rfresh737 4 Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Does anyone know where I can get IFR plates in an image format such as .jpg? All I see are .pdf file formats. The reason I am asking is that I want to import some IFR plates into an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) that only accepts images and not .pdf files. Thanks... Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Freeware Paint.NET. Take a screenshot of the image, paste it into Paint.NET, save as a jpg. Also, Plan-G will display any jpg or pdf as long as you have it in the Plan-G charts folder and rename the file so the filename begins with the airport ICAO. I have tons of them set up in Plan-G, renamed like this... KOCF - IAP - ILS or LOC-DME - RWY 36.PDF John Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 I'm not near the laptop ( writing this on an iPad ) but I think I can do this fairly easily. I use Foxit for reading PDF files and I recall that there is a "snapshot" feature. You can save a snapshot to the clipboard then follow John's advice and import to Paint.net then export as a JPG. Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Ok Ralph, Here's the result: Frankly, it's a bit fuzzy for my liking when displayed after this process. However, I don't know how (or what) you're planning on displaying it. I use this plate all the time in FS Widgets EFBFSX and it displays fine. YMMV I'm pretty sure I'm not treading on someone's copywritten material as these plates are readily available all over the internet. (Begin Rant) Canada, unlike most other countries, seems to feel that it is too dangerous to let the sim community use relatively recent charts, so we're stuck with two year old plates - not much fun when you're trying to fly into an airport like CYYC that just upgraded to parallel runways. (End Rant). Link to post Share on other sites
britfrog 180 Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 i just use the snipping tool that comes with windows, does the job very well. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 If the source material is in pdf format, something that will display pdfs (e.g. Plan-G) is the best - they zoom up without getting blurry. If you convert a pdf image to a jpg, the resolution suffers when zoomed. It's not a total deal-breaker - they're still usable - but definitely lose sharpness when zoomed while the pdfs do not. John Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 I'd welcome a discussion on the subject of Plan-G, maybe under a different heading. I have troubles with heat (on the laptop) when trying to use Plan-G at the same time as FSX. My solution is to load the PDF plates to my Crapple and run it alongside the laptop. We have not yet come up with a solution to the problem of getting PDF format plates into a JPG format. Any other ideas? Link to post Share on other sites
britfrog 180 Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 John, the approach diagram in the filthy weather thread is a .jpg and was done using snipping tool from a pdf as john says perhaps the quality isnt quite as crisp as the original but it is useable Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 If I need a jpg from a pdf I screen-shot the jpg and paste it into Paint.NET. From there I can easily, crop, edit, annotate, print and save as a jpg or a number of other formats. For using pdfs, some kind of pdf viewer is preferred because the image stays sharp when zoomed. I have a utility for displaying pdfs within FSX, called PDF Kneeboard - I think it's freeware from Flightsim.com or one of the other sites with big libraries, but much prefer Plan-G. Another utility that's very helpful is PDF-Merge, which lets you extract individual pages or groups of pages out of a large pdf or stitch smaller pdfs into a larger one. I believe that's freeware too. John Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 I use PDF Merge all the time. Wonderful little piece of software. I haven't used PDF Kneeboard for some time now as I have Fermin Fernandez' EFBFSX in my "modules" and load that as soon as I light the fires. I'll give the screenshot cut and paste a go and see if that improves the quality over the snapshot method. Going to be later today when I get to the laptop. This whole exercise is really to see if we can come up with a solution for Ralph. I use only PDF plates in my vlying. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 We have not yet come up with a solution to the problem of getting PDF format plates into a JPG format. Well, yes we have - the original suggestion was to open the pdf and size so the entire plate shows - screen-shot - paste to a graphics program and save as a jpg. It may not be optimal, but it works. John Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 i just use the snipping tool that comes with windows, Can't find any reference to that term in the Windows Help and Support. Is there perhaps another name for it. How do you invoke it? Is it just a screenshot process? John Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Again, I'm typing this on the Crapple, so this info could be suspect. The snipping tool is in the "Accessories" directory on my Win7 laptop. My wife has a Win8.1 netbook and it's in the "Apps" under "Windows Accessories" Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Thanks, March. Never knew that was there and the Windows Help file didn't respond to a search on the term either. It offers to save as png, gif, jpg or html. That's easier than copying the full screen to Paint.NET and cropping there, though if anything else is needed such as annotating, etc. that's still a good option. John Link to post Share on other sites
rfresh737 4 Posted December 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I've started to fly the CaptainSim 777 and they have an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) that is pretty functional except I have to load my own IFR plates and they have to be in a graphics image format. They (currently) cannot read .pdf files for this. I wanted a kind of batch way to convert a lot of pdf plates for a given airport and didn't want to have to do it one by one, manually. I found a solution by using IrfanView, a free utility that will take a load of pdf files and batch convert them into .gif files. You need the ghostscript pdf plug-in. It works pretty well and pretty fast. If anyone wants the links to these tools just PM me. Now what CS 777 needs for their EFB is the ability to read PDF files so when I zoom in, it doesn't get fuzzy. Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted December 4, 2014 Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 There must be a reason for Captn Sim to use .JPG's for their EFB - but it escapes me. I'd guess that the sim has a built-in EFB and it could be a copywrite issue. The majority of approach plates/SIDS/STARS that I have found on the internet are in PDF format. I've mentioned, above, that I use EFBFSX from FSWidgets. It's a good little piece of work and reads PDF as well as JPG files (that's how I use John Allard's plates). I use EFBFSX directly in FSX through the FSUIPC interface. When I vly the PMDG 737 I use a networked iPad to display charts and plates. Link to post Share on other sites
rfresh737 4 Posted December 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 Yeah, I'm not sure what their reason is either. As a windows developer myself using C# and the .NET MS development environment, I know if I needed to read PDF files, all I would need to do is add a plug-in and then I could load in PDF files. The CS 777 EFB is quite flexible in that you can configure it to display anything, therefore, I'm a bit surprised they didn't opt to add a PDF plug-in so you could view any PDF content, not just IFR plates. Link to post Share on other sites
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