unable to save image with right click, creates an empty temp file

[bschwand]

Describe the bug
When right clicking on a pdf image and selecting "Create Image" an error appears instead of saving an image

Steps to Reproduce the behaviour
Steps to reproduce the behaviour:
load a pdf
right click
select Create Image
observe error in emacs pdf-util-convert-output buffer similar to this
convert: no images defined `/var/folders/bk/fy5hm18s4tz129zk94k9ht740000gn/T/pdf-viewjCn4vN' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3234.

sometimes such file can be found in the path mentioned, but with a zero length.

Also, I noticed if instead of just clicking I select a region on the pdf page, then the Create Image succeeds and opens a new buffer with an image of the region selected.

So it looks like somehow when nothing is selected, the default of using the whole page is not used.

What is the expected behaviour?
open an image with the page even when nothing is selected

Desktop
Please complete the following information:

• OS: MacOS Ventura 13.7.8
• Emacs Version: GNU Emacs 29.4 (build 1, x86_64-apple-darwin22.6.0, Carbon Version 169
  AppKit 2299.77) of 2026-02-11. (emacs-mac-app from macports)
• Poppler Version: poppler @26.01.0

Your pdf-tools install
Please complete the following information:

• pdf-tools Version: Status: Installed in ‘pdf-tools-1.3.0/’. Delete
  Version: 1.3.0
  Commit: 5245f09
  Summary: Support library for PDF documents
  Requires: emacs-26.3, tablist-1.0, let-alist-1.0.4
  Website: https://github.com/vedang/pdf-tools/
  Keywords: files multimedia
  Maintainer: Vedang Manerikar vedang.manerikar@gmail.com
  Author: Andreas Politz mail@andreas-politz.de
  Other versions: 20260102.1101 (melpa), 1.3.0 (nongnu).

• pdf-tools customization / configuration that you use

;; pfd-tools
(use-package pdf-tools
:ensure t)
(require 'pdf-tools)
(pdf-tools-install :no-query) ; Standard activation command
;(pdf-loader-install) ; On demand loading, leads to faster startup time
(require 'pdf-info)
(require 'pdf-util)

Additional context

works with every PDF I tried

[aikrahguzar]

I think this (one character) diff should make the command succeed for the no active region case,

diff --git a/lisp/pdf-view.el b/lisp/pdf-view.el
index 3696b9d..4b4ddd5 100644
--- a/lisp/pdf-view.el
+++ b/lisp/pdf-view.el
@@ -1772,7 +1772,7 @@ the `convert' program is used."
   (interactive
    (list (if (pdf-view-active-region-p)
              (pdf-view-active-region t)
-           '(,(pdf-view-current-page) (0 0 1 1)))))
+           `(,(pdf-view-current-page) (0 0 1 1)))))
   (unless page
     (setq page (car regions)))
   (unless size

Although what it fixes shouldn't result in any error from convert, the command should fail earlier than that.

I don't think this command is supposed to save any image. It just creates a standalone image and displays it in a buffer.

[bschwand]

yes, your fix works for me.
I understand it only shows an image, that it does not save it. That is an independent issue from my other question in the discussions.
So is this a valid bug I reported, or does it only happen to me ?

Thanks for the fix !

[aikrahguzar]

So is this a valid bug I reported, or does it only happen to me?

It is a valid bug and will happen for everyone who uses this functionality. Thanks for reporting it.

[bschwand]

ok great. I hope it gets comitted
cheers !