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c#pdfjpegghostscriptghostscriptsharp

MemoryStream (pdf) to Ghostscript to MemoryStream (jpg)


I did see "PDF to Image using GhostScript. No image file has to be created", but that only (sort of) answered half my question. Is it possible to use GhostScriptSharp (or the regular GhostScript dll) to convert a pdf in a MemoryStream to a jpg in a MemoryStream? I speak of a dynamically filled in pdf form with iTextSharp which I am already directing to a MemoryStream to save to a database or stream to a http response, and I'd really love to avoid saving to a file (and subsequent cleanup) if I can.

The sole answer in the answer I referenced claimed that one has to go down to the GhostScript dll to do the latter part, but it was obvious I would need to do a good bit of leg-work to figure out what that meant. Does anyone have a good resource that could help me on this journey?


Solution

  • The thing is that the PDF language, unlike the PostScript language, inherently requires random access to the file. If you provide PDF directly to Standard Input or via PIPE, Ghostscript will copy it to a temporary file before interpreting the PDF. So, there is no point of passing PDF as MemoryStream (or byte array) as it will anyway end up on the disk before it is interpreted.

    Take a look at the Ghostscript.NET and it's GhostscriptRasterizer sample for the 'in-memory' output.