Adding a Logo and a PDF Barcode to a File and Saving as Placed Item (barcode) Name

[Mathew27552911mymq]

Hi there

I wonder if anyone could help with an issue that's been frustrating me for a couple of hours. It's probably a newb question...

I need to add our logo to our barcodes so that when we print the labels out, we don't have to double sticker everything.

I've made an action and got it to do what I want but I can't seem to get it to cycle through a folder of files and also, it would be kind of useful if they would name themselves as the placed barcode when saving but I'm struggling.

First and main issue is getting the action to cycle through the files.

The action I made is just opening the original file over and over, I tried running a batch from folder and that didn't help. Firstly it's opening the first file 4 times for some reason and then, if I select to place object in the same document, it begins making copies of the logo too, if I don't, it opens the PDFs as full pages and doesn't do much else. So I tried making a data set with links to the barcode PDFs and running a batch but when I import the data set, it tells me there's an error when I try to change the data set and it doesn't allow me to make any selections and when I change variables to 'dataset' it says 'no options available'. I'm very new to Illustrator so it may be that it can't use PDF files in this way possibly.

Second issue (if I can solve the first) is getting it to name the file as the placed item when saving so that I can identify the output.

Just some background on how I went about it. I created an artboard the size of the label and dragged the logo onto one half and then I'm recording the aciton of placing the barcode on the other side and saving it, then deleting it to finalise the action. works well but only for the original file, it doesn't attempt the others but I guess batch is needed here, if I cold make it work.

For the naming, I copied some script from on here and imported that fine, I've run it but nothing seems to happen, it doesn't fail but it also doesn't seem to do anything at all. I used the .js extension.

I wonder if someone could help me before I begin doing this manually. I'd rather use those hours figuring this out so the process can be used by me again in future.

Am I going about doing what I want in the right way? I did think about maybe pulling the barcode in, adjusting the size and then adding the logo and saving, which sorts the second issue but barcode PDFs don't seem to open accurately and looking at the output, I don't think they'd scan.

Would be really grateful if someone could recommend a solution for me to look at. Is Illustrator the best choice for this? It seemed so to me before I began.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help at all.

Mat

[Mylenium]

You've written a lot, but your post doesn't contain any useful info like the actual script or a screenshot of the action and its steps. Sorry, but you need to do better and give us soemthing we can make sense of and work with.

Mylenium

[hhas01]

From your description a JavaScript solution might be quickest and simplest. It will help if you add the following information to your post:

* A screenshot of the folder containing your barcode PDF files. (I assume you already have an app/plugin which generates these; it might be useful to know its name.)

* A screenshot of your logo file opened in Illustrator. (If you don’t want to show your identity, just draw a solid box of the same size.)

* Before and After screenshots of an artwork in Illustrator which you have assembled it by hand.

[Mathew27552911mymq]

Sorry guys. I can see this wasn't useful to getting help. I'll make a new thread and try and keep it concise. Cheers.

[hhas01]

Please don’t make a new thread. The forum automatically promotes this thread back to the top whenever a new post is made in it.

Do add all the information I listed above. That will greatly improve your chances of getting productive help.

[pixxxelschubser]

@Mathew27552911mymq 

As long as it is the same question, it is always better to stay in the same thread and add the missing information. Anything else is likely to be locked as a double thread with the same content.