Automator “Render PDF to Images” locked to 200 dpi ?

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Automator “Render PDF to Images” locked to 200 dpi ?

Hi folks , I’ve spent the better part of 2 hours going nuts with what should be a simple Automator flow : I want to split multi page input PDFs to JPEGs at a DPI other than the default 200 that the “Render PDF to Images” action uses . Running latest macOS 13.1 .

Whenever I try to change it to anything else (100 or 300 for example) I get a frustrating error message that says that the value is “Maximum Exceeded” or “minimum not met” (depending if over or under 200 ).

I’ve tried changing the Automator type from quick action to application to workflow and nothing I do will let me change that 200 DPI to any other value!

This feels like it’s got to be a bug? Suggestions ?

In desperation I am currently using a shell script to run an imagemagick/Ghostscript command , but this is less than ideal because Ghostscript is sort of ugly and hard to work with , and imagemagick requires installation via homebrew.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 13.1

Posted on Dec 31, 2022 12:35 PM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,254 points

Dec 31, 2022 3:15 PM in response to alesser

To exceed 200 dpi renders, you will need those third-party tools especially Ghostscript (v10) which can split the pages into numbered 300 dpi jpeg images.

gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=jpeg -dJEPGQ=100 -r300 -dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 -sOutputFile=fname-%03.jpg fname.pdf

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Answer 2

alesser Author

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Jan 1, 2023 3:14 PM in response to VikingOSX

I agree, its annoying they broke it.

In this case I decided to install "convert" (in the imagemagick suite) via homebrew, followed by calling a shell command from Automator. Stinks that I have to resort to this, but at least it's easier in terms of english-friendly arguments than ghostscript (and yea, i know it uses GS in the back).

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

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123,254 points

Jan 1, 2023 11:10 AM in response to alesser

Note that my example Automator solution at that link worked on macOS 12.6.1 where I tested it. Attempting to build or use the identical workflow on Venture 13.1 fails when setting the DPI above 200 dpi. As is frequently the case: Apple makes changes between operating systems that breaks something, and this is it.

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Answer 4

alesser Author

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Jan 1, 2023 4:07 PM in response to VikingOSX

For what it's worth, I've had very reliable results, and doing it just now with convert gave me 300 dpi in preview. I've also had a previous job where IM was used in a hundreds-of-thousands of pages a day capacity to render this way as well, which is how i knew to grab for it :).

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Answer 5

alesser Author

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7 points

Jan 1, 2023 7:39 AM in response to VikingOSX

I'm mostly talking about this thread here, where quite recently people seem to have been able to do 600 DPI: Automator Render PDF Pages as Images 600 … - Apple Community

This is why I'm puzzled.

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Answer 6

alesser Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 31, 2022 3:40 PM in response to VikingOSX

But why on earth is it limited to only 200? Why even have an option to set another number when it won’t accept anything else ? This clearly seems like a bug. People have reported 600 dpi working in the past .. so what changed ?

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Answer 7

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,254 points

Jan 1, 2023 7:29 AM in response to alesser

As a fellow user, I have absolutely no knowledge of the Automator product team's decision to limit it to 200 dpi. It is what it is, and one must use alternatives. Since the product teams are embargoed from participating in these public communities, there won't be any response from them to your "why" question.

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Answer 8

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,254 points

Jan 1, 2023 3:54 PM in response to alesser

In my own experience with ImageMagick's convert utility, I could never get a resulting jpeg or image format from a PDF page greater than 72x72 dpi despite specifying -density 300 on the command line. That was my unmentioned motivation in recommending just Ghostscript to do the image conversion of PDF pages, as the resulting images were 300 dpi when checked in Preview.

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Automator “Render PDF to Images” locked to 200 dpi ?

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