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Hi I was wonderig if there has been a change somewhere in how the adventure path pdf's work. In all the previous ones you could select and copy the images (Which was usefull for printing off character images and the maps) but since the start of hells rebels that dosent seem to work (seems to only be the ap since ive checked my latest module and the feature works fine on them.)
There hasn't been any intentional change with our PDF creation process. If you could indicate which issue numbers you're seeing this issue, I'll see what we can do to get that fixed/updated.
I have never had an issue using adobe reader to copy an image. What method are the rest of you using?
The tool I am talking about allows you to change the selector so that you basically choose a rectangular area. That area is copied to the clipboard in image form, but if you are on a MaC that version of Adobe may work differently so Paizo may need to make changes to accommodate it.
The snapshot tool in this video is how I do it.
It does not care about layers.
Just to be clear I was not implying that Paizo not fix those PDF's. I didn't know everyone(99%) did not use the snapshot tool, and they instead did direct copying of images. I will try that to see if it gives me a better quality image, for the pdf's that do work.
For the maps it doesn't matter very much, but directly saving the image from the pdf as opposed to using the snapshot tool preserves background transparency, which can be important for certain images (especially if one wants to use them as tokens on a VTT, display them on a nonwhite background, or if the image is wrapped by text and therefore taking a rectangular snapshot requires you to clean out the text first). Additionally, saving the image directly gives it to you at the real resolution/dimensions, as it may have been resized to fit in the pdf.
In any case, I can reproduce the issue with Acrobat Pro DC on Windows 10 for the listed maps in AP#97, so it isn't a Mac-only thing.
I though about posting this same inquiry after spotting the same problem over the weekend--was pulling images (not maps) for un-tagged player reference and it was hit-or-miss in Hell's Rebels pdfs: mostly miss. I thought it was an intentional change until some random images snapshotted just like other, pre-Hell's Rebels pdfs. Using updated Macbook with recent-ish version of Reader. Can post specifics if needed.
I'm usually using a free Linux command line tool called "pdfimages" that simply extracts all images from a pdf. There should be a way to get this to run on Windows or Mac OS, too.
Of course, this also produces hundreds of background pattern puzzle tiles, so you'll need a good image sorting tool to find what you need, but is has worked for me every time.
I use Some PDF Image Extractor 2. Works fine on my Windows 7 machine.
Just make sure you read the screen(s) as you install it. Depending on where you get it from, the installers want to load extra stuff so uncheck as needed.
The only issue that I have had is some PDFs make the whole page a single image (AAW Rise of the Drow Epilogue, I am looking at you), so I have to grab the pages I want and use GIMP 2 or Paint.Net to crop, etc. the page image to just the part I want.
-- david
Just as a specific example to test on your end, Chris:
Hell's Rebels, Chapter 1, In Hell's Bright Shadow:
Page 41: Skunk Ape Skeleton: Image snapshots normally (select tool turns to cross when cursor hovers over image, single click captures image)
Page 44: Azvernathi Raul: Image will not snapshot (cursor turns to a box rather than a cross, clicking does nothing)
On my radar, but I have plenty on my to-do list along with this. An email will be generated automatically to everyone with the download(s) once I push the update through.