Scripting a TeX document - (or other way to number pdf pages)

Wed Apr 14 17:29:34 UTC 2010

----- "Florian Diesch" <diesch at spamfence.net> wrote:

> p.echols at comcast.net writes:
> 
> > My limited understanding of LaTeX is that you create a source file
> > that has both text and markup.  That file is then interpreted when
> > printed.  
> 
> It's not interpreted when printed but you use some kind of compiler
> to
> create a printable file, e.g. a PDF file
> 
> > Would it be in the realm of realistic for someone such as
> > yourself to identify the segments that would have to be in a script
> to
> > do such a thing?  My analogy in "fake" html would be
> >
> > <document>
> > <head>
> > -Format code
> > -Font Code
> > -etc
> > </head>
> > <text position=bottom-left>
> > Page Number 0001
> > </text>
> > <pagebreak><text position=bottom-left>
> > Page Number 0002
> > </text>
> > <pagebreak><text position=bottom-left>
> > Page Number 0003
> > </text>
> > </document>
> >
> > (For the critics, I am not good at html, but I know this is wrong,
> and why and that's not the point)
> >
> > The changing parts in such a page would be few, and the result
> easily
> > scriptable.  For my purposes, I would not have to understand the
> LaTeX
> > code for it to work.  Something you might think of as a fun
> challenge?
> 
> This short LaTeX source lets you assemble pages from multiple PDF
> files
> and automatically adds a page number on each page:
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> \documentclass[a4paper]{article}
> \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
> \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
> \usepackage{pdfpages}
> \usepackage{hyperref}
> 
> \begin{document}
> \includepdfmerge[
>                  picturecommand={\put(500, 30){Page Number \thepage}}
>                 ]{%
>  some_file.pdf, 1-200,
>  other_file.pdf, 5,7,10
> }
> 
> \end{document}
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> The \put(500, 30) gives the position of the page number. Adapt it to
> your needs. The text in the {} after gets put on every page; \thepage
> is replaced by the page number.
> 
> The "some_file.pdf, 1-200" like lines include the given pages from
> the
> given files. Every line except the last one has to end with comma.
> 
> Install the package texlive-latex-recommended to install a LaTeX
> system
> with the needed LaTeX packages (expect it to take a few 100 MByte disc
> space).
> 
> Save the file as e.g. myfile.tex and run
>  pdflatex myfile.tex
> to create myfile.pdf
> 
> 
>    Florian

Thanks!  This is a great answer.  Similar to Aart's solution, I think that this would all be "scriptable."  As I am thinking through the parameters I would want, it is more of a scripting challenge than doing an add on to the prior existing script.  But it is also a more elegant solution in that it would do everything in one pass, rather than taking the "Brute Force" approach of blowing up the original pdf, "stamping" the pages, and then putting it back together.  

A couple of questions if you don't mind.

Can you change the page size in the middle of a document?  For example, if file1.pdf is "us-letter" and file2.pdf is "us-legal", could the tex file be written in a way to change the number location so that the number ends up the same distance from the bottom of each page?

Here is my other question.  I think I need to read some LaTeX documentation on my own.  (Especially since I am sure to have more questions.)  Given what you know about what I am trying to do, can you suggest a good resource?

Thanks again,

--PE