"Create PDF" as individual files versus a combined file

[jadecricket]

Hey everyone,
I've posted this question on Reddit, but didn't get any response. I've found the "Create PDF" from the Quick Actions menu in the finder to be incredibly useful. However, it seems like the only option it offers is a combined PDF. So if I say, selected multiple images, it would convert them into one combined PDF. But what if I want to convert a batch of images to *individual* PDFs? Is there any easy way to do this without additional software? A shortcut? Automator?
Would appreciate any insight you have.

thanks,
Quin

 

[usagora]

The only way I know how to do this without a third party app is to view the page thumbnails on the pdf file, and then drag and drop each page into a folder in Finder to create a PDF of just that page. To me, it's a major oversight that Preview has no option to export each page individually. I looked at Automator but didn't see any actions that would seem to accomplish this.

 

[bogdanw]

Not very elegant, but a solution: Automator – QuickAction – New PDF from images – Split PDF

 

[usagora]

Not very elegant, but a solution: Automator – QuickAction – New PDF from images – Split PDF
View attachment 2196646

That does exactly what the OP wanted. Not sure what's inelegant about it? LOL. Just drag the images to the app icon and voila. Not sure how the heck I missed the "Split PDF" action when I searched "PDF" in Automator earlier today 🤦🏼‍♂️

 

[bogdanw]

It creates a pdf from all the images, then splits it into pages.
An elegant way would have been with AppleScript and Image Events, unfortunately “Image Events can read .pdf files, but cannot save them.”
https://developer.apple.com/library...utomationScriptingGuide/ManipulateImages.html

 

[Slartibart]

another option would be to use ghostscript to split the pdf into single pages and put the whole thing into a quick action using Automator.

 

[bogdanw]

With third-party tools, individual images can be directly converted into individual PDFs. Example with soffice included in LibreOffice.

for f in "$@"
do
/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice --headless --convert-to pdf -outdir ~/Desktop "$f"
done

 

[jadecricket]

Thanks all the responses everyone. Really appreciated.
-quin

 

[jadecricket]

Not very elegant, but a solution: Automator – QuickAction – New PDF from images – Split PDF
View attachment 2196646

This seemed very elegant to me, thank you. One question is: would it be possible to do this and keep SOME semblance of the original file name? The idea is to create a searchable archive, so keeping the original file name is somewhat critical. Even if it's something close that could then be further nuanced via the Rename command in the file menu.

thanks so much!

 

[bogdanw]

This is elegant And preserves file names. Made in Shortcuts

Shortcuts User Guide for Mac https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts-mac/welcome/mac

 

[jadecricket]

This is elegant And preserves file names. Made in Shortcuts
View attachment 2197373
Shortcuts User Guide for Mac https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts-mac/welcome/mac

This is amazing! thank you!

 

[jadecricket]

This is amazing! thank you!

One thing about this otherwise wonderful shortcut is it appears it stopped working in macOS Sonoma. Not sure how to give permission beyond saying 'OK.' Any thoughts? thanks for your help!

 

[Slartibart]

You have to turn on permissions in System Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy & Security.

 

[bogdanw]

One thing about this otherwise wonderful shortcut is it appears it stopped working in macOS Sonoma. Not sure how to give permission beyond saying 'OK.' Any thoughts? thanks for your help!

If you can't click on OK, go to System Settings - Privacy & Security - Files and Folders and it should be there.

 

[jadecricket]

Neither of these solutions seem to work. Screenshots illustrating suggested solutions. I'm just confused because I made no change in settings from Ventura to Sonoma, it just changed the permissions structure.

 

[bogdanw]

I’ve just tried with a newly created shortcut in Sonoma and it doesn’t ask for permission for the Desktop folder.
You could try to reset permissions for Shortcuts, from Terminal

tccutil reset All com.apple.shortcuts

 

[jadecricket]

Still didn't work. I wonder what the issue is.

 

[bogdanw]

Delete the shortcut and create it again.

 

[jadecricket]

I did this - and discovered that unlike the first shortcut that originally worked, this re-creation didn't work - however, it didn't provide the file permissions errors - it just wouldn't generate files. With "Provide Output" checked, it did work. This wasn't necessary in the original shortcut, so I'm not sure what changed between OS releases, I'm just not that familiar enough with shortcuts.