Python Ghostscript Not Closing Output File

I'm trying to turn PDF files with one or many pages into images for each page. This is very much like the question found here. In fact, I'm trying to use the code from @Idan Yaco

Solution 1:

I was having the same problem where the image files were kept open but when I looked into the ghostscript init.py file (found in the following directory: PythonDirectory\Lib\site-packages\ghostscript__init__.py), the exit method has a line commented.

The gs.exit(self._instance) line is commented by default but when you uncomment the line, the image files are being closed.

def exit(self):
    global __instance__
    ifself._initialized:
        print'#####', self._instance.value, __instance__
        if __instance__:
            gs.exit(self._instance) # uncomment this lineself._instance = None
        self._initialized = False

Solution 2:

I was having this same problem while batching a large number of pdfs, and I believe I've isolated the problem to an issue with the python bindings for Ghostscript, in that like you said, the image file is not properly closed. To bypass this, I had to go to using an os system call. so given your example, the function and call would be replaced with:

os.system("gs -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=jpeg -r144 -sOutputFile=" + jpeg_output_path + ' ' + pdf_input_path)

You may need to change "gs" to "gswin32c" or "gswin64c" depending on your operating system. This may not be the most elegant solution, but it fixed the problem on my end.

Solution 3:

My work around was actually just to install an image printer and have Python print the PDF using the image printer instead, thus creating the desired jpeg image. Here's the code I used:

import win32api
defpdf_to_jpg(pdf_path):
    """
    Turn pdf into jpg image(s) using jpg printer
    :param pdf_path:  Path of the PDF file to be converted
    """# print pdf to jpg using jpg printer
    tempprinter = "ImagePrinter Pro"
    printer = '"%s"' % tempprinter
    win32api.ShellExecute(0, "printto", pdf_path, printer, ".", 0)