Slicing a pdf file to import in inDesign

[druckkontor.e]

Hello, I need some help on how to solve the following:

I have a gift card (front and back). On the back shall be a barcode (which differs with each card).

Now I got the barcode as pdf file, but the file has 65 barcodes on one page and is also multiple pages. Unfortunately I can't write the barcodes with my script, the barcodes are alphanumeric. So I have to get each barcode out of the pdf and into my gift card. I tried it with slicing it in Illustrator, but it won't work and I also have multiple pages. Is there any way I could save each barcode in a separate file without doing it by hand?

Would be very thankful for good suggestions 😃

[Laubender]

Hi Matthias,

can you see a regular pattern of 5 columns times 13 rows with the bar codes on every PDF page?

How many page are in the PDF?

What exactly did you try with Adobe Illustrator?

You could do 65 artboards in Illustrator and arrange them in a pattern like 13 rows and 5 columns.

Place the first page of your PDF so that the upper left corner is positioned at the upper left corner of the first artboard and save all the artboards to PDF. That would give you a PDF with the first 65 barcodes, each barcode on a different page in the PDF.

Don't know how much artboards Illustrator could handle and don't know how much pages are in your original PDF.
Perhaps you could create an Illustrator file that will handle all PDF pages of your original PDF.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[druckkontor.e]

Hello Uwe,

thanks for your reply. Yes, so far it's a regular pattern on all pages. The pages vary because the gift card is ordered in different amounts. It could be anything from 100 to 6.000 barcodes.

I tried it with slicing, but artboards seem to work better. Still I have to save each page separate and can't save all barcodes of the original pdf at once. Then I have to write a list with all names and import it with data merge. This is quite bothersome, I'm sure there must be an easier way to it.

Regards

[Laubender]

Hi Matthias,

if you need one-page PDFs out of a multipage PDF you could do that easily with Acrobat Pro.

The hard part is to get reasonable names for every single-page PDF that should correspond in a way with the contents of the barcode so that in the end you could build a source text file for data merge.

It would be better, if you find a script for InDesign that could write the barcodes as individual files or construct the barcodes as InDesign objects based on the textual contents of a paragraph or text that is formatted with a character style.

You mentioned a script in your initial post. What exactly was this?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[druckkontor.e]

Hi Uwe,

ah, sometimes you just have to think twice. I first cut one page into artboards and copied each page into this (so I wouldn't have to do 100+ artboards). But I can also create a new file with 500 artboards and arrange them in the right distance, then I could just copy all pages into it. Ha!

Yes, a script would be better but I don't know which kind of barcode this is. First I thought it was EAN 13 but that doesn't allow alphanumeric codes. I used BookBarcodePro, which worked well.

Regards

[rob day]

Can you share the PDF with the barcodes? If you inspect the PDF are the barcodes images or filled vector paths?

[druckkontor.e]

Sorry, can't share it. But the barcodes are vector paths with text below.

[rob day]

If the barcode grid is consistent from page to page, a script could place the PDF page 65 times an then adjust the parent frame’s bounds incrementally for each barcode. Then you would effectively have an InDesign catalog of the individual codes.

[rob day]

If you are using OSX I have an existing AppleScript that will divide a placed image or PDF into a matrix where you can define the number of rows and columns and a gutter, which might help. I‘m not sure it would work without seeing the grid layout

[rob day]

Works like this. Here I’ve placed a PDF with a 5 x 4 matrix of circles with a .5" space between:

[dave c courtemanche]

It may be worth the $2 investment of bar code software. Not sure what platform you're on, but Code128 from the App Store can batch create bar codes. Would be worth the frustration of trying to figure out a solution.