Using PDF 2 PSP
convert a PDF to a set of PSP images, you must (1) Start
PDF 2 PSP, (2) Load the PDF to convert, (3) Select the directory that will contain the new images, (4) Choose the desired conversion settings, then (5) Press the Convert button. Each of these steps is outlined below.
Starting PDF 2 PSP
Start
PDF 2 PSP by double-clicking it or by dragging and dropping a PDF file onto the
PDF 2 PSP icon.
Loading a PDF document
You can load a PDF document into
PDF 2 PSP in several different ways:
- Drag and drop a PDF file onto the PDF 2 PSP icon, either directly in the finder or in the dock.
- Click on the PDF button in the PDF 2 PSP window.
- or -
- Use the Open... or Open Recent menu items in the menu.
If you use the
Open... menu, you will see the standard OS X file-opening dialog. Use it to choose the PDF you want, just like any other OS X application.
PDF 2 PSP remembers the last output directory you used, so you will not normally need to change this. For your first conversion, however, or if you want to change where the images are saved, click the
Output button in the
PDF 2 PSP window. A standard OS X file dialog will appear. Select the directory you want the images to be stored in, or create a new directory by clicking the
New Folder button at the bottom left of the dialog box.
Setting this directory correctly will greatly speed the conversion process. For example, if you connect your PSP directly to your Mac with a USB cable, you can set the output directory directly to the Photo directory of your PSP's memory card. For details on how to do this, see the
Viewing section. For hints on how to set this to work with
PSPWare, see the
Tips and Tricks section.
Tuning the Images
Like the Output Directory, you may not have to change the image settings often. There are three settings that affect image quality: image size, image orientation and image quality.
Image Size This pop-up menu controls the size of the images that will be created. It has five possible settings:
- Fit to Screen - shrink the PDF so that the entire image will fit on the PSP's screen.
- Fit to Width - shrink the PDF so that the images will be as wide as the PSP's screen. The images will be as tall as needed to fit that width.
- 2x Screen Width - the PDF will enlarged to be twice as wide as the PSP's screen (960 pixels). This permits you to see fine details that might otherwise be lost in the conversion process.
- Original Size - the images will be the exact same size as the original PDF. Note that this may not be what you want! PDFs are not measured in pixels, but in 72 dots per inch. Thus, an 8.5 x 11 inch document will only be 612x792 pixels in size.
- High Resolution - the images will be twice the size as the original PDF. For a typical 8.5x11 inch document, this means the images will be 1224x1584 pixels.
Image Orientation Image Orientation allows you to rotate the images so that you can view them sideways on the PSP. Choose either
Portrait (normal) or
Landscape (rotated).
Image Quality This controls how compressed the images will be. Moving the slider to the left will result in smaller files but the images may be blurry, while moving it to the right will create larger files, but the images will be sharper.
Doing the Conversion
Once all the settings have been checked, press the
Convert button. Inside your selected output directory,
PDF 2 PSP will create a new directory with the same name as the PDF you want to convert. Inside that directory will be a series of images, one image for each page of the PDF. If the operation is taking too long and you want to stop it, you can select
Abort from the
File menu or press
command-Escape.
That's it! Depending on how you set your output directory, you may need to manually copy the images to your PSP, or to sync your PSP with
PSPWare or a similar tool.