[R] Adding page numbers to existing PDFs

[Paul Murrell]

Hi

Below is a script that does the job for a very simple R plot, making use 
of R and a couple of free software tools (ghostscript and poppler).  It 
may or may not help with your real problem (NOTE the WARNING) ...


library(grImport)

## Multipage PDF created by R
pdf("plot-in.pdf")
plot(1)
plot(2)
dev.off()

## Separate into individual pages
system("pdfseparate plot-in.pdf plot-in-%d.pdf")

inFiles <- list.files(pattern="plot-in-[0-9]+.pdf")

for (i in seq_along(inFiles)) {
     ## Convert to PostScript
     ## (WARNING:  may cause [some] rasterization, depending on content
     ##            of plot and on the conversion tool;  anything that is
     ##            rasterized will NOT get imported)
     system(paste0("pdf2ps plot-in-", i, ".pdf plot-in-", i, ".ps"))

     ## Import to R
     PostScriptTrace(paste0("plot-in-", i, ".ps"),
                     paste0("plot-in-", i, ".xml"))
     plot <- readPicture(paste0("plot-in-", i, ".xml"))

     ## Add page number (in new PDF)
     pdf(paste0("plot-out-", i, ".pdf"))
     grid.picture(plot)
     grid.text(paste0("Page ", i), .5, unit(1, "lines"))
     dev.off()
}

outFiles <- list.files(pattern="plot-out-[0-9]+.pdf")

## Recombine into single, multi-page PDF
system(paste0("pdfunite ", paste(outFiles, collapse=" "),
               " plot-out.pdf"))


If you do want to use something like this, let me know, because there 
are some other limitations that you might want to be aware of.

Paul

On 22/10/2022 6:45 am, Dennis Fisher wrote:
> R 4.2.1
> OS X
> 
> Colleagues
> 
> I have multipage PDF files that were created in R — the files do NOT 
> have page numbers. I would like to add page numbers after the fact, 
> i.e., read a file into R, add margin text, then output as a PDF.
> Can this be done in R (base R or a package)?
> It can be done in Python using reportlab.pdfgen — however, the file size 
> increases prohibitively.
> 
> Dennis
> 
> Dennis Fisher MD
> P < (The "P Less Than" Company)
> Phone / Fax: 1-866-PLessThan (1-866-753-7784)
> www.PLessThan.com 
> <http://www.PLessThan.com>
> 
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-- 
Dr Paul Murrell
Te Kura Tatauranga | Department of Statistics
Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
64 9 3737599 x85392
paul using stat.auckland.ac.nz
www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/