Arcade Art Library

[IG-88]

How does a person convert a PDF file I downloaded from A.A.L. to a jpg so it can be altered?

[Blanka]

Don't convert! Just alter the PDF. You can edit it in Illustrator or Freehand. But most art is .AI already, and is ready for editing.

http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/index.php
Mean this site?

And when you only master bitmap editing, then NEVER EVER convert to JPG! Vectorized arcade art needs sharp lines and sharp colour changes. JPEG messes up with compression artifacts. TIF compressed will result in similar compression in this case, but does not malform the big even faces. Especially when the art contains red items, JPEG can mess up. Red is not handled well by JPEG.

[IG-88]

http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/index.php
Mean this site?

Yes.

Just alter the PDF. You can edit it in Illustrator or Freehand.

How do you do that freehand? Can I use anything else besides Illustrator? (don't have) My Paint Shop Pro doesn't recognize pdf's...

And when you only master bitmap editing, then NEVER EVER convert to JPG!

And I'm not quite sure what you mean by "only master bitmap editing" 

Thanks for the help so far!

[TheShanMan]

Inkscape is a free vector editing program. It can open pdf's.

[Blanka]

If you think about editing in Paint Shop Pro, then I assume you do not understand what vector images are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_art
First read this
Arcade art is mostly vector art, and you don't paint in it, but you pull on grips that form shapes and lines.
Inkscape does handle vector and PDF, but I think it does not compare to the pro aps. On a scale from total suckiness to total awesomeness in basic vector editing going from 0-10 I would put Inksape at 3, Coreldraw at 5, Illustrator at 7 and Freehand at 9. Freehand's paste-inside function is 4 points worth by itself already (you will need that very much in arcade art). Sadly it is discontinued as Adobe bought Macromedia and still believes Illustrator is better. But heck, version 10 runs awesome, even on Macs with Leopard.