Is there any way to do this without Photoshop (or equivalent?)
Asked by
Supacase (
14573
)
October 3rd, 2009
I have a .pdf of cartoon images on it that I want to use to make my daughter’s birthday invitation. My guess is that I need to somehow convert the images to jpeg or something, then remove the background or “cut them out” so I am left with just the outline of the image.
I don’t have much of anything in the way of programs for this. I think Paint is it – and that isn’t going to cut it. The image quality drops considerably. I’m pretty good at fiddling around with things and figuring them out if anyone has any suggestions.
I have a friend with Photoshop, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to ask her. I would never hear the end of it and neither would anyone else.
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8 Answers
Is the pdf protected or editable?
Try GIMP, an open source equivalent (almost) to Photoshop. I runs on most platforms and is free. There are loads of tutorials etc. on the internet so you wouldn’t have to spend too much time figuring out how to do what you want.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/
Why don’t you just screen catch and cut and edit in either Photoshop or Gimp? You can convert pdf’s to jpg but I would just screen catch. Press ALT + Print Screen. With ALT you just catch the active window, and not the whole desktop.
You could take a screen dump & paste that into paint. View the image at a decent size on your monitor & press CTRL & PRT SC (print screen) to copy the image for pasting. Paste into Paint & crop off the bits you don’t want.
I’m guessing if it’s for a birthday invite you don’t need a huge high res image.
It’s not ideal, but it’s something!
@DarkScribe it is editable, but I don’t have anything to edit it with. I only have Adobe reader.
@chelsea_steve I selected the image on the .pdf and copied it to Paint. It is workable, but I would like something better if I can get it. You’re right, though, it will suffice.
@oratio Yes, that would be the logical thing to do… if I had Photoshop or had heard of GIMP before this thread.
@Cartman I am going to give it a try. Thanks!!
If you are comfortable with paint and just want better quality try paint.net.
you know you can get a free 30 day trial of Photoshop from adobe.com. just download and install. and away you go.
full program, just after 30 days you have to either delete, buy it or…
get a serial number online
I can do this for you. You can PM me if you want.
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