Page Exporter Utility (PEU) 5 Script Updated for CS3
A number of people swear by the free Page Exporter Utility for exporting InDesign documents as individual PDF, JPEG, EPS, or Postscript pages (or outputting multiple PDF files as a batch process). The bad news is that it hasn’t always been easy to find a copy of it on the Web. The good news is that the script’s author, Scott Zanelli, has consented for us to post the newest version (5) here, which is supposed to work with both CS2 and CS3. (I’ve only tested it with CS3.)
You can download Page Exporter Utility here:
The Page Exporter Utility offers a number of options for exporting your files. For example, you can export each spread as an individual PDF file, specifying custom naming and so on:
There is also a “versioning” option that lets you create a number of different PDFs from different layer combinations. For example, lets say you have one base layer and three language layers. You would want three different PDF files: english+base, french+base, and so on.
PEU is clever, it’s relatively fast, and it has a darn good price (free). If you’re a scripter, you can even customize the script (Scott has released it under the GNU General Public License).
Cooooool. I’m gonna be bold and try add a RTF exporter. And an export book option… which I don’t think I will be able to do, but gotta start somewhere
And hope I’m not being mean here. But when you select Change Preferences. And then press cancel, yes you get the previous screen again, but without the “change preferences” option.
Cool Script though. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you IndesignSecrets and Scott Zanelli for this new version. I’m one of thoses who cannot work without it.
Jean-Claude, can I ask what you use the script for? I’m just curious, since you said you can’t work without it … might spark some ideas with other ID users, including myself.
Hi Anne-Marie, our workflows works best with single page documents (PDF prefered, but also some time EPS). The script allow for one click export to single pdf page with naming option we can configure. And even if Indesign can export multiple page document as single EPS, their is no way to use defined custom file naming. Also, when we deal with multi-language Indesign document, the script versioning feature is a real blessing.
Until, all this is build in Indesign natively, Scott’s script is a gift from heaven!
Eugene,
The “Change Preferences” option isn’t shown twice in order to protect settings in the batch exporting mode. If the preferences weren’t hidden, then they could be changed when each document’s export options were set. This would effectively “break” things for the earlier set-ups. So, it isn’t a bug, but is intentionally set up that way.
Thanks for bringing it up though!
Thank you! It’s very useful!
Ah I see scott, I just noticed it and thought it perculiar. I wonder if there’s a way of graying that out or something. I certainly like your script. It’s very good.
consider you have an indesign file for imposing a large book with 20 gigabytes size of contents and 100 pages. you must export to pdf one by one manually or use this script. But I don’t why after exporting some pages indesin says IO error and I must use print to ps instead of export to pdf
Great script! Just saved me 1 hour of work. In our magazine we do “one article – one file”. After sending pdfs to the printer, we also need to make one pdf pr article to the website. This has been tiresome exportwork from ID.
With the batch feature in the script the whole thing was done automaticly in a few minutes!
Thanks a lot from Norway!
I love the version feature, it suits me fine, as I work on ads that have 3 different languages all the time, thanks alot and god bless u.
hope I can pay you back somehow!!!
Hi! its cool script! PEU4.1 not working on ma CS2 but PEU5 is ready to use!
Eugene,
No way to “gray” it out and stay compatible with CS2. The batch options will also disappear after the first job’s info is entered.
Saeid,
Is it the same pages giving the I/O error or does the error occur at different times? Have you tried manually exporting the page that causes the I/O error using InDesign? This would help tell if it is the script causing the problem or InDesign.
I/O error is indesign fault not script fault. however thanks
This script just saved me a ton of work, thank you!
I am new to InDesign and need to install the Printer Spread plugin. Where do I place it?
I don’t know what the Printer Spread plug-in is. Do you mean this PEU script (mentioned above)? If so, you can find out more on how to install and run scripts here.
This utility has been around a while and is a must have. Scott should be commended for his fine work on this! Glad to see its CS3 ready!
This is a godsend for us. The countless times I have to sit and wait for Acrobat to export to single pages was an extra step that was eleminated thanks to this. Thank you very much Mr. Scott Zanelli
I remember that I used this script to export .ps-files. Propably with CS2. With the new version the .ps-option seems to be gone? I am a complete dummy in programming but a look into the javascript-code shows that the .ps-option seems to be integrated. The user interface of version 4 on http://www.lonelytreesw.com/ shows the Postscript-option. The screenshot above and the script on my mac do not.
You have to install a Print Preset that has its printer set to “PostScript File” before the PS option will appear in the script’s main dialog box. This is done because there is no way to rename a file sent to a laser printer, etc.
I know time put to create a script as long as this…THANK YOU!
is there any way to get the ouput directory to see a whole drive and to pick a folder on that drive. I would like to put each job in its own job folder with having to go to preferences and the to name the folder and then to have to delete the folder later.
thanks
In the change preferences section, change the starting directory to be the root of your drive. When exporting, make the Output directory “Specific Directory”.
This will then bring up the “Save As” style dialog to ask you where to put the exported pages. Since you set the starting directory to the root of the drive, a simple double click should get you into your needed job folder.
I’ve been working in InDesign for over a year now, but am new to forums, etc. Put together an 188 page real estate magazine, and have been exporting 188 individual PDFs one at a time. I just had to say thanks for taking the time to put together EXACTLY the information I needed to make a SLOW TIME CONSUMING process – fast and simple. And double thanks to the script’s author Scott.
This is an excellent addition to our workflow. But, when we export our varnish files, there is no page information line. It makes it difficult to “marry up” the Kodak page proofs with the varnish overlays as the varnish printer does not have its own tag line.
Any suggestions?
I would need more info to give a suggestion. Send me an email and we can try to figure this out:
szanelli11lonelytreesw2222com
(replace 11 with @ and 2222 with .)
You have no Idea how much time this saves us. Went from an all day process to 20min!!!
Thank you so much.
Scott, how hard would it be to convert his script for use in InCopy?
Can this script be customized to export a multi page InDesign document to single page InDesign documents?
Mike,
Doesn’t seem possible to do this:
1) Save As can’t be scripted to save individual pages.
2) The interchange export function also doesn’t accept page ranges
3) Doing it as a brute force method of deleting all other pages, doing a save as and reopening the orig to continue with the next page isn’t doable because linked text would reflow and not stay on the pages where it was supposed to.
As an FYI for anyone else, Kevin emailed me with his question about a month ago and I just noticed it was posted here also (yeah, I don’t check this forum as often as I probably should). The answer was “no”, but I may download a trial version of InCopy at some point to see how much it would take to convert it over.
I found that when extracting pages from within Acrobat 7, that the PDF/X-3 information was deleted. At least it didn’t acknowledge it when I ran a check it afterwards. PEU however, worked a treat, it allows you to pick your PDF job settings which is great. Only problem was that it kept opening each page in Acrobat as opposed to working in the background. But I’m not complaining, saved me a lot of time!
Damian,
In your InDesign PDF preset, make sure the ‘View PDF after Exporting’ option is unchecked. That will stop the pages from opening up.
This script is just what I’m looking for but I cannot get it to work! When I link Page Exporter Utility to Indesign and run from the debug menu, i get this message:
// Check if preferences file exists, if not save one
peuINFO["prefsFile"] = File((Folder(app.activeScript)).parent + “/PageExporter5Prefs.txt”);
if(!peuINFO.prefsFile.exists)
Can you help me?
Paul,
Depending on if you aren’t using an account with admin privileges, you may be running into permission errors.
Try installing the script in one of the following folders/directories.
Mac OSX:
\Users\\Library\Preferences\Adobe InDesign\Version 5.0\Scripts\
PC, XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\Version 5.0\Scripts\Scripts Panel
PC, Vista:
C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\Version 5.0\Scripts\Scripts Panel\
On the PC, these directories are usually hidden, so the easiest way to install the script (even on the Mac) is to launch InDesign CS3, open the scripts panel, right-click (PC and Mac) or control-click (Mac) on the “User” folder in the script pallet and choose ‘Reveal in Explorer’ (PC) or ‘Reveal in Finder’ (Mac). Copy or move the script into the directory/folder that is opened.
You are a genius! Works perfectly now! What an amazing script, thank you.
great script!! inx export would be a fantastic upgrade
Fantastic!
I agree with Brian, inx export would be SUPER nice!
Absolutely love it. Thankyou x million. But I recently sent off a magazine to the printers and they wanted me to remove the 5mm at the bottom of the PDF which contains filename, date and time information. I make postscript files and then distill through Acrobat Distiller. Can I make the files without this 5mm info line at the bottom?????
Robbo,
I’d need some more info to help you with this. Please contact me at szanelli “at” lonelytreesw.com.
Does anyone know if there is script that export mulitple eps files from indesign with different file names? Not just the prefix and end file name.
Or is there a way to name pages (not master pages) in your layout????
Sheer genius!!! You just saved me hours and hours of work.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate this.
This has been a great addition to our workflow.
Will this version work with Indesign CS4?
Also works on CS4
I can’t seem to find a way to add bleed and crop marks as well? When I do the script it exports the files as the trim size only. Thanks.
Mike,
I don’t have time to test this right now, but try creating a new PDF preset and set the bleed settings there. Then when you use the utility, select the preset you just made.
Mike, Sorry I was vague before.
When defining the PDF preset (File>Adobe PDF Presets>Define…), go to the Marks and Bleeds tab, and check the boxes for Crop Marks, Use Document Bleed Settings, and Include Slug Area.
Then save the preset.
Now, when you run the utility, and it asks you to choose a PDF Export Preset, select the one you just made.
I just ran it on my CS4, and it created PDF’s that showed the bleed area as well as crop marks.
Hope that helps.
Where are you saving your pdf preset file? When I get the option to choose I only see my distiller settings I have set up.
I’m saving it in InDesign, under File>Adobe PDF Presets>Define…
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/197/picture1pc7.png
No I mean when it ask where do you want to save the .prst file on your drive.
It’s never asked me where I wanted to save the file.
When I go to Define, it lists the pre-existing presets, and has buttons for creating a new preset, editing an existing one, deleting, loading or saving.
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3747/picture2oy3.png
I click New, and i get the dialogue window where I choose my settings, and then I click OK, and return to the list of presets, where I then click Done.
Are you clicking on Save As?
That was it, it doesn’t say save as, just save. Didn’t realize OK was enough for a new setting. Thanks for your help!
I found this script, well must be about a year ago now, nope just checked file dates, it was November 2007 (how time flies), It has been the most useful utility.
I export to pdf for printing, also to sales reps for proofing, I do this many many times each day and have found it easier to have two copies of the script running. One for output to the rip & one for output to sales reps for proofing, this saves changing the Output Directory all the time. That may sound minor but it does help a lot.
Hopefully one day they will upgrade us from CS to a newer version of Indesign and will be able to upgrade to your latest version. until then 4.1 is the best thing ever.
Thank you Scott for a great job.
Just one more thing if I may, It would be really good if the Done exporting as a single PDF file dialog would not show up after exporting every file. Is this possible
Is it possible using the script to place a three digit page number at the front of each single page pdf. ie 001_Book.pdf. I’m assuming it is possible but I can’t find the option. Wonderful script though
This script seems to be precisely what I’m looking for, with one exeption.
I need a batch processing program that will look into say 2 folders deep into a given directory and open InDesign CS4 documents with a certain string in the file name. For example, “_book” or “ins” and export them as a PDF.
It looks as though this script will do most of that. Is the search by keyword element easy to implement?
Again, a hint (and script) from InDesignSecrets.com SAVES THE DAY. Unbelievable.
Little hint: It’d be nice if one could also turn on the Bleed for exporting. I know I can create a PDF setting which includes this but most of the times I just want PDF/X 1-a plus Bleed included.
This tool has made our prepress dept so much more efficient!
Can’t live without it!
We have to deal with all kinds of Doc,
Is there a page export utility for quark 7?
This script looks useful, but doesn’t do quite what I need. I would like to be able to export, not individual pages, but individual sections of a document. (I create multi-author books as single ID documents with a section for each chapter, and then send a PDF of each chapter to the relevant author for proofing.) Could the script be adapted to cater for this need?
Hi there, very good script, May i know how i can take off the date and file name on the final pdf files, thanks
I cannot see myself using this.
It’s not very reliable… (not professionally anyway!)
PDF and JPEG exports are ok, but EPS and PostScript are flawed with thin white keylines around text boxes (specially over a dark back ground).
Also both these formats crop pages very oddly!
Needs metric measurements (not Americana).
Briefly, when I sent these to people, their first question is:
“… those lines are awful, I don’t like them. – Can you delete them, why did you leave them there?” etc. etc.
Thanks so much to Scott for coding this!! I’ve been looking for a program like this for so many issues of our mags.. thanks!! now we wont have to export per single page at a time!! Fantastic work Scottie!
Great Script. I have one problem. My file has 50 layers. On the Version Manager screen where you select Base layer and Version layer the screen doesn’t scroll t allow me to see all the layers.
I need to know how to remove the file name and date etc. from the bottom of the final pdfs as well.
This could possibly save us hours of work!
On the second window “Postscript Options” under Override PS Page Size, type in your documents original page size. This cuuts off the extra .25″ the script adds to your page with the info on it. Presto – No more extra info line.
This page exporter script works well in CS4. Thank you. Saves hours of time.
Thank you so very much – this is exactly what I’ve been looking for!!! xoxox
Hi Scott,
We were using this utility in CS3 and it changed some of our images to LoRes if they were compressed. When exporting as one large PDF directly from CS3 they were fine. Are you aware of a bug causing this? It definitely does something to select images, which we had a sheet of pics of football players and several changed resolution. Please let me know if you are aware of this as I can document and send you if you like.
Thanks,
Greg
We’re using the script on hundreds of catalog pages with InDesign CS2. It causes InDesign to crash over and over, sometimes I can only get one page PDFed. InDesign crashes while the script is running, and I have to reopen it and try again. We thought this would be a great tool but it hasn’t worked well for us. Have you heard of anyone else having this problem? I looked at some of the comments but didn’t find anyone with a similar situation.
A great plugin, thanks. Unfortunately my version (5.0.1) still won’t export to pdf and include the page info tags. In fact, after exporting a document using PEU, the “page information” box in the PDF export settings is unchecked ( even though it had previously been checked).
thanks a lot it is very great script
Mai Ali,
Egypt