How Can I Use the GdPicture Conversion Engine Globally?

By default, the GdPicture converter only handles file types that aren’t picked up by other converters, because the GdPicture converter is at the end of the list of converters in the configuration file of the Muhimbi document converter service.

<MuhimbiDocumentConverters>
  <converters>

    ...

    <add key="GdPicture"
         description="GdPicture Converter"
         fidelity="Full"
         maxInstances="2"
         supportedExtensions="docx,docm,dotx,doc,dot,rtf,htm,html,mht,mhtml,xml,tif,xls,
                              xlsx,xlsm,csv,ppt,pptx,pptm,ps,msg,eml,dxf,cur,wsq,gif,bmp,
                              cut,dds,dib,dicom,exif,exr,fax,g3,hdr,heif,heic,iff,ico,j2k,
                              j2c,webp, jb2,jbig2,jif,jfif,jng,jp2,jpeg,jpg,jpe,koa,lbm,
                              mng,pbm,pcd,pct,pict,pic,pcx,pdf,pfm,pgm,psd,png,pnm,ppm,ras,raw,
                              rle,sgi,svg,tga,targa,tiff,tif,wbmp,wap,wbm,xbm,xpm"
         supportedOutputFormats="pdf"
         type="Muhimbi.DocumentConverter.WebService.GdPictureConverter,
               Muhimbi.DocumentConverter.WebService, Version=1.0.1.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c9db4759c9eaad12" />
  </converters>
</MuhimbiDocumentConverters>

If you want to use GdPicture to convert certain file types — for example, Microsoft Office documents — into PDFs, you need to modify the configuration file and change the default converter for that file type globally.

Copy the GdPicture node and put it at the beginning of the list of converters. Give it a different name — for example, “GdPicture Office” — and modify the supported input extension as shown in the code below:

<MuhimbiDocumentConverters>
  <converters>
    <add key="GdPicture Office"
         description="GdPicture Converter for Microsoft Office formats"
         fidelity="Full"
         maxInstances="2"
         supportedExtensions="docx,docm,dotx,doc,dot,rtf,
                              xls,xlsx,xlsm,csv,
                              ppt,pptx,pptm"
         supportedOutputFormats="pdf"
         type="Muhimbi.DocumentConverter.WebService.GdPictureConverter,
               Muhimbi.DocumentConverter.WebService, Version=1.0.1.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c9db4759c9eaad12" />

    ...

  </converters>
</MuhimbiDocumentConverters>

With the above example, all MS Office documents that are converted into PDF will be handled by the GdPicture converter. This is because, for example, the “docx to pdf” input-output extension pair exists in the “GdPicture Office” converter, and the “GdPicture Office” converter is the first in the list.

If you convert Microsoft Office documents into PDF only, then the above configuration makes installation of the Microsoft Office dependency unnecessary.