Converting PDF to TIFF

[Magnus Bergh]

I am looking for some good solution to convert PDF files to TIFF (which
in turn will be stored in a database). I know there are a bunch of
commercial options out there but most are to expensive or has a per
client licensing which is not only a cost problem but a nightmare to
deal with (our customer adding new user to the application etc).

A very good option is to use Ghostscript. It does everything I want (and
more), even if I have to run the exe to do the conversion. One problem
with GS though is the licensing, it is only free if your own application
is licensed to the public with a GNU GPL license.

It would also be nice with a pure .NET assembly component.

Another option is to use a TIFF printer driver. However it must be
possible to completly run it without any user intervention (not having
to specify a file name etc). Also my application will run in some
environment which is very restrictive when it comes to installing stuff
on workstations so installing a printer driver might add some extra
installation issues.

Also all commercial printer drivers I have seen are either to expensive
(like one that was $2000) or per user licensing. Is there any open
source/public domain printer drivers?

I both need to convert pdf files created by someone else and to create
TIFF files out of reports created in Crystal Reports (output report to
PDF and then convert to tiff).

I guess the best option is to use some kind of PDF to tiff converter
because there are a lot of application/components (like Crystal Report)
which can output to PDF.