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Split One Massive PDF Page into Many PDF Pages

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
July 10, 2020
6 replies
14829 views

I searched the forum for an answer to this problem, but it seems consistently to be that Adobe Acrobat simply does not have this function and, that in order to achieve this, one must manually crop every single page. Is this really still the case in 2020? I have a dozen of these massive files, lecture notes, that I really need to have in A4 pages to print. The prospect of having to manually crop them all is filling me with dread and despair. I've tried so many programs. Adobe was my last resort, and yet even this is in vain? Can anyone tell me I'm wrong and point me to a button that will do this all for me? Thanks in advance, even if your answer is what I fear.

Lesson_12.pdf

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Correct answer Luke Jennings3

Your PDF is larger than 200 inches, which is producing a warning message when opening in Acrobat or Reader, and also preventing use as a link in InDesign.

To fix this I created a new Illustrator file at 8.27" x 117.6" (58.8% of the original size and the width of an A4 page), I placed the original PDF into the new file and resized it to fit, then saved as a new PDF. This PDF can be placed into a 10 page A4 InDesign file (adjusting the crop for each page) and exported to a new multipage PDF. Alternately, you can make a one page InDesign file at 8.268 x 117.6 and print to 10 tiled pages. If you want to print tiled pages to a PDF from InDesign (on a Mac), you would first need to download and install a postscript PPD, Print to .ps, then use Acrobat to distill to a multipage PDF, however you will have better control of the overlapping when you use individual InDesign pages. Link to PPD:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/add-acrobat-ppd.html

bebarth

Community Expert

Hi,

The solution is to fit your document in a A0 format with the addWatermarkFromFile function and nScale parameter set at -1, then fill 4 A4 pages with the same function but nScale parameter set at 1.0, nVertAlign parameter at app.constants.align.top and moves the nVertValue parameter by 842 pts for each of the 3 other pages

That works fine, I did the test.

https://we.tl/t-Ul2sOkCrHk

@+

Lesson_12_A4.pdf

Luke Jennings3

Correct answer

Community Expert

Your PDF is larger than 200 inches, which is producing a warning message when opening in Acrobat or Reader, and also preventing use as a link in InDesign.

To fix this I created a new Illustrator file at 8.27" x 117.6" (58.8% of the original size and the width of an A4 page), I placed the original PDF into the new file and resized it to fit, then saved as a new PDF. This PDF can be placed into a 10 page A4 InDesign file (adjusting the crop for each page) and exported to a new multipage PDF. Alternately, you can make a one page InDesign file at 8.268 x 117.6 and print to 10 tiled pages. If you want to print tiled pages to a PDF from InDesign (on a Mac), you would first need to download and install a postscript PPD, Print to .ps, then use Acrobat to distill to a multipage PDF, however you will have better control of the overlapping when you use individual InDesign pages. Link to PPD:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/add-acrobat-ppd.html

H

hemicyonAuthor

Participant

Thank you. This workaround is kind of insane, but it actually works. The only issue I'm having is the top-most part of the original PDF is missing when I open it in Illustrator. Nothing above 'Show F2 is closed under addition...' shows up, and I tried twice. Do you have any idea why that might be?

Luke Jennings3

Community Expert

Illustrator uses artboards to create the bounding box of the file, and is comparable to page size in InDesign, the size limit is 200". Since your PDF is larger than 200" the image is getting cropped. You can move and re-size the artboard using the artboard tool or by adjusting the size and offset numbers at the top of the window. I would save a copy of the original PDF and adjust the artboard to only show the missing top portion, then use this for the first page. If you reduce the artboard size to under 200", you won't need to place the PDFs into a new Illustrator file and you can reduce them after placing into InDesign.

InDesign tips: Include .25" margins, reduce your PDF to fit the margins (this will insure nothing gets cut off when printing and will allow you to make adjustments for cropping).

When you have your first page placed and cropped to the margins, copy it and paste-in-place on page 2, subtract the height of the object from the height offset, add the height of the object to the height (revealing page 2), change the reference point to the bottom (icon in upper left corner) and subtract the height of the object from the height. Copy page 2 and paste-in-place on page 3. With the page selected, go to Object> Transform Again> Transform Sequence Again, this should place page 3 in the correct position without re-doing the 3 changes. Repeat for the other pages.

try67

Community Expert

I've developed a (paid-for) script that can split each page into two parts, or four: http://try67.blogspot.com/2009/09/split-pages-in-2-parts-and-combine-to.html

Adjusting it to split to X parts is possible, but will require some adjustments. If you're interested in purchasing such a tool feel free to contact me privately via [try6767 at gmail.com].

H

hemicyonAuthor

Participant

Thanks. How much adjusting would be required do you think? And would you make the adjustments, or is that the end user's responsibility? I tried a free splitter tool early on in my endeavours, but the file was much too large for it; what sort of size limitations does your tool have? The largest of my files is over 9mb with a resolution of 1,200 x 23,276. I would happily purchase a tool that can solve my problem if it can indeed solve my problem right out of the box, so to speak.

try67

Community Expert

I'll make the adjustments, of course. You will just need to run the script by pressing a button.

Let's continue the discussion over email, please.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

"but it seems consistently to be that Adobe Acrobat simply does not have this function"

Your guessing is right.

Maybe a JavaScript Jedi will post a sample code…

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

JR Boulay

Community Expert

"what application did you create this from?"

It's an Apple PDF (no comment):

😉

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

gary_sc

Community Expert

Hi Hemicyon,

Boy, am I glad you supplied a sample. Whew!

In general, Acrobat is a digital printer. When you want a lot of editing you need to do that in the original application. So, what is the original application for this? (and is your hidden name John Kerouac? ;>)).

One of the big problems I see with this is where to make each cut. You do not have uniform regions so that some text will almost always be cut down the middle.

I did try a couple of things, I tried opening your file in Photoshop: nothing. I tried opening in Illustrator: confusing mess.

So I go back to what application did you create this from? Can you see if you can export it from there in your desired size?

H

hemicyonAuthor

Participant

Thanks for the reply. This file was created by my professor with Microsoft OneNote. I've reached out to him to see if he can re-export the files as paginated, but I don't know when or if he'll have the time. I don't even know if it's possible.

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