Saving rendered image as pdf file

[Anonymous]

Hi all, I need to save the rendered image as pdf. However it looks like there in pdf option to choose when saving. I tried to save the image as eps and then open eps and convert it to pdf however I'm not able to open the epd file generated by 3ds max. Any advice?

[10DSpace]

@Anonymous 

Photoshop and GIMP (open source image editor) have the ability to save images as .pdf.    So save your rendered image in a graphics format of your choice eg, .png, .tif, .jpg, etc,  and then open it in Photoshop or GIMP and save as .pdf.   A 2 step process, but it gets the job done. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. However, this way you loose the quality of the image. Of course you can save the image as pdf and then convert it to pdf but in the cost of losing the quality. I was wondering if there is a way to directly save the rendered image as a pdf or at least somehow open the eps file saved directly saved from 3ds max. When I save images in eps format I'm not able to open them in any program which is very weird. 

[10DSpace]

@Anonymous 

Sorry, I misunderstood your original post.  If top image quality is the concern, then I would have thought .pdf is not the right format in any circumstance and that regardless of when the conversion to .pdf occurs there will be a loss of image quality vs an uncompressed .tif or .exr.   In other words, if you could save from the rendered image in max directly to a .pdf file, it is not clear to me that it would be as good as an uncompressed .tif or .exr.   Or for that matter, if you save the rendered max image first as an uncompressed .tif and then convert it to a .pdf file that it would be any different in quality vs directly saving it as a .pdf file in max.   But if you have specific experience with the optimal process of conversion and/or saving to .pdf in various workflows, I am interested in learning more about it.   Is the final output for your client intended for print?

Also, not clear why you are focused on opening the .eps file format that you have chosen as an intermediate format that you are saving to?  (FYI, I read that Microsoft Word, Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator can open .eps file format).  But it sounds like you may have tried these programs already and the max saved .eps won't open in them?

If you can convert the .eps file format to a .pdf file (and you believe that will not result in an image quality loss) then why do you need to open the .eps file?  

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot for your quick reply on this. My main goal is to save a high quality image from 3ds max and then I will take that image into Adobe Illustrator and combine it with some other images and text. This is the main goal. The main reason that I was trying to save the image as pdf or eps was that I thought I could extract vector type image from 3ds max so that I do not lose the quality when I zoom in the image. But based on your suggession it looks like .tif is the right way to go, is it so? If I'm to take this image into Adobe Illustrator is this the best format to extract from 3ds max? Thanks again for your kind help with this.

[10DSpace · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous 

In terms of rendered outputs, Max is primarily intended to create raster formats, not vector graphics.  If you want to work with the best image quality for further tweaking in Illustrator, then choose an uncompressed format like .tif and also choose an image resolution that is high enough (4K,8K etc,) to serve your ultimate purpose.   In your case, this means thinking ahead to what you are going to do with your completed Illustrator file.   Will the file be printed out or is it intended for the computer screen.  In either case, the question is what is the final resolution of the ultimate output (ie., the finished work).  As a rough rule of thumb, if you save the Max rendered image in a final resolution that exceeds the ultimate maximum resolution output of your finished work (and assuming you are not zooming in on just a small part of the Illustrator file for your final output, then the max rendered portion of the Illustrator document shouldn't appear to be degraded in image quality relative to other elements you add.  The good news is that you can always render out a higher resolution image in max if your first attempt is not to your liking although obviously render time will go up.   

I am by no means an Illustrator expert, but you can also use the Image Trace feature in Illustrator to convert all or part of your max rendered image to vector graphics.    Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for your great help with this. I will check all these.