GUI file converter app and its commands

[TimothySimon]

GUI file Converter App

viewtopic.php?p=653310#p653310

https://github.com/TimothySimon123/file-converter

Commands
TL; DR

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 find . -maxdepth 1 -iname '*.pdf' | xargs -I{} pdftoppm {} -jpeg {}

converts all files ending with .pdf (case-insensitive) in the current directory to JPGs (each page is a separate jpg , with the page number in the file name.

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sudo apt install poppler-utils

if you don't have it installed (MX Linux comes with this by default)


If you don't understand the above, here is the newbie-friendly version:
When you're within the folder containing all PDFs, Right click on the empty space, open terminal here, then type (or Right click -> Paste) this command , followed by an Enter :

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echo "Please wait. Converting......... Do NOT close this terminal" ;  find . -maxdepth 1 -iname '*.pdf' | xargs -I{} pdftoppm {} -jpeg {} ; echo "Finished conversion. Please close this Terminal"

The output files are named like this: MyFile.pdf-1.jpg (means Page 1 of MyFile.pdf)

To convert just the first page of each pdf (Ignores all other pages)

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echo "Please wait. Converting......... Do NOT close this terminal" ; find . -maxdepth 1 -iname '*.pdf' | xargs -I{} pdftoppm -singlefile {} -jpeg {} ; echo "Finished conversion. Please close this Terminal"

Long description

This is forked off from viewtopic.php?p=652929#p652929 .
My original reply was viewtopic.php?p=652987#p652987 .

This one is really handy , simple, requiring no extra software .. perfect indeed.

I'm also surprised how there's nothing easy to "batch" convert ..

So, maybe you put this in tips & tricks..
................

--- @ Huckleberry Finn

This command just applies this ( pdftoppm -jpeg ) for all PDF files in that folder (with find piping to pdftoppm via xargs)

More generally, we can use

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find <something_to_find> | xargs -I{} some_command {} 

to apply some_command (which may be a conversion or something else) to all the files found by find(1)
xargs will replace {} with the paths of matching files (supplied from find's stdout to xarg's stdin)
Even more generally, this is just using xargs -I{}

find -iname means that the match is case-insensitive (matches .PDF , .pdf , .Pdf , .PdF etc.,)
xargs -I{} means to replace all occurences of {} with the current line from stdin (and repeat the command for each line)

Ref: $ man xargs , $ man find

EDIT 1: I learnt from man xargs that -i is deprecated. Edited command to use -I{}

I added the echo's as a "newbie guard" to stop people from closing the terminal thinking the job is over (some people don't know when a command finishes its job), and this command may take a lot of time

Only a very minor drawback -- the output names are something like this: MyFile.pdf.jpg-1.jpg
EDIT: @Huckleberry Finn fixed that.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1162790 ... pm-in-ubun
find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.pdf' -exec pdftoppm -jpeg {} {} \;
Done, you will find the new converted jpg files in the same directory alongside the old pdf files.

EDIT 2: Learnt that there is a similar way on another forum.
EDIT 3: Incorporated good things from that (-maxdepth 1 -type f)

So, @TimothySimon : My humble suggestion for next "dot release" :D is:

Replace the main command with @Amigo 's

(And) While you're at it: 2 Options:

"Convert All Pages"

"Convert just First Pages" (of each file)


One with

ls *.pdf | sed 's|\.pdf||' | xargs -I{} pdftoppm {}.pdf -jpeg {}

The other

ls *.pdf | sed 's|\.pdf||' | xargs -I{} pdftoppm -singlefile {}.pdf -jpeg {}

EDIT 4: Incorporated good things from commands given by @Amigo and @Huckleberry Finn

[SwampRabbit]

Nice work, this would be really cool as a YAD script. I seem to recall that there might already be something like it (or close to it out there).

[TimothySimon]

Nice work, this would be really cool as a YAD script. I seem to recall that there might already be something like it (or close to it out there).

Or still better, I dream of a FOSS Qt/C++ GUI app to convert between various formats.
(just for Linux )

If you want, I'm ready to help with my limited Qt/C++ knowledge.
(It'll also be a good exercise for me -- I'm studying these as part of my coursework)

[SwampRabbit]

If you want, I'm ready to help with my limited Qt/C++ knowledge.
(It'll also be a good exercise for me -- I'm studying these as part of my coursework)

That makes two of us, well the “limited”, not the course work.

Install QtCreator if you haven’t already, that’s at least a start.

Edited for typo

[TimothySimon]

If you want, I'm ready to help with my limited Qt/C++ knowledge.
(It'll also be a good exercise for me -- I'm studying these as part of my coursework)

That makes two of us, we’ll the “limited”, not the course work.

Install QtCreator if you haven’t already, that’s at least a start.

qtcreator is already installed.
viewtopic.php?f=108&t=66370
viewtopic.php?f=77&t=66324

So here we go ......... (?)

NOTE: I don't know the ways of programing as a team (git etc.,) . I would like to study that too.

Please PM me if you need to.

BTW: It is about 12 midnight in my part of the world (+0530)

[SwampRabbit]

Don’t worry about time, there is no rush for anything.

I PM’d you and can help with what I know and have time for.

[TimothySimon]

Don’t worry about time, there is no rush for anything.

I PM’d you and can help with what I know and have time for.

Here is my simple YAD GUI to convert PDF to JPG:
https://github.com/TimothySimon123/pdf2jpg
Lets call this pdf2jpg version 0.1 alpha

Just download pdf2jpg.sh and pdf2jpg-helper.sh int the same directory.
Launch pdf2jpg.sh to use it.

Features:
- Drag and drop
- Easy bulk conversion
- Progress meter

Please give your valuable suggestions and comments.

[Jerry3904]

It works, thanks for posting. I will be able to give good feedback tomorrow, but I'm on the road all day today.

One general observation: I find that the directions could use some editing. For instance, "drag and drop here" seems to mean "click here to select files for conversion." I at least was unable to drag and drop in the usual sense.

[Huckleberry Finn]

Just.. drag works but it shows the window empty.. In my case I dragged & dropped, then clicked ok (as if it showed dropped files) :)

[Huckleberry Finn]

So, @TimothySimon : My humble suggestion for next "dot release" :D is:

Replace the main command with @Amigo 's

(And) While you're at it: 2 Options:

"Convert All Pages"

"Convert just First Pages" (of each file)


One with

ls *.pdf | sed 's|\.pdf||' | xargs -I{} pdftoppm {}.pdf -jpeg {}

The other

ls *.pdf | sed 's|\.pdf||' | xargs -I{} pdftoppm -singlefile {}.pdf -jpeg {}