Convert error when changing pdf to png

Question

I was trying convert a pdf to an image when I got this error. I have since converted the pdf to an image using a screenshot tool, but Im concerned that when I work more with the person that provided me the source PDF, that I will see see this error more. I'd like to know if there is a way to prevent it.

lol:~/public_html/images/Poster$ convert Gordon\ conference\ \ water\ 2018\ 36x48.pdf GCW2018.png

   **** Warning: considering '0000000000 XXXXX n' as a free entry.
   **** Warning: considering '0000000000 XXXXX n' as a free entry.
   **** Warning: considering '0000000000 XXXXX n' as a free entry.
   **** Warning: considering '0000000000 XXXXX n' as a free entry.
   **** Warning: considering '0000000000 XXXXX n' as a free entry.
   **** Warning: considering '0000000000 XXXXX n' as a free entry.
   **** Warning: considering '0000000000 XXXXX n' as a free entry.

   **** This file had errors that were repaired or ignored.
   **** The file was produced by: 
   **** >>>> Mac OS X 10.12.6 Quartz PDFContext <<<<
   **** Please notify the author of the software that produced this
   **** file that it does not conform to Adobe's published PDF
   **** specification.

yes, the source pdf came from a Mac.

`This file had errors that were repaired or ignored.` <== are you really sure that there was no image produced? Because is says nothing about blocking errors. Moreover, [there are alternatives](https://askubuntu.com/q/50170/29595) to `convert` (that uses Ghostscript, [that produces that error](https://stackoverflow.com/q/38236331/1437269)). Finally, are you trying to convert a pdf that has characters in it or is it a scanned PDF? In the latter, I storngly suggest that you take a look at `pdfimages` (it's my fav tool for extracting images from pdf). — dadexix86, Jul 21 '18 at 11:02
there was file output, but it was not view-able, it was like corrupt or something. there are numerous scientific symbols in this document perhaps those characters caused some issue. Ive used convert many times for this type of operation, but ive never seen this error before. — j0h, Jul 21 '18 at 11:04

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 21 '18 at 11:23

This is an issue with Mac OS Sierra incorrectly encoding the PDF file, that causes GhostScript (which is what convert uses behind-the-scenes to do the conversion) to throw such an error.

You can instead try to use pdftoppm which in my experience creates better quality pngs as well

Install: sudo apt-get install poppler-utils

Usage: pdftoppm input.pdf outputname -png

Convert error when changing pdf to png

1 Answers1