Opening a PDF Image

[LarryBH]

I have Photoshop and IrfanView ... when I open a PDF image, I see a very nice, colored image. But when I open a PDF image in Paint Shop Pro x9, the image is ugly and purplish in color. This happens to all the PDFs that I try to open. Do I need to set something up to correct this to be able to see a normal image in PDF?

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forum, Larry!

I am unfortunately not sure what to suggest. I don't have any trouble at all opening PDFs in successive versions of PSP -- see the example I attached below. I simply opened it in PSP X9 without in any way tweaking the image. Yet I think the colours reflect the original perfectly. I have not set up any specific colour profile either -- simply accept the default. My monitor has only been modified to reflect a combination I like, rather than to (again) reflect a specific profile.

I am wondering, though, whether you have tweaked your monitor or set Photoshop to a specific profile. (I have never used Irfanview so have no idea how that works in this regard.)

[LarryBH]

This is really strange, but now--after many hours of trying--I can now open a PDF file--in "color". Really strange. I started opening late this afternoon. I did not do anything to make this happen.

Thanks, anyway.

[hartpaul]

Not sure why people want to open pdf files in paintshop pro (is it just because they open in Photoshop that people wan the same from PSP?). To me it is a bit like expecting an electric jug to be able to boil water and be used as a hammer, or perhaps expecting a hammer to be able to boil water.
I might expect Adobe products to be able to open pdf files as they also produce Adobe Reader.

I did some tests with a number of pdf files loading them into all the versions of PSP I have.

Jasc PSP 8 had no problems and opened all pdfs.

PSPX2-X9 would open a 2 page pdf created with the free PDF Creator.
They would not open another 4 page pdf I had downloaded from a site.
So it also appears that the pdf creator has some influence on whether they open or not.
Also Jasc module in PSP8 for opening pdfs works better than the X versions of PSP. Perhaps Corel needs to go back to the Jasc programming and resuscitate the module that opened pdf files.

[brucet]

Hartpaul I think you answered your own question. If you or I can't understand why someone would like to load a PDF in PSP then why would Corel bother to make the effort?

regards

[JoeB]

Hartpaul I think you answered your own question. If you or I can't understand why someone would like to load a PDF in PSP then why would Corel bother to make the effort?

@brucet & @hartpaul: Perhaps people get an image in PDF format and want to open it in PSP to perhaps view it or perhaps do something with it as an image using the tools available in PSP. That would be reason enough for people to want to open a PDF image in PSP.

And why Corel would bother is simply because, as @hartpaul pointed out, it worked just fine with JASC's versions of PSP so Corel kept the concept. Where Corel screwed up was somehow changing the coding used by JASC. My question would be why Corel would mess with something that worked in the program they purchased from JASC instead of concentrating their resources on the new stuff they keep adding and making that work without bugs. JMHO, of course.

[LarryBH]

Thanks, everyone. I scan texts, then OCR them. Very old books. Yes, I wanted to do something to the image itself that Adobe Pro would not let me do.

So, normally, I would never open a PDF with anything but AdobePro. By the time I am ready for my volunteer site to begin working on a book project, I would have HAD to use many software. The team will go through several steps of proofreading and steps in formatting. Ultimately, the book will end up at Project Gutenberg from my group Distributed Proofreaders. Besides having to use color pdfs, the majority of scans are turned to black-white with all being cleaned of dust--black stuff. If I work on a new book, it takes me about two days or MORE to prepare a book (1922 or earlier).

Thank you for your help for I am not a pro at PSP but have used it since maybe when it first came out before Corel.

[photodrawken]

Perhaps people get an image in PDF format and want to open it in PSP to perhaps view it or perhaps do something with it
(...)

Bingo!

I use PDF as a "transfer" format to exchange vector graphics between programs such as Illustrator, PhotoLine and CorelDraw so that I can massage the graphic using the tools unique to those programs. PDF works much better for this exchanging process than do WMF, EMF or SVG.

[brucet]

My point re Corel working on PDF's was more about demand. With all of us 'screaming' for fixes, changes, new feature etc, etc I can't see Corel devoting much brain power to a 'rare' PDF use.

regards

[JoeB]

My point re Corel working on PDF's was more about demand. With all of us 'screaming' for fixes, changes, new feature etc, etc I can't see Corel devoting much brain power to a 'rare' PDF use.

Understood. But my point is that, since it works just fine in JASC's PSP8 & 9, they could easily revert to the PDF rendering engine that they got when they purchased PSP8 & 9 and that issue would be out of the mix of fixes. It shouldn't take much brain power to use the PDF rendering engine that they already own from PSP8 & 9. The question still remains why did they change it at all in the first place when it worked well originally. Am I over estimating the brain power available at Corel?

[hartpaul]

I had never used PSP to open pdfs before. If I had image(s) included in a pdf along with text I would once have opened the pdf with adobe reader then done a screen capture to gt the images out. The problem would be if the original image was larger than my screen size.
The problem with the later X versions is that they won't open some multipage pdfs. They still open a single image pdf.
I think the OP was more about the problems with repeatable color, so was more a complaint against color management and pdfs.