Converting pdf file to images using c#

Question

Hello folks.,

using c#,i need to Convert each page of a pdf file into separate images and display the images?

is it possible to do this without using 3rd party dll?

any pointers ?

thank you

Answer 1

Not a huge job, as it has already been done :)

you'll need ghostscript installed (mainly gsdll32.dll), and the c# wrapper from http://redmanscave.blogspot.com/

It's one .cs file. For some reason you'll have to email him for the file, it is not posted.

To convert you'll just a few lines, for example:

    string cl2 = @"-dSAFER -dNoVerifyXref -dQUIET -dNOPROMPT"
      + " -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=jpeg -r72 -dFirstPage=1 "
      +  "-dLastPage=1 -dUseCropBox -sOutputFile=" + SourceFile 
      + " " + TargetFile;

    try
    {
        Made4Print.GhostScript gs = 
            new Made4Print.GhostScript(@"[path-to-gs-installation]");
        gs.CallGSDll(cl2.Split(' '));
    }
    catch
    {
        //exception handler
    }    

this saves 1st page as jpeg @ 72 dpi

Answer 2

Converting PDF to images is not something that you can dow ith .NET out of the box. It requires processing and rendering of the document which is not trivial. I don't think there is any way to do this without third party components.

For a commercial solution, try PDFRasterizer.NET from TallComponents which is specifically designed for this task.

Full disclosure: I have worked for TallComponents.

Answer 3

I used PDF4NET from O2 a few times in the past and was pretty satisfied http://www.o2sol.com/pdf4net/overview.htm

Answer 4

You can also use a c# code that is easly downloadable from Code Project that use Ghostscript

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/GhostScriptUseWithCSharp.aspx