendering quality. True Adobe PDF rendering and color management, along with smoothing and quality options, ensure that you can put the best possible renditions of complex PDF files in your users’ views and devices.
• Supporting existing investments in pre-press and print facilities: many print and press facilities have existing capital and software investments in systems. Often, these presses and other equipment and facilities are functioning well but lacking reliable support for ingesting PDF files directly. With PDF2IMG, companies can extend the useable life and thus the return on these existing investments. PDF2IMG can generate Adobe EPS or raster files for use in print production workflows, with accurate and calibrated color and reliable PDF processing.
• Compatibility with archival and legacy workflow requirements: many standards for electronic document archiving mandate the use of raster image formats, such as TIFF files. Legacy workflows, such as electronic fax servers, further restrict the formats one can use for electronic documents. With PDF2IMG, you can update your workflows to enable archiving and processing of PDF files in these sorts of archival and legacy systems.

Why PDF2IMG?

Let’s face it: there are a lot of different tools out there for making images from PDF files. Open source tools, free tools, ad-supported tools, online tools, paid tools… you have a lot of choices. Why should you use PDF2IMG rather than something else?

• Proven Adobe Systems technology: the same technology in place in Adobe Reader and Acrobat, as well as Creative Cloud, PDF2IMG contains the work of over 20 years of commercial PDF development and support.
• Leading support for advanced PDF features: PDF2IMG has unmatched support for transparency, overprint preview, and calibrated color in PDFs. It offers a comprehensive suite of options for specifying how to process uncalibrated color, complete PDF transparency, and overprint preview support, as well as support for updated Adobe PDF password and security capabilities. Other technologies feature incomplete or missing support for some or all these important features. With PDF2IMG, you get unmatched reliability that your users will see correct and complete images of your PDF files.
• Our experience with electronic documents: Datalogics has been working in electronic publishing and document technologies for over 50 years. We’ve been an Adobe Ventures company and working with Adobe Systems on spreading the use of PDF for over 20 years, and have offered PDF2IMG for nearly 15 of those. We have experience meeting the needs of the most ambitious clients across a wide variety of different industries.

We're confident that PDF2IMG can suit your PDF rendering and imaging needs. To learn more about PDF2IMG, download a free evaluation, or to purchase an annual subscription, click here.