Acrobat Script for Merge and Compare?

RiotMac

Active member
We have to merge a couple hundred imprints. I was wondering if there is a way to automate this using the Acrobat Merge plug-in or in Prinergy some how.
Does anyone have a script or have any suggestions on how to merge all these pages?
 
Re: Acrobat Script for Merge and Compare?

What do you mean by "merge" ?

Do you mean taking several single pages and creating a single multi-page document ?

There are several tools that do this, I use pdftk and call it from a UNIX shell script.

Do you mean taking a PDF with small dimensions and combining it on a larger dimension PDF ?
This is sometimes called "stitching" a PDF on to another.

I have used activePDF ToolKit and Fytek pdfmeld for that.

In fact, we have built a web application that accesses a repository of imprints in PDF format and imposes the 7" x 2" imprints on a base PDF that will be used to make plates. The base ( or template ) PDF contains crop and center marks, and has form fields that are filed via a dynamically generated FDF file for sluglines outside the live area. A barcode is made as a small PDF file for in-plant tracking and stitched onto the base with the imprint. The final PDF is rasterized and composited with a sample of the front and back cover of a catalog for presentation over the web. The generated PDF file is available linked from the image.

We have been refining this application ( written in PHP with calls to shell scripts ) for about 3 years.

A script is run at the end that collects all the files, and then I use an AppleScript to print all the PDFs from Acrobat for proofing and a double-check.

Two issues because the PDFs come from any possible software source and untrained users :

1)
mediabox and cropbox of the imprint PDFs are all over the place, as well as rotation. When calculating how the imprint should be positioned, you can get wacky results such as positioning off the base, or rotated sideways.

2)
Some PDFs have bizarre font encoding that can cause problems.

1) and 2) is why we print all of them out and proof them before the ink hits the rollers. Automating it is a time saver overall because 1) or 2) happen infrequently.

Chasd.
 
Re: Acrobat Script for Merge and Compare?

I guess what I am referring to is "stiching". Prinergy has an Acrobat plugin called Merge that takes one page and merges it with another page. This is a manually process, which is why I am looking to automate it.
 
Re: Acrobat Script for Merge and Compare?

we dont have it ourselves, but isnt that the kind of thing the "regional versioning" feature does?

cr
 
Re: Acrobat Script for Merge and Compare?

I thought about using versioning. The complaint I am getting is that it won't work since we don't get all the files in at one time. We are getting 50 imprints in per day from different lots.
 
Re: Acrobat Script for Merge and Compare?

and you have to manually merge all those down in acrobat? oh my, i can see why you would want an alternative. go back to rampage and multi-burn 'em!

cr
 

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