How can I export a PDF from GIMP with each layer on a new page?

Question

I have multiple layers open in GIMP. I would like to export a pdf that has each layer on a new page.

We are allowed to answer our own questions. – Morgoth May 10 '17 at 13:04 — Morgoth, May 10 '17 at 13:04
It's not just allowed, it's actually encouraged :) – M. Becerra May 10 '17 at 13:10 — M. Becerra, May 10 '17 at 13:10

score 64 · Answer 1 · edited May 10 '21 at 19:23

64

Gimp (2.10) does it already. No extra software or plugins needed.

Import all images/pages as layers.
Go to File → Export As → filename.pdf.
After clicking Export As, a dialog will pop up asking to confirm save options. Select Layers as pages and Reverse the pages order.
Click the Export button.

That's all! Enjoy.

edited May 10 '21 at 19:23

BeastOfCaerbannog

14,585

answered Dec 05 '18 at 10:43

mjoao

641

3

Not only does GIMP do this built in, but it's even clever enough that if you want to have multiple layers make up a page e.g. a base image and various additional text layers - you can do this using layer groups and then with the 'Layers as pages' option, GIMP will export each layer group as a separate page! – ec2011 Nov 06 '19 at 01:53
14

The installed GIMP I have on Ubuntu 16.04 (GIMP 2.8.16) does not have this option. – user886869 Nov 21 '19 at 00:04
12

GIMP 2.8.18 does not have this option – Alessandro Jacopson Nov 24 '19 at 09:41
You don't need to reverse pages order if images were imported in order (last page as top layer) – qwr Apr 28 '20 at 08:18
You have to CLICK EXPORT first to see these options in #3 – Starcat Feb 01 '21 at 15:59
2

No it doesn.t. Even after clicking on export, there is no such am option – Merc Mar 21 '21 at 09:46
1

Sorry using Gimp 2.8.22 still has not the "export layers as pages" option. In fact, I did not start importing a pdf but had separate images from photographing a multipage document with a smartphone. So I opened those separately and pasted all together into one stack of layers. The export as mng and the convert did the job for me (see next answer). – kcbehler Apr 30 '21 at 13:47
One feature this built-in export is missing is using lossy compression for this PDF export. – Dylan Thurston Sep 08 '21 at 22:35
Is there a way to export based on layer groups? I asked also the question here. – Pascal Polleunus Nov 25 '21 at 13:51

Morgoth · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-31T21:40:01.040

43

GIMP (prior to 2.10) can't do this directly.

You need to use an intermediate file format.

Prerequisites

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

Steps

Export from GIMP as an MNG animation: File → Export → document.mng

Convert to PDF on the terminal:

convert -reverse document.mng document.pdf

edited Jan 31 '20 at 21:40

answered May 10 '17 at 13:03

Morgoth

1,843

1

Nice tweak for not having to reorder the layers from how they come in from a pdf in the import. – Max Williams Jun 27 '18 at 15:07
5

Gimp 2.10 can do this, see @mjoao 's answer – Barun Jan 01 '19 at 12:08
-reverse also needs a new version of convert; 1.3.23 does not do that. – jjmerelo Aug 29 '20 at 08:39
2

On Ubuntu, if you get "not authorized" see accepted answer here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1081895/trouble-with-batch-conversion-of-png-to-pdf-using-convert – Dagelf Sep 03 '20 at 08:44

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 30 '18 at 19:02

1

There is a Gimp plugin that does this nicely.

http://registry.gimp.org/node/27987

The install path and how to change the permissions are covered in this blog post: https://www.zyxware.com/articles/4438/how-to-export-multiple-layers-from-gimp-into-a-pdf-file

answered Mar 30 '18 at 19:02

Tully

1,811

The link above is currently dead (along with the whole registry). You can get the file here for the moment (from an archive): https://github.com/pixlsus/registry.gimp.org_static/blob/master/registry.gimp.org/files/export_layers_pdf-0.2.py.txt – Dylan Thurston Sep 08 '21 at 22:40

How can I export a PDF from GIMP with each layer on a new page?

3 Answers3

Prerequisites

Steps

Linked