Processing for batch PDF production?

Core Library Questions

cingraham

Processing for batch PDF production?

in Core Library Questions • 2 years ago

Hi all,

I'm looking to create 100 PDF profiles of cities in the U.S. The profiles will be 2 pages each -- the first will include two jpegs generated by Arc GIS, while the second page will have some charts and data points specific to each city. Would Processing be a good tool for this?

I've read up some on the PDF export library -- what would be a general procedure for doing so? I'm comfortable enough with drawing charts, loading images and doing layouts in Processing, so what I'd like to do is set up the general layout and then have it read from images and data files (presumably looping through an array of images and an array of data) in the Data folder to automate the whole thing. Any tips/pointers would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Replies(7)

Chrisir

Re: Processing for batch PDF production?

2 years ago

hello,

consider to do it in MS Word.

It has a build in programming languange VBA (for the loops) and you can do the layout stuff and printing stuff there more easily.

Greetings, chris

cingraham

Re: Processing for batch PDF production?

2 years ago

Gotcha -- that was my default, to do it in Excel. It looks like that's the route we'll take. Thanks for the input:)

PhiLho

Re: Processing for batch PDF production?

2 years ago

Well, Processing can do the job too.
Just take the environment you feel more comfortable in.

cingraham

Re: Processing for batch PDF production?

1 year ago

phi.lo,

I'm back on this question, with a new set of profiles to create. I need to create 200 1-page PDF profiles. Each profile will have unique text and charts, pulled from tsv files (generally following the process in Ben Fry's book). Each profile will also need to have a unique filename (ie 01.pdf, 02.pdf, etc).

How would I set things up to do this with the PDF exporter? In the examples on the PDF libraries page, the filename is always being specified in setup() -- how would I get it to output to a new file on say, each loop through draw()?

Many thanks for the help!

Chris

PhiLho

Re: Processing for batch PDF production?

1 year ago

" In the examples on the PDF libraries page, the filename is always being specified in setup()"
Not really. The Single Frame from an Animation (With Screen Display) example doesn't do that, and shows how to have numbered files.

cingraham

Re: Processing for batch PDF production?

1 year ago

Cool -- sorry I missed that :\

So could I do something like what follows? I don't quite think I have the syntax around the filename right in beginRecord() -- how should that look?

import processing.pdf.*;
int filename = 0;

void setup() {
size (400, 400);
}

void draw() {

beginRecord(PDF, "filename.pdf");
//draw stuff

filename +=1;
}

PhiLho

Re: Processing for batch PDF production?

1 year ago

It should look like in the example... As written in the comment: " Note that #### will be replaced with the frame number".
If you want a more precise control of the numbering, use "filename-" + nf(filename, 3) + ".pdf" (for example, change name and number of digits to your liking).

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