Extracting image from PDF to use in LaTeX document?

Question

I need to include some graphs from a datasheet in my document, but of course I don't have the source files. What would be the best course of action? It's mostly logarithmic scale graphs.

Answer 1

Alternatively you could extract the data from the graph and then recreate it in your own style. There are several programs available that digitize graphs (e.g. http://digitizer.sourceforge.net/) and in the end this is often the much nicer than a copy&paste and also avoids copyright issues.

Answer 2

use

\includegraphics[page=...,viewport=llx lly urx ury,clip]{pdf-file}

or run

pdfimages [options] <PDF-file> <image-root>

the first one simply inserts the page=<no> of your pdf and clips everything around the viewport. The second one is a Linux command, which extracts all images from a pdf file, eg

pdfimages -f1 -l4 <PDF-file> .

extracts the images of pages 1--4 into the current directory

Answer 3

I will assume that you are using OS X with TeXShop and that your original file is in pdf format.

A manual solution that works if there aren't too many images to copy is as follows.

TeXShop's pdf viewer allows you to copy part of a page or image. It works even for pdf files that don't come from a tex file. All you have to do is select the region you want copied with the rectangle selection tool and drag the image to your desktop (or other folder). In TeXShop's preference pane you can select the format of the copied image (pdf, png, etc.)

Maybe other pdf viewers behave like this but since I don't use them I don't know.

Answer 4

In Linux (Mint 17) a (semiautomatic) trick that worked for me is, first extract the page with the desired vector figure using pdftk:

 pdftk book.pdf cat 51 output page.pdf

in this case, the page 51 from the file book.pdf is extracted into the file page.pdf .

Then using Inkscape, it is possible to open the file page.pdf, select the figure, copy and paste it in a new window, then save it as a new pdf (as a vector image), ready to be included in LaTeX!

Answer 5

Alternatively, it is possible to use a PDF printer in order to print a current view in a PDF file and use a paper format that corresponds to the dimensions. In this way, vector graphics are preserved. This is kind of a dirty trick, but it works for me...

Answer 6

One way to extract data if it is available in the PDF as vector graphics is to use Adobe Acrobat:

1. Enter editing mode by using the tool "Edit PDF" under Tools.
2. Select all the points/shapes/markers you want to copy
3. Select "Edit Using..." in the right sidebar and select your text editor
4. The coordinates of the markers should be available in the text (in centimeters most probably), so find out the format of one marker and extract all the coordinates. Regular expressions can help.
5. Scale and convert the coordinates into the original values by comparing points to the actual axes in the graph.

Answer 7

I use Adobe Acrobat to select regions and save images to .bmp. Then I convert them to .eps with a sam2p utility, using .bat file for batch processing.

sam2p project on google code

.bat file code:

REM Created by M.M.J. Jorritsma. 2011-09-21, Enschede, The Netherlands
@SET /P INPUT=[Type the extension of the images to be batch-converted. example: jpg]
@SET /P OUTPUT=[Type the extension of the target image format. example: eps]
@ECHO Now converting from "%INPUT%" to "%OUTPUT%".
@SET /P CONTINUE=[Continue? [Y/N]]
@if /I %CONTINUE%==Y (
    @for /R %%i In (*.%INPUT%) DO @(
    @cls
    @echo sam2p %%~ni.%INPUT% %%~ni.%OUTPUT%
    sam2p %%~ni.%INPUT% %%~ni.%OUTPUT%
    )
)