Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

[backtrack]

Ok, I have been supplied with a 296 page book made up of 36 chapters as a PDF.
The chapters have headers, and foot(ers?) that say Chapter 6, for example, but should read Chapter 4.
That would be annoying enough if it wasn't compounded with the fact that each 6-15 page chapter has sub chapters that say 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 etc and should read 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 etc...

So, I know one time consuming route is to do each individual page in Illustrator and save each completed page as a separate, new page and the merge them, but I'd rather not be here til xmas if I don't have too.


Anyone....? please...?
I'll buy you cookies

 

[Hopkins Printing]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

If the fonts are embedded, you might try either using Acrobat's touchup text feature to edit the text or if you have Pitstop, you could try editing the text with Pitstop.

That aside, I take it getting a corrected file from your customer is not an option?

Hope this helps!
Jon Morgan
Hopkins Printing

 

[backtrack]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

I don't have Pitstop, though I do need it for several other reasons aside from this one.

Fortunately they are not embedded so I can and am currently doing it on at a time in Illustrator...

 

[leonardr]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

Illustrator is _NOT_ a PDF editing tool.

PLEASE DO NOT use it as one...

Leonard Rosenthol
Adobe Systems

 

[Blair Wolfe]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

Are you aware of the thousands of printers who depend upon Illustrator for changes to PDF's every day?

 

[backtrack]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

I have heard you mention that before, however, it seems to do the trick pretty well.
I think that statement is akin to tropicana insisting that orange juice is not and should not be used as a mixer.

I understand that purists get very concerned about the funny little things that happen to pdfs when edited in illustrator, but unless the text vanishes or my screen turns into an elephant, I shall continue to avail myself of it's unintended usefulness.

Anyway, happily it's a slow day and I am about a third of the way through...

 

[kaiserwilhelm]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

You can get a 30 day trial at Enfocus.
I am 99 percent sure that it saves exactly as it would if it were the non-trial version.
Just shuts off in 30 days.

 

[leonardr]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

People also rob, cheat, steal, murder, etc. every day...

That doesn't make it right either...

Leonard

 

[Helmet_of_Poe]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

My Honda Accord is a passenger car, but I do haul stuff home from Home Depot in it all the time. In fact, I just made an hour and a half trip with 4 dogwood tree saplings sticking out of the trunk and I didn't crash into anybody or otherwise harm anyone.

I think we all have realistic expectations about Illustrator's capabilities. We won't hold you liable, Leonard, if we try to edit a PDF in it and type reflows. We'll adapt. That's what we do.

On the other hand, I understand your position completely. Good luck with your crusade!

 

[Hopkins Printing]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

Leonard,

What do recommend for backtrack? It seems his options are limited, at least for the moment.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[Cory Smith]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

if I have a press that is sitting idle at $400 an hour because I need to edit a PDF and illustrator can do the job, guess what? Illustrator just became a PDF editor for me.

May not be the best solution, but 80% of my job anymore is making stuff work that shouldn't be done that way. It's just the way things work in a production environment.

 

[Dov Isaacs]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

To be very specific and officially on behalf of Adobe Systems, be advised that +Adobe Illustrator+ can only +safely+ edit either EPS or PDF files that were directly saved from +Adobe Illustrator+ of the current or an earlier release.

We do not advertise or support the use of +Adobe Illustrator+ to edit any other type of PDF or EPS files.

If you open other PDF or EPS files in +Adobe Illustrator+, you may lose content, text formatting, and proper color management.

Why? +Adobe Illustrator+ can only properly process PDF or EPS that corresponds to the subset of PDF or EPS that Illustrator itself generates. +Adobe Illustrator+ does not support all PDF constructs, character encodings, or mixed color spaces (except for native .AI files for placed images). Thus, if you open a page of a non-Illustrator PDF file in Illustrator, Illustrator tries to make sense of what it finds, converting all content to either CMYK or RGB based on Illustrator's color management settings. The color conversions may not be (and very likely won't be) what you want. Fonts may be substituted, possibly with a generic substitution font. Some text may become vectorized and some vectors may become rasterized in certain circumstances.

Just because you can use a screwdriver as a hammer in some circumstances doesn't automatically make a screwdriver the appropriate tool to use for hammering all nails.

- Dov

 

[JoshBright]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

Well, if, lets say the chapter numbers are in the same spot on the document for each page, you could get the size of the page, make that same sized page in InDesign, place the page on the document, then place a text box over the bad chapter number. EPS the file out and redistill it, if they are in the same spot, then you can pretty quickly just import page, export page, etc. Even if they aren't in the same spot, id feel more comfortable doing those changes in InDesign vs Illustrator.

I generally put Illustrator on my shelf of "last resort" fixes, next step being putting the file in Photoshop and what we call, "rape and pillage" the file (rasterize it).

InDesign should be able to do this without sweating.

 

[doubting_thomas]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

If the boss gives me a screwdriver for a job that could be better done with a hammer, but the end result is attainable with the screwdriver, so be it. My job is to make things work on press in my shop. I don't have the time or money to always do things the proper way. I don't feel like I'm committing murder or any other felony either. If I worked in a lab with all the resulting code at my finger tips, and translating it for my company was my job, I'd probably feel differently. Sometimes the perfect tool isn't in my tool box, but the next best thing is. The rubber hits the road when my client accepts the job or rejects it. If our pressmen match our proof and the client accepts the job, that is success. I understand the argument that one shouldn't use improper tools for a job, but printing is just that. Printing. Maybe someday I'll work in a situation where I can always go back to the client for corrected files, and/or have the exact right software for the job. Many operators would probably agree that that day won't be tomorrow. Enabler? I may be. There's an obvious disconnect when it comes to ideal prepress environments and the majority of real ones.

I'll await my inevitable roasting on some member's spit knowing that... well, it's inevitable

Edited by: doubting_thomas on Mar 19, 2008 11:53 PM

 

[Hopkins Printing]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

Dov,

Since backtrack only has a screwdriver (and obtaining a hammer doesn't seem possible in the short term), what can you recommend to him to address his immediate needs?

Thanks,
Jon

P.S. to Leonard and Dov, I understand your arguments.

 

[backtrack]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

I am trundling through this.
And I completely appreciate all the ideas you have put forward.
I started down the InDesign route initially, but was having a problem picking the pages within the PDF (this was my own oversight through a haze of frustration) so I went down the easy and ill advised route of Illustrator, if only to spite purists But I am halfway through now.

I find this debate amusing and understand that Adobe can't and won't support my choices, but then I suggest that they have a word with all those people who supply us printers with 4 page documents that they have done entirely in Photoshop because "it works"
I think that is a crusade many of us would support Adobe in.

I bet that FedEx/Kinkos using Illustrator to edit PDFs....

 

[Hopkins Printing]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

> {quote:title=backtrack wrote:}{quote}
> I bet that FedEx/Kinkos using Illustrator to edit PDFs....

ROFLMAO!!!

You go boy!
Jon

 

[vniehaus]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

Download the trial version of Pitstop for 30 days. You'll be hooked. It took me longer than that to get away from editing PDF files in Illustrator.

That's what it took for me to convince my management that Pitstop will pay for itself and it has man it has.

Besides that I would import those pages into Indesign using the PlaceMutipagePDF script and then just place a text box over the text you need to edit with the corrected text.

That's if you have that font installed on your system but if your editing fonts in a PDF with Illy then I would assume you have that font installed on you system or otherwise Illy will screw it up.

I may be wrong on that been spending a lot of time on press these days.

 

[Tim.Hopkins]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

Hello,
Very easy to resolve.
Use a product from Quite called "Quite Imposing Plus". This is a plugin to Adobe Acrobat and allows you to add electronic maskingtape to cover over unwanted test and then you can add footers and page numbering etc.

Available from www.quite.com.

Regards
Tim

 

[PDQDUNDEE]

Re: Quick solution to a scary PDF mess? ...help...

Totally agree with the Quite Imposing solution - it an equally important tool to have in the PDF box., along with PitStop. The hammer is OK when all else fails.