Batch extract pages from pdfs


 


 

Use Case

Use when wish to extract a particular page or range of pages across multiple PDF files. For example to repurpose text such as found on Title pages, Table of Contents or Abstracts for metadata purposes.

 

Software

 

 

General notes

Cut-and-paste below scripts into Acrobat Console Window (Actions)

NB: page numbers in JavaScript are zero-based, i.e., page zero in JavaScript is page one in the Acrobat viewer.

 

To setup script:

To launch script

 

 

Code examples

/* script to extract 1st page of PDF */

var filename = this.path;this.extractPages({nStart:0, cPath:filename+"_first_page.pdf"});

 

/* script to extract page range in PDFs */

var filename = this.path;this.extractPages({nStart:8, nEnd:9, cPath:filename+"_abstract.pdf"});

 

Screenshots

FIGURE A

FIGURE B

 

FIGURE C

 

Resources

Thom Parker. 2009. “Extracting Pages from a PDF with Acrobat JavaScript.” Adobe Acrobat Users Community. https://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/extracting-pages-pdf-acrobat-javascript.

 

“Export Pages with Javascript in Adobe Acrobat X Pro - Stack Overflow.” 2013. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11954064/export-pages-with-javascript-in-adobe-acrobat-x-pro.

 

“extractPages from JavaScript for Acrobat API Reference > JavaScript API > Doc > Doc Methods > extractPages.” Accessed 2015. http://help.adobe.com/livedocs/acrobat_sdk/10/Acrobat10_HTMLHelp/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=Acrobat10_SDK_HTMLHelp&file=JS_API_AcroJS.88.460.html.