Still unable to retrieve PDF-extracted image xres/yres

[wohali]

Description of the bug

Continuing the discussion from #479, I'd expected this to work, but it still doesn't:

$ poetry run python
Python 3.11.2 (main, Nov 30 2024, 21:22:50) [GCC 12.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
>>> import pymupdf
>>> pymupdf.__version__
'1.25.5'
>>> doc = pymupdf.open("i-9-paper-version.pdf")
>>> i = doc.extract_image(4)
>>> i['xres']
96
>>> i['yres']
96
>>> i['width']
201
>>> i['height']
199
>>> i['bpc']
8

vs.

$ pdfimages -list i-9-paper-version.pdf
page   num  type   width height color comp bpc  enc interp  object ID x-ppi y-ppi size ratio
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1     0 image     200   199  index   1   8  image  no        47  0   300   301 16.5K  42%
   1     1 image      71    71  index   1   8  image  no        48  0   300   304 1510B  30%
   1     2 image      71    71  index   1   8  image  no        48  0   300   304 1510B  30%
   2     3 image     201   199  index   1   8  image  no         4  0   300   301 16.3K  42%

At the moment, I am forced to shell out to pdfimages to retrieve the per-image xres/yres. Is this something possible in the future with pymupdf at all?

How to reproduce the bug

Run the code above with the attached PDF file.

i-9-paper-version.pdf

PyMuPDF version

1.25.5

Operating system

Linux

Python version

3.11

[wohali]

FYI I attempted your recent workaround and got the same result, sadly:

>>> for page in doc:
        for img in [b for b in page.get_text("dict")["blocks"] if b["type"] == 1]:
            print(f"{img['xres']=}, {img['yres']=}")
            pix = pymupdf.Pixmap(img["image"])
            print(f"{pix.xres=}, {pix.yres=}")  # <== this is correct!
            print()

img['xres']=96, img['yres']=96
pix.xres=96, pix.yres=96

img['xres']=96, img['yres']=96
pix.xres=96, pix.yres=96

img['xres']=96, img['yres']=96
pix.xres=96, pix.yres=96

img['xres']=96, img['yres']=96
pix.xres=96, pix.yres=96

Reading the upstream bug implied the underlying library can't do much to help here, but, we should be able to do better in PyMuPDF and calculate the x/y ppi as used within the context of the PDF itself as poppler does.

poppler performs the calculation here. ctm is the image's transformation matrix, the same as PyMuPDF's transform Matrix. It renders it to a virtual 72dpi output display.

Using this information:

>>> import pymupdf
>>> from math import sqrt
>>> doc = pymupdf.open("i-9-paper-version.pdf")
>>> p1 = Document.load_page(1)
>>> for img in p1.get_image_info():
...   mat = img['transform']
...   width2 = sqrt(pow(mat[0], 2) + pow(mat[1], 2))
...   height2 = sqrt(pow(mat[2], 2) + pow(mat[3], 2))
...   xppi = round(abs(img['width'] * 72 / width2))
...   yppi = round(abs(img['height'] * 72 / height2))
...   print(f"image #{img['number']}, xppi: {xppi}, yppi: {yppi}")
...
image #1, xppi: 300, yppi: 301
image #35, xppi: 300, yppi: 304
image #36, xppi: 300, yppi: 304

This is the information I'm after.

I can carry this code in my application, but would you consider having PyMuPDF return this information when retrieving images from PDFs instead?

[JorjMcKie]

During the discussions around this question (not even an issue), it became clear that the currently returned values do not report worthwhile information at all.

Only two aspects can potentially be of interest:

1. The resolution stored as metadata in the image itself.
2. The "resolution" resulting from the image's original dimension in comparison to the dimension of the boundary box on the page.

The first definition is an image property which thus remains constant across all potential places where this same image may be displayed in the PDF.

The second definition obviously is bbox-specific and could therefore be different for two bboxes showing the same image on the same page. It does not reflect an image property.
Please provide some background about where this may be of value.

[JorjMcKie]

When I take your image at xref 48 and insert it in a new page like that:

import pymupdf

doc = pymupdf.open()
page = doc.new_page()
r1 = pymupdf.Rect(100, 100, 200, 200)
r2 = pymupdf.Rect(200, 200, 400, 400)
xref = page.insert_image(r1, filename="48.png")
page.insert_image(r2, xref=xref)
doc.ez_save("x.pdf")

Your suggested computation will deliver these values for the exact same image:

xres=51, yres=51
xres=26, yres=26

I'm pretty sure that immediately after such a potential change, we would see issues asking why this can happen for the same image 😏.

[JorjMcKie]

I cannot say yet whether we will implement your suggestion. If we would however, there would be consequential documentation and potentially other changes:
We are reporting xres / yres values at multiple other places, for instance, in the Pixmap class and in method Document.extract_image. Here, we have no connections to page boundary boxes - they represent image properties exclusively.

[wohali]

Thanks for the serious consideration, @JorjMcKie .

My specific application, and those who use it, is the processing of output from document scanners. My process needs to extract images, perform processing of them, and place them into another PDF.

In this specific case, all pages consist of a single document with a trivial bbox (though sometimes with x/y offsets in mat[4] and [5].

As a result, the problem you mention would never arise in my application, though it is a special case of 1 page == 1 image.

However, not all scanned documents in my workflow are the same dimensions, so it is not possible to assume that everything is A4 / Letter / etc.

[JorjMcKie]

Thanks for your most recent post. Not sure I'm 100% understanding though 😟.
Anyway, I think it's time to transfer this issue to the Discussions tab for further clarifications.