Automate one "double page" into two pages?

[Jon_E_P]

Hi,

I have scanned a few books to PDF.  The books fit on the platen of the scanner in such a way that each scan, and thus each page of the PDF, contains two pages of the book.  Is there a way to create an automated process that will divide each scanned page into two so that the PDF will now contain correctly-sequenced one-page images of each page in the book?

I'm specifically looking for a batch process or script of some source that will do all of this with a few clicks, as opposed to duplicating the file, cropping the pages and then re-combining...

Thanks very much for your help.

Jon

[Jon_E_P]

Figured this out.  Here's a great, free resource for doing it: http://www.pdfsam.org/

Worked great on Acrobat Pro 9 running on Windows 7 RC 1.

[RadekU]

Hi Jon,

I have tried the basic pdfsam software but unfortunately I do not see the way it can split one page into two. Would you be able to advise what function you used for that? Thanks.

[Bernd Alheit]

Looks like he adds this discussion for posting the spam only.

[Jon_E_P]

Hi!

Hey Bernd, easy there my friend.  Just because I didn't reply to a post within an hour or so does not make me a spammer!  I have no interest in PDFSAM.  I just like it because it is free and easy to use.

Regarding RadekU's question, yes, you are right, it doesn't divide the PDF images into two.  So, the total process is:

Using Acrobat, open the pdf, open the "pages" index on the left side, right click on the first page, select "crop pages" and then set a crop that retains only the left-hand side of the PDF, set page range as "all", then hit OK.  Save this as "document-left" or something like that.  Then use Document:Examine Document, and remove the "deleted or cropped content, and save again.  Open the original and do the same, but cropping to retain the right side.  Now you have a "left pages" pdf and a "right pages" pdf.  Using the PDFSAM software, choose "alternate" and enter the two documents, and be sure to unselect the "2nd document backwards" option.  Assing an output file name, and run the process...

Best,

J

[Guest]

Quite Imposing has a feature "Shuffle Even/Odd Pages" which can accomplish the same thing.

However, you don't need it or PDFSAM.  Just crop the left and right halves as Jon E P explained, and then extract every page out.  Then use the build pdf feature, and add all the pages in order (left 1, right 1, left 2, right 2, etc).  Not as fast or as elegant, but you don't have to shell out for the other programs.

[RadekU]

Thanks pdboddy. I'll do it that way then. Thanks to all for taking your time. B regards, Radek.

Best regards,

Radek

[Jon_E_P]

Hi, thanks pboddy,

It seems like this would require quite a lot of manual arranging of the sort order in the Acrobat ... Combine Files in PDF feature?  Forgive me for belaboring the point, but doesn't pdfsam do this, automatically, whereas otherwise it is necessary to do it manually.  I ask only because pdfsam is free, and because I have a number of pdfs I'd like to do this to, and I'd like to find the easiest, least manual way of doing it.  If only it were built into acrobat!

J

[RadekU]

Thanks E P, Jon. I was hoping for a less manual option using an existing software. Rgds, Radek.

Best regards,

Radek

[SaintPablo]

This method isn't completely automated but I think it's easy and quick.

1. With your original PDF opened use the export > images command to export all your pages to a new directory.

2. Go to that directory and copy all the files and paste in the same directory.  Vista will rename the copy to "??? - Copy" but the key is the files will be in order. If you have WinXP you may have to copy the files twice because I think XP will put "Copy" first in the file name.

3. Select all the files, right click on them and select "Combine supported files in Acrobat..".  Now you have one PDF with each page duplicated back to back.

4. Use the crop tool to crop the left side of all the odd pages.

5. Use the crop tool again to crop all the even pages.

Now you should have one PDF the way you want it!

[Bill12]

You should be able to do the same thing by extracting all of the pages to separate files and then copying them all. That way you do not have to go the graphic route.

[Jon_E_P]

@Pablo and @Bill --

I'm really hoping for a fully automated solution to this problem.  I have many pdfs of this type, and I can't go through and crop them in half batches and rearrange them.  It would take to long.  Also, my goodness, we are using advanced technology here--how hard can it be for a program to take care of all of that work for us, right?

There is another discusson of this issue, at http://forums.adobe.com/message/3409598#3409598

According to that site, a javascript can be used to accomplish this task.  The script is SplitPages.js.txt  (you remove the .txt to use it), and it can be found at http://software.allfaq.org/ES/t/118235.aspx (or do a search for "SplitPages.js.txt" and you will find it in a few places).

So, my question now is: how do you make this javascript work?  It seems like you are meant to add it to the Javascripts directory of Acrobat (ie, copy and paste it to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\Javascripts).  But then what?  I've checked out instructional materials on javascripts and Acrobat (such as http://www.planetpdf.com/developer/learningcenter.asp?ContainerID=1519), but they are quite complicated and don't really give you a step by step applicable to this particular script.

If someone could lay out, in a step by step way, what to do with the script, that would be very useful.

Thanks!

[Bill12]

There is another topic recently that discusses the 2 page problem. One method is to print to a new PDF with the tile feature selected. Don't remember the details off the top, but it is described in the topic. I tried it and it worked like a charm. Several other folks kept discussing other ways, but I found the tile process worked great and was simple.

Another link that addresses the process is given at http://forums.adobe.com/message/3331516#3331516.

[i-blis]

I had the same issue. I tried some hacks with Acrobat Pro 8 but was not satisfied with it. I ended up writing a Perl script to achieve batch croping of double pages. In case any one has the same problem...

[Jon_E_P]

iblis,

Very cool...  I don't instantly know what to do with a perl script, and suspect others also dont.  Could you suggest how to get started with your script--is there a way to load the script into Acrobat? Perhaps you could post a link to instructions about that?

thanks,

J

[Guest]

Thank you, i-blis. I gotta say that code is the greatest thing ever.

I'm a psych student who has about a million PDFs from professors who would just photocopy from books, so I've got countless numbers of those double pages. I don't want to print them out and lug around all that paper. Also, I hate reading them on the computer monitor. I just got an Amazon Kindle (the 6" one, not the larger DX) and I wanted to put them on it and read them in that way, but the double pages totally messes up the formatting for the Kindle. What to do?

I don't know jack about scripting. I own a MacBookPro so I thought there was no way I could figure out how to get this script to work, but after trying a couple of the other very time-consuming suggestions here I decided I would try anyway. Glad I did.

Don't know if this is similar to what you guys on the Windows side had to do, but this was my process (in case anyone is interested) of getting the thing to work with Mac OS X (10.6.2 - Snow Leopard).

• I had to get a little bit familiar with Perl via using a terminal and especially how to understand it's directory structure and moving around in it. I went to a few easy tutorials on the 'net for this.
• Since I'm new to this I didn't realize that the script requires a Perl module (hell, I didn't know what a Perl module was 24 hours ago) called PDF::API2. Once I figured that out I found it here on the CPAN site.
• I learned the easy  way to install Perl modules on Mac here.
• I had to install Apple's Developer Tools, X Code, included in the OS installation DVD or available as a mammoth download from Apple.
• Using instructions from the above page, I was able to install PDF::API2 and dependencies.
• I fired up the script... and PRESTO! There's a beautiful PDF that took those double pages, split them apart, and rearranged them in the correct order. Wow! Now they're gonna look great on my Kindle.

I don't know if this helps anyone but it has been a sort of adventure for me and I wanted to share.

Now that I've seen a bit of Perl, I'm going to modify that script a little to make it suit my needs a little more. If I do that then I'll be sure to post it here.

[i-blis]

Dr-Ron-T, I am happy that you found the script useful. I assume a little too readily that everyone knows and uses Unix-like plateforms.

On the Mac, you can also crop left and then right pages with Preview and re-assemble them with this script.

[Jon_E_P]

Hi all,

There still seems to be no easy solution to this.  I tried some software called A-PDF Page Cut, which works great except for two problems: it breaks all shortcut links in the PDF, and it makes the resulting single pages incapable of being OCR'd.  This is unfortunate and indeed makes the PDF quite useless for my purposes.

I spent several hours with the perl script, installed Strawberry Perl on my Windows 7 machine, but it was really beyond me and ate up too much time.  I was unable to get it to work.

So, I'm wondering: is there any relatively simple way to cut PDF pages in half down the middle, so that double-page images can be turned into single-page images?

Thanks,

J

[SaintPablo]

I'm guessing people can't figure out how my suggestion works or I wrote it down wrong, but it works very well and is easy for me. (Using Windows 7)

Did you try the method I suggested? What problem did you have?