Batch replacing custom swatch to every Pantone C swatch, single files

[Guest]

I have a little over a 1,000 PDFs, with each specific PDF representing a Pantone C spot color. In these PDFs there are boxes that are filled with a custom spot color that needs to be replaced with a corresponding Pantone C swatch color...

I've done a lot of searching on the subject but haven't been able to find a good answer. I know no matter what it is going to require a lot of legwork but as of now typing out the 1,000 some spot color names into a script would be incredibly faster than the alternative.

Does anyone know of a script that could get me started on it?

[moluapple]

More infos please, a sample document is even better. The script is just somewhere, like waters in the deep dark sea.

[Guest]

Heres a link to a sample document: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e26fzp5jzpedf2h/PANTONE%207436%20C.pdf?dl=0

The green boxes below is where the swatch replacement would occur.

[Silly-V]

Is the corresponding PANTONE color the one mentioned in the text box? You'll need to create a document with all of the PANTONE colors inside it so that you could reference the swatches, or store them in a text file- which is legally sketchy territory when considering the PANTONE corporation's usage agreement.

So if that pantone's name is correct and if you have a document source for the pantone spot swatches or spreadsheet data with all the correct Lab values, you can do what you need.

[moluapple · Accepted solution]

Assure all you PDF file's structure  are the same as the sample, open one PDF file and run this code.

(function () {
var doc = activeDocument,
    s = doc.swatches[2];
s.name = activeDocument.name.replace(/\.pdf$/, '');
s.color.spot.color = LABColorByValue ();
function LABColorByValue () {
    var t = doc.textFrames,
        l = t.length,
        i = l - 1,
        c = new LabColor(),
        m;
    for (; i >= 0; i--) {
        m = t.contents.match(/Target: L = (\d*) a\* = (-?\d*) b\* = (-?\d*)/);
        if (m) {
            c.l = m[1], c.a = m[2], c.b = m[3];
            return c
        }
    }
}
})()

You can record an action, which insert this script as menu item, to process you files.

[Guest]

Wow, that worked perfectly! I was honestly expecting a lot more I would have to do but didn't think it would be able to match it to the file name, an elegant solution. Thank you!

Although when I run it as a batch script I get Error 8701: the name was not found. Line: 4. -> s.name = activeDocument.name.replace(/\.pdf$/, ");

[Silly-V]

Oh that Target Lab was the color's Lab values? I missed that detail! Hehh heh heh.