Batch generating thumbnails and preview images from a list of PDF filenames using ImageMagick

Owned by
Benn Chang
Last updated: Aug 20, 2018
4 min read

This procedure automates the creation of thumbnails and preview images for ingest into the DAMS. This procedure was written for Windows 10.

What you need:

Windows Subsystem for Linux, Ubuntu 18.04

Contributor access to the directory where the PDFs are located

What you do:

Launch Ubuntu 18.04.

Update Ubuntu
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Install ImageMagick. Skip this step if you already have ImageMagick installed.
sudo apt install imagemagick
Example installation progress 
user@host:~$ sudo apt install imagemagick
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  fontconfig fontconfig-config fonts-dejavu-core fonts-droid-fallback fonts-noto-mono ghostscript gsfonts
  hicolor-icon-theme imagemagick-6-common libavahi-client3 libavahi-common-data libavahi-common3 libcairo2 libcups2
  libcupsfilters1 libcupsimage2 libdatrie1 libdjvulibre-text libdjvulibre21 libfftw3-double3 libfontconfig1 libgomp1
  libgraphite2-3 libgs9 libgs9-common libharfbuzz0b libijs-0.35 libilmbase12 libjbig0 libjbig2dec0 libjpeg-turbo8
  libjpeg8 liblcms2-2 liblqr-1-0 libltdl7 libmagickcore-6.q16-3 libmagickcore-6.q16-3-extra libmagickwand-6.q16-3
  libnetpbm10 libopenexr22 libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libpangoft2-1.0-0 libpaper-utils libpaper1 libpixman-1-0
  libthai-data libthai0 libtiff5 libwmf0.2-7 libxcb-render0 libxcb-shm0 libxrender1 netpbm poppler-data
Suggested packages:
  fonts-noto ghostscript-x imagemagick-doc autotrace cups-bsd | lpr | lprng enscript ffmpeg gimp gnuplot grads
  graphviz hp2xx html2ps libwmf-bin mplayer povray radiance sane-utils texlive-base-bin transfig ufraw-batch xdg-utils
  cups-common libfftw3-bin libfftw3-dev liblcms2-utils inkscape libjxr-tools libwmf0.2-7-gtk poppler-utils
  fonts-japanese-mincho | fonts-ipafont-mincho fonts-japanese-gothic | fonts-ipafont-gothic fonts-arphic-ukai
  fonts-arphic-uming fonts-nanum
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  fontconfig fontconfig-config fonts-dejavu-core fonts-droid-fallback fonts-noto-mono ghostscript gsfonts
  hicolor-icon-theme imagemagick-6-common imagemagick-6.q16 libavahi-client3 libavahi-common-data libavahi-common3
  libcairo2 libcups2 libcupsfilters1 libcupsimage2 libdatrie1 libdjvulibre-text libdjvulibre21 libfftw3-double3
  libfontconfig1 libgomp1 libgraphite2-3 libgs9 libgs9-common libharfbuzz0b libijs-0.35 libilmbase12 libjbig0
  libjbig2dec0 libjpeg-turbo8 libjpeg8 liblcms2-2 liblqr-1-0 libltdl7 libmagickcore-6.q16-3
  libmagickcore-6.q16-3-extra libmagickwand-6.q16-3 libnetpbm10 libopenexr22 libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0
  libpangoft2-1.0-0 libpaper-utils libpaper1 libpixman-1-0 libthai-data libthai0 libtiff5 libwmf0.2-7 libxcb-render0
  libxcb-shm0 libxrender1 netpbm poppler-data
0 upgraded, 56 newly installed, 0 to remove and 40 not upgraded.
Need to get 23.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 84.7 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 fonts-dejavu-core all 2.37-1 [1041 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 fontconfig-config all 2.12.6-0ubuntu2 [55.8 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libfontconfig1 amd64 2.12.6-0ubuntu2 [137 kB]
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 fontconfig amd64 2.12.6-0ubuntu2 [169 kB]
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 fonts-droid-fallback all 1:6.0.1r16-1.1 [1805 kB]
Get:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libjpeg-turbo8 amd64 1.5.2-0ubuntu5 [110 kB]
Get:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libgomp1 amd64 8-20180414-1ubuntu2 [76.8 kB]
Get:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libfftw3-double3 amd64 3.3.7-1 [735 kB]
Get:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libjbig0 amd64 2.1-3.1build1 [26.7 kB]
Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libjpeg8 amd64 8c-2ubuntu8 [2194 B]
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 liblcms2-2 amd64 2.9-1 [139 kB]
Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 liblqr-1-0 amd64 0.4.2-2.1 [27.7 kB]
Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libltdl7 amd64 2.4.6-2 [38.8 kB]
Get:14 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libtiff5 amd64 4.0.9-5 [152 kB]
Get:15 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 imagemagick-6-common all 8:6.9.7.4+dfsg-16ubuntu6 [61.0 kB]
Get:16 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libmagickcore-6.q16-3 amd64 8:6.9.7.4+dfsg-16ubuntu6 [1612 kB]
Get:17 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libmagickwand-6.q16-3 amd64 8:6.9.7.4+dfsg-16ubuntu6 [293 kB]
Get:18 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 poppler-data all 0.4.8-2 [1479 kB]
Get:19 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 fonts-noto-mono all 20171026-2 [75.5 kB]
Get:20 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libavahi-common-data amd64 0.7-3.1ubuntu1 [22.3 kB]
Get:21 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libavahi-common3 amd64 0.7-3.1ubuntu1 [21.6 kB]
Get:22 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libavahi-client3 amd64 0.7-3.1ubuntu1 [25.3 kB]
Get:23 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libcups2 amd64 2.2.7-1ubuntu2 [211 kB]
Get:24 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libcupsimage2 amd64 2.2.7-1ubuntu2 [18.5 kB]
Get:25 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libijs-0.35 amd64 0.35-13 [15.5 kB]
Get:26 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libjbig2dec0 amd64 0.13-6 [55.9 kB]
Get:27 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 libpaper1 amd64 1.1.24+nmu5ubuntu1 [13.6 kB]
Get:28 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 libgs9-common all 9.22~dfsg+1-0ubuntu1.1 [5198 kB]
Get:29 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 libgs9 amd64 9.22~dfsg+1-0ubuntu1.1 [2213 kB]
Get:30 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 ghostscript amd64 9.22~dfsg+1-0ubuntu1.1 [47.6 kB]
Get:31 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 gsfonts all 1:8.11+urwcyr1.0.7~pre44-4.4 [3120 kB]
Get:32 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 hicolor-icon-theme all 0.17-2 [9976 B]
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/convert-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/convert (convert) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/convert-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/convert-im6 (convert-im6) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/composite-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/composite (composite) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/composite-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/composite-im6 (composite-im6) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/conjure-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/conjure (conjure) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/conjure-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/conjure-im6 (conjure-im6) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/import-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/import (import) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/import-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/import-im6 (import-im6) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/identify-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/identify (identify) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/identify-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/identify-im6 (identify-im6) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/stream-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/stream (stream) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/stream-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/stream-im6 (stream-im6) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/display-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/display (display) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/display-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/display-im6 (display-im6) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/montage-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/montage (montage) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/montage-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/montage-im6 (montage-im6) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/mogrify-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/mogrify (mogrify) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/mogrify-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/mogrify-im6 (mogrify-im6) in auto mode
Setting up libcupsfilters1:amd64 (1.20.2-0ubuntu3) ...
Setting up libcupsimage2:amd64 (2.2.7-1ubuntu2) ...
Setting up libpango-1.0-0:amd64 (1.40.14-1) ...
Setting up libgs9:amd64 (9.22~dfsg+1-0ubuntu1.1) ...
Setting up ghostscript (9.22~dfsg+1-0ubuntu1.1) ...
Setting up libpangoft2-1.0-0:amd64 (1.40.14-1) ...
Setting up libpangocairo-1.0-0:amd64 (1.40.14-1) ...
Setting up libmagickcore-6.q16-3-extra:amd64 (8:6.9.7.4+dfsg-16ubuntu6) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1) ...
user@host:~$
Configure your fstab to auto mount your network volume. Skip this step if you already have your fstab configured
sudo vi /etc/fstab
//hostname/volname /mnt/volname drvfs rw,relatime 0 0
Find all the PDF files and output them to a list. In this example, all our PDFs are in a fixed sub2dirname, but variable subdirname. So subdirname is a pattern.
find /mnt/volname/dirname -type f | grep subdirname | grep sub2dirname > templist.txt
Run ImageMagick Convert to create a thumbnail for each PDF in the list and output to the same directory with an '_tn.jpg' appended to each filename
for i in `cat templist.txt` ; do convert "$i"[0] -quality '75' -resize '200x200' -colorspace RGB -flatten "$i"_tn.jpg ; done
Run ImageMagick Convert to create a preview image for each PDF in the list and output to the same directory with an '_preview.jpg' appended to each filename
for i in `cat templist.txt` ; do convert "$i"[0] -quality '75' -resize '500x700' -colorspace RGB -flatten "$i"_preview.jpg ; done




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