Apple - Count pages in PDF (for non-technical, mac using person)

Simple.

Create an Apple Script and export it as an Application and then send the Application to her.

AppleScript Code:

set totalPages to 0
set numDocs to 1
set myFiles to choose file with prompt "Select all PDF's" with multiple selections allowed
set nummyFiles to length of myFiles
set progress total steps to nummyFiles
set progress completed steps to 0
set progress description to "Processing PDF's..."
set progress additional description to "Preparing to process."
repeat with i in myFiles
    set progress additional description to "Processing PDF " & numDocs & " of " & nummyFiles
    set progress completed steps to numDocs
    set myfile to POSIX path of i
    set pageCount to (do shell script "/usr/bin/mdls " & quoted form of myfile & " | /usr/bin/awk '/kMDItemNumberOfPages/{print $3}'") as integer
    set totalPages to (totalPages + pageCount)
    set numDocs to (numDocs + 1)
end repeat
display dialog "There are " & totalPages & " pages in this PDF"
  1. Open /Applications/Utilities/Script Editor.app
  2. File>New
  3. Copy and Paste above code
  4. File>Export
  5. File Format: Application
  6. Send Exported Application

I tried Josh's approach using mdls and found a surprising number of (nulls) for kMDItemNumberOfPages.

So I switched tacks and used AppleScriptObjC to directly count the pages in the found PDF files.

The script will run directly from the Script Editor.app or from a script applet.

It will produce a report in TextEdit that looks like this:

--------------------------
PDF files found  :  460
Total Pages      :  27052
Total Errors     :  0
--------------------------

This run took right at 10 seconds on my 17" Mid-2010 i7 MacBook Pro.

The following line must be altered in the script to properly reflect the target directory on the user's system:

property searchPath : "~/Downloads"

(Although I'd be happy to make it work on the front window in the Finder upon request.)

The script is presently set to be recursive in the target directory.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Auth: Christopher Stone { With many thanks to Shane Stanley and Nigel Garvey }
# dCre: 2018/04/27 01:30
# dMod: 2018/04/27 02:50
# Appl: AppleScriptObjC, TextEdit
# Task: Find all PDF files in a directory tree – count and report all pages.
# Libs: None
# Osax: None
# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @ASObjC, @TextEdit, @Find, @PDF, @Files, @Directory, @Tree, @Recursive, @Count, @Report, @Pages, @Progress_Bar, @Bar
# Vers: 1.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "Quartz" -- for PDF features
use scripting additions
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
property searchPath : "~/Downloads"
property searchRecursively : true
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

set pageCountList to {}
set searchPath to ((current application's NSString's stringWithString:searchPath)'s stringByExpandingTildeInPath) as text
set foundItemList to my filteredContents:searchPath withUTI:{"com.adobe.pdf"} |returning|:"path" recursive:searchRecursively

set totalStepNum to length of foundItemList
set progress total steps to totalStepNum
set progress completed steps to 0
set progress description to "Processing PDF's..."
set progress additional description to "Preparing to process."
set numberOfProcessedDocuments to 0

repeat with pdfFilePath in foundItemList
    set numberOfProcessedDocuments to (numberOfProcessedDocuments + 1)
    set progress additional description to "Processing PDF " & numberOfProcessedDocuments & " of " & totalStepNum
    set progress completed steps to numberOfProcessedDocuments
    try
        set anNSURL to (current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:(contents of pdfFilePath))
        set theDoc to (current application's PDFDocument's alloc()'s initWithURL:anNSURL)
        set end of pageCountList to theDoc's pageCount() as integer
    on error
        set end of pageCountList to "Error --> " & name of (info for (contents of pdfFilePath))
    end try
end repeat

set errorList to text of pageCountList
set filesFoundCount to length of foundItemList
set pageCountList to integers of pageCountList
set pageCount to its sumList(pageCountList)

set pdfPageReport to "
--------------------------
PDF files found  :  " & filesFoundCount & "
Total Pages      :  " & pageCount & "
Total Errors     :  " & length of errorList & "
--------------------------
"

tell application "TextEdit"
    launch -- prevent the Open dialog from opening.
    activate
    set newDoc to make new document with properties {text:pdfPageReport}
    tell newDoc
        set font to "Menlo"
        set size to "14"
    end tell
end tell

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--» HANDLERS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
on filteredContents:folderPath withUTI:wUTI |returning|:returnType recursive:wRecursive
    set theFolderURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:folderPath
    set typeIdentifierKey to current application's NSURLTypeIdentifierKey
    set keysToRequest to current application's NSArray's arrayWithObject:(typeIdentifierKey)
    set theFileManager to current application's NSFileManager's defaultManager()

    # Get all items in folder descending into subfolders if asked.
    if wRecursive = true then
        set allURLs to (theFileManager's enumeratorAtURL:theFolderURL includingPropertiesForKeys:keysToRequest options:6 errorHandler:(missing value))'s allObjects()
    else
        set allURLs to theFileManager's contentsOfDirectoryAtURL:theFolderURL includingPropertiesForKeys:keysToRequest options:4 |error|:(missing value)
    end if

    # Build an or predicate to test each URL's UTI against all the specified ones.
    set predArray to current application's NSMutableArray's new()
    repeat with aKind in wUTI
        (predArray's addObject:(current application's NSPredicate's predicateWithFormat_("self UTI-CONFORMS-TO %@", aKind)))
    end repeat
    set thePredicate to current application's NSCompoundPredicate's orPredicateWithSubpredicates:predArray

    # Build a list of those URLs whose UTIs satisfy the predicate …
    script o
        property theURLs : {}
    end script
    # … keeping AS texts listing the UTIs tried so that they don't need to be tested again.

    set conformingUTIs to ""
    set unconformingUTIs to ""

    repeat with oneURL in allURLs
        set thisUTI to end of (oneURL's getResourceValue:(reference) forKey:typeIdentifierKey |error|:(missing value))
        # It's only necessary to test this UTI for conformity if it hasn't come up before.
        set thisUTIAsText to linefeed & thisUTI & linefeed
        if (unconformingUTIs contains thisUTIAsText) then
            # Do nothing.
        else if (conformingUTIs contains thisUTIAsText) then
            # Add this URL to the output list.
            set end of o's theURLs to oneURL
        else if ((thePredicate's evaluateWithObject:thisUTI) as boolean) then -- This works even if thisUTI is missing value.
            # Add this URL to the output list and append the UTI to the conforming-UTI text.
            set end of o's theURLs to oneURL
            set conformingUTIs to conformingUTIs & thisUTIAsText
        else
            # Append this UTI to the unconforming-UTI text.
            set unconformingUTIs to unconformingUTIs & thisUTIAsText
        end if
    end repeat

    # Get an array version of the URL list and use this to derive the final output.
    set theURLs to current application's NSArray's arrayWithArray:(o's theURLs)
    if returnType = "name" then return (theURLs's valueForKey:"lastPathComponent") as list
    if returnType = "path" then return (theURLs's valueForKey:"path") as list
    if returnType = "url" then return theURLs
    return theURLs as list

end filteredContents:withUTI:|returning|:recursive:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
on sumList(theList)
    set theNSArray to current application's NSArray's arrayWithArray:theList
    set theSum to (theNSArray's valueForKeyPath:"@sum.self") as integer
    return theSum
end sumList
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As this critter is only lightly tested I make no guarantees, but I'm pleased with it so far.

-ccs