Each time I show someone the Artboards feature in Illustrator, inevitably, the first question I get is always "so can I open a multi-page PDF file in Illustrator and have it open as a single Illustrator will multiple artboards"?
Sadly, Illustrator can still only open or place one page of a PDF at a time. So you'd have a lot of manual work on your hands -- basically creating your own artboards and then importing the PDF pages one at a time....
OR, you can do it the efficient way and use a script :)
Back when Artboards was first introduced in CS4, my friend and scripting guru Shane Stanley created an AppleScript that would basically allow you to drop any multipage PDF file on it -- and it would turn it into a mutli-artboard Illustrator file, with all the PDF pages -- in one step! Being that the script is written in AppleScript, it will only run on MacOS. The original script didn't support CS5 or Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
I'm happy to announce that Shane has graciously taken the time to update his script, so it now works for CS5 and also works on Mac OS 10.6. If you use the script, Shane has humbly requested that in lieu of paying him, you instead make a donation to help those in need in Christchurch and Japan. He suggested this organization, or the Red Cross.
You can download the script here.
23 responses:
Ok Mordy - the inevitable question. What chance for a Windows platform version of this script?
I can't say, Gary. Shane is an AppleScript guru, so I don't know if he knows how to convert this to VB Script to run on Windows.
Thank you, Mordy.
Thank you, Mordy.
hi many thanks for sharing the pdf converter that...I have download the script...
best regards :)
still doesn't work for cs5
Many Thanks it worked a treat
What am I missing....I push my PDF file on top of the .app and it opens the application but it doesnt' seem to do anything. Would love to have this working. Please help.
It works great, I just unzipped, dragged to my desktop and made sure I had CS5 open already. It created a document with 64 pages/artboards with out a hickup. Thanks for the script!
It worked perfectly for me. I had Illustrator CS5 open, dragged the pdf onto the app (inside of the app directory) and it converted the pdf pages to artboards inside of a single ai document.
Many thanks Mordy/Shane
Yeah. Still doesn't work. What am I missing? Anyone?
@ Chris, the script is a drag and drop application. Drop your PDF file on the icon and then the script will run. Illustrator CS5 doesn't have to be running because the script will open it. Do not place inside the Illustrator scripting folder and try and work it from the application because it will not work. Hope that helps.
Is this script still available for Illustrator CS4?
Love the ide, but me aswell as another cant get it to work with cs5, the dialog box taht shows when installing said something with cs4..- but when i drag my pdf to my illustrator icon nothing new happens. Im still asked witch i want to open...
Thank you very much, works like a charm.
Thank you! It worked fantastic and you just saved me something like two hours of work!
OMG I super appreciate this!! Thank you so much for sharing! YOU super rock! Happy Halloween!
Thanks bud, saves alot of hassle
Does this work with Windows 7? The icon is not showing. When I drag the PDF to PkgInfo nothing happens. Correct me if I'm wrong.
donation made! thanks!
It worked! Very cool. I mostly use Photoshop, but this will definitely come in handy for my Illustrator stuff.
thankyou so much! Shane is the MAN!!!!!!! That has saved me time and effort and more importantly my patience!!!! thankyou xx
Thanks a lot!! I'm using CS5. On my first attempts something was goin wrong in the 9th page. But then I discovered that that artboards weren't fitting tha illustrator page. So, for multi(many)pages PDF file, its recommended to reduce the spacing of artboards and use more columns!
Thx a lot again!
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