Convert .txt files to pdf files in AE 14

[tommrz]

Is there a ticket that anyone knows of that will convert a .txt file to a pdf automatically in Automation Engine? I want to be able to convert a .txt report to a pdf and combine it with another pdf in line...

 

[[email protected]]

Are you asking that you are wanting to not just render TXT into a PDF, but you want to control positioning, Fonts, and render it a specific size (like a press sheet) or you just want txt into a pdf file....

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

A text file does not possess any formatting to my knowledge. Can you upload the example?

 

[tommrz]

Steve-Nothing that complicated. Here's the deal... we have an in house QC policy that any job that has a bar code must beaccompanied by a verification report. We print a hard copy proof and scan it using a bar code reader for verification. The software the bar code scanner uses will allow us to save it as a text file but not a pdf. In a manual workflow we open the text file in text edit or text wrangler and save it as a pdf. We then open our pdf proof in acrobat and add the upc pdf as another page in the pdf. I am looking for a way to have AE convert the .txt file to a pdf so I can merge the 2 pdfs into one in a workflow and skip all the manual stuff.

 

[PrepressDan]

The only way I could think of to do this would be with the run script task. You would need a script that would open the text file in a text editor and export it as PDF.

 

[tommrz]

Yep, that's why i ended up here. I looked at almost every task ticket i could think of that might do it but it looks like they all require the file to be postscript or pdf in nature. I thought maybe I could use an ArtPro action list but I know absolutely nothing about them or how they work. I did a google search yesterday for an applescript that might do it. I found one but it errored out with a message stating "sh: /System/Library/Printers/Libraries/convert: No such file or directory". Problem is i am no programmer and that error means nothing to me! I will take a look at the run script task though.

 

[pabney]

Don't know anything about AE but here is a quick applescript that will convert one or more txt files to pdf. Just drop them on the script.

 

[tommrz]

wow that script works perfectly. I think i can use it in a workflow as stated above. I will let you know what we come up with. Thanks!