Open a vector based pdf file in Photoshop at a percentage of it's original size

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
October 1, 2020
2 replies
1771 views

I have a folder of vector pdf documents with various document sizes. While they are all different, the page size for each of these pdfs is exactly 4 times larger than they need to be.(This is due to an export limitation in the CAD software used to produce them) If I have one of them already open in Photoshop, I have the option rezize that image by inches, centimeters or a percentage of the original size. However, when opening the pdf, I do not have the percentage option.

I have already been resizing these pdfs to 25% using image>image size, but I need to create pixel perfect images and I have found that each of the down sampling methods yeild inconsistent results.

I have also manually reduced the width and height values for each document while opening it, this seems to work, but I also need to automate this process and can't use a fixed dimension in my batch script.

Finally, I have tried to use Illustrator to open and reduce the size of the documents, but the CAD program which creates the pdfs does not play nice with Illustrator, so when I open the documents with illustrator there are shading and other problems.

Does anyone know a way to open a pdf at a percentage of the original size rather than by a defined width and height?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

Have you tried placing the PDF as a Smart Object? (File > Place Embedded/Place Linked)

That would have two advantages. As a Smart Object, when it’s in Free Transform mode (Edit > Free Transform) you can type its scaling percentage into the options bar. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to script that. The second advantage would be continuous rasterization: It remains a vector object in the Photoshop document. I wonder if keeping it as a vector object would help with the resampling artifacts.

Which brings up another question: What are the dimensions and ppi in Image > Image Size, or in the Import PDF dialog box? Because a vector object, Smart Object or not, can be rendered only as far as the pixel dimensions of the Photoshop document. I’m wondering if a PDF vector Smart Object will have fewer artifacts if it’s rendered in a Photoshop document with higher resolution.

Also, because there are so many resampling artifacts, another question comes up: Did the CAD program actually export vector paths into the PDF, or did it actually export pixels?

J

Justin_BobbittAuthor

Inspiring

Keeping the object vector in photoshop would be more ideal, however it does not seem to work for me in this scenario. The CAD program (Solid Edge) requires that I export the pdf files at 1200 ppi to maintain shading and transparency. I have found that if I place the files into photoshop, or if I open them at any resolution other than 1200 ppi, I get problems with the shading and transparency.

The pdf files generated by Solid Edge are actually a hybrid between vector and raster. The lines are vector but the shading is rasterized.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

»I have already been resizing these pdfs to 25% using image>image size, but I need to create pixel perfect images and I have found that each of the down sampling methods yeild inconsistent results.«

Please elaborate and post meaningdul screenshots to illustrate what you mean.

Have you tried converting the pdfs with a quarter of the intended resolution and then changing the resolution without resampling?

Bojan Živković11378569

Community Expert

Do you meant that resamling in Photoshop does not produce good results? Can you post some examples?

Another way to try tings is using Export panel in Bridge. From my testing it works to convert PDF to JPEG only, other file formats which are available will display unsuported file format error message. You can use percentages to scale resulting image.

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