Convert Images activity

This activity converts media to other formats. For this purpose, a number of functions are available that are applied to the entire root document in the order you specify them.

You can specify numerous conversions in a single process step. However, we recommend creating a separate process step for each conversion.

Note: This activity must be assigned to an Activities Service in order to run.

If for some reason you need to add this activity to the Process Designer, the file to add is xboundActImageConversion.dll.

The following settings are available when configuring a process step of this activity type.

General settings

For the conversion functions, you can configure some or all of these settings:

Delete [original] after conversion

Deletes the originals after conversion.

Convert empty pages

Includes media even if their Empty flag is set. Otherwise these are not converted.

Additional [medium] information

Configure an additional value to be saved in the Info property in the converted file – and sometimes (optionally) in the original file, as well. If additional information is already present, the value you specify here is appended to the existing information, separated by a semicolon.

Set document type

Keeps the same document type as the original.

Convert by document type

Converts only documents of the selected document types.

You can also select these settings:

In case of errors

  • Continue – Continues the process despite the error.

  • Mark root document – Sets the ConvertError status field in the root document so that the document can be rerouted due to the error, for example using a conditional process rule.

Available conversion functions

Convert TIFF/JPEG to PDF/A (OpenText)

All images belonging to one document are converted to a single searchable PDF/A file. ClosedThese settings are available:

  • Convert TIFF images – converts TIFF files.

  • Convert JPEG images – converts JPEG files.

  • Save as XML – in addition to the PDF file, full-text extraction results are saved in an XML file. The XML file is given the same file name as the PDF file (without the extension), plus _FullPageReaderOCR.xml.

    Example: OriginalName.pdf > OriginalName_FullPageReaderOCR.xml

  • Save as ASCII text – in addition to the PDF file, full-text extraction results are saved in an ASCII text file. The text file is given the same file name as the PDF file (without the extension), plus _FullPageReaderOCR.txt.

    Example: OriginalName.pdf > OriginalName_FullPageReaderOCR.txt

  • Language – Select the country that corresponds to the language to be extracted.

  • Transfer document type to PDF/A – the document type is retained in the PDF/A file.

Notes

  • RecoStar must be installed. (You can configure this conversion without RecoStar, but if you try to run it an error message will be displayed.)

  • If this function is used, the Convert Images activity can only run once on any given server. Therefore, when you assign the Convert Images activity to the Activities Service, the number of instances must be 0 or 1 if Convert TIFF/JPEG to PDF/A (OpenText) is used.

Convert JPEG to BMP

JPEG files are converted to BMP (bitmap image files). ClosedThese settings are available:

  • Retain medium data – retains XBOUND metadata that was saved in the original file.

  • Retain medium fields – retains fields from the original file.

  • Retain medium tag – retains information from the JPEG tags.

  • Retain DPI from JPEG – retains the same resolution in the new file as in the original.

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

  • Bits per pixel – select the color depth of the new images (2-bit, 8-bit, or 24-bit).

  • Compression – select one of the available compression methods.

Convert JPEG to PDF

All images belonging to one document are converted to a single PDF 1.6 file.

Convert JPEG to PDF/A

JPEG files are converted to PDF/A without searchable text.

Convert JPEG to TIFF

JPEG files are converted to TIFF. ClosedThese settings are available:

  • Retain medium data – retains XBOUND metadata that was saved in the original file.

  • Retain medium fields – retains fields from the original file.

  • Retain medium tag – copies information from the JPEG tags.

  • Take DPI from JPEG – uses the same resolution in the new file as in the original.

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

  • Bits per pixel – select the color depth of the new images (2-bit, 8-bit, or 24-bit).

  • Compression – select one of the available compression methods.

Convert multipage TIFF to TIFF

Multi-page TIFF (MTIFF) files are converted to TIFF. ClosedMore information:

Except for the file extension, the new files have the same name as the original, plus a counter (a number).

These settings are available:

  • Every second image is a back page – select this if every second image in the original is a back page.

  • Compression – select one of the available compression methods.

  • Minimum target resolution – None (the original value is retained) or 100, 200, 300 or 400 DPI.

Convert PDF to JPEG

PDF files are converted to JPEG. ClosedMore information:

Except for the file extension, the new files have the same name as the original, plus a counter (a number).

These settings are available:

  • Every second image is a back page – select this if every second image in the original is a back page.

  • Retain medium fields from PDF – copies fields from the PDF to each of the JPEG files.

  • Retain medium tag from PDF – copies information from the PDF tags to each of the JPEG files.

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

  • Bits per pixel – select the color depth of the new images (2-bit, 8-bit, or 24-bit).

  • Color strength – adjust the saturation of the new images. A lower value results in a higher compression ratio. The minimum value is 0. The maximum value is 255.

  • Brightness – adjust the brightness of the new images. The lower the brightness, the higher the compression. The minimum value is 0. The maximum value is 255.

  • Use language pack – Uses extended language support, for processing documents in multiple languages.

Convert PDF to multipage TIFF

PDF files are converted to multi-TIFF (MTIFF). ClosedMore information:

The name of the resulting multipage TIFF file comes from the document name plus the .TIF extension.

These settings are available:

  • Every second image is a back page – select this if every second image in the original is a back page.

  • Use language pack – Uses extended language support, for processing documents in multiple languages.

Convert PDF to PDF/A

PDF files are converted to PDF/A without searchable text. The file name remains unchanged. ClosedMore information:

File names remain unchanged.

These settings are available:

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

  • Compression – select one of the available compression methods.

Convert PDF to TIFF

PDF files are converted to TIFF. ClosedMore information:

Except for the file extension, the new files have the same name as the original, plus a counter (a number).

These settings are available:

  • Every second image is a back page – select this if every second image in the original is a back page.

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

  • Use language pack – Uses extended language support, for processing documents in multiple languages.

Warning: When converting PDF forms, the TIFF media include the content of the form's fields. However, annotations (if any) appear not with their content but only as comment symbols () where the annotations were inserted. Be aware that the comment symbols can obstruct the underlying content, and the original document can in certain cases be changed.

Convert PNG to JPEG

PNG files are converted to JPEG. ClosedThese settings are available:

  • Retain medium data – retains XBOUND metadata that was saved in the original file.

  • Retain medium fields – retains fields from the original file.

  • Retain medium tag – retains information from the PNG tags.

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

  • Bits per pixel – select the color depth of the new images (2-bit, 8-bit, or 24-bit).

  • Color strength – adjust the saturation of the new images. A lower value results in a higher compression ratio. The minimum value is 0. The maximum value is 255.

  • Brightness – adjust the brightness of the new images. The lower the brightness, the higher the compression. The minimum value is 0. The maximum value is 255.

Convert PNG to TIFF

PNG files are converted to TIFF. ClosedThese settings are available:

  • Retain medium data – retains XBOUND metadata that was saved in the original file.

  • Retain medium fields – retains fields from the original file.

  • Retain medium tag – copies information from the PNG tags.

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

  • Bits per pixel – select the color depth of the new images (2-bit, 8-bit, or 24-bit).

  • Compression – select one of the available compression methods.

Convert text file to TIFF

TXT files are converted to TIFF. ClosedThese settings are available:

  • Font size of printed text – specify (in points) the size of the text to be saved in the TIFF files.

  • Image width in mm – specify (in millimeters) the width of the new images.

  • Image height in mm – specify (in millimeters) the height of the new images.

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

Convert TIFF to BMP

TIFF files are converted to BMP (bitmap image files). ClosedThis setting is available:

  • Use run-length encoding – the resulting image is run-length encoded (RLE).

Convert TIFF to JPEG

TIFF files are converted to JPEG. ClosedThese settings are available:

  • Retain medium data – retains XBOUND metadata that was saved in the original file.

  • Retain medium fields – retains fields from the original file.

  • Retain medium tag – retains information from the TIFF tags.

  • Retain DPI from TIFF – retains the same resolution in the new file as in the original.

  • Resolution in DPI – select the resolution of the new images.

  • Bits per pixel – select the color depth of the new images (2-bit, 8-bit, or 24-bit).

  • Color strength – adjust the saturation of the new images. A lower value results in a higher compression ratio. The minimum value is 0. The maximum value is 255.

  • Brightness – adjust the brightness of the new images. The lower the brightness, the higher the compression. The minimum value is 0. The maximum value is 255.

Convert TIFF to multipage TIFF

All TIFF files belonging to one document are converted to a single multi-page TIFF (MTIFF) file. The name of the multi-page TIFF file is not related to documents but is a temporary name.

Convert TIFF to PDF

All images belonging to one document are converted to a single PDF file.

Convert TIFF to PDF/A

TIFF files are converted to PDF/A files without searchable text.

Note: Images with LZW or JPEG2000 compression cannot be converted by this activity.

Other general settings

These settings are also available:

Import button

Imports settings from an XML file that was previously created using Export.

Export button

Exports the settings to an XML file. Specify the file name and location. You can then import the XML file to get the same settings. See Exporting and importing process step settings.

Check regular expression link

Opens a test form, where you can (when applicable) check a regular expression.

Process Images activity

Create Searchable PDF (ABBYY) activity

LuraDocument PDF/A activity

Convert Office Documents activity

XBOUND activities: Overview

Process Designer plug-in