Append multiple PDF files - pdf

Question

I have about 600 PDF files that I want to add a single disclaimer page to the beginning of each of them. So, I need to find a way to merge two PDF documents where one file is always the same and and comes first and the second file is changing.
Please let me know how I can do this.
Thanks!

Answer 1

I found this:
http://gotofritz.net/blog/howto/joining-pdf-files-in-os-x-from-the-command-line/
So you could do something like this in a shell script:
#!/bin/bash
page1="disclaimer.pdf"
for f in {a.pdf b.pdf c.pdf}; do
"/System/Library/Automator/Combine PDF Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py" -o "$f" "$page1" "$f"
done
You can wrap this in an Applescript or automator workflow it you like.

Answer 2

Combine an unknown PDF with a known PDF
Automator can do this. You would save it as an application, so that you can drop the second file onto it. Your steps would be something like:
Get Specified Finder Items: Add the known PDF document here, the one that is “always the same and comes first”.
Combine PDF Pages
Move Finder Items: To: Combined Files. This will create a randomly-named file in the folder “Combined Files” which you will need to create.
If this Automator workflow is saved as an application, you can drop your second, "changing" file onto the application icon. The workflow will combine the two, putting the named file first.
Loop this workflow for each dropped file
In order to do this on multiple files at once, you will need to create a second workflow that loops through each dropped file and calls the above workflow. This second workflow is also created as an application. It has only one step:
Run Workflow: choose the workflow created in the previous step, and process items in batches of 1 at a time using 1 workflow.
Give the files a more usable name
That’s the basics. The obvious drawback is that all of the files have random names. That can be fixed by grabbing the original filename into a variable, and saving the new, combined document using that name in your new folder.
First, add four new steps to the top of the first workflow, in front of “Get Specified Finder Items”:
Run AppleScript
Set Value of Variable: name the variable filepath.
Run AppleScript
Set Value of Variable: name the variable filename.
Get Value of Variable: filepath
The first two steps save the full path to the dropped PDF. The second two steps get just the filename portion. The fifth new step pops the full path back into the workflow so that it can be combined with the known disclaimer.
Set the AppleScript in step 1 to:
on run {input, parameters}
return input
end run
Set the AppleScript in step 3 to:
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder"
set filename to name of file input
end tell
end run
Then, add a step at the end to rename the file. After Move Finder Items add *Rename Finder Items. Choose “Name Single Item”, “Full name to” and then drag the variable filename up to the text box.