Layers from a PDF to be recognized by Illustrator

I have exported a dwg to pdf using Autocad, now when I open the pdf with acrobat 9 I can see the layers from the dwg file with the same names and everything, and turn them on and off. When I open the same file with Illustrator the layers are all in one layer broken out in radom groups. Is there a way to get Illustrator to recognize the layers I can see in the PDF? I don't want to open the DWG file with illustraitor because I loose all of my line weights and I have some Linetypes that i custom made in AutoCAD that do not migrate over to Illustraitor. I think the PDF file that AutoCAD exported the drawing to is an older PDF verstion, but I cant seam to save the PDF as a newer version with acrobat 9. Please help I have wasted half a day trying to figure this thing out.

Here is a slightly convoluted work-around that should work; In Acrobat 9 go to View> Navigation Panels> Layers, turn down the little triangle to see the layers, turn off all but one layer, Do a save-as to "Layer_1" and click the little icon that looks like two gears and select flatten layers.
Place this PDF into Illustrator and name the layer appropriately. Do the same thing for the other layers.
It seems flattening the PDF will remove editability in AI, so if this is important to you, you will need to remove the all of the elements in Acrobat that you don't want on each layer, this is easy with PitStop, an Acrobat plug-in, (hide the desired layer, select all and delete) but it can also be done with Acrobat, Tools> Advanced editing> touch up tools> (click and drag to select, delete). I believe Pitstop can also delete PDF layers.
Message was edited by: Luke Jennings

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How do I obtain the names of graphic layers from a PDF?

I want to write an applescript that will extact the layer names from a PDF imported into InDesign. However, the only layer name it returns is the separator layer "Test.indd" and not the actual layers contained in the PDF.
The PDFs are saved from AI to include layers. Anyone have any suggestions on how to drill down into the serarator layer to get the other layer names?
Thanks,
Sean M.

I don't see anything in the ID dictionary that lets you get PDF or AI layers. You might ask in the scripting forum if it can be done with a JavaScript do script.
You could open the PDF in AI and get the names like this, which displays the names of a selected PDF's layers from AI—I don't think you can do it in Acrobat.
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS6"
    activate
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        open myPath
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        close document 1 saving no
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Hello, is there a way to export or save layers from Indesign to separate png or pdf -files?

Hello, is there a way to export or save layers from Indesign to separate png or pdf -files? I have a Indesign document with serveral layers and I need them as separate png files.
I know that is is possible with Illustrator but can't find it for Indesign.
Thanks a lot.

The script Peter's noting is in #122 here:
how to export indesign layers to photoshop layers (same structure)
It is OSX only and exports PDFs for creating Photoshop layers. The exported PDFs get trashed so if you can use AppleScript I can edit out the Photoshop part post a version that only saves the PDFs

MULTIPLE place image import...& "save as.." multiple layers to multipage PDF

Hello,
just some suggestions I`d like to see to speed up my set up and output..
i`d like to import multiple placed images into illustrator CS4. So open dialogue box place, and multiple select images for placing.
regards output save as...
Can we output multiple layers into a single PDF in illustrator? Or multiple layers into single JPEGS from illustrator with one command instead of individually saving out each layer... would be a huge time saver for me.I create different artworks on different layers..
Currently I output each completed layer individually and then right click those outputted jpegs in their output folder and choose "combine supported files into acrobat..." to make a single acrobat file..i`d like to do this right in the illustrator "save for PDF" dialogue box. Adding something in the Save for PDF output dialogue box to save layers to one PDF as multiple pages would be a helpful time saver..
I`d also like to be able to CTRL click multiple layers and go " save as..." only those layers get saved out...

, bridge -FILE/PLACE into ai, goes to separate layers in AI as placed.
in PS, bridge/tools/ps/load files into ps layers.. CS4.
just using right click in explorer on individual PDF docs from layers saved from PS to combine to PDF. but cannot output multiple pds from layers in AI in CS4.

"Text on a path" and "paths" rasterised when printed from a PDF on an iGen

I have just obtained from the printer the first proof of my book (printed on an iGen) and I'd like to find out where one of the problems lie. I'll ask the printer his opinion before second proof, but I don't like to annoy him unnecessarily.
One of the chapters in the book has a lot of maps. I drew rivers by stroking a path, and named the rivers using 'Text on a Path' so that the text follows the curve of the river. Some of the maps have a pale background image on a different layer. And this is where the problem seems to lie.
1. Rivers (and their names) appear normal on a map WITHOUT a background. By 'normal' I mean they look sharp. When magnified they seem to have been drawn as vectors.
2. On maps WITH a background layer, 'Text on a path' appears very chunky (as if it has been rasterised at about 300 dpi) and paths (the rivers) appear to have the jaggies. Horizontal text does not appear to be affected.
I can't be certain that (1) and (2) exactly define the problem, but it's as close as I can get at the moment.
When I opened the original PDF file from which the book was printed, no matter how much I enlarge it, all paths and 'type on a path' retain their smoothness. i.e they are obviously vectors. However, I noticed when I opened the PDF in Acrobat 7 and tried to edit the 'text on a path', the PDF went haywire: the text I tried to edit disappeared, and other text frames on the page were shifted around.
A sample PDF (6.7 MB, including an original two-page spread, and a scanned copy of the iGen print of the same), can be downloaded from:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oe4omuzoqzz
Two questions:
Q1: On the maps with a background image, is the rasterising of stroked paths, and 'text on a path' due to the iGen mishandling the file? Or might there be another explanation?
Q2: Re Acrobat 7 mishandling my 'text on a path': is this a bug that has been fixed in later versions of Acrobat?
To reproduce this bug do this: Open the PDF described above, and within Acrobat 7 select Tools > Advanced Editing > Touchup Text Tool. Then click inside the name "Georgina River", backspace to try and delete a letter, and the PDF should go haywire.

Sandee: Almost certainly below the text, but I'd have to check them all.
But before I do that, we'll have to go back a step. I can almost handle layers in InDesign, but didn't know they existed in PDFs. The printer printed from the PDF and as far as I can tell after a brief visit to HELP, there aren't any layers in the PDF. When I go to View > Navigation Tabs > Layers and click on the Layer Tab when it appears, there's nothing there; and all the items under Options are grayed.
Q1: Why do I need a layer in a PDF? By not having layers, can that cause problems?
Q2: Re Robert's suggestions: what do you mean by "move all the text to a top layer"? Within InDesign before I export to PDF?
Q3: Is printing more foolproof when I export to PDF, if all my text is on the one layer in InDesign and that layer is above any images? There are several hundred river names, place names etc, sitting on lower layers, but if need be I'll move them all.

Add layers from other psd file and retain text layers (Batch processing)

I want to batch process a large number of portraits adding text info from the filename (year_name_number.jpg) to existing text layers. I want to make a template psd file containg the correct labeled text layers formatted and adjusted (With bleding effects and more) How can i add layers from an other psd file to the active document and retaining the text layers editable. The place command in PS5 adds the file as a smart object, no use.
Any ideas?
I tried the combined action/script way, but no joy so far. Right now i am making the text layers with a action, then calling the script from the action. It works but its difficult to make different templates from adjusting a action.
The code i am using now (in combination with a action creating the 3 text layers and other grapchical elements)
var docRef = activeDocument;
// strip the extension off
var fileNameNoExtension = docRef.name;
fileNameNoExtension = fileNameNoExtension.split( "_" );
if ( fileNameNoExtension.length > 1 ) {
fileNameNoExtension.length--;
fileNameNoExtension = fileNameNoExtension.join("_");
var myString = fileNameNoExtension;
var mySplitResult = myString.split("_");
var textLayer = docReflayers['Year']; // define the existing text layer to a var
docRef.activeLayer = textLayer;
textLayer.kind = LayerKind.TEXT;
var T1 = textLayer.textItem;
T1.contents = mySplitResult[0]
var textLayer = docRef.layers['Name']; // define the existing text layer to a var
docRef.activeLayer = textLayer;
textLayer.kind = LayerKind.TEXT;
var T2 = textLayer.textItem;
T2.contents = mySplitResult[1]
var textLayer = docRef.layers['Number']; // define the existing text layer to a var
docRef.activeLayer = textLayer;
textLayer.kind = LayerKind.TEXT;
var T3 = textLayer.textItem;
T3.contents = mySplitResult[2]
Thanks
Eivind

norway_photo wrote:
Here is my intended workflow:
- A set of same size portraits labeled "year_name_number.jpg"
- A template.psd os same size with graphical elements and text layers (named "year", "name" and "number")
- A script or action copy/pasting og adding all layers from the template.psd file to the open portrait file, retaining text layers editable.
- A script (The one i have working) changing the text layers added from the template to text from the filename.
- A action saving this as a PDF ready for print.
This way i can process a large number of portraits, add names and other information and save it as a file ready for print.
I can image it is much easier to edit a template than writing a script or an action creating all the graphical elements.
And even better, to change this template for different customers/departments/logos.
Basically i need a way to add layers to an open file using a batch file or script.
Eivind
OK I understand what your trying to do and now I do not agree with your conclusion you made in you first append about place being no good for you. Its is I think a perfect solution for you. I feel you need to address the process from a new angle.
I am very familiar with templates I use them all the time for collages which I populate with an actions. However I do not batch this process and my process is interactive. If you look at what your trying to do from the angle of creating a collage. You will see what you are trying to do is automate the population of a single image collage using a single template in a batch process. An example of one of my single image collage populated by one of my actions that has been saved as a jpeg image file. My actions are played in Photoshop with no document opened. After my action is play there is a single collage document in Photoshop that contains layers that can be tweaked all text is in text layers the can be edited.
If I wanted to automate the batch population of a single collage template I think all I would need to know is three thing.
1.) The location of the input images
2.) The full Path of the PSD template file.
3.) The location to store the output file
Looking at some of the recent threads in this forum I could almost cut and past the script you want to put together. There was a recent thread that had javascript code to process files in a folder and process only a list of file types. There also was a thread that had a place function in it to place images into the current document or create a new document to place the image into. The image was read from the web using a URL. This thread has code to change a text layer. At first I though you may need to open these image file to get at its meta-data to get the Portrait image Exif creation data. But see all you need is the Filename for it has the data you want the year and name. So the function that get the image files from the folder will give you that. The Script needs to Open the Template PSD file and retrieve the prototype text layers text content then the scrip needs a loop that get the next image file to be processed from the folder get filename function. In the loop the image files are place into the open template above a place holder layer like the Background layer. Then using the prototype text contents and the filename are used create the new content for the text layer and then change the text layers content to it. Follow that up with a save as for the output file. Once the output file is saved delete the placed smart object layer. When this loop ends the script will close the document with no save and end. As for the three inputs you need the script could either have a dialog like the images processor or simply prompt you for the folders and template file.

Copying layers from one document to another problem?

Hey there, so I have two documents of the same size (11 inches x 8.5 inches) and I am trying to copy some layers from an original document and move it to the second one. I'm doing this by just dragging the layers from the original to the new document. The problem is, the text or images are extremely smaller on the new document and if I blow them up, look really pixelated. What am I doing wrong? The original document is saved as a Photoshop PDF and I believe was made on CS4. I am currently using Photoshop CC 2014.

Make sure the DPI/Resolution is the same for the new document as it is for the original. Files created with 11x8.5 at 72 dpi will show up smaller on 11x8.5 at 300 dpi documents for example. You can also right click on the layer and choose 'duplicate layer', then when the dialog open, select the name of the new document in the dropdown as the place to put the duplicate layer. Either way, the dpi of both files should match. Viewing the image size on the image menu can tell you the current DPI/Resolution. Hope that helps with your problem some. I'm not sure if the fact that the original is a PDF is causing an issue.

Globally delete text from a PDF?

Hi,
Firstly, my apologies for wading in with a question that may have been asked. The forum search didn't turn it up but I'm not sure I searched with the right terms.
I'm trying to remove all the text from a PDF to leave the vector images behind - that way I can use the images as a test. I don't mind if it's a solution like making all the text white, just as long as it's invisible in the document.
I had thought this would be reasonably straightforward but I've been looking around for about a day now and no luck. I installed the pdfbox library which had an example code snippet to do this, but my abilities ran short.
Any ideas?
I'm using Acrobat 9 Pro v9.4.6 on Mac OS X 10.7.2 if that helps.
Thanks for reading, and for any help.
Cheers,
Matthew.

George - THANK YOU!
When I pulled up the Profiles in the Preflight dialog, under Create PDF Layers there is a setting for "Put all text objects on a layer". I double-clicked this, gave it an output file name and off it went - lifted out tens of thousands of text objects from a several-hundred page PDF. Took an hour or so - but not too bad after all that searching and hassle. The layer turns off nicely - I presume that will carry over when I print it!
I had no idea that Preflight was capable of this kind of manipulation, but in hindsight it makes sense.
THANK YOU again.

Copy text from a PDF to word. Just get Symbols

Hello,
I have a public PDF with no Copying Restrictions. When I try to copy text from the PDF highlighted text to WORD I only get unreadable garbage.
I can select the desired text and copy it into word but when I paste the text it is pasted like symbols and lines.
I tried Special Paste and does not works. It says the font is a Gill Sans something (with numbers and so on), no really a font it seems but when i change it to Arial i still get symbols.
Any help or ideas,
Cheers,
Sebastian

I have this exact same problem. It is very frustrating. How is it not possible to "grab" onto the text in the pdf ??!!
I am looking at it. I can see it. I can read it.
I can highlight the individual letters and words with the mouse pointer. (So it's not just a "picture")
With a pdf editor, I can even make the text bold, italic, or increase the font size.
SO WHY CAN'T I COPY THE TEXT! AAARGH!
No, the file is not protected.
Yes, I have tried saving as different formats. (The "save as tiff file workaround" idea is very time consuming and greatly degrades the quallity.)
The font is shown as being: "Arial083.313"
Something in the pdf program is recognizing the text, translating the 1's and 0's (that make up all computer files) into the letters that display on the screen that I can read and select with the mouse. So why can't that same "something" allow me to copy it? So frustrating.
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Layers in CS4 - PDF?

Hi All,
Weird thing... When we used Illustartor CS3, we could save a file as a PDF file, and retain all of the layers. Now, with CS4, when we save it as a PDF file, the layers are flattened. This is not good for us as we use an Onyx RIP that seems more comfortable with PDF files than AI files, so we save all of our files as PDF files, but we need them to retain their layers! This worked fine in CS3... We save 10-20 files a day and are forced to keep using CS3 on one computer until this is fixed.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks,
Evan

Hi Wade,
Sorry, was off of this project for a while but am now back to it.
I think I may hav egiven the wrong impression. I'm not worried about opening the PDF file in Acrobat. What we do is save the file as a PDF so that our RIP (Onyx ProductionHouse) can utilize it, but then we need to be able to open it back up in Illustrator and edit it. When I do that, the layers are combined into one layer, whether or not "Create Acrobat Layers from Top-Level Layers" is checked or not.
In CS3, this worked fine... we could save a file with four layers as a PDF file, then open the PDF file back up in Illustrator and all of the layers were still intact. It's just in CS4 that this has stopped working.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks again,
Evan

Adobe PDFMaker doesn't convert layers from Visio 2010

I'm wondering if anybody else is seeing this behavior after converting to Visio 2010...
I have a Visio cross-functional flowchart (CFF,) using "swimlanes." My shapes in this flowchart are organized into various layers withinin Visio. When I convert to .pdf, the pdf document displays the layers (along with the "eyeball" for selecting & deselecting layers,) but the layers do not "hide" when you deselect them.
This problem occurs when using Adobe Acrobat Pro version 8,9, or X. The problem occurs no matter which .pdf converter I use, and it makes no difference whether I initiate the conversion from within visio or externally. The problem occurs in documents built from scratch in 2010, and in documents converted from version 2007.
Interestingly, the problem only occurs when the Visio document is a CFF with swimlanes. Without swimlanes, all layers can be properly hidden & unhidden in the .pdf.
Can anybody out there successfully display&hide layers in their .pdf generated from a Visio 2010 CFF? Thanks for any thoughts! : - )

I had the same problem today using Visio 2010 & Acrobat Pro X, but having used Vision layers before, I did the following:
copied the shapes from the CFF without the frame onto a new blank vsd
the layer properties transferred normally with them
& discovered that:
the layers could be exported to pdf using the Acrobat Create option (check the preferences first)
all of the layer settings worked fine.
I then transferred the CFF "frame" (with swimlanes) onto the new vsd
the layers seemed to export ok
NONE of the layer settings worked in the pdf.....
The only workaround would be to manually create the frame with rectangles on the copied shapes....
I added these to their own "swimlane" layer & the whole export & result worked fine.

How to extract text from a PDF file?

Hello Suners,
i need to know how to extract text from a pdf file?
does anyone know what is the character encoding in pdf file, when i use an input stream to read the file it gives encrypted characters not the original text in the file.
is there any procedures i should do while reading a pdf file,
File f=new File("D:/File.pdf");
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jverd wrote:
First, you set i once, and then loop without ever changing it. So your loop body will execute either 0 times or infinitely many times, writing the same byte every time. Actually, maybe it'll execute once and then throw an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException. That's basic java looping, and you're going to need a firm grip on that before you try to do anything as advanced as PDF reading. the case.oops you are absolutely right that was a silly mistake to forget that,
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i++;
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read.close();
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f.printStackTrace();
"D:/test.txt" hasn't been created!! when i ran the program,
is my steps right?

How to extract text from a PDF file using php?

How to extract text from a PDF file using php?
thanks
fabio

> Do you know of any other way this can be done?
There are many ways. But this out of scope of this forum. You can try this forum: http://forum.planetpdf.com/

How to get page number from the PDF using Javascript

Hi,
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Can anybody help me how to get the page number from the PDF using Javascript.
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The "real" page number within a PDF is the count of the physical page starting at 0, zero.
pageNum numPages
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Hi I've a big problem with adobe acrobat reader XI pro and I hope you can help me. The problem is; when I past copied text from some pdf books (not all of them) it past symbols only! wherever I past it! and even if I coped that text from another pdf reade

Hi
I've a big problem with adobe acrobat reader XI pro and I hope you can help me.
The problem is; when I past copied text from some pdf books (not all of them) it past symbols only! wherever I past it! and even if I coped that text from another pdf reader (adobe pdf reader, internet browsers, ...etc.).
This problem started to happen since yesterday when I installed adobe acrobat reader XI pro to try it before I buy it, and before that when I was using the free adobe pdf reader I was totally able to copy any text from any pdf and past it anywhere with nothing wrong.
What can I do?
thank you a lot.

There is no product called Adobe Acrobat Reader Pro. There is
- Adobe Acrobat Pro ($$)
- Adobe Reader (free)
Which do you have? And are you a programmer?

Layers from a PDF to be recognized by Illustrator

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