Convert .max to .jpg ??????

October 12, 2006 4:18 PM

I have about 300 pictures that were sent to me as .max files. I have since learned the .max files are Paperport's proprietary file format. There is a Paperport Viewer available for download, but I am looking for something that can convert them to .jpg. The Paperport program would be ridiculously expensive to purchase for only these files. Any Mefite's know of software that can convert these files? I've considered just doing screen captures, but that's a lot of work one pic at a time. Ideas?
posted by Gerard Sorme to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Irfanview.
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 4:44 PM on October 12, 2006

PDFCreator can print to .jpg. So if you can print from the paperport viewer, that should work.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 4:45 PM on October 12, 2006

Er, never mind. I was misinformed.
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 4:46 PM on October 12, 2006

Oh, look! There's a 15 day trial of PaperPort.

Then it's a Ctrl-A, Right Click, Save As... and Bob's your proverbial uncle.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 4:48 PM on October 12, 2006

The Paperport program can definitely batch export to PDF (see link), or perhaps even a more convenient format. Since this is a builtin feature of the software and hence can't be that difficult to use, surely you could ask the person who sent them to you to resend in a more convenient (even it's PDF) which you could then easily convert to jpeg.
posted by matthewr at 4:50 PM on October 12, 2006

But blue_wardrobe's answer is better. D'oh!
posted by matthewr at 4:50 PM on October 12, 2006

Response by poster: Wow - get this!! The Paperport "trial" is a different kind of animal than we are used to with software. You have to give credit card information when you download and then - if you haven't canceled before the end of the trial - your card is billed $200.00!!!

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posted by Gerard Sorme at 4:59 PM on October 12, 2006

That's bad news.

Perhaps you could get the originator to do the Save As... jpg for you.

It's easy if they're in one folder.

Depending how big the total number of files is, I would offer to do the conversion for you. I have PaperPort 11 Pro.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 5:02 PM on October 12, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the offer, blue_wardrobe......they are just going to do it again with Paperport and send me a new disk.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Have I mentioned how much I hate proprietary formats?

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posted by Gerard Sorme at 5:21 PM on October 12, 2006

In practice, if you're shuffling scanned paper (which I do), the .max format was good for several years. Much more concise than other formats.

With PaperPort 10, I shifted to PDF which is now a native format for scanned images for PaperPort. It seems to be about as compact.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 5:27 PM on October 12, 2006

GraphicConverter should be able to do what you want if you have, or know someone who has a Mac. It was actually bundled with some of the machines, but I'm not sure what models.
posted by -t at 7:54 PM on October 12, 2006

Wow - get this!! The Paperport "trial" is a different kind of animal than we are used to with software

Actually a fair chunk of applications (generally aimed at businesses) do this.
posted by antifuse at 4:22 AM on October 13, 2006