PDFviewer For Premiere Pro
PDFviewer opens PDFs in Premiere Pro
Open PDF Documents In Premiere Pro With PDFviewer
PDFviewer is a Premiere Pro extension from Primal Cuts that can open and search any PDF file within the Premiere Pro interface. Access to PDF production documents inside PDFviewer will save Premiere Pro users countless hours of shuffling paper and switching apps while editing. But it's more than that. PDFviewer gives Premiere Pro editors a “blank page”, if you will, for creative use of PDFs in postproduction workflows.
The PDFviewer Panel
For $10, PDFviewer is everything a Premiere Pro editor could want in a built-in PDF reader; it's simple and straightforward. From its installation, Premiere Pro users will be comfortable with PDFviewer's seamless appearance and functionality with the rest of Premiere Pro's workspaces. It's dockable and resizable like any other panel in Premiere Pro.
Save PDFviewer panel in your favorite Premiere Pro workspaces
To load a PDF, click the Open PDF icon in the tool bar and browse to your PDF document. Click the plus icon in the top right to create a new tab in order to open subsequent PDFs. Be aware, the Open PDF icon will be grouped under the chevrons if the PDFviewer panel goes below a certain size.
PDFviewer panel
Also, note that PDFviewer will evenly truncate tabs for organized presentation. Mousing over tabs will display the full PDF file name as shown below.
Mouse over PDFviewer's truncated tabs to display file name
Benefits Of PDFviewer
SEARCH TEXT - One of the coolest features of PDFviewer is the ability to search PDF documents. Now, editors can search any number of production documents inside Premiere Pro, instead of tabbing to a word processor app that's running alongside the NLE. Just to jog the imagination, here are some examples of documents PDFviewer can search:
- lined scripts
- metadata
- client feedback
- keyboard shortcuts
- transcripts
- shot logs
- audio logs
- storyboards
Search Transcripts or Shot Lists in Premiere Pro with PDFviewer
COPY & PASTE TEXT - If you're a lucky editor with accurate production logs, you can load them up in PDFviewer and copy & paste those notes into any of Premiere Pro's metadata fields.
Copy & Paste PDFviewer text into Premiere Pro's metadata fields
APPEARANCES - PDFviewer will help keep your editing suite free of paper clutter and improve your presentation in general. Think how impressed your clients or producers will be when they see their feedback inside Premiere Pro during an editing session!
Look more professional to clients with PDFviewer
GO GREEN - Using PDFviewer is an environmentally-friendly alternative to printing out stacks of transcripts and production notes. It will also reduce fatigue by limiting the amount of eye and neck movement needed to view your documents.
Installing PDFviewer
Purchasing PDFviewer is a simple process. After securely entering your payment information, you will be able to download the extension, which is compatible with both Mac and PC. If you are still running Premiere Pro CC 2014, installing PDFviewer is as easy as double clicking the extension (.zxp) file and Adobe's Extension Manager will handle the rest.
Use Adobe Extension Manager for Premiere Pro CC 2014 installation
Unfortunately, Adobe Extension Manager has been discontinued for CC 2015. However, PDFviewer includes easy-to-follow directions for manual installation for Premiere Pro CC 2015.
New Product; New Possibilities
PDFviewer is the pilot initiative for Primal Cuts. It's a perfectly niche product that launches the Primal Cuts mission to create "simple tools for a better workflow". As solid as PDFviewer is, for the sake of managing expectations, here is a short list of features PDFviewer does not currently support:
- Does not load PDFs from a previous project session
- Does not automatically update saved changes to a PDF
- Does not support editable fields. PDFviewer is a viewer, not an application. (Entered text is visible but not searchable. For best results "flatten" PDFs before opening in PDFviewer. See how to flatten PDFs using Preview on Mac OS X.)
PDFviewer is a grassroots product. These are the best products because they are born out of someone's personal need and commitment to solving it. When someone is that motivated to solving a problem, chances are it will resonate with others. PDFviewer is no different. Primal Cuts developed PDFviewer to eliminate the frustrations of referencing paper documents and third party PDF readers while editing. The result is a solution that will benefit many Premiere Pro users.
Improve your editing productivity with PDFviewer and share your experience with other Premiere Pro editors. Your support will go towards Primal Cuts future development of PDFviewer as well as other products. Visit Primal Cuts for more information and to watch two video tutorials of PDFviewer.
Follow Primal Cuts on Twitter @primalcutsedits.
Special Thanks:
Production documents courtesy of Filmsourcing. Go to Filmsourcing to download free shot list template, storyboard template, art department resources, and EPK templates. Follow Filmsourcing on Twitter @filmsourcing.
