Extracting maps from the PDFs?

[tro1984]

I subbed to the APs for Iron gods, so I have all the map PDFs, but I can't seem to find a way to extract HQ versions of the unmarked maps.

Any ideas? Currently I'm screenshotting them, which is a PITA.

[Joana]

You can copy the images from Adobe Reader and then paste them into Paint or the like. That's what I do. Just right click on the map and select Copy Image.

My understanding is that you have to extract the maps from the standard PDF, not the Interactive Maps product.

[ryric]

When I run APs using Maptools, I copy/paste them into Gimp than save them.

If you're having trouble copying them from a pdf, make sure your mouse pointer is set to the select tool, not the hand tool. You can change it by right clicking anywhere in a pdf. Then you can select the images and copy them.

[tro1984]

ryric wrote:

When I run APs using Maptools, I copy/paste them into Gimp than save them.

If you're having trouble copying them from a pdf, make sure your mouse pointer is set to the select tool, not the hand tool. You can change it by right clicking anywhere in a pdf. Then you can select the images and copy them.

Yeah, this is what I tried, and it doesn't allow me to select anything.

[Dmhops]

You have to extract the map from the adventure PDF itself and not the interactive maps pdfs. They aren't completely player friendly. Specifically some secret doors on IG maps extract as gaps in the walls.

[tro1984]

Yeah... that creates such a low res map, it's unusable.

Guess it's back to doing it the other way.

[Skeld]

tro1984 wrote:

Yeah... that creates such a low res map, it's unusable.

Guess it's back to doing it the other way.

What tools are you using to extract images?

-Skeld

[Andostre]

I think I remember reading that one of the versions of Adobe Acrobat or Reader doesn't have the "Copy Image" function. Not sure if this applies to tro1984, or not.

[Joana]

Pretty sure it was Reader 10 and the functionality was put back in with the next version.

Sounds like tro1984 might be enlarging the maps to 1 square = 1 inch, which does involve image degradation. Whether or not you consider it "unusable" depends on your standards for maps. I do this fairly frequently because blurry, low-res professional maps still look better than my approximations on a MondoMat.

[eakratz]

Instead of starting a new thread I am going to ask here.

I recently updated Adobe on my Mac. Previously, I could just click and drag the image I needed to use but now it doesn't work. Does anyone know what happened or is that option just gone. It was so convenient.

[Steel_Wind]

I use PDF Extraction Wizard (not SomePDF Image Extractor, which extracts a lower quality image from many Paizo PDFs). Image Extraction Wizard extracts the best .png in the interactive map.

You then follow the guideline here and use the Excel file at that page to resize your map (whether you use it in a VTT or not - the procedure is the same).

It works perfectly, provided that Paizo has not screwed up their map. Sometimes they do -- though they are FAR more careful about it these days. The older the AP gets, the more difficult they are to use on a technical basis when it comes to Fog of War and grid lineups on a VTT.

[Michael Monn]

I use pdfimages to extract images from the interactive maps with something similar to the following command:

michael@michael-laptop:~$ pdfimages -png PZO90100E\ -\ A\ Song\ of\ Silver\ \(4\ of\ 6\)\ -\ Interactive\ Map.pdf Book\ 4/

Granted, this probably only works with Linux and it extracts ALL the images from the book so you have to go through about 50-100 images to pull out the maps. Good thing about it is that they usually are much bigger so they are easy to identify.

[DM Carbide]

I have Acrobat XI on my work computer, and it has a button for Export all images--spits them out as jpgs. As with Michael Monn, that gets a whole lot of images from a typical Paizo doc, including all of the fancy margins and such.

[Haladir]

I use Acrobat Document Cloud 2015. It works like a champ.

[Michael Monn]

Yeah if you guys can use pdfimages somehow (Windows with a cygwin installation), use it. It is free and makes amazing images in whatever format you need.

[JPSTOD]

I just click on Image and Paste to Windows Paint for a Map

however to produce a useable Battle Map I just reproduce the Maps in Campaign Cartographer 3+
Save as 300 DPI PNG 1"=5' Battle Maps....

[Red Rabbit]

Having different versions of the maps instead of the interactive maps would be really nice.