How to create a PDF with spreads and SAVE the view

Report · Apr 19, 2019

I am using Adobe Acrobat Pro X version 10.1.16

I would like to take 8 pages (2 singles and 3 spreads) from an online magazine (that I have legal access to) and turn it into a PDF. I downloaded the entire magazine, saved it as a PDF, deleted the pages I do not want and saved the remaining pages as a PDF. When I open the new PDF there are 8 single pages. I go to View > Page Display > 2-Page View and it displays the 6 inner pages as spreads (with pages 1 and 8 as singles). This is perfect. However, that “2-Page View” specification does not “save”. When I send it as an attachment, it reverts back to single pages so that the viewer must specify “2-Page View”. I also have Photoshop if that helps.

Questions:

1. It loses it’s 2-page display view. Is there a way to specify (and save) the format so that it does not revert to single page view when passed on?

2. Is there a way to animate the article so that the pages “turn”?

3. The text is bitmapped and difficult to read

4. Is there a way to delete the vertical line in the gutter but KEEP the horizontal line separating the 2 spreads?

Any thoughts would help!

Thanks.

Report · Jun 26, 2019

Hi Manniet,

We apologize for the delay in response to your query.

Thanks for giving the detailed description of the issue. What you are willing to do is changing the document view, which can be achieved by making changes in Document's properties.

What you are actually doing is, making changes in application's page display. That will applied only at your end, within your Acrobat not while viewing the PDFs. Not other other viewers end.

1. It loses it’s 2-page display view. Is there a way to specify (and save) the format so that it does not revert to single page view when passed on?

2. Is there a way to animate the article so that the pages “turn”?

3. The text is bitmapped and difficult to read

4. Is there a way to delete the vertical line in the gutter but KEEP the horizontal line separating the 2 spreads?

To get two page display, Open document>right click>Document Properties>Initial View>Page layout>change to Two page continues>OK and save it with different name.

Since you have created this PDF so you should be able to do that, but If you aren't allowed to change document properties. Then, there's a workaround-

Open Document>View>Page Display>Two page view>

Open Acrobat/Reader>Edit>Preferences>Documents>Restore last view settings when reopening document>OK>Reboot Acrobat (End users have to do the same at their end, to avoid selecting View>Page display>Two page view again and again)

About editing the PDF content, you can go through the related help articles here:

Edit PDF using Acrobat DC: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/edit-pdf.html
Edit text in PDFs: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/edit-text-pdfs.html
Edit images or objects in a PDF: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/edit-images-or-objects-pdf.html

Thanks,

Akanchha

Report · Jan 15, 2020

Hello,

I wanted to do exactly the same as question #1 of manniet26478805 but in my case when I open the document properties it doesn't show the "Initial view" tab. Does it have to do anything with the pdf viewer version? I have 2019.021.20061

Thank you!

Report · Aug 23, 2021

Hi,

Resurrecting this one. Need the defacto answer to this question..

When setting up two page view with cover for a magazine design, so the viewer of PDF can see the left and right page spreads together..

Can this be 'permanently' saved into the PDF file when sending to others? That way when PDF is sent to others and their PDF viewer is set to one page spread, it will shift to the two page view with cover look.

Possible?

Report · Oct 04, 2021

Did you get an answer to this one? I am trying to do the same.

Report · Oct 04, 2021

Some PDF viewers ignores this settings.

Report · Oct 04, 2021

Negative.

Attn Adobe Developers - make this a feature with Acrobat PDF. There should be a checkbox in the 'Save As' settings to make the spreads view permanent in PDFs.

Report · Nov 07, 2022

Looking to do this same thing as well. Would be a very nice feature to include in the future.

Report · Dec 27, 2021

Hi, there.

I've done everything that you have instructed, but everytime I open it in Google Drive, it doesn't show up as two paged. When I open it in Adobe, it looks fine. How do I ensure that it saves two paged on Google Drive for others to view as two paged as well?

Thanks,

Anonymous

Report · Dec 27, 2021

May be a issue of the PDF viewer that you use.

Report · Mar 17, 2024

I've seen other ways to do this, I think, and can never remember them. I was very close to doing this, but so glad I came across your reply to this issue. Homed right in on that solution. Thanks mucho!

Report · Jun 26, 2019

3. If the text is bitmapped, you've probably got raster versions of the pages (as opposed to vector versions. That's probably because it came from a website that animated it, as opposed to just displaying the PDF within the web browser.

2. As far as the page "turn" effect, that's called Page Curl, and PDF doesn't support that. Acrobat does have other page transitions. To find them, open the Page Thumbnails pane and select the page thumbnails you want to apply a transition to. Then right click and choose "Page Transitions."

This screenshot if from Acrobat DC, but I'm pretty sure it works the same way in Acrobat X. However, you may need to view the document in full screen mode, which I think isn't compatible with two page view.

I suspect you originally found this style of page curl effect on a website. Those magazines generally use SVG effects, which don't wok in Acrobat.

If you really want the page curl, 2-up style that was used on the website, there's no way to do that in Acrobat and just email the PDF to someone. You'd need to host it on a server somewhere on the web, have a mini website for it, and then send someone a web link. That's totally different than just sending a regular PDF to someone.

If you want to keep the two-up spread, honestly, it would work best (and most reliably) to impose it in InDesign and then export a PDF with spreads. That's not going to help the text pixelation though.Ideally, see if you can ask the publisher for a 2-up (with spreads) PDF of your article. The designer (if you're able to get ahold of them) would be the person who can provide that for you.

Report · Apr 06, 2023

If you got a Mac: here's a little applescript for that (if you want the first page to remain single, choose "With Cover"), save it as "App" and drag the PDF onto it:

on open dropped_file

set file_path to POSIX path of dropped_file

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ".pdf"

set convert_path to every text item of file_path

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "_doublesided.pdf"

set save_path to convert_path as string

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

tell application "Adobe Acrobat"

activate

open file_path

set page_count to number of pages of document 1

tell page 2

set page_cbox to crop box

set new_value_1 to 1st item of page_cbox as integer

set new_value_2 to 2nd item of page_cbox as integer

set old_value_3 to 3rd item of page_cbox as integer

set new_value_4 to 4th item of page_cbox as integer

set new_value_3 to (2 * old_value_3)

end tell

set cover_type to button returned of (display dialog "Bitte wählen:" buttons {"Without Cover", "With Cover"} default button 2)

if cover_type is false then

error number -128 (* user cancelled *)

else if cover_type is equal to "With Cover" then

set loop_start to 1

set loop_end to ((page_count - 1) / 2 - 0.5) as integer

else if cover_type is equal to "Without Cover" then

set loop_start to 0

set loop_end to ((page_count) / 2 - 0.5) as integer

end if

repeat with actual_page from loop_start to loop_end - 1

set script_set_media to "this.setPageBoxes('Media'," & actual_page & "," & actual_page & ",[" & new_value_1 & "," & new_value_2 & "," & new_value_3 & "," & new_value_4 & "]);"

set script_set_crop to "this.setPageBoxes('Crop'," & actual_page & "," & actual_page & ",[" & new_value_1 & "," & new_value_2 & "," & new_value_3 & "," & new_value_4 & "]);"

set script_set_bleed to "this.setPageBoxes('Bleed'," & actual_page & "," & actual_page & ",[" & new_value_1 & "," & new_value_2 & "," & new_value_3 & "," & new_value_4 & "]);"

set script_set_trim to "this.setPageBoxes('Trim'," & actual_page & "," & actual_page & ",[" & new_value_1 & "," & new_value_2 & "," & new_value_3 & "," & new_value_4 & "]);"

set script_set_art to "this.setPageBoxes('Art'," & actual_page & "," & actual_page & ",[" & new_value_1 & "," & new_value_2 & "," & new_value_3 & "," & new_value_4 & "]);"

set script_add_watermark to "this.addWatermarkFromFile({cDIPath: this.path, nSourcePage: " & actual_page + 1 & ", nStart: " & actual_page & ", nEnd: " & actual_page & ", nHorizAlign: 0, nVertAlign: 0, nHorizValue: " & old_value_3 & ", nVertValue: 0, nOpacity: 1, nRotation: 0, bOnTop: true});"

set script_this_delete to "this.deletePages(" & actual_page + 1 & "," & actual_page + 1 & ");"

do script script_set_media

do script script_set_crop

do script script_set_bleed

do script script_set_trim

do script script_set_art

delay 0.5

do script script_add_watermark

delay 0.5

do script script_this_delete

end repeat

save active doc to save_path

close active doc saving no

end tell

end open

Report · Apr 12, 2023

Thank you so much Lothar5D5E. This script is really easy to implement and works a treat.