Your boss sent you an image in PDF format to insert in a paper document but, alas, the printing result is not satisfactory: the distortions applied to adapt the photo to the size of the paper worsen the quality, making it grainy and difficult to appreciate. In this regard, you will be pleased to know that there is a particular category of images, called vector images, which can be infinitely enlarged/shrunk without any loss of quality, thanks to the particular structure with which they are composed.
Excuse me? Does this option interest you and, now, you would like to understand how to vectorize a PDF to fit a particular size? In this case, you are in the right place, at the right time! In the course of this tutorial, in fact, I’ll explain how to transform the illustrations included in PDF files into vector images, using some software and online services designed for this purpose.
So, without waiting any longer, get comfortable and read carefully everything I have to explain on the subject: I’m sure that, at the end of reading this guide, you will be perfectly able to get the result you wanted, with even the slightest effort. Having said that, there’s nothing left for me to do but wish you a good reading and good work
How to vectorize a PDF with Illustrator
If you have Adobe Illustrator software installed on your computer and you are interested in understanding how to use it to vectorize a PDF file, then this is the right chapter to meet your need.
To begin with, you need to create a new document that will contain the resulting image: to do so, start Illustrator, click the File menu at the top of the window and select the New… item from the menu to start the creation of a new image. Use the Graphics and Illustration tab in the new window to specify the image size and orientation and click the Create button.
When the worksheet opens, go to the File > Insert… menu and select the PDF document that contains the image you want to import. If the file consists of multiple pages, be sure to choose the page you want to import and remove the checkmark from the Import PDF pages as links item for optimal performance. When this is done, move the newly imported PDF image to the worksheet and place it there with a mouse click.
Once this step is done, you can start transforming the PDF into a vector image: click on the Object menu and select Recolor Image > Create from it to proceed. If everything went well, the image should be converted into a vector image and initially appear in black and white.
To colorize it or change other types of settings, click on the converted image, locate the Image Recalculation panel (located on the right side of the Properties bar) and use the Select a Recalculation Default drop-down menu to apply the coloring type you prefer among the available ones: for example, using the High Fidelity Photo option you will create a vector image that tries to reproduce as much as possible the color combination of the original image.
Once you’ve made your choice, expand the Recompose Image panel by clicking on the window icon next to the drop-down menu indicating the coloring mode you chose earlier (e.g., High Fidelity Photo), and use the drop-down menus and adjustment bars attached to the Recompose Image tab to act on the various parameters of the vector image: the display mode, the palette (if any), and the amount of colors to use.
If you are interested in acting on paths, angles, noise and other definition parameters, expand the Advanced menu and use the proposed items to apply the necessary changes.
Once you have finished your work, you only have to save the image you have just created in vector format, with SVG extension: to proceed, go to File > Save As…, select the folder where you want to save the vector image, set the Save As drop-down menu to the SVG option and, after typing the file name, click on the Save and OK buttons to finish everything. Easy, isn’t it?
Other methods to vectorize a PDF
If you don’t have Adobe Illustrator at your disposal, know that you can use other software and online services to vectorize a PDF very easily. Below are a few of them.
Inkscape (Windows/MacOS/Linux)
Inkscape, if you haven’t heard of it, is an open source, cross-platform vector editing software available for Windows, macOS and Linux. Among its many features is compatibility with PDF documents, which can be converted into vector images with ease.
To get Inkscape, go to the program’s website and click on the icon of your operating system to access the specific download page: if you are using Windows, click on the link that best suits your operating system version (e.g. 64-bit or 32-bit) and then on the msi link on the next screen to start downloading the program’s installation package.
Once you’ve obtained the file, launch it, click the Next button, check the box next to I Accept the terms in the License Agreement, and complete the setup by clicking Next, Typical, Install, Yes and Finish. You can then start Inkscape by invoking it from the Start menu or from the icon that should have been created on your desktop by now.
If you are using a Mac, click on the .dmg link to get the Inkscape installation file and then download the XQuartz add-on which is required to use the program on macOS.
To proceed, go to this web page, click on the XQuartz-x.x.x.dmg link and launch the .dmg package containing the aforementioned component; now right-click on the .pkg executable that resides within it, click on the Open item located in the context menu and start the software installation by clicking on the Continue button three times in a row, then on Accept and Install. Finally, type in your Mac password and finish the setup by clicking the Install Software, OK and Close buttons.
Once the XQuartz setup is complete, you can finally install Inkscape on your Mac: open the .dmg package you downloaded earlier from the program’s website, drag its icon to the Applications folder of macOS and, once the copy is complete, restart your Mac.
The next time you log in, launch XQuartz by invoking it from Launchpad, go to the XQuartz > Preferences… menu (top left) and make some adjustments to allow Inkscape to work: on the Input tab, only Enable keyboard equivalents with X11 and Option keys send Alt_L and Alt_R should be checked; on the Clipboard tab, only Enable synchronization and Update clipboard when clipboard changes should be checked.
Once you’ve gone through this step, you can finally launch Inkscape by invoking it from your Mac’s Applications folder: remember that, the first time you launch it, you have to right-click on its icon and press Open twice in a row, in order to overcome macOS restrictions on non-certified developers.
From this moment on, the procedures are the same on both operating systems: go to File > Import… (top left), select the PDF file to vectorize using the next screen, then select the page containing the image to be imported (in the case of multipage documents), place a check mark next to the Import with internal library and Embed images and use the adjustment bar below to adjust the level of precision of the gradients. Keep in mind that the higher the precision, the larger the resulting SVG file will be.
Once you have made the necessary adjustments, press the OK button, right-click on the image you just imported into the path and select the Split option from the proposed context menu; now copy the separated image by right-clicking on it and choosing the Copy option from the context menu.
Now you need to paste the previously copied image into a new document: go to Inkscape’s File > New menu, right-click on the new workspace and select Paste from the context menu that appears. Then you need to adapt the image to the worksheet, using the border adjusters and creating the vector image.
To do this, go to Inkscape’s Path menu (above), select the Vectorize Bitmaps… item from it, and use the next window to adjust the settings for how the path is created: to create a vector path that is faithful to the original, check the Colors option and set the Scans value to a number greater than 15.
To preview the resulting vector graphic, click the Refresh button and, if you are happy with it, click the OK button. Finally, close the Vectorize Bitmap window and, to save your work, go to Inkscape’s File > Save menu.
CloudConvert (online)
Another option to consider for vectorizing a PDF file is to use an online converter, accessible through any browser for browsing online. Among the best solutions of this type, we point out CloudConvert, which lets you transform files to and from various formats (documents, photos, presentations, etc.) in just a couple of clicks. Besides, it protects the privacy of its users by deleting the files uploaded to its servers a few hours after they have been uploaded.
In its free form, however, CloudConvert has limitations: the maximum number of files that can be converted per day is 10 (or 25 if you sign up for a free account), you can make a maximum of 5 conversions at once, the total weight of the files must not exceed 1 GB and the operation must not take more than 25 minutes (otherwise it will be interrupted automatically). To bypass these limits, you need to take out a paid subscription, with starting prices of 8€/month.
Anyway, to convert a PDF file to SVG (i.e. vector format) with CloudConvert, connect to the main page of the service, set the drop-down menu to the right of the convert entry to PDF (if you can’t find it, help yourself with the search bar at the top of the panel) and the one to the right of the to entry to SVG, then click on the Select File button and choose the PDF document to convert.
After uploading, press the wrench button to define the conversion options (engine and, if required, number of pages), press the Okay button and start the conversion, which should take a few minutes (depending on the file size and the amount of pages to scan), by pressing the Convert button. When the conversion is complete, you should see a preview of the generated SVG file: to download it, press the Download button and you’re done.
In addition to CloudConvert, there are several other websites that allow you to easily transform PDF files into SVG (as well as many other formats): I’ve told you about them, in detail, in my tutorial dedicated to online converters. I recommend you to take a look at them!
Note: conversions made using CloudConvert or other online converters do not provide the same results as those obtained using specific software. This type of conversion, for example, is optimal in cases where you need to embed a PDF image within a web page, in the form of an SVG file, but is not very suitable for distortion operations on embedded images. Keep this in mind.