You should look at http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ . What you ask I believe can be easily achieved via stamping/watermarking.
baol
2010-03-27 15:13:13
A:
Not directly. The stamping/watermarking process only allows you to use the same image on every page. I referred to that tool in a comment in case the OP wanted to look at it's source code for ideas.
Billy ONeal
2010-03-27 15:17:02
Well I might agree, even if it depends on your "directly" definition :). Having prepared the pdf files with the page numbers in advance, I guess it can be done on a single bash line.
baol
2010-03-27 15:39:29
"Well I might agree ...": I'm lost. It sounds as though you have a single bash line that does ... "it"? Which "it" are we talking about now? I'll happily receive a succinct bash form that paginates PDF. Even a single bash line that leverages pdftk to do the same will interest me. Perhaps I misunderstand what you intend by "I guess".
Cameron Laird
2010-03-27 15:54:18
@cameron-laird: pdftk allows splitting a pdf into pages, stamping each single page and joining the result in one pdf, all from the command line. The ingredients are there, building the one-liner (or a simple bash script) should then be a matter of a few tries (if you are not familiar with bash you can have a look at the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide).
baol
2010-03-27 17:26:17
Thank you for these details, baol. Fond as I am of pdftk, its current version is unlikely to be "modern" enough for the particular project at hand. Also, I now better understand what you mean by "[h]aving prepared ... pdf ... with the page numbers in advance ...", and "one-liner".Thank you for the reference to Cooper's *... Guide*; it's a resource that's always pertinent.
Cameron Laird
2010-03-28 16:19:01
Thank you, BillyONeal: while "APDF Number" doesn't appear to me to support Linux currently, it has enough desirable properties that I'll be testing it over the next week.
Cameron Laird
2010-03-27 15:58:20