Create PDF Thumbnail Images

Rasterizing a PDF page to a thumbnail is the process of converting the page from a vector format to a pixel format. This means that the text and images on the page are converted into a grid of pixels, which can then be displayed on a screen or saved as a graphic image file.

There are many reasons why you might want to rasterize PDF pages to thumbnails. If you're aiming to support a document storage solution, you may need to generate a small preview image as a visual reference to help your users pick and choose the right documents. You also might want to use thumbnails to:

• Display a preview of a PDF file in a web browser or other application. Thumbnails are a great way to give users a quick preview of a PDF file before they open it. This can be especially helpful if you have a large number of PDF files and you want users to be able to quickly find the one they are looking for.
• Generate a list of PDF files, with each file represented by a thumbnail. This can be a useful way to display a list of PDF files on a website or in a presentation. It is also a good way to create a visual index of a large collection of PDF files.
• Create a navigational view of all pages in a PDF viewer. You can convert the pages to images and insert these into a side menu for clear representation and easy navigation to all pages in the document.
  
  
  

PDF to Images REST API Tool

PDF to Images allows you to easily rasterize PDF pages to thumbnails by sending a POST request to any of the following endpoints:

• /jpg
• /png
• /tif
• /bmp
• /gif

Simply select which pages of the PDF to render, set the resolution to scale the size of the image, and choose a color profile.

Code Example: PDF to Images   |   Load this into API Lab↗

    curl -X POST "https://api.pdfrest.com/jpg" \ 
       -H "Accept: application/json" \ 
       -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
       -H "Api-Key: 911b60db-910a-4bd3-aa0a-2858d40d9b10" \
       -F "output=page1_thumbnail" \
       -F "pages=1" \
       -F "resolution=12" \
       -F "color_model=rgb" \
       -F "jpeg_quality=75" \
       -F "file=@PATH_TO_FILE/Slide 16 - Breakout room.pdf" \
        

The response from the API will be a JSON object containing links to each of the output files, ready for download.

Tips for rasterizing PDF pages to thumbnails

When rasterizing PDF pages to thumbnails, it is important to keep the following tips in mind:

• Choose a thumbnail resolution that is appropriate for the intended use of the thumbnails. For example, if you are using the thumbnails to display a preview of PDF files in a web browser, you will want to choose a resolution that is large enough to be visible but not so large that it slows down the loading time of the web page.
• If the PDF file contains images, you can improve the quality of the thumbnails by specifying a higher resolution. However, keep in mind that a higher resolution will also result in larger thumbnail files.
• If you are rasterizing a large number of PDF pages for each document, you can improve performance by splitting the process into separate API Calls with smaller batches of page ranges. This will result in concurrent processing that completes sooner.
  
  
  

Conclusion

Rasterizing PDF pages to thumbnails is a common requirement for a variety of applications. By using pdfRest Cloud API service, you can easily integrate a solution for rasterizing PDF pages to thumbnails in the graphic image file format that you need.

PDF to Images