# PDF Thumbnail - RMagick

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-thumbnail-rmagick/85439>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 13, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-thumbnail-rmagick/85439 "2007-02-13T16:19:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mdaoust)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-thumbnail-rmagick/85439/1 "2007-02-13T16:19:13Z")

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Hi,

I need to create a preview of a PDF upload to a CMS I’m building. Does  
anyone know how to create a thumbnail of the first page of a PDF using  
RMagick?

Any ideas welcome,

~ Mark

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**Author:** ![mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mdaoust)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-thumbnail-rmagick/85439/2 "2007-02-13T16:50:15Z")

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Mark D. wrote:

> I need to create a preview of a PDF upload to a CMS I’m building. Does  
> anyone know how to create a thumbnail of the first page of a PDF using  
> RMagick?

PDF is outside RMagick’s (huge) envelop (IIRC). Google PDF2PNG.

PNG is the politically-correct (and slightly more technically advance)  
way to do what GIF did. (And now that GIF is legal, it’s no fun  
anymore!!)

–  
Phlip  
[http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand) ← NOT a blog!!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mdaoust)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-thumbnail-rmagick/85439/3 "2007-02-13T17:10:59Z")

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> PDF is outside RMagick’s (huge) envelop (IIRC)

But you can do this with Image Magick? Are you sure?

> Google PDF2PNG.

There are lots of apps, but I want a nice Ruby way to do this, without  
having to resort to backticks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mdaoust)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-thumbnail-rmagick/85439/4 "2007-02-13T17:39:21Z")

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Mark D. wrote:

> But you can do this with Image Magick? Are you sure?

$ convert betty-boop.jpg boop.pdf  
$ ls  
betty-boop.jpg boop.pdf

My bad. It seems to be available on my system. (Mac OYesSex).

Check your delegates.xml file

–  
Phlip  
[http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand) ← NOT a blog!!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@mdaoust](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mdaoust)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pdf-thumbnail-rmagick/85439/5 "2007-02-13T19:28:14Z")

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Phlip wrote:

> Mark D. wrote:
> 
> > I need to create a preview of a PDF upload to a CMS I’m building. Does  
> > anyone know how to create a thumbnail of the first page of a PDF using  
> > RMagick?
> 
> PDF is outside RMagick’s (huge) envelop (IIRC). Google PDF2PNG.

ImageMagick (and therefore RMagick) can read and write PDF if you have  
Ghostscript installed.