3

I have a large set PDF documents, many of which will be multiple pages.

I am using Ghostscript [GS] to generate a JPG thumbnail image for each PDF.

I only want one JPG per PDF, which should be an image of the first page only

It seems that GS allows me to do one of the following, only:

  1. create an image which contains ALL pages of the PDF, or
  2. create multiple images per PDF by including the characters "%d" within the output filename, where each image represents one page of the PDF

The problem with option 1 is that I only want page 1 The problem with option 2 is that I only want one file (multiple files will be generated if the PDF is multiple pages)

Given that option 2 is the closest solution to my requirements, I am writing a script to generate multiple JPGs per PDF, and then rename the first and delete the others, hence ending up with just the one file with the name that I want.

I cannot see an option in the GS help page, but can I avoid this slightly convoluted process and more easily instruct GS only to generate 1 JPG for page 1 of each PDF?

Improve this question
4
  • 1
    I do not know how to achieve what you want with ghostscript, however, if you are open to work with something else, pdfimage can certainly achieve what you are expecting : xpdfreader.com/pdfimages-man.html Commented Sep 14, 2020 at 16:43
  • 2
    Have a look at options -dFirstPage=1 -dLastPage=1 or -sPageList=1 (see Parameter switches (-d and -s)). You could get excellent results with less hassle using pdftocairo or pdftoppm instead of gs (install package poppler-utils on Debian), I've been there... Both tools are able to output JPEG files and the options are straightforward, e.g. pdftocairo -jpeg -singlefile -f 1 -l 1 -scale-to-x 200 -scale-to-y -1 input.pdf thumb to generate thumb.jpg of page 1 with a width of 200px and proportional height. Commented Sep 14, 2020 at 17:00
  • Thanks @Freddy - I didn't have those options listed in the man page. -sPageList=1 did the trick. Commented Sep 15, 2020 at 8:48
  • Thanks @MC68020 for that useful suggestion. Commented Sep 15, 2020 at 8:54

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The answer (provided by @Freddy) was available in the online documentation:

-sPageList=1
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.