Converting vector PDFs

[whugemann]

I also encounter problems with transparency when converting vector PDFs to raster images. I put a test PDF generated from a CAD drawing by means of the Adobe Acrobat printer driver at http://www.unfallrekonstruktion.de/imagemagick/norm.pdf. When converting to

• JPG: I get a white background
• GIF or TIFF: I get a black background
• PNG: I get a transparent background

and I cannot influence this behaviour by the "-background" option.
I believe this behaviour to be new, as I have done this before without such problems.

[fmw42]

As you probably know, jpg does not support transparency. However, the gif and tif are puzzling if the png works?

So I tried,

convert norm.pdf norm.png

convert norm.pdf norm.gif

convert norm.pdf norm.tif

They all show transparency for me on IM 6.7.0.10 Q16 Mac OSX Tiger when viewing in Mac PREVIEW and IM display.