Comments on: Printing instruction manuals, how to reorder postscript files

By: max

max — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Isn’t that what psbook is supposed to do?

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

when you use this method, dont you have a > type edge where the pages flip?
what i do, althou, it does result in a ‘thicker’ book, is just print 2 pages per sheet, and fold each in half, and stack. then staple the stack, (sometimes, have to use longer non standard office stapler). but it works nicely for me.
althou, i guess with your method i could just snip the > edge. hoping that near the middle no text gets chopped.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nice, but psbook psnup seems to do exactly what you want, and also handles signatures, in case you want to do this with a manual that is too large to fold in one piece. Psbook and psnup are in the psutils package.

By: Marius Gedminas

Marius Gedminas — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You are jumping through some unnecessary hoops. Python lets you express what you want more directly. I hope this comment form won't mangle it too badly:

import sys
n = int(sys.argv[1])
if n % 2:
sys.exit("expected an even number, but %s is not even! Aborting" % n)
for i in range(1, n/2+1):
if i % 2:
print n+1-i, i,
else:
print i, n+1-i,
print

By: Данило

Данило — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You've even got an example for what you are after in "man pstops" (also in psutils package, like psbook and psnup, but a bit more raw, and can do even some more complicated things):

""""
To re-arrange pages for printing 2-up booklets, use

"4:-3L@.7(21cm,0)+0L@.7(21cm,14.85cm)"

for the front sides, and

"4:1L@.7(21cm,0)+-2L@.7(21cm,14.85cm)"

for the reverse sides (or join them with a comma for duplex printing).
"""

By: Rusty

Rusty — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Likewise OpenOffice.org does have a print option for this, Brochure.

I’m not saying that OOo reads pdf files, but it includes the ability to print the way you describe for the document types it will read.