Python PDF thumbnail preview generation

Question

I am looking for ways to generate jpeg thumbnail of pdf files. I would like to do that in Python. Is there any library or can anyone guide me how to do it?

Thanks

I am working on MacOS X Lion. But I would like to run it on Ubuntu or CentOS.

Would you edit your question to include what OS you're working on - Windows/Linux/etc? — halfer, Apr 11 '12 at 11:28
working with OS X Lion but I would like to run it on Ubuntu or CentOS — Hiro, Apr 12 '12 at 21:32
I think ImageMagick can do it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/653380/converting-a-pdf-to-png — halfer, Apr 13 '12 at 08:57

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered May 28 '12 at 08:21

16

You can use ImageMagick {apt-get install imagemagick on Ubuntu} (it also has Python lib PythonMagick) to convert pdf to images

import subprocess
params = ['convert', 'pdf_file', 'thumb.jpg']
subprocess.check_call(params)

You can also provide parameters at which the image has to generate out of the pdf like

params = ['convert', '-density 300 -resize 220x205', 'pdf_file', 'thumb.jpg']
subprocess.check_call(params)

answered May 28 '12 at 08:21

Rakesh

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How do you handle errors like password protected file or maybe some wrong doc? – iamkhush Apr 14 '16 at 07:08
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If the PDF has multiple pages, this will make one thumbnail per page. How do you limit it to only the first page? – mlissner Feb 19 '18 at 05:49
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@mlissner You can use `'pdf_file[0]'` to only generate the thumbnail for the first page. – Bruno Parmentier Mar 18 '19 at 22:38

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 10 '12 at 06:40

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If you just need to do it grammatically, why not use an external CLI tool like this:

os.system(r"ConvertPDFtoImage.EXE /S "C:\Input\Coffee.pdf" /T "C:\Output\Coffee.JPG" /C1  /1 * /5 200 /V")

for example in windows

answered Apr 10 '12 at 06:40

user850498

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(You should be using `subprocess`) – Etienne Perot Apr 10 '12 at 06:49

Python PDF thumbnail preview generation

2 Answers2