Title: Plugin does not work
Last modified: July 7, 2023

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# Plugin does not work

 *  Resolved [roberto21](https://wordpress.org/support/users/roberto21/)
 * (@roberto21)
 * [2 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-does-not-work-220/)
 * I don’t know if this plugin is still supported. I have it on a site with shared
   hosting, and it works fine, I find it extremely useful. However, I have another
   site with another host, which does not have imagemagick and ghostscript, and 
   obviously the plugin does not work. But I found in this forum a suggestion for
   a “dirty” solution, modifying two php files in the plugin: but it does not work,
   it generates empty image thumbnail files.
 * In another post in the forum, the author says that this plugin “is no longer 
   necessary since WordPress improved the pdf handling” (from version 4.7??). What
   does it mean? How can I get the thumbnails from pdf without the plugin? It seems
   something obvious is eluding me. Can somebody help? Thank you
 * Note: I am on wordpres 6.2, the plugin is not tested with this , I know, but 
   in the other installation (6.2 as well) it works flawlessly
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fplugin-does-not-work-220%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Plugin Author [stianlik](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stianlik/)
 * (@stianlik)
 * [2 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-does-not-work-220/#post-16879664)
 * This plugin use imagemagick to extract the first page of the PDF, if you don’t
   have imagemagick available, you would have to replace that feature with an implementation
   in another library (I’m not sure if gd can read PDFs).
 * The main feature of this plugin, which is to generate an image of the first page
   in uploaded PDFs is a builtin feature of WordPress 4.7 (and newer version I assume):
 * > WordPress 4.7 makes it easier to preview PDFs in the media library by generating
   > image representations of the first page, which are now used throughout the 
   > media library and media attachment screens.
   >  [Enhanced PDF Support in WordPress 4.7](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/15/enhanced-pdf-support-4-7/)
 * See the comments in that thread for tips on how you can retrieve these thumbnails.
    -  This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by [stianlik](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stianlik/).
 *  Thread Starter [roberto21](https://wordpress.org/support/users/roberto21/)
 * (@roberto21)
 * [2 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-does-not-work-220/#post-16880053)
 * Thank you for your answer. Maybe I am misinterpreting things (I am Italian, so
   forgive my English), but in the thread you indicated it says that the enhanced
   wordpress pdf handling also requires ImageMagick and Ghostwriter, so the problem
   is still there. There must be good reasons why many hosts refuse to implement
   imagemagick, so the question seems to be: can we get images from pdf WITHOUT 
   using imagemagick/ghostwriter?
 * Thanks for your attention.
 *  Plugin Author [stianlik](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stianlik/)
 * (@stianlik)
 * [2 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-does-not-work-220/#post-16880340)
 * In short, no. You need imagick with ghostscript.
 * I don’t know the details of the builtin implementation in WordPress, but from
   what I can glance in the source code it looks like they use imagemagick with 
   ghostwriter as well. To my knowledge, there are not any good alternatives to 
   imagemagick with ghostscript for this feature in PHP.
 * Not sure why some hosts won’t enable this extension. It can be measure to avoid
   expensive computations so that they can serve more customers with less hardware.
   Or, they just want to keep things simple, less extensions and less libraries 
   on their servers can be a good way to reduce maintenance work and avoid potential
   security issues.
 * You could use `exec` to call an external program like **`pdftoppm`** to create
   a thumbnail, but that will require the host to have the given program installed.
   Alternatively, you could send the PDF from your site to a service (some external
   API) used for extracting a thumbnail (likely more expensive than switching to
   a more versatile host). However, the most straightforward solution is to use 
   a host where imagick with ghostscript is available.
 *  Thread Starter [roberto21](https://wordpress.org/support/users/roberto21/)
 * (@roberto21)
 * [2 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-does-not-work-220/#post-16880835)
 * Well, we can live without it. The partial solution is to use “pdf embedder” plugins,
   more convoluted but working to an extent.
 * Thanks again for your attention

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Plugin does not work’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/pdf-thumbnails.svg)
 * [PDF Thumbnails](https://wordpress.org/plugins/pdf-thumbnails/)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/pdf-thumbnails/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/pdf-thumbnails/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/pdf-thumbnails/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/pdf-thumbnails/reviews/)

 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [roberto21](https://wordpress.org/support/users/roberto21/)
 * Last activity: [2 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-does-not-work-220/#post-16880835)
 * Status: resolved