| name | pdf-extract-embedded-images |
| description | Extract embedded JPEG and PNG images from a PDF at their native resolution, without rasterizing. Use when a PDF is primarily a wrapper around photos or images and you want to recover them at full quality without the page rendering overhead. |
| disable-model-invocation | false |
| allowed-tools | Bash(pdfimages *), Bash(ls *), Bash(mkdir *), Read, Write |
Extract Embedded Images from PDF
Pull out JPEG and PNG objects embedded in a PDF using pdfimages. Extracts at native resolution without rasterizing the page. Different from pdf-to-images — this recovers the original embedded image files, not a rasterized page render.
When to use
- A PDF is a container for photos (e.g., a photo book or brochure) — you want the original images, not a rasterized version.
- Bulk-extracting image assets from a multi-page document without re-encoding.
- Recovering embedded images at their full embedded resolution and quality.
Inputs to gather
- Input PDF file — path to the PDF. Required.
- Output directory — optional. Default: current directory.
Procedure
1. Check tooling
command -v pdfimages || echo "pdfimages not installed — install with: sudo apt install poppler-utils"
Abort if missing.
2. Validate PDF and inspect contents
file "<input.pdf>"
pdfimages -list "<input.pdf>"
The -list flag shows a summary of embedded images: page number, index, width, height, bits per component, color space, encoding. This helps set expectations (e.g., "3 JPEG images at 2400×3000px").
3. Extract
pdfimages -all "<input.pdf>" "<output-prefix>"
The -all flag extracts both the raw image stream (if JPEG, as .jpg; if PNG, as .png, etc.) plus any alternate-format versions.
Alternatives:
-j — extract JPEG objects only (faster if there are many PNG/PNG variants).-png — convert all images to PNG (may re-encode non-JPEG content; slower but lossy compression converted to lossless).
Recommend -all unless the user specifies otherwise.
4. Report
After extraction:
- Count of images extracted, by type (JPEG, PNG, etc.).
- Output filenames and their dimensions.
- File sizes and whether any extraction failed.
- Remind the user that embedded images may have compression applied by the PDF creator — they are not necessarily at absolute maximum quality, but they are at their native resolution.
Output / side effects
- Image files created with names like
prefix-000.jpg, prefix-001.png, etc. (depends on PDF content).
- Original PDF unchanged.
Notes
- Native resolution, not PDF rendering resolution:
pdfimages extracts the raw embedded objects at the resolution they were embedded, not the page rendering resolution. For a photo book PDF with 2400×3000px JPEGs embedded, you get those 2400×3000px files directly — much faster and lossless compared to rasterizing the 8.5"×11" page at 300 DPI.
- Lossy source warning: Even though
pdfimages does not re-encode, the original embedded images may already be JPEG-compressed by the PDF creator. You cannot recover quality that was lost before embedding. Check output sizes and quality to verify.
- PNG and other formats:
pdfimages preserves PNG, TIFF, and other formats within the PDF. The -all flag ensures you get them all. The -png flag is useful if you want everything as PNG but will re-encode and potentially change file size.
- Naming collision: If multiple images have the same name,
pdfimages appends sequential suffixes (e.g., prefix-000.jpg, prefix-001.jpg). No files are overwritten.
- Depends:
apt install poppler-utils.
