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Divide 11x17 page into 8.5x11 Page? Preferably by script?

Forum Index > General Acrobat Topics > Divide 11x17 page into 8.5x11 Page? Preferably by script?
2009-02-25 10:54:05
nakris
Registered: Feb 25 2009
Posts: 9
Answered

Hello,
New to the forums, but searched and couldn't find quite what I'm looking for - probably because it's ridiculous!

I have about 300 pdfs that currently contain 2 11x17 pages. It will probably make it more clear to say that these are bulletins from a church, so page 1 is the outside, page 2 is the inside. Print it, fold it, and you have 4 "pages" that are each 8.5x11. Make sense?

So, what I have been asked to do, is to print all 300 cover pages in one booklet.

I believe, therefore, that I need to extract the right half of page 1 of the current pdf docs. Still with me?

I could open each doc in PhotoShop, select only page 1, then crop and resave, but if there's a way to script this, I don't know it.

Is there an easier way to do this? I'm not very familiar with Acrobat - please tell me there's a magic "extract all cover half-pages" menu option I've overlooked. I'm not assuming there is an easy way, but the least of all the difficult ways would be a great start.

I have Acrobat Pro, as well as Photoshop and Illustrator, if they would be of help. CS3 for all. Could probably use CS4 on a friends machine if there's a miracle feature there that would make this all better.

Thanks in advance for any help.

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 8.0, Macintosh
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2009-02-25 11:13:59
#1
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
This is usually the sort of thing that's done with a specialized plug-in, like Quite Imposing.

But Actually Yes, there is a way to do this with JavaScript, but it's not trivial. You have to make sure you order all pages correctly, i.e., in thier numerical order, so that Acrobat's Booklet print function gets it right.

The general idea is to copy each page, then crop the copies to only expose one booklet page. You could concievably write a script that loads each file, splits it up, then places the pages into a PDF for collecting all the pages.

You should try doing this manually with just a couple pages to make sure you've gotten the sequence down before writing the script.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

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2009-02-25 11:22:42
#2
nakris
Registered: Feb 25 2009
Posts: 9
Well, may have figured out my own answer. I didn't think that I could script the crop command in PS, but the Canvas Size command should be no problem, and the options there should allow me to do this. Once the "covers" are all parted out, I know how to combine them in acrobat, so I think this will work for me. If anyone has a more efficient idea - please do let me know.

Thanks!
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2009-02-25 11:26:10
#3
nakris
Registered: Feb 25 2009
Posts: 9
thomp wrote:
This is usually the sort of thing that's done with a specialized plug-in, like Quite Imposing.But Actually Yes, there is a way to do this with JavaScript, but it's not trivial. You have to make sure you order all pages correctly, i.e., in thier numerical order, so that Acrobat's Booklet print function gets it right.
Thanks, thomp. I think we were writing our replies at the same time, as I didn't see yours before posting. I will check out Quite Imposing. Since the JavaScript is not trivial, I'm sure it would be my least likely path to success.

Thanks very much for the help.
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