Page count of a pdf

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

Does anyone know how to get the page count of a pdf, preferably without opening it in an application?

#2

Problem solved. Thanks to those who looked and contemplated the delema.

#3

Jerome it would be nice to post your solution for the record…
SC

#4

There was another thread with this question posted that I found after I posed this question. The solution here did not prove reliable for the pdf’s that I tested it with. The solution that I came up with to eleminate Acrobat from the equation was to load the pdf file into a variable and parse it with text item delimiter’s set to the text for the page breaks of the pdf file. I found 3 different variations in the pdf’s that I tested, so I have some if–>then statements to test for these. Then you need to subtract 1 from the result to clear out the pdf header. The following handler works for all of the pdf’s I have tested:


on PDFPageCount(AFile)
	set FileData to read alias AFile
	set OldDelim to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/Page/"
	set PageCount to (count (every text item of FileData)) - 1
	if PageCount < 1 then
		set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/Page
/"
		set PageCount to (count (every text item of FileData)) - 1
	end if
	if PageCount < 1 then
		set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/Page /"
		set PageCount to (count (every text item of FileData)) - 1
	end if
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to OldDelim
	return PageCount
end PDFPageCount

If you run into any problems remember that like an post script file a pdf is basically a text file, open it in BBEdit and do a search for “Page”, there may be combination that I have not run into. Also, the second page break in the handler above does include a in it. From my testing “/Page” & return & “/” did not work, the return had to be included in the text.

#5 

set AFile to (path to desktop) & " The TGG Blue Guide.pdf"
PDFPageCount(AFile)

I’ve added this to the start of your script to test what result I get. Can you help me to understand why I might be getting the follwing error:

#6

[Edit] I’ve read your post too quickly, – it’s morning –

Hi Tortle2,

You must pass a path to the handler not an alias and a text string ← correction


set AFile to (path to desktop as Unicode text) & " The TGG Blue Guide.pdf"

If you’re on OS X 10.4 you could use Bruce Phillips’s script found on this topic http://bbs.applescript.net/viewtopic.php?id=16162 . Read the #2 index. In your case that would be

set AFile to (path to desktop as Unicode text) & " The TGG Blue Guide.pdf"
do shell script "/usr/bin/mdls -name kMDItemNumberOfPages " & quoted form of POSIX path of Afile & " | /usr/bin/grep -o '[0-9]\\+$'"

Yannis

#7

Hi Tortle2,
aFile needs to be set to unicode text (or string) before appended string will be coerced:

set aFile to (path to desktop as Unicode text) & "The TGG Blue Guide.pdf" as alias
#8

Thanks gang.