First page of PDF to Picture

Targets Windows
1

On MacOs, I open an item as a picture:
MyPict = Picture.Open(MyFolderItem)
If the folderitem is a PDF, then I get the first page as a picture.
It doesn’t work on Windows, even with Acrobat Reader installed (the free version). MyPict is Nil.
As Xojo implemented PDF, I was looking for a exemple to do that but I can’t find.
Is there a way (without external shareware extension like MBS)?

Same question was asked under iOS.

2

I don’t have a direct answer to your question but editing/changing/patching PDF files needs a license if you distribute your app for free or charged.
If you buy MBS with DynaPDF, the license is included. So that is a good way to start using PDF files in your app.

I don’t think using the Xojo PDF classes, an official license is included, not sure though. So make sure you check that before distributing your app.

3

Thanks for pointing that, but I don’t change or edit the PDF. I just want to read the first page.

4

A long time ago, we integrated with Acrobat Reader on MS-Windows via ActiveX.

I no longer have access to the project so cannot remember exactly what we were doing but I’m sure we were creating thumbnails from PDF pages.

Maybe have a look through the Acrobat SDK documentation to see if that gives you any ideas:
https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/library/interapp/index.html

5

The pdf image conversion on macOS is done by the operating system itself. You’ll need a plugin to rasterize it otherwise.

6

Thank you all for yours answers.