pdf manipulation - joining lots of pdfs and page numbering...

[Jaded]

Looking for a (Windows) pdf application that will join together a number of multi page pdf field into one, and set page numbers for the combined files, and possible a table of contents with clickable links.

Any thoughts/recommendations gratefully received.

[Ham]

If it's just an odd one or two, be happy to do it for you in Acrobat.

[Jaded]

That's very kind, but it's for a different organisation, and probably monthly or more frequently.

[drossall]

I've used Bullzip PDF printer for many years; it came free with a software package, way back. Like various others, it creates a virtual printer to which you send your file to become a PDF. You can append to an existing one, so sometimes I use it to print two separate PDFs into one file. However, I'm not aware that it can add page numbers. You appear to be able to download it here, although I can't vouch for that as a source.

LibreOffice is a free alternative to MS Office that will open and edit PDF documents. Concatenating them and adding page numbers should be easy with that.

[Afasoas]

I've used Bullzip PDF printer for many years; it came free with a software package, way back. Like various others, it creates a virtual printer to which you send your file to become a PDF. You can append to an existing one, so sometimes I use it to print two separate PDFs into one file. However, I'm not aware that it can add page numbers. You appear to be able to download it here, although I can't vouch for that as a source.

LibreOffice is a free alternative to MS Office that will open and edit PDF documents. Concatenating them and adding page numbers should be easy with that.

I've never used it, but scribus looks like it might do it.
I've used a few command line utilities on Linux to split and merge pdfs. There are probably binaries compiled for Windows which might help if you want to write a script to automate any aspect of the job. Someone has also created PowerShell module to do the same: https://evotec.xyz/merging-splitting-and-creating-pdf-files-with-powershell/

[philip]

I've never merged pdfs but I have used pdfsam on Linux in the past. It's also available on Windows and the basic version is free: https://pdfsam.org/documentation/

[pcolbeck]

Ghostscript is available for WIndows as well as Linux.

https://www.ghostscript.com

ImageMagick is also available for Windows these days as well as Linux and will combine PDF files.

https://imagemagick.org

Both are command line tools and can be used in scripts which might be useful if you are doing this a lot. Both have been around for decades now and very mature tools.

[Jaded]

pdfSam looks good, I'm investigating that for them now!

[drossall]

Gosh, I haven't used Ghostscript in decades. I'd forgotten all about it. There's GSView as well as a graphical interface, but I don't remember any details.

[mzjo]

I don't know about the page numbering. I have to a similar exercise to produce our club bulletin for which I posed a question somewhere on here a little while ago. The compiling is done with Office Publisher (which I discovered I already had on a pc acquired in a flat clearance!). Publisher, or at least the 2007 version I have, doesn't want to know pdf. LibreOffice doesn't want to manipulate pdf either in my experience (although I might well be missing something) but it will open them as a sort of image file which can then be saved in odt or doc  (I think I use doc) to be compiled in Publisher. As far as I remember I have to use PDF CReator (a virtual printer) to create the finished pdf. Only question is whether Publisher will do page numbers.

Note there is PDF Architect which should do what you want perfectly and comes bundled with PDF Creator if you are not careful. You need the subscription modules and I found the editor to be very mercenary which is why I stopped using it (which didn't stop them still taking an extra 85€ off me when I didn't pay attention to unsubscribing from it).

I do also have Scribus for this job but it has a learning curve which I have not got very far along (question of making it find the docs you want to use, the rest looks relatively straightforward)

[rilem]

I've used Bullzip PDF printer for many years; it came free with a software package, way back. Like various others, it creates a virtual printer to which you send your file to become a PDF. You can append to an existing one, so sometimes I use it to print two separate PDFs into one file. However, I'm not aware that it can add page numbers. You appear to be able to download it here, although I can't vouch for that as a source.

LibreOffice is a free alternative to MS Office that will open and edit PDF documents. Concatenating them and adding page numbers should be easy with that.

I've never used it, but scribus looks like it might do it.
I've used a few command line utilities on Linux to split and merge pdfs. There are probably binaries compiled for Windows which might help if you want to write a script to automate any aspect of the job. Someone has also created PowerShell module to do the same: https://evotec.xyz/merging-splitting-and-creating-pdf-files-with-powershell/

. I am looking for opportunities for an

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Davef]

Merging pdfs is relatively easy as the file format lends itself to this and there is a lot of options from installing a pdf writer that pretends to be a printer or googling for software like pdfmerge. I have even written software to do it myself. 

Changing the content - ie page numbers on the pages and contents pages is a whole different ball game. That is like asking about how to photocopy restaurant menus and then throwing in that you also want to change the main course on a menu written in Cantonese.

[drossall]

It's easier than you'd think in LibreOffice. But only for relatively modest changes. It's not exactly a word-processor job.