Is there any way to convert the ImportObject into an image file ?

Report · May 16, 2011

I have converted a FM document into MIF file format. FM has a grapic imported by copying into the document. In the MIF file I can see the image like the following,

<ImportObject

=TIFF

&%v

&II*\x00080000001000FE000400010000000000000000010300010000006009000001010300010000…..

Is there any way to convert the ImportObject inside the mif file into an image file ?

Report · May 16, 2011

I have converted a FM document into MIF file format.

Why?

FM has a graphic imported by copying into the document.

Do you still have the originally imported image file?

What format is it?

In the MIF file I can see the image like the following,

<ImportObject

...

=TIFF

&II*\x00080000001000FE000400010000000000000000010300010000006009000001 010300010000…..

Sounds like that's a raster object.

Is there any way to convert the ImportObject inside the mif file into an image file ?

What format image file?

What is it that you need to do?

Report · May 17, 2011

I don’t have original image. I have only FM file. I want to convert the image into JPEG format.

Report · May 17, 2011

Try printing the file, or just the page containing the image, to PDF; but be sure to set the PDF job options to an option that does NOT compress bitmaps in anyway. If one is not available, edit an existing job option to turn off image compression and color management.

You can then open the PDF file with Acrobat Professional (or maybe Standard may do) and export the image as tiff or bmp (Advanced > Document Processing > Export All Images). Before you click Save, click the Settings button to view all the export options to make sure there is no compression selected. DO NOT select jpeg as the export option; it compresses the image.

Report · May 17, 2011

Try printing the file, or just the page containing the image, to PDF;

Before doing that, check the anchoring frame to make sure it's exposing all of the image needed.

but be sure to set the PDF job options to an option that does NOT compress bitmaps in anyway.

Well, you do have to specify some resolution. Just make it high, say 1200 dpi or more.

Adobe Illustrator can also open PDF pages, and extract individual page objects. I've recovered images this way, usually saved as EPS.

You can also just view the PDF page in Acrobat Reader. If the permissions aren't set to block this, you can use Acrobat's graphics select tool to outline the image, zoom as needed (even if the image goes off screen), and use the Acro Copy function to snag the image to the clipboard (up to the Windows GDI limit, anyway, which used to be 32MB).

If the image is small, or already low resolution, you can screen-scrape it right in Frame. Zoom to the desired level (with all of the image still on screen). Press [Alt+PrntScrn]. Your raster is now on the clipboard. Paste into your favorite raster image editor. Save as whatever raster file type is desired.

Report · May 17, 2011

Yanesh,

If you have many of such embedded images you have to or want to extract from FrameMaker documents, you might want to use a third-party tool, which uses FrameMaker’s built-in export filters to do that. Squidds Finalyser (for FM10) or Squidds Toolbox for FrameMaker uses this feature.

http://www.squidds.de/en/products/squidds-produkte.html

If it is only a single or just a few graphics, the PDF method would be a lot faster.

HTH,

- Michael

Report · May 17, 2011

Well, you do have to specify some resolution. Just make it high, say 1200 dpi or more.

No, one of the settings is to Determine Automatically, which uses the resolution of the image IN the PDF.

If it is only a single or just a few graphics, the PDF method would be a lot faster.

The command is Export All Images; however, it names them 1, 2, 3, etc. So, could be a little chore to rename each one.

Van

Report · May 17, 2011

Well, you do have to specify some resolution. Just make it high, say 1200 dpi or more.

No, one of the settings is to Determine Automatically, which uses the resolution of the image IN the PDF.

Where is that found?

I just set up (in Distiller 9) a Job Option set named "Recover Images" (which I do expect to use from time to time). The following are the settings that seem to have some bearing on image preservation. I see these same dialog choices in FM9 Print Setup.

____________________________________

Distiller > Settings > Edit Adobe PDF Settings

General

Object Level Compression: [Off]

Resolution: [72-4000] (<Note A>)

Images
Color Images

Downsample: [Off]

[9-2400] pixels per inch (<Note B>)

Compression: [Off]

<etc. for Gray and Bitmapped>

Advanced

Save original JPEG images in PDF if possible

_____________________________________

Note A

There is no "Resolution" choice for "Off" (or for "Determine Automatically"). But how much does this matter?

I've always presumed that this setting primarily determines an alignment grid for object origin coordinates. Help is not very helpful, but does warn that large values can produce large PDF sizes? Why? Is there some implicit subsampling going on at low values? We use 600 for normal printing (as that's what our pub engine does). I use 1200 for image recovery.

Note B

Why is this ppi dialog not switched off when Downsample is Off? Does the value matter if "Off"?

Report · May 17, 2011

Error 7103,

Regarding Note A and Note B... The Downsample dropdowns list three variations of Downsampling TO, each corresponding to a different downsampling method. When you select one of the Downsampling TO options, then the pixels per inch box allow you to specify the dpi of the downsampled image, the one after the downsampling.

When you select Off, which means do NOT downsample, then the pixels per inch box is meaningless. Maybe it would be a nice interface feature to disable it, but that is another issue. In any event, OFF ignores any value in pixels per inch.

Whenever you import an image into your publishing program (FrameMaker, InDesign, or whatever) and scale it, one can think of the scaled image as having a physical dpi, the number of pixels per physical inch on the "paper." When you specify downsampling in Distiller, the number you specify is most likely less than the physical dpi of the image in the document. It is probably meaningless to specify a number that is larger. I am guessing (and this is a guess) that Distiller does not UPsample images. I have never tested it.

I use 1200 for image recovery.

I assume you are talking about recoverying an image embedded in (copied into) the publishing document. I believe it is sufficient simply to turn downsampling off to create a PDF with the image at the resolution as embedded in the document.

No, one of the settings is to Determine Automatically, which uses the resolution of the image IN the PDF.
Where is that found?

It is NOT in Distiller. It is in Acrobat Professional. (It may or may not be in Acrobat Standard or Acrobat Reader; I do not have them, so do not know.)

The original poster wanted to recover an image copied into a Frame document file. My method is to create a PDF using a Distiller joboption with ALL downsampling and ALL compression OFF. Presumably the image is put into the PDF with all the pixels it has in the Frame file.

THEN in Acrobat PROFESSIONAL, export the image with the setting Determine Automatically. I am presuming (never tested it) this exports ALL the pixels that the image has in the PDF file.

Van

Report · May 18, 2011

THEN in Acrobat PROFESSIONAL, export the image with the setting Determine Automatically. I am presuming (never tested it) this exports ALL the pixels that the image has in the PDF file.

I wasn't aware of that export feature. Thanks for pointing it out. However, as you point out:

My method is to create a PDF using a Distiller joboption with ALL downsampling and ALL compression OFF. Presumably the image is put into the PDF with all the pixels it has in the Frame file.

That's key. By the time you've opened a PDF, the images may have already been resampled by the application (Frame) or by the print-to-PDF or Distill process.

The generating application sees a simulated printer (generic PS, PS with ADISTILL PPD, Adobe Distiller or Adobe PDF). The Job Options, aka Printer Setup settings, define the characteristics of this printer.

The issue I was trying to resolve is that “resolution” is specified in multiple places when setting up a Job Option. It is likely that in the “Image” pane of the dialogs, the ppi settings are irrelevant once Downsample has been set to Off.

But a “Resolution” is also set in the “General” pane, and the question is: what does that control? I'm pretty sure is sets the alignment grid for the pseudo printer. But it might also cause the generating app (Frame) to perform some down-sampling. That Resolution has to be set to something, so for a throw-away job like image recovery, it might as well be set to the maximum.

Report · May 18, 2011

But a “Resolution” is also set in the “General” pane, and the question is: what does that control? I'm pretty sure is sets the alignment grid for the pseudo printer. But it might also cause the generating app (Frame) to perform some down-sampling. That Resolution has to be set to something, so for a throw-away job like image recovery, it might as well be set to the maximum.

The Distiller online help states the following:

Resolution: Use for PostScript files to emulate resolutions based on the printer they are printing to. Permitted values range from 72 to 4000. Use the default setting unless you plan to print the PDF on a specific printer while emulating the resolution defined in the original PostScript file.

I am not sure what this means, but note the following:

In Distiller's Images tab, the resolutions are in PIXELS per inch. In the General tab, Resolution is in DOTS per inch. Therefore, I believe the General tab resolution is referring to the printer's resolution in DOTS. Note that a printer dot is either ON or OFF and has no color associated with it. So, you are probably correct in that THIS Resolution defines a grid of dots on the printed page; NOTHING is printed except these dots, each either on or off. For this reason, my guess is that the Resolution on the General tab has nothing to do with how bitmap images are stored in the PDF. How the bitmap is stored in the PDF is determined by the settings in the Images tab, where resolutions are in PIXELS per inch.

It might help to download the PostScript or PDF specifications from adobe.com to see how bitmaps are stored in PDFs. These documents MAY address what an application (Distiller?) can do when it encounters a bitmap.

Report · May 17, 2011

If for some reason extracting the image from a PDF does not work as desired, you could open the mif file in FM and do Save As RTF format then open the file in Word. In Word, click on the picture and right click, choose "Save as Picture" to extract the picture from there.

I just tested a PNG in FM and it was exported to the RTF as PNG and it exported from Word as a PNG, so hopefully that same process would accommodate a jpeg image.

FM's RTF export filter may change the resolution of the graphic, though, but it's worth testing.

edit: When doing the Save As Picture in Word, there's a dropdown menu at the bottom that will let you choose several different formats, among them .jpg.

Message was edited by: Sheila Carlisle