simple PDF editing need

[David Schwartz 430]

I've got a couple hundred pages of PDF files in many documents and someone said they need me to put some ID numbers in the footer or a margin of every page. Ugh.

 

I don't have Acrobat and I'm not going to buy it just for this.

 

I've also used several PDF libs and I know they can be used, but again, they cost about what Acrobat costs. (I don't have access to any of them myself.)

 

Is there a simple PDF library for Delphi that I can use to put a small rectangle with a string in it onto every page in the same location on each one?

 

Kinda like printing a bunch of stickers and then putting them on each page in the same place (eg., vertically in the left margin)

Edited November 9, 2021 by David Schwartz

[Edwin Yip 154]

With my very limited knowledge in this area (in the information collecting stage for a possible future project), ActiveX solutions aside, AFAIK, there is only one free option - use the low-level API of PdfiumLib, but I'm not sure if there is any Delphi sample code.

 

If you can wait, ImageEn developer is planning to add such annotation feature to that lib (with has a PDF viewer already).

[timfrost 79]

Take a look at https://www.winsoft.sk/pdfium.htm. It's an inexpensive easy-to-use wrapper for PDFIUM.  There are trials and demos at that link.

[Bill Meyer 337]

14 hours ago, David Schwartz said:

Kinda like printing a bunch of stickers and then putting them on each page in the same place (eg., vertically in the left margin)

So the numbers are not specific to the page(s)?

 

Affinity Publisher https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/ is an inexpensive tool which can edit a PDF and you could put the ID numbers into what they call master pages. That would remove the need for editing all the pages.

[David Schwartz 430]

15 hours ago, Bill Meyer said:

So the numbers are not specific to the page(s)?

No. It's a bunch of paperwork the bank wants that's already in PDF files, including a few years of tax returns.

 

They want an ID printed on every page of every PDF, then FAXed to them

 

All the same info on every page in the same place.

 

I wonder how long it will be before banks move their data systems into the 21st Century?

Edited November 11, 2021 by David Schwartz

[Fred Ahrens 59]

Sending it by fax means you have to print it first.

Your printer driver may offer a watermark function.

[Vandrovnik 215]

6 hours ago, David Schwartz said:

No. It's a bunch of paperwork the bank wants that's already in PDF files, including a few years of tax returns.

 

They want an ID printed on every page of every PDF, then FAXed to them

 

All the same info on every page in the same place.

 

I wonder how long it will be before banks move their data systems into the 21st Century?

Using Pdfium (free), you can convert PDF page to bitmap, add what you need and print this bitmap.

Synopse contains SynPdf.pas, which allows you to create PDF (from that bitmap, for example).

Edited November 11, 2021 by Vandrovnik

[Fr0sT.Brutal 900]

7 hours ago, David Schwartz said:

They want an ID printed on every page of every PDF, then FAXed to them

  

All the same info on every page in the same place. 

That's much simpler. PDF split to images - many tools can do it, f.ex. free PDF-XChange viewer. Then add your ID with image processing tool that allows batch processing (IrfanView is free and powerful). Then join images back to PDF - the same PDF-XChange viewer can do it too

[Guest]

The "make image - manipulate image - send" solution re documents is something that has boomed during the pandemic in a host of "digitally sign" services.

Taking note on the huge accessibility debate/development/legal/awareness-discourse that i personally is very involved with, i really really hope that such measures will disappear.

People who need screen-readers cannot sign legal documents digitally with these solutions.

Sure, for the above scenario, the bank requested a fax so any actual text will be destroyed in that step anyway, but who knows, lets hope the bank becomes a modern employer and start employing people that are visually challenged. Or... as already wished for, a more current digital approach.

 

So a bit OT - anyone of you found a digital signing service where the signee can actually read a proper PDF or OOXML document? I have a very interested client (with a limited budget).

 

I am sorry David that i cannot be of more help.

[Fr0sT.Brutal 900]

1 hour ago, Dany Marmur said:

"make image - manipulate image - send"

Make document - print - scan to image - send - manipulate image - send - OCR to text - read 🙂

[David Schwartz 430]

3 hours ago, Dany Marmur said:

the bank requested a fax so any actual text will be destroyed in that step anyway,

the paperwork can be submitted via FAX or printed and sent via snail mail. 

 

FAX is easier. 

 

My sister solved the problem with NitroPDF and combined all of the documents into a single large document, then added a header in the top margin with the required info.