Illustrator-bridge Help

[burndog]

Does anyone know of a way to check the dimensions of a pdf or an eps file without having to open the file. In bridge I have set the sort by dimension and it does not seem to work. As a test I created 5 pdf files of varying document sizes and then through Bridge I set the sort by to dimension, and nothing changes, however when I set the sort by to file size the order of the thumbnail changes.

Basically what I am trying to do is this...we get files of blueprints on disc. Most of the files are around 24 by 36 inches, however some are slightly larger and some are at 11 by 17 ( document sizes that is ) Our customer needs them all printed at about 36 by 24. We do have a scale to fit D size print with our printer, but the rip seems to mess up when we scale, and sometimes prints will actually come out blank. So for the time being we are forced to open each file check the document size and change if needed.

Does anyone know of a way to check the document size without having to open the file. I was hoping that through bridge that we could simply sort by dimension and then only open the files that need resizing. Any help would be much appreciated...thanks!

PS we are using CS3 on windows.

[Dave]

Can you display the size (dimension) attributes of the pdf file in the directory listing like you can with jpg or video files?

It should then be possible to sort on that field ....

TESTING ... TESTING ...

EDIT
Nope it doesn't ... not in windows directories anyway

[Happy]

On the right hand side of the Bridge window is a menu for metadata. This contains the dimensions of the pdf (jpg or whatnot if applicable).

Outside of opening bridge, if you are using a PC. (Sorry I don't use a MAC) Right click the start button and select explore. Locate the folder where the pdf or image is in (or the drive the blueprint disc is in) and select. Go to the view tab and change to 'details'. You should now see a dimensions column.

(If you want to save the detail setting as a default - go to the tools tab and select folder options then select the view tab and click on apply to all folders.)

[burndog]

You're right Dave...too bad about the 'dimensions column'...it just shows up with no data in it for pdfs.

Happy, I've tried the metadata route ( even checked in preferences in bridge to be sure that'dimensions' was checked) and no luck. It does not show up.

It seems that bridge can not read too much **** from pdf files.

I'll keep trying, but I think that I may be out of luck. Opening so many files can be time consuming as they tend to come in lots of 40-60 files. Just trying to save some time.

Thanks bunches though...much appreciated.

[Dave]

Hey! This thread is already listed on Google search .... pity it seems to be the only place this question has been posed :)

[Scott]

Unfortunately, you're right, burndog. Bridge is limited in what it displays for dimensions of .ai or .pdf files. EPS files should display the dimensions.

There may be hope for .ai files in the future, but I'm not sure if .pdf display will improve anytime soon.

[burndog]

Well I guess pdf file can be pretty complicated, as they can be an 'envelope' for so many different things.

Thanks Scott, Dave and Happy!:)

[Ez2bFish]

I see the problem you have run into Burndog.

I converted a .jpg to a .pdf file to test a theory....but it doesn't seem to hold water. I think a lot depends on who authored the pdf and what information they decided to include. I will share with you what I was thinking in case some how it works for you...

I have been told on a Mac, one could right click and select view more or more information (I can't remember exactly - I am not a Mac user) but in my mind that sounded like the right click, and select properties (for a Windows PC).

So if you were to right click and select properties on the file, choose the PDF or Summary tab - there is additional information there. But I was not able to find a pdf with picture that had demensions size listed in those fields. Also the summary field "looks" like the metadata information.

So it wouldn't be a one stop shop solution but it would be a right click on the file instead of opening each file and reviewing the properties...but (the long way) it appears to be the only way to extract that information.

Good luck - very interesting issue - if I had more time I wouldn't mind working on it some more...I'm not a programmer, but if you have R&D resources or similar...perhaps someone could write a script that pulls that kind of data from files? That woud be cool - pop in the disc, run the script and it retreives the demensions for you! :)

[Dave]

I've seen several links to discussions on scripts that sort pdf files by the number of pages in the file, maybe some research down that line of inquiry would prove fruitful.

[burndog]

Thanks fish and Dave...the script thing sounds pretty complicated. I work in a pretty small shop (only about a dozen of us) so we have nobody who could work with scripts, and I wouldn't want to have to put the effort into learning it...I still have my hands full with all of the software we have already.

Lately it hasn't been so much of a problem, so maybe it was just some wonky files that messed up the rip software.

CS4 is due out soon I believe, maybe it will help.

Thanks again everyone!:)