How to Rasterize PDF files in Java (Tutorial)

In this tutorial we show you how to rasterize a PDF file into an image in Java. You will need an external library to do this – this example uses our JPedal PDF library.

How to Rasterize a PDF file in Java

1. Download a trial copy of JPedal and add it to your IDE.
2. Create a File handle, InputStream or URL pointing to the PDF file
3. Include a password if file password protected
4. Open the PDF file
5. Iterate over the pages
6. Close the PDF file

and the Java code to rasterize PDF…

File file = new File("/path/to/document.pdf");

ConvertPagesToImages extract=new ConvertPagesToImages(file);

//extract.setPassword("password");

if (extract.openPDFFile()) {

  int pageCount = extract.getPageCount();

  for (int page = 1; page <= pageCount; page++) {

      BufferedImage img = extract.getPageAsImage(page, hasAlpha);

  }

}

extract.closePDFfile();

What is rasterizing a PDF file?

When you rasterize a PDF file, you convert the pages of the document into raster image files. Rasterizing the file stops editing and removes the need for a PDF viewer to show the pages. This makes it simpler to view. The disadvantage of a raster based image is that you lose all the features of the PDF file and Viewer, and have all the limitations of a bitmap display.

Viewer viewer = new Viewer();
viewer.setupViewer();
viewer.executeCommand(ViewerCommands.OPENFILE, "pdfFile.pdf");

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractClippedImages.writeAllClippedImagesToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", "outputImageFormat", new String[] {"imageHeightAsFloat", "subDirectoryForHeight"});

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractTextAsWordList.writeAllWordlistsToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", -1);

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ArrayList resultsForPages = FindTextInRectangle.findTextOnAllPages("/path/to/file.pdf", "textToFind");

PrintPdfPages print = new PrintPdfPages("C:/pdfs/mypdf.pdf");

if (print.openPDFFile()) {
    print.printAllPages("Printer Name");
}

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractClippedImages.writeAllClippedImagesToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", "outputImageFormat", new String[] {"imageHeightAsFloat", "subDirectoryForHeight"});