How to Easily Copy an Area of Image from a PDF File

yjbo
Copying text content from a PDF file is a piece of cake and can be done by just selecting the text and “Ctrl C and V”. However, I cannot find a similar way to copy images as copying text. Using the "Select Area" tool will generate notes (which sometimes is unnecessary). However after that pressing "Ctrl + C and V" won't allow you to paste the image to other software. Instead, it will only give you some text content that begins with [image], but not the actual image. The only way to copy an image is by right-clicking on the selected area note and choosing "Copy Image," which can be a little intricate.
Maybe two possible improvements can help solve this problem:

1.Add an area selection tool that doesn't generate notes and can be used to copy the area only;
2.Improve the existing "select tool" for the image copy function, allowing it to paste the actual image rather than just the word [image] with "Ctrl C and V".

We hope that these changes will enhance the functionality of the PDF reader and make it more user-friendly for everyone.
  • dstillman
    edited May 16, 2023
    Using the "Select Area" tool will generate notes (which sometimes is unnecessary).
    It creates an annotation, not a note.
    The only way to copy an image is by right-clicking on the selected area note and choosing "Copy Image," which can be a little intricate.
    I'm not sure why you think that's "intricate"? It's three clicks: select the area, right-click, Copy Image. That's why the menu option is there. And then if you don't want the annotation, press Delete on your keyboard to delete the annotation.

    Or just zoom in and use the area screenshot function in your OS.

    We're not going to have Ctrl-C on an image annotation copy just the image, because that's not what you've selected — you've selected an image annotation. It should of course copy the actual image along with the citation rather than a text placeholder, though, and we'll see if we can improve that.

    We could consider adding a rectangular selection tool in the menus, but I'm not sure it's worth it just to avoid pressing Delete afterward.
  • dstillman
    (Actually, if you're getting "[Image]" for the image-annotation Quick Copy, I think you're pasting into a plain-text text field anyway, and we obviously can't paste an image there. Pasting into Word I get "Error! Filename not specified.", and that we'll try to fix.)
  • yjbo
    Thank you, I find the screenshot will be the best solution for me now. And still hope the fix will come out.
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