From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 2 00:28:00 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9CED21065670 for ; Fri, 2 Apr 2010 00:28:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F3738FC15 for ; Fri, 2 Apr 2010 00:28:00 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-100-7.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.100.7]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id C4E2E1E0DD for ; Fri, 2 Apr 2010 02:27:58 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id o320RvwR002599 for ; Fri, 2 Apr 2010 02:27:57 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 02:27:57 +0200 From: Polytropon To: FreeBSD Questions Message-Id: <20100402022757.ec5f6598.freebsd@edvax.de> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Tool to produce A5 booklet from A4 pages PS / PDF X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:28:00 -0000 In order NOT to try to reinvent the wheel, I'd like to ask if anyone knows a tool that does helps to produce a printable and foldable booklet from A4 pages. I'm searching for a tool that scales down and reorders A4 pages (from a document, usually PS or PDF) in a way that the result can be printed with a duplex printer (content on both sides of the paper sheet) and then be folded in the middle in order to get a "book" (or let's better call it a booklet) in A5 format. Additionally, the booklet can be stapled where it has been folded (using the proper mechanical tool). Of course, this just seems useful for standard A paper formats (A4 / A5) which keep the aspect ratio sqrt(2) (or nearly 1.414:1) even after folding or combining: A4 +------++------+ | || | | A5 || A5 | | || | +------++------+ Illustration here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/A_size_illustration.svg Depending on the "real" page number, it would require to completely re-order and rotate (90 or 270 degree) the contained pages, depending where they will appear on the result paper. For example, page 1 needs to be placed on page 1, top, rotated 270 degrees, while the lase page also has to be placed on page 1, bottom, rotated 270 degrees. Page 2 will be on page 2 (which is the rear side of page 1), top, rotated 90 degrees... and now my imaginary force is failing. :-) All pages have to be scaled down to 50% of their original size, of course. In ideal case, the number of pages to be processed this way is modulo 4, because 4 pages go to one sheet (two per side). So basically, I'm searching for a program that does the renumbering and rotation magic, provided PS or PDF files as input, and also as output. What tool can you suggest to do so? Sidenote: Since my system crashed in July 2008, I can't access my home directory anymore (inode missing, content still on disk). I wrote a program that does all this for image files as input - creates a LaTeX document that includes the properly rotated and scaled images so you can print from a stack of images and result in a happy little booklet - jpg2tex, pdflatex, lpr. I don't want to do this again... :-( -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...