how to convert pages printed as booklet to a normal sequence

[hazartilirot]

Every now and then we use our ADF to digitize handbooks printed as booklet. The headache we have is to sort out the pages and change them back to a normal sequence so that a reader can read a digitized version of the handbook. I crop scanned A4 size in two halves: right and left and then I manually sort out pages in Acrobat.

This task takes hours since I cannot make out page numbers I'm working with despite the fact that I've got 27" monitor with high resolution.

Printing a document as booklet is a ridiculously easy peasy piece of work though converting automatically digitized copy to a normal sequence seems to be impossible!

The only solution I've found is to cut a physical book in halves and then scan it in a normal sequence. To my mind it'd be faster and cheaper to re-print it than spending my precious time at night on sorting out pages in Acrobat.

[try67]

It can be achieved with a script, like this one I've developed: Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Split and Sort Scanned Booklet Pages

[hazartilirot]

Thank you for your reply, mate!

I'm not looking for a paid solution for 40 dollars! As a matter of fact it's expected that Acrobat should have the feature!

As for the rest, I've just found a partially free online solution which is available at the following link:

Split PDF Down the Middle A3 to A4 Online

There are some snags though I can split my file into several parts and use it for free.

[hazartilirot]

So, here is my final solution without any further restrictions.

There are actually a couple of things you should do before applying split down the middle option from command line which is available at the open source project of Sejda

http://www.sejda.org/

Having scanned a handbook using your ADF you should run Acrobat and enhance your scans with a text recognition. Pages should be automatically rotated to a correct orientation (album). For example, in my case there were 54 A4 pages. I then went through each page and cleared them off noise made by light so as to save printer toner and align text. When it's done your document is ready for splitting down the middle option.

Here's the command I used in order to split the pages and get a normal order:

C:\sejda\bin>sejda-console splitdownthemiddle -f /sejda/bin/111.pdf -o /sejda/ -r last-first

if you get an error check all paths or delete an output file created after splitting (in my case it would be saved to /sejda/ directory)

BTW: Don't forget to install RunTime Java Environment to your PC.

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

You can split pages in Acrobat with the help of JavaScript - actually, what you do is not actually splitting the page, it is cropping the page so that you see one page in one operation, and the other page in the second operation. See here for a sample script:

Page Splitter Redux - KHKonsulting LLC

[hazartilirot]

Well, Karl, I've just tried splitpages.js script and it turned out not to be as what I've been looking for.

The script you suggested is useful, I really appreciate that you shared it with me, however it deals with a different kind of order.

To get a better understanding here's the type of a handbook we digitize using our ADF.

I remove thin metal staples and then a whole bunch of sheets put in my Duplex-ADF. You can figure out what sequence of pages would be as a result if my ADF scans both sides of A4 format on which printed 4 pages of A5. There won't be odd or even page order in my case, not in the least.

[Andrew Fincke]

Why do I have to use the computer with acrobat Pro 11 to make thumbnails and go through the file page by page, cropping pages and rearranging the order?  On the computer with Acrobat Pro DC it's either very complicated or impossible.  On the Pro 11 I select the thumbnail, crop the page and rearrange by dragging.  All from one window.  Pro DC doesn't seem to have that straightforward approach.

[gkaiseril]

Open the PDF created by your scanner and use Acrobat correct the page orientation.

Next Open the "Edit PDF" and use the "Crop pages" tool to crop the odd pages into one file. Repeat the crop again to crop the even pages.

Using the script and instructions in Collating PDFs using JavaScript by Sean Stewart combine the odd and even page files into one file.

[hazartilirot]

Good day, thank you for giving me a hand. I'll check the script asap and let your know how it works.

However, what I can say at the very moment that I should rotate all pages to a normal orientation at first place I've got a duplex-ADF therefore I get each inner side upside down.

[gkaiseril]

Some scanners do rotate the pages. If this is not  need then you do not need to do it.

If your scanner makes individual PDFs of each page, then you must combine them in the correct order.

[hazartilirot]

The sheer rotation of pages itself in PDF isn't the problem. I usually open a fresh-baked document in Acrobat and it does just what the doctor ordered.

Thanks everybody. I'll check out advice you've given me.