Poor man's workaround, GeoPDF to GeoTiff

[TimSpivey]

The Federal government, in its infinite wisdom, is decreeing that we should all move to GIS.

The USGS, in its infinite wisdom, is releasing its topo maps in GeoPDF format.

ESRI, in its infinite wisdom, has not built GeoPDF support into ArcGIS Desktop.

The G-Raster program, which is supposed to be able to convert GeoPDF to GeoTIFF, cannot do it in its current version (6.3) as of today's date

Adobe Acrobat X Full Version cannot export to GeoTIFF

SO, here's what I did

Tools needed:

Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

Virtual PDF printer such as Adobe PDF

Adobe Photoshop (or a heavy-duty imaging program)

ArcMap

Plenty of RAM

Plenty of time

For single GeoPDFs:

1 - Open USGS GeoPDF in Acrobat

1a - Print to a virtual PDF printer

      - this "flattens" the GeoPDF layers, BUT strips out the georeferencing

1b - Open the new PDF in Acrobat and Export as TIFF

1c - To remove the "collar" around the topo map, crop it in Photoshop (the collar contains white border, legend, other text, and graphics)

1d - Load TIFF into ArcMAP and manually georeference using tools

To mosaic several GeoPDFs:

1 - Open USGS GeoPDF in Acrobat

1a - Print to a PDF printer such as Adobe PDF

      - this "flattens" the GeoPDF layers, BUT strips out the georeferencing

1b - Open the new PDF in Acrobat and Export as TIFF

2 - Use Photoshop to mosaic multiple TIFFs, saving the master image in PSD format (Photoshop's native format)

    - crop each TIFF to remove non-image areas (such as the white "collar")2a - Save final mosaic as TIFF

3 - Load mosaic into ArcMap and georeference

A Photoshop TIFF mosaic of our 270sqMI (698sqKM) county @250dpi is only 407megs; it contains 10 converted GeoPDFs

NOTE -

I prefer to do mosaics in Photoshop because it has more flexibility if images need to be rotated to match edges of adjoining TIFFs

(& because I've been using Photoshop since 1989 )

Finally, send Jack Dangermond a letter asking why GeoPDF is not supported in ArcGIS Desktop

[JayantaPoddar]

Thank you Felix for bringing up this old post.

From ArcGIS 10.3 onwards, you have a geoprocessing tool for converting GeoPDF (PDF) to GeoTIFF (TIFF).

PDF To TIFF—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

[DanaNolan]

To clarify, what the tool converts is simply georeferenced PDFs (exported from ArcMap to PDF with this option), Georeferenced PDFs have limited functionality. The geotools in Adobe software are not very precise and the only coordinates are lat-long.

A "geoPDF" file, as the feds, including my organization, are promoting, is a product produced by TerraGo software (an ESRI add-on). Much higher functionality and precision, e.g. multiscale symbology display, the ability to work with UTM and MGRS, and the ability to annotate maps to create a shapefile (without ESRI software and using mobile devices). A thoughtfully created GeoPDF is basically a standalone map similar to a Web map, without need for an Internet connection.

n.b. I am still waiting for permission to install the TerraGo creation software, but I can't wait to use it.