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Scaling large tiff files

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Scaling large tiff files Carusoswi 24 Nov 01:42
  Scaling large tiff files Frank 24 Nov 01:49
  Scaling large tiff files Owen 24 Nov 03:00
  Scaling large tiff files Jay Smith 24 Nov 03:14
   Scaling large tiff files Carusoswi 03 Dec 06:46
    200912031358.32682.tneuer@i... Torsten Neuer 03 Dec 13:58
    Scaling large tiff files lkraemer 06 Mar 16:01
2009-11-24 01:42:45 UTC (about 15 years ago)
postings
102

Scaling large tiff files

I work with a proprietary software package that imports image files (in this case, large tiffs containing hi-res images of architectural plans), and large plans, especially if you import five or six of them, tend to choke the application.

It was suggested that I open these images in Photoshop and save them as pdf's.

In PS, I can open them, save them as PDF's, task complete.

In GIMP, the same exercise yielded pdf's that were of low resolution, and, in some cases, I believe, not true to the original scale of the tiff images (a very important factor to the software in which the ultimate images will be utilized).

Can someone clue me in as to how I can open these large tiffs in GIMP, save or export them as pdf's, and preserve the original resolution (or viewing quality) and the same scale?

Thanks.

Caruso

Frank
2009-11-24 01:49:09 UTC (about 15 years ago)

Scaling large tiff files

On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:42:45 +0100 (CET) Carusoswi wrote:

I work with a proprietary software package that imports image files (in this case, large tiffs containing hi-res images of architectural plans), and large plans, especially if you import five or six of them, tend to choke the application.

It was suggested that I open these images in Photoshop and save them as pdf's.

In PS, I can open them, save them as PDF's, task complete.

In GIMP, the same exercise yielded pdf's that were of low resolution, and, in some cases, I believe, not true to the original scale of the tiff images (a very important factor to the software in which the ultimate images will be utilized).

Can someone clue me in as to how I can open these large tiffs in GIMP, save or export them as pdf's, and preserve the original resolution (or viewing quality) and the same scale?

For windows:

http://tiff.software.informer.com/download-tiff-to-dxf-convert-linux/

For Linux:

http://linux.die.net/man/1/tiff2pdf

Much better than relying on GIMP

Owen
2009-11-24 03:00:17 UTC (about 15 years ago)

Scaling large tiff files

I work with a proprietary software package that imports image files (in this
case, large tiffs containing hi-res images of architectural plans), and large
plans, especially if you import five or six of them, tend to choke the application.

It was suggested that I open these images in Photoshop and save them as
pdf's.

In PS, I can open them, save them as PDF's, task complete.

In GIMP, the same exercise yielded pdf's that were of low resolution, and, in
some cases, I believe, not true to the original scale of the tiff images (a
very important factor to the software in which the ultimate images will be
utilized).

Can someone clue me in as to how I can open these large tiffs in GIMP, save
or export them as pdf's, and preserve the original resolution (or viewing
quality) and the same scale?

Gimp is definitely the wrong tool for for this.

You have one answer, but you might also want to look at Scribus to import your tiffs and produce pdfs.

Particularly if you wish to add annotations

Jay Smith
2009-11-24 03:14:48 UTC (about 15 years ago)

Scaling large tiff files

On 11/23/2009 07:42 PM, Carusoswi wrote:

I work with a proprietary software package that imports image files (in this case, large tiffs containing hi-res images of architectural plans), and large plans, especially if you import five or six of them, tend to choke the application.

It was suggested that I open these images in Photoshop and save them as pdf's.

In PS, I can open them, save them as PDF's, task complete.

In GIMP, the same exercise yielded pdf's that were of low resolution, and, in some cases, I believe, not true to the original scale of the tiff images (a very important factor to the software in which the ultimate images will be utilized).

Can someone clue me in as to how I can open these large tiffs in GIMP, save or export them as pdf's, and preserve the original resolution (or viewing quality) and the same scale?

Thanks.

Caruso

It is my understanding that the Adobe-recommended workflow for creating PDFs is/was to "print" (not really, but using a print driver that "prints" to a file instead of a printer) whatever you wanted (document, image, etc.) to a postscript file. That postscript file is then "distilled" using Adobe Distiller to create the PDF.

My knowledge of the currently recommended workflow may be long outdated.

However, some applications that "saved" or "exported" to PDF created inadequate PDF files -- at least back in the day.

In any case, in the distillation process, the user sets compression from "none" (thus maintaining your resolution) to specific dpi. The compression can be different for b/w line art vs color, etc.

I suggest finding and testing applications that directly convert TIFFs to PDFs.

But, I do wonder if PDFs are really going to do you any good. The way I see it, the size reduction you get may have more to do with the PDFs using LOSSY compression -- if you use compression other than "none" thus lowering your effective resolution. Also, it seems to me, for a true quality image, getting it into a PDF is really _adding_ a layer of complication and size.

Maybe instead of worrying about PDFs, you might consider increasing the memory of the computers being used and/or allowing the software to access a larger chunk of the memory that is available. We are in the process of specifying a small server for a small office (that does some complex stuff) -- we are deciding whether we want to _start_ with 8 or 16 GB of RAM. This is in a fairly inexpensive machine.

Jay

2009-12-03 06:46:04 UTC (about 15 years ago)
postings
102

Scaling large tiff files

Thanks for the replies. Will check out some of the converters in the links - following that first one
(http://tiff.software.informer.com/download-tiff-to-dxf-convert-linux) seemed only to show Linux solutions, but I haven\'t checked it that carefully.

My real problem here is the way the proprietary piece of software handles the drawings. I am evaluating several software packages, and, while this one seems best for my task needs, it is the worst in terms of handling drawings, and I have made my feelings known to the vendor. Other offerings in this area can \"import\" these large tiffs a hundred at a time without blinking an eye on my dual-core machine, and both I and the vendor know that this is a weakness in what would otherwise be the ultimate package for what I do in my work.

I need to run this application on more than one machine in our office, and, while adding memory may be an option on my machine, it is not an option on all of the ones that need to use the application.

Gimp may not be the best tool for the job, but, I\'m thinking that, if I can accomplish the conversion without pain in PS7, then, Gimp 2.6 is probably also up to the task - I must be doing something wrong. I don\'t have Scribus on my office machine (it\'s running XP), but I have InDesign and, as mentioned, PS7.

I already have solutions that work - just wondered if I could accomplish the same using Gimp.

Since I\'m working in scale, it is important for me to keep the original resolution. When I convert these tiffs using PS7, the resultant pdf requires significantly less drive space, and its scale (measured via the application) seems to have remain unchanged.

Without the conversion, five or six images will slow the application to the point that it is not useable. With the conversion, it will run fine with 20 or so drawings (still not acceptable, but better).

Gimp was successful in making the conversion, but the pdf was too fuzzy to be read on the screen.

Caruso

It is my understanding that the Adobe-recommended workflow for creating PDFs is/was to \"print\" (not really, but using a print driver that \"prints\" to a file instead of a printer) whatever you wanted (document, image, etc.) to a postscript file. That postscript file is then \"distilled\" using Adobe Distiller to create the PDF.

My knowledge of the currently recommended workflow may be long outdated.

However, some applications that \"saved\" or \"exported\" to PDF created inadequate PDF files -- at least back in the day.

In any case, in the distillation process, the user sets compression from \"none\" (thus maintaining your resolution) to specific dpi. The compression can be different for b/w line art vs color, etc.

I suggest finding and testing applications that directly convert TIFFs to PDFs.

But, I do wonder if PDFs are really going to do you any good. The way I see it, the size reduction you get may have more to do with the PDFs using LOSSY compression -- if you use compression other than \"none\" thus lowering your effective resolution. Also, it seems to me, for a true quality image, getting it into a PDF is really _adding_ a layer of complication and size.

Maybe instead of worrying about PDFs, you might consider increasing the memory of the computers being used and/or allowing the software to access a larger chunk of the memory that is available. We are in the process of specifying a small server for a small office (that does some complex stuff) -- we are deciding whether we want to _start_ with 8 or 16 GB of RAM. This is in a fairly inexpensive machine.

Jay

2010-03-06 16:01:43 UTC (almost 15 years ago)
postings
3

Scaling large tiff files

I had a Printing company in Iowa scan some plans at 600DPI, 1BB, and the size in pixels was 16592 x 10800 (21.4M). Several of the files were burnt to CDR and named Temp000398 thru Temp000408. I tried GIMP and I couldn't view or open the files. Image Viewer, or any other Linux Application I have tried didn't work either. I needed to find out what information was contained in each file. I finally tried M$ Paint 5.1, and it worked great to view the files. Now, I needed a way to rescale the TIF's, after renaming them so I could find the plan I needed.

I tried Irfanview, and it worked wonderful. I could use the Batch function to operate on several images without loading up each one in memory to view. Irfanwiew will also Export to PDF's.

You might want to give it a try, as it runs in Windows and Linux under WINE.

I've also got M$ Paint Ver 5.1 running on Wine in Ubuntu. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=660408

lk