help with pictures

[fromdust]

i hope i have posted this in the right area. i have taken pictures around the city and when i scanned them into my computer they are pdf and i need to convert them to jpeg so i can get them on the internet. how do i do this? any help would be appreciated.

[mranderson]

i hope i have posted this in the right area. i have taken pictures around the city and when i scanned them into my computer they are pdf and i need to convert them to jpeg so i can get them on the internet. how do i do this? any help would be appreciated.

I will tell you how I change format on pictures and maybe it will help. Soem of mine are bitmap images. I open the picture on windows picture and fax viewer by right clicking on the image. That brings a menu. Where it says open with, click that and go to windows picture and fax viewer. When it opens, you should see a picture of a floppy disc. Click on it and it opens another window. On the type of image, right click and it will bring a list of image types. Click on jpeg and then send. That should convert it.

If anyone knows a better way, I am all eyes.

[Karried]

When you open the photos click on File in the top task bar - scroll down to Save As - if the prompt allows you move the pics to My Pictures in My Documents folder ( at the top) - then click on save as type jpeg

[Doug Loudenback]

i hope i have posted this in the right area. i have taken pictures around the city and when i scanned them into my computer they are pdf and i need to convert them to jpeg so i can get them on the internet. how do i do this? any help would be appreciated.

When you say, "... taken pictures..." do you mean that you're using a digital camera (in which case "scanned" isn't probably what you mean to say) or film converted to paper and then scanned using a scanner? A good answer to your question will vary depending on your answer. Once I understand, I'll try to give a better answer.

[fromdust]

When you say, "... taken pictures..." do you mean that you're using a digital camera (in which case "scanned" isn't probably what you mean to say) or film converted to paper and then scanned using a scanner? A good answer to your question will vary depending on your answer. Once I understand, I'll try to give a better answer.

pics taken on film.

[Doug Loudenback]

Ok, fromdust,

To summarize, you said,

i hope i have posted this in the right area. i have taken pictures around the city and when i scanned them into my computer they are pdf and i need to convert them to jpeg so i can get them on the internet. how do i do this? any help would be appreciated.

and then I asked,

When you say, "... taken pictures..." do you mean that you're using a digital camera (in which case "scanned" isn't probably what you mean to say) or film converted to paper and then scanned using a scanner? A good answer to your question will vary depending on your answer. Once I understand, I'll try to give a better answer.

to which you replied,

pics taken on film.

When/if you are scanning paper images by using a scanner, your scanner's apparent default is to save scanned images to PDF files. In all probability, you can, and may want to, change the output of the scan so that it is not a PDF file, but, instead, is a graphics filie of one type or another, e.g., *.jpg (aka jpeg), *.bmp (aka Windows bitmap), or *.gif (aka Compuserve gif). Other graphic formats are also possible, but these 3 are the most common. *.bmp files render the highest quality, but are relatively large file sizes; *.jpg are more typical and they result in smaller file sizes, while still 16.7 million colors; *.gif files are better for text & line drawing and are 256 colors, which is not so good for "pictures".

PDF is not a graphic file format at all, but is the "Portable Document Format" which is proprietary to Adobe Acrobat. A PDF file certainly may include graphic image files, but in and of itself, it is not a "graphic" file, per se, even if the resulting PDF file happens to "contain" nothing but "graphic" files. Very often, PDF files contain both text and graphics. For example, some of the PDF files produced by Downtown Now include graphic files, as well as text. But, to "extract" the graphic images/files FROM the PDF document itself, I must open Adobe Acrobat (not the reader, the full Acrobat program), and export the graphic files contained in the document so that I have the native graphic files themselves. Doing that, I can then manipulate those files (resize, change graphic file format, crop, etc.).

I hope this makes sense. If so,

The 1st thing to do is to check your scanner's settings ... chances are, when you scan, you don't HAVE to convert the images to PDF, but that you have the capability of selecting different conversion options than scanning to PDF, e.g., to scan to a "bitmap" file (a generic term), such as (but not limited to) the graphic file formats I've mentioned above, such as *.bmp, *.jpg, or *.gif.

And, if you DO scan to PDF, and you want to extract the images in the PDF document to a true graphic file format, I'm pretty sure that you'd need some version of Adobe Acrobat (not Reader) to do that.

Before I go further, check your scanner's settings to see if you can save to something other than PDF files ... that's often a good choice, but it is not a good choice for what you're wanting to do in this instance ... just scan your paper pictures into a graphic file format.

I'll look for your reply and then reply again, if you want.

[Keith]

Ok, fromdust,

To summarize, you said,
and then I asked,
to which you replied,

When/if you are scanning paper images by using a scanner, your scanner's apparent default is to save scanned images to PDF files. In all probability, you can, and may want to, change the output of the scan so that it is not a PDF file, but, instead, is a graphics filie of one type or another, e.g., *.jpg (aka jpeg), *.bmp (aka Windows bitmap), or *.gif (aka Compuserve gif). Other graphic formats are also possible, but these 3 are the most common. *.bmp files render the highest quality, but are relatively large file sizes; *.jpg are more typical and they result in smaller file sizes, while still 16.7 million colors; *.gif files are better for text & line drawing and are 256 colors, which is not so good for "pictures".

PDF is not a graphic file format at all, but is the "Portable Document Format" which is proprietary to Adobe Acrobat. A PDF file certainly may include graphic image files, but in and of itself, it is not a "graphic" file, per se, even if the resulting PDF file happens to "contain" nothing but "graphic" files. Very often, PDF files contain both text and graphics. For example, some of the PDF files produced by Downtown Now include graphic files, as well as text. But, to "extract" the graphic images/files FROM the PDF document itself, I must open Adobe Acrobat (not the reader, the full Acrobat program), and export the graphic files contained in the document so that I have the native graphic files themselves. Doing that, I can then manipulate those files (resize, change graphic file format, crop, etc.).

I hope this makes sense. If so,

The 1st thing to do is to check your scanner's settings ... chances are, when you scan, you don't HAVE to convert the images to PDF, but that you have the capability of selecting different conversion options than scanning to PDF, e.g., to scan to a "bitmap" file (a generic term), such as (but not limited to) the graphic file formats I've mentioned above, such as *.bmp, *.jpg, or *.gif.

And, if you DO scan to PDF, and you want to extract the images in the PDF document to a true graphic file format, I'm pretty sure that you'd need some version of Adobe Acrobat (not Reader) to do that.

Before I go further, check your scanner's settings to see if you can save to something other than PDF files ... that's often a good choice, but it is not a good choice for what you're wanting to do in this instance ... just scan your paper pictures into a graphic file format.

I'll look for your reply and then reply again, if you want.

Wow, just reading this makes my head spin.....this is waaaayyyyyyy over my head.

[Doug Loudenback]

Keith,

No, it's not "waaay" over your head. It's just a matter of understanding a few basic things ... about "paper" scanning" output, compared to "digital" camera transfers to your hard disk.

Understand these few things and it should become clear:

When you take pics with your digital camera, they are ALREADY in digital graphic file format of one kind or another, usually "jpeg" (*.jpg) format. So, when manipulating such a file (e.g., cropping, resizing, changing graphic file type), you are simply modifying the original digital graphic file.

But, with PDF files, since a PDF file is NOT a digital file, per se, but is something like a crossbreed which can (usually does) contain literal text, as well as digital images, the resulting file (PDF) is netiher literally text nor digitally graphic, but is a combination of the two. That allows you, for example, to copy "text" parts of the document and then paste that text into WordPerfect, Word, or other text software program, while, at the same time, allows you to export graphic file images, as I've described above, to obtain the literal graphic file images which are contained within the PDF document.

It's not that complicated ... it's just a matter of understanding what a PDF file IS ... it's a proprietary hybrid file made by the owner of Acrobat, and which file can contain both text and graphics stuff. While I'm oversimplifying, I'm pretty sure I'm on the mark with this over-simplified explanation.

To take it a step further: You make a WordPerfect or a Word document which contains both text and graphic images. If the file was opened by a person containing (respectively) WordPerfect or Word, both the text and graphics should be rendered correctly.

But, you want the WordPerfect or Word (or whatever) file to be able to be read by anyone, regardless of the word processing (or other ... spreadsheet, etc.) program that the file was originally created in, that's where Acrobat comes in.

WordPerfect has long been able to generate PDF files within itself, and Word is about to be able to do that. So, in the primary software program (WordPerfect, Word, whatever), you "save" the file to PDF. That results in an exported file which can be read by "Adobe Acrobat Reader".

Adobe Acrobat Reader (now called Acrobat Reader) is a software program which "bridges" other software programs so that resulting PDF files can include both text and graphics and be read by "anyone", as long as the "anyone" has "Adobe Acrobat Reader" installed on their computer, which most everyone does.

Does this help in "simplifying", or have I gone the other direction?

[fromdust]

thank you all for your suggestions, especially doug. got the pics to work