How to Batch Extract All Images From Pathfinder PDFs (Pathfinder 2e Rule Reminder

[@HowItsPlayed]

*UPDATE:* Dmitry (see below) offers a great way of exporting images with transparent backgrounds using PDF-XChange Editor (www.tracker-software.com/product/downloads). Download and install the free version, choose to use the Select Text tool (instead of the Hand tool), right-click the image you want, choose Copy, open a image editor like GIMP (www.gimp.org/), paste the image in and export as a PNG file to have an image with transparent background. This works great for when you want one image, but may want to use the method described in this video if you want to do a batch export of a lot of images (like an entire Bestiary). Thanks, Dmitry! Here is the original Reddit post: www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/9wsa6j/how_do_i_extract_images_from_pdfs_with_no_black/ And here are links to the software I use: Image Extractor: drive.google.com/file/d/11PXu-EHgIBeTwyWS2gAXsB1qUFKvsoez/view?usp=sharing XnView: www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/ This video is sponsored by Roll For Combat, a Paizo official actual play podcast! Check out all their great content here: rollforcombat.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Want to help support the channel? Get your name listed at the end of my videos by joining my Patreon : ▶️ www.patreon.com/HowItsPlayed/ Thank me with a cup of coffee! ▶️ ko-fi.com/HowItsPlayed

[@lastburning]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@Kriptini]

6:24 Those "shadow images" are called alphas or mattes. They were used in oldschool compositing for creating transparent graphics in videos before we had fancy codecs with embedded alpha channels. You are unlikely to see them in Nidal. 😛

[@NickScott86]

I like TokenTool. It doesn't create "shadow images" but instead your choice of several image formats including PNG and WebP with transparencies. You can also set a minimum pixel threshold for what images it exports which can cut down on the images you might not want like page dressing and small symbols. It's still not a perfect process, but it does save a couple of steps from your method. Thanks for all the great videos!

[@TheRookie121]

Another way to extract images from PDFs is to open them in a vector program, for example Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer or Inkscape. Be sure to create a duplicate of your pdf first or don't save anything during the extracting process. It can change the pdf and you'll have to download a fresh one from the paizo site. In the layers panel you can find every element of each page from the pdf (text, images, decorative illustrations, etc). You can then click on the image you want, which will select the correct layer in the layers panel. You might want to open the layer/group up more to directly select the image. Next you can export the selected image layer into your folders as a png, jpg or what ever you want. Clean images extracted from the pdf! Since you probably won't have the correct fonts, the program will ask you to replace them. You can just agree to the auto selected replacement font. It won't matter if you just want clean images. But if you want images with nameplates you'll have to replace the text with a suitable font. Select the text layer and change the font at the top menu. Also I've found that the official paizo pdf are protected, so you might want to use tool like Adobe acrobat, Foxit or ilovepdf.com (my recommendation) to split the pdf, You can freely work in the adapted pdf without issue.

[@davidbartz177]

Awesome tips. I'd extracted some art from one module, but to get all the art this way was a great time saver (going forward).

[@chrishudson9539]

Thanks. Just did this for my Kningmaker campaign. It will save me a lot of time

[@HLCG11]

if you have access to adobe photoshop, and you just need a small number of particular images, you can just right-click the image, copy it, and paste it to photoshop(make sure the canvas is big enough to contain the image), each image you pasted will add to the canvas as separated layers. select all layers and right-click, select export as(or quick export as png), and set the file setting to png (usually png is the default setting) and export it. if you want to have a particular file name, just double-click the layer name and change the layer name before exporting.

[@HowItsPlayed]

Thanks for the tip!

[@licidy1]

Excellent guide for using freeware. You can achieve the same via the "Extract All Images" command in the paid version of Adobe Reader if you have access to that.

[@SandBetweenTheTeeth]

I used this tool before, but I switched to one of PDF editors. It allows just to right-click and copy semi-transparent images with a free version. It's much easier than this tool. I hope this message is appropriate without naming of that editor.

[@HowItsPlayed]

I think it would be appropriate *with* naming the editor! :) What do you use?

[@SandBetweenTheTeeth]

@@HowItsPlayed PDF-XChange Editor. It has two paid versions and a free version, and this functionality works in a free version. And it's much faster as a reader than Adobe or Foxit software. I think it's one of the best tools for our hobby (after Foundry and Pathbuilder).

[@HowItsPlayed]

@@SandBetweenTheTeeth Fantastic! I just downloaded the free version and it works great. For a few images, this is a great tool... for wanting to convert an entire rulebook, like a Bestiary, I'll stick with the method described in the video.

[@yuven437]

I personally use scribus, which has a convenient way to handle all images in the file

[@turboraton]

OH MY GOD, many thanks for this!

[@LeonLHG]

Thanks a lot! It really saved time.

[@TheRealOgreBane]

Awesome and very helpful video

[@HowItsPlayed]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Duckyinspace]

It unfortunately does not seem to work on my macbook pro. It keeps asking me to pick an application to open the .bat file with. ☹

[@Unikatze]

Ok so... About 2 hours ago I was thinking I was going to google this just so I could make a single document called "The Art of Pathfinder" where I would compile every single piece of art published from the first publishing of Pathfinder to today.

[@AlexPBenton]

Do you plan to put it in a Google drive or something?

[@Unikatze]

@@AlexPBenton it was just going to be for myself because copyright.

[@AlexPBenton]

@@Unikatze That sucks, cause I’ve just bought an adventure path and I don’t want to have to do it all by hand

[@Unikatze]

@@AlexPBenton oh i didn't plan on doing battle maps or anything like that. What adventure path is it?

[@AlexPBenton]

@@Unikatze Agents of Edgewatch

[@yarnevk]

Image extractor does not always work on all the PDFs because of how the masking layers was done, they are not always the same size as the image. Makes for some weird extractions when masks get out of sync with the image. Windows works the same way of sorting by size to try delete the junk, and leave the mask/image pairs.

[@RobertKupcek]

I think I like the xnview app.. But, I've been using a command line tool to extract images, and then I can use the xnview. The extractor I use is XPDF's pdfimage tool..

[@maatlock]

This is awesome. I've tried to use Photoshop to extract the images from Paizo books... however, it's never worked because of the DRM security. Paizo puts an editing password on it's PDFs that Adobe enforces. Looks like this tool gets around that for the batch processing?

[@WalkersWonderland]

Great timing! I just started the process of extracting art from the bestiary card sets, so this is really handy.

[@HowItsPlayed]

Awesome! Glad I could help!

[@devcrom3]

Do those have art for things that don't have art in the books? Mephits, I think don't have art in the bestiary.

[@Unikatze]

@@devcrom3 yeah. There's art for every single creature in the Bestiary, same art as the Pawns. But better quality.

[@madman_chris]

As stated, this isn't a Rule Reminder but it's a very handy tip nonetheless. What about a separate series or playlist for Tips and Tricks or something like that?

[@rrljd333]

When I click on the .bat it says "Syntax warning: Bad annotation destination" anyone know what I'm doing wrong in this incredibly simple process?

[@simoozinoo2238]

very useful, Thanks

[@EDZREALTOR]

I used snipping tool to make an image, then copy that image into paint on the computer to take out any words surrounding the photo to make a clean copy. Copies great into Roll 20 for handouts.

[@solomani-42]

I maybe misremembering but I thought you could cut and paste the images?

[@SheenaTigerspielt]

*raises a hand* This is quite nice an explanation and the tools and all though... I do that with PDF's much more easy, at least those from Paizo. I use "Foxit" to view PDF's and then simply activate the tool to mark things (should be the wnd Button on the Start-Tab up in the menues). Then I click on the picture, it should be highlighted and ... copy it. Right clicking is more than enough but of course STRG+C is working as well. Then simply insert it into the graphics program of choice and save it. No extra bat file or such needed... of course, this is only 1 picture at a time.

[@HowItsPlayed]

Thanks! I just downloaded Foxit and tested it out. Is there a way to do this so that the background is transparent instead of a white box?

[@SheenaTigerspielt]

@@HowItsPlayed Sadly no, not that I know about... but I see in the pinned post below the response I am typing in the dropdown YT gives for easy replies that there was someone else pointing another out. Since I do like transparency as well in almost all cases, I'll go get that one too.

[@AlexPBenton]

I could have used this yesterday XD

[@gmscott9319]

I've always just did this: 1) Right-click on picture 2) Paste into GIMP 3) Export as... done. EDIT: Hopefully it's obvious that this does not do bulk extract! Just singles.

[@HowItsPlayed]

Interesting! What program do you use? My PDF readers don't appear to allow that.

[@SheenaTigerspielt]

@@HowItsPlayed Oh darn, should have read the comments before posting mine... in my case it is Foxit ^^

[@NormalesEinhorn]

@@SheenaTigerspielt Was gonna say Foxit Reader as well. Go into selection mode, right click picture and you get a clean image on white background without nameplates or text.

[@HowItsPlayed]

@@SheenaTigerspielt Thanks! I just downloaded Foxit and tested it out. Is there a way to do this so that the background is transparent instead of a white box?

[@sjwarhammer4039]

@@HowItsPlayed that's the rub. I've been using the method above for my Roll20 games, but I have to do extra work if I want a transparent background. Another issue you'll run into is that certain Paizo pdfs don't let you select just the image on certain pages. I remember the Lost Omens World Guide in particular being really finicky, so I'll be testing your method on that one.

[@Mrbedgar]

nice and good

[@MetulManiac]

Token tool handles this pretty easily.

[@jacobshaftoe8326]

My system is vastly superior: I really nicely ask my partner if she'd do that for me, and she uses her 20-odd years as a professional graphic designer, a computer and some things she has made up words for and bingo, problem solved!