Batch processing - command not in list - can I create one?

First one should check if there is undo command for the background or watermark. I did not see on any menu item or toolbar. Next, I checked help and found the "Edit => Undo..." suggestion, but this only works before a document is saved and closed. A quick check of the JavaScirpt API reference does not find an "undoBackground/Watermark" property or method. So it would appear one can not remove a background or watermark from a PDF once applied, and the PDF is saved and closed.From the above the apparent answer appears to be no. But if one carefully reads the help and JavaScript API reference, both indicate the background/watermark is placed in an Optional Content Group. This indicates that the background/watermark may exit in a single object. Could this object be replaced with no text or an empty image and thus removing the original background/watermark?

Trying this approach with a text watermark through Acrobat's menu does work, so I would expect it should be possible for the background through the menu or using JavaScript in a batch process using the "addWaterMarkFromFile()" or the "addWaterMarkFromText() method as appropriate.

If I load a document with a watermark...

Then (in the menu at the top of the window):

Document > Background > Remove...the background is removed and I can save it again without the bookmark.

So I am assuming that someone who knows what they are doing can write a javascript and tell me where to put it to enable it to be used in a batch sequence.

I will pay for someone's time to do that for me.

Have you looked at the "Edit" option in "Batch Processing" "Select Commands". One should be able to chose the white color to replace the background color.

Yep - tried that already - it seems to simply add another background behind the existing background or something. Tried all permutations of settings.

Use the "executeMenuItem(cMenuItem)" method of the application object in JavaScript:

app.execMenuItem("COMP:RemoveBackground");

Can an Acrobat batch process be called from command line (DOS/batch program) ?

I have looked at your particular problem with interest. When Acrobat appends a watermark it's actually a forms object (probably with some other internal information for Acrobats own recognition) - which does make automating removal slightly tricky.

The preflight fixups do not recognise this object but a third party solution called Pitstop Professional from Enfocus Systems is able to detect and remove the forms object. Providing your PDFs do not have existing 'normal' form fields then you have a solution.

To facilitate the removal of hundreds/thousands of PDFs you will need the free 30-day trial of Enfocus Pitstop Server which has the ability to build an Action List. Download from enfocus.com

You will need to build an action which looks like this:

Select All (there by default)
Select Form Fields
Remove Selection

Once you save this action it can then be inserted into a queue which looks at a hot folder containing all the appended watermarks.

Let me know how you get on,

Cheers

Jon

jon,

This post was a godsend (and took awhile to find!). We manage our documents very simply by creating PDFs of the original formats as 'public' copies that are for general use. When we began ISO standardization, we had to add a message to our documents denoting that they were fore reference only and that the user needed to make sure they were using the latest revision.

We originally did this by adding a footer, as the built-in Adobe batch processing does this fairly easily. To remove them, all you have to do is add a blank footer as a batch to reset them. This makes changing the message or updating newer files easy. However, formatting and readability was an issue, so we decided to go with watermarks when we got Acrobat 8.

UNFORTUNATELY, there is no built-in way to batch-remove annotations, which watermarks fall under, AND when you try to add more, they just stamp on top of the old ones. At least Acrobat 8 treates them as objects so you can remove them individually, though why there's no batch-removal feature is beyond me.

Wanted to thank you very much for your help, as well as the other folks who started the thread. Your solution of Pitstop Server / Professional worked great to batch process getting rid of watermarks. To clarify, here is the actual action list with Acrobat 8:

Select All
Select annotations (of the several checkboxes, only watermarks are selected)
Remove selection

For the benefit of other users out there who have the same issue, I installed the trial version of both Pitstop Professional and Server, set up the action list in Pitstop (which by the way exists as add-ins within Acrobat), and then defined a new 'Hot Folder' in Pitstop server. Unfortunately, you can't use Adobe's batch-process feature of retaining the same folder structure (you will have to copy all your pdf's to a processing folder you specify), but at least the process works. Anyway, I set up input and output folders, and away the server went.

After processing all the documents, I had to then copy them back to their original locations on the fils share, but they are now watermark-free. Let this be a lesson that watermarks really should be used for pictures and hopefully in such a way that they DON'T ever need to be removed. To resolve the formatting issues of using a header/footer or watermark with text, I will try a watermark using a transparent graphic to preserve the size and format more easily.

Hello guys

I tryed to use Enfocus PitStop Server but it didn't worked to me!

Could somenoe give me more detailed information about removing watermarks from a document with more than a hundred pages?

Thank you very much!

Wiler

Hi Wiler,

No worries - the key is to determine what object(s) make up the watermark. If this is unique then Pitstop can detect and remove. If you can either tell or share we can see if we can help?

All the best,

Jon

Sorry for stealing the thread. My problem is much simpler, and I know how to solve it in Adobe Acrobat 7. This is the problem:

I get documents of only a few pages (up to 20 at most), such as papers from the journal Circulation published as preprints or epubs. They have "embedded" (or whatever the term is) background images consisting of text, such as "unedited proof" or something similar. This really limits their usefulness and readability.

In Acrobat 7 Professional, these images can relatively easily be deleted as follows:
View|Navigation tabs|content, then expanding each page and deleting the image or object that is bothersome to me.

Question is how to do this in Acrobat 8 Standard.

Thanks in advance
Han Broekman