CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxpdf
clarkk
clarkk

Reputation: 27679

Remove images (with transparency/alpha channel) from PDF

How to remove images with alpha channel (transparency) in a PDF file?

I need to remove all images with transparency from a PDF file because it needs to be optimized with pdf2ps and ps2pdf (to reduce filesize).. Postscript doesn't work properly when the PDF contains images with transparency and the PDF will be converted to one big image..

Upvotes: 7

Views: 2992

Answers (2)

doydoy44
doydoy44

Reputation: 5772

I have not managed to reproduce your problem.
For cons, I did the same treatment to compress my pdf except that I used pdftops instead of pdf2ps.
I hope it will help. Sorry for my english (translate.google)

Upvotes: 1

Andrew Cash
Andrew Cash

Reputation: 2394

Clark,

It sounds like www.pstill.com will do everything you need and more in one tool. There is a Linux command line version available for a very reasonable price. I have used the tool on a few different PDF's for different reasons and it has always worked as advertised.

From their website.

Putting the 'Portable' back in PDF - PDF to PDF Transcoding

Your PDF cannot be printed on some printers or processed with some applications? PStill can sanitize, simplify, reprocess, flatten transparency and recompress PDF-Files, this process also known as 'transcoding' create a new PDF that has better compatibility, is often smaller in file size, can be optional encrypted/secured and contain only a uniform set of font types. Fonts can be normalized to plain PostScript Type 1 formats, can be subsetted, missing fonts included and bad fonts repaired/replaced. PStill can detect and remove duplicate elements in the PDF. Text can be converted to outlines which makes it perfect for creating 'fontless' PDF. Transcoding can be used to repair bad PDF or simplify the PDF structure so more limited output devices can process it.

Andrew.

Upvotes: 0

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