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sync0x
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July 29, 2023
Answered

Interactive scripting and render preview within Acrobat Distiller

  • July 29, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 368 views

Hi, I would like to know if it is possible to use Adobe Acrobat Distiller as an interactive postscript interpreter.

 

What I desire is to see a text console I can activate within the Distiller application through, for example, "File" menu --> New Terminal Window. I should then be able to programmatically change variables that will become parameters in a script I will have composed myself.

 

I would then like to issue a render command that creates a PDF using the currently selected profile in the "Default Settings" drop down list. In addition, it would be useful to be able to open a render window so that I can see the output of what I am working on, and make my iterative changes, before choosing to commit a PDF file to disk.

 

Another way to approach this would be to make Distiller or Reader/Editor a connected application in the ExtendScript Toolkit though I am not certain if it would be fit for purpose; I would desire to control the system in the PostScript language rather than in JavaScript. The ExtendScript editor is also a deprecated application today, as Visual Studio Code now seems to be the preferred way to script Adobe products.

 

Given the ability of distiller to output a LOG file in addition to a PDF, I have confirmed by link below that there is enough of the original PostScript interpreter to still use Distiller as a development tool, and should Distiller also become a deprecated application, I do hope the Adobe Product Team will consider reintroducing it as a development tool, perhaps even accessable though the same modern software development IDE that is preferred for scripting other Adobe products.

 

Using Acrobat Distiller as a general purpose PostScript computer (tinaja.com)

 

Have others accomplished this feature I write of via any third party extension or directly within Distiller itself?

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Correct answer Abambo

You would need Display PostScript, this would probably do, what you want: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_PostScript

1 reply

Abambo
Community Expert
AbamboCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 30, 2023

You would need Display PostScript, this would probably do, what you want: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_PostScript

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer