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macospdfcupsiwork

Batch convert Mac iWork files to PDF on the command line

I'm trying to batch convert a bunch of assorted iWork files (Numbers, Pages, Keynote) to PDF on the command line.

I've been trying cups-filter but there's no MIME type filter for the iWork types. I then looked into using qlmanage to generate the preview image and use that, but this doesn't seem to work for multi file Keynote documents as they generate as HTML rather than PDF.

Any suggestions? I'd rather not resort to AppleScript.

Solution

  • Well... you need something that

    1. understand the iWork file formats,
    2. can render the documents to then create the PDF.

    Unless you want to re-invent the iWork suite... Sounds simpler to just tell the iWork apps what you want from them.

    You would do that via the Scripting Bridge

    I would use Applescript, but perhaps you can use Ruby and Python with the Scripting Bridge to accomplish what you need

    With Scripting Bridge, RubyCocoa and PyObjC scripts can do what AppleScript scripts can do: control scriptable applications and exchange data with them.

    I haven't used the Scripting Bridge in a while, but I believe you can tell applications to print documents. And any application that can print in OS X can send it to PDF instead.