Anybody know of a plugin or program to do the following in Acrobat Prof

kaiserwilhelm

Well-known member
Imagine I have an 8.5 x 11 and also an 8.5 x 3.5
Both are independent PDFs.
I would like to make one pdf that is 8.5 x 14.5 high. Basically, put the reply (3.5 inch) on top of the letter (11).
Ideas?
 
I was really hoping there would be some program or plugin. I have about 250 a month to do during a 3 day time period. That could suck royally.
I'll keep it open, but thanks.
 
Acrobat

Acrobat

Try PDF Snake which is an imposition program it might do the trick for you. There is a free trial download available

Tom
 
Hi Kaiser

I'm sure that are ways of scripting this with Java or Pitstop, or you could use any of a number of PDF imposing apps, but I'd agree with Colorblind and probably just do it in InDesign.

Just create a new doc in Indesign with the right page size and number of pages. Then use the PDF Placer script from Adobe Studio Exchange to place all the bottom PDFs on each page as one step and then run it again to place all the tops. You can customize the offsets and cropping to get each PDF in the proper position. Then export the whole thing as a new PDF and you're done. Shouldn't take long to process once it's set up the first time and it's free.

Adobe - InDesign Scripts

Shawn
 
Imagine I have an 8.5 x 11 and also an 8.5 x 3.5
Both are independent PDFs.
I would like to make one pdf that is 8.5 x 14.5 high. Basically, put the reply (3.5 inch) on top of the letter (11).
Ideas?

Hi.

I do this all the time using Quite Imposing.

They have a feature called "Trim & Shift" where you can add or remove space to a PDF.

You can also define a Custom Page Size (in your case 8.5 x 14.5") and you can make any PDF this size.

Quite would be a DREAM for this task!!

Lee.
 
Well this could be a start, I just wrote this script. Make sure all your PDFs are in one single folder then run the script, it will ask you for that folder. Then the script will open the PDFs one by one to sort the 3.5" high from the 11" high PDFs. It will then make one 8.5 X 14.5 InDesign document per pair on PDFs, placing the 3.5" PDF on top of the page and the 11" PDF just below. So with 250 PDFs, you would end-up getting 125 InDesign documents. The step after would be to automate PDF export or PS printing (that can be done too). So as I said, it's just a draft, just tested it with 12 PDFs, it works. Of course, there's also a way to make sure that the PDFs get paired appropriately if you have a name convention or some other way to help the script. For now the script will pair the first "short PDF" with the first "tall PDF", then the second "short PDF" with the second "tall PDF" and so on.

--Script by Colorblind, tested with Acrobat Pro 8 and InDesign CS4

set my_folder to choose folder with prompt "Choose the folder where the PDFs are"
tell application "Finder"
activate
set my_pdf_list to get every item in my_folder
set pdf_11high_list to {}
set pdf_3andhalfhigh_list to {}
repeat with mypdf in my_pdf_list
open mypdf using application file id "CARO"
tell application "Adobe Acrobat Professional"
activate
set b to get crop box of page 1 of active doc
set w1 to item 3 of b as integer
set w0 to item 1 of b as integer
set h1 to item 2 of b as integer
set h0 to item 4 of b as integer
set PDFheight to (h1 - h0) / 72
set PDFwidth to (w1 - w0) / 72
set pagecount to count every page of active doc
set idh to PDFheight & " i" as string
set idw to PDFwidth & " i" as string
if PDFheight = 11 then set end of pdf_11high_list to mypdf
if PDFheight = 3.5 then set end of pdf_3andhalfhigh_list to mypdf
close active doc without saving

end tell

end repeat
set doc_count to the length of pdf_11high_list

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS4"
activate
set my_counter to 1
repeat doc_count times
set mydoc to make document
tell document preferences of mydoc
set facing pages to false
set page width to "8.5 i"
set page height to "14.5 i"
set pages per document to 1

end tell

set page number of PDF place preferences to 1

-- the "crop PDF" parameter can be changed to the following: crop content/crop art/
--crop PDF/crop trim/crop bleed/crop media/crop content/crop art/¬
--crop PDF / crop trim / crop bleed / crop media

set PDF crop of PDF place preferences to crop PDF

set mypdfpage to place (item my_counter of pdf_3andhalfhigh_list as string) on page 1 of mydoc place point {0, 0}
set mypdfpage to place (item my_counter of pdf_11high_list as string) on page 1 of mydoc place point {0, 3.5}

set my_counter to my_counter + 1
end repeat
end tell
end tell
 
Last edited:
colorblind....

how will it know which 11" to pair up with which 3.5"?


If you do decide to do it in indesign, as long as your pdfs are the same page count, you could create a master (say with 250 pages) that contain 250 11" pages and 250 3.5" pages. The pdfs need to be set up where page 1 of the 11" pairs up with page 1 of the 3.5". Then, if you have two new pdfs with 250 pages the next month, you could replace the pdf link and tell it to "relink all instances" of the old pdf with the new one and everything should drop into place page for page.
 
Yes as I wrote, for now the script will pair the first "short PDF" it finds in the folder with the first "tall PDF" it finds in the folder, then the second "short PDF" with the second "tall PDF" and so on. From what I understood, the PDFs are all independent single pager. But if there's something common between the short and tall PDF (such as one filename is "july23message.pdf" and the other one is "july23reply.pdf", they both start with "july23") or both PDFs were created the same day or anything else common then yes a few AppleSCript instructions could pair the good PDFs on the same page.
 
COLORBLIND - Have you thought about buying PowerSwitch? I have it, but I don't have the scripting expertise. Looks like it could be a very powerful program for you. They allow a 30 day download.
Before I purchased I had them help me build a "program" that takes 1-50 sitx files, unstuffs them, and puts them all into one folder. The cool part is that it looks at the art individually and if a (dumb) customer has one piece of art called BLUE.eps made on tuesday and another with same name made on wednesday, it goes back to the name of the sitx file and names the one XXX_Blue.eps and the other YYY_BLUE.eps. (xxx being the sitx file name).
It cut down my preflight time by 60 percent.
That is just one of the programs we have it run. If you can think of it, and if you can script it is worth its weight in gold.
THANK you for the script. I will try it.
 
My pleasure for the script, should also work with InDesign CS3. As I said you can always post it on MacScripter if you need it to be modified (there are guys there that find scripting as easy and entertaining as your morning paper crosswords). As for PowerSwitch, heard about it but never tried it. Maybe I should.
 
I really cannot say enough good about the product. It is as powerful as you make it.
We zip up mail.dat files with it. (wrote a little script that collects them based on name) and then combines them into a zip.
Saves our dp department hours.
Think of it as a visual to what you do. If you want it weak you use the available options in the program. If you want it powerful you put in a script icon, link it to a script, then let her fly.
Since Enfocus owns them now it works with Pitstop Server real good.

I have mind doing the following: get in 250 pds. Triplicate each one. Take copy a, run it through p. server and delete all but color xxx. Take copy b and overprint the color xxx and delte it out. Take copy c and put in an original folder.
Then, we sent copy a and b to a little print program (forgot the name) that automates making our preflight lasers.
All of this can be completely automated including getting it from the ftp.
Tell Matt Beals I sent you.

Chris
 
Colorblind - Am getting an error when I run that script.
It says 2753 - Error String: The variable b is not defined.

I am VERY new to this stuff. Had to google how to even use scripts in INDD. Wow, I feel like a dummy. There is some powerful stuff in there.
BTW, my pdfs were actually 10.5 high and 3.4 high so I changed those down below where it was defined.
 
You have to run the script from "Script Editor" it's inside the AppleScript folder on your hard drive. Copy the code in the window then click the compile button (at this point it may ask you to locate some applications, it does that the very first time you script an application). Last step is to click the run button. I just tried it again home, it works. But you need both InDesign CS3-4 and Acrobat Pro (I'm using version 8 but it should work with 7-8-9) to run it. Let me know if it still doesn't work.
 
I changed 2 lines in the code, instead of expecting 3.4 and 10.5 to sort the PDFs, it considers short PDFs when height is smaller than width and tall when height is bigger than width:

--Script by Colorblind, tested with Acrobat Pro 8 and InDesign CS4

set my_folder to choose folder with prompt "Choose the folder where the PDFs are"
tell application "Finder"
activate
set my_pdf_list to get every item in my_folder
set pdf_11high_list to {}
set pdf_3andhalfhigh_list to {}
repeat with mypdf in my_pdf_list
open mypdf using application file id "CARO"
tell application "Adobe Acrobat Professional"
activate
set b to get crop box of page 1 of active doc
set w1 to item 3 of b as integer
set w0 to item 1 of b as integer
set h1 to item 2 of b as integer
set h0 to item 4 of b as integer
set PDFheight to (h1 - h0) / 72
set PDFwidth to (w1 - w0) / 72
set pagecount to count every page of active doc
set idh to PDFheight & " i" as string
set idw to PDFwidth & " i" as string
if PDFheight > PDFwidth then set end of pdf_11high_list to mypdf
if PDFheight < PDFwidth then set end of pdf_3andhalfhigh_list to mypdf
close active doc without saving

end tell

end repeat
set doc_count to the length of pdf_11high_list

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS3"
activate
set my_counter to 1
repeat doc_count times
set mydoc to make document
tell document preferences of mydoc
set facing pages to false
set page width to "8.5 i"
set page height to "13.9 i"
set pages per document to 1

end tell

set page number of PDF place preferences to 1

-- the "crop PDF" parameter can be changed to the following: crop content/crop art/
--crop PDF/crop trim/crop bleed/crop media/crop content/crop art/¬
--crop PDF / crop trim / crop bleed / crop media

set PDF crop of PDF place preferences to crop PDF

set mypdfpage to place (item my_counter of pdf_3andhalfhigh_list as string) on page 1 of mydoc place point {0, 0}
set mypdfpage to place (item my_counter of pdf_11high_list as string) on page 1 of mydoc place point {0, 3.4}

set my_counter to my_counter + 1
end repeat
end tell
end tell

--Let me know if it works and don't forget to use Script Editor to run it :)
 
Colorblind - can I take this one more direction? Maybe I should be in another forum now because it may or may not be acrobat.

12 page doc A1, A2, B1, B2 etc
12 page doc X1, X2, Y1, Y2 etc

Would like to merge to new pdf that is

A1, X1, A2, X2, B1, Y1, B2, Y2
Basically merge the two pdfs into one 24 page pdf using one page from the first, then one from the second, then one from the first ad infinitum.

Chris
 
Hi, sorry for not getting back any sooner. Yes, it gets a little more complicated using AppleScript with that new direction but still feasible in my opinion, that's why I was suggesting to post at MacScripter / AppleScript | OS X since if it can be placed in InDesign manually (images, PDFs and so on), it can be placed automatically. But because this could take a bit of time to script and figure out (maybe not for a hardcore AppleScripter, which I'm not), another existing solution such as software of plugin may be better. From what I understood, not all the original documents will be PDFs, is that correct? Sorry if I can't be more helpful...
 

PressWise

A 30-day Fix for Managed Chaos

As any print professional knows, printing can be managed chaos. Software that solves multiple problems and provides measurable and monetizable value has a direct impact on the bottom-line.

“We reduced order entry costs by about 40%.” Significant savings in a shop that turns about 500 jobs a month.


Learn how…….

   
Back
Top