[SOLVED]How to print a booklet 2x1, double-s. with cnt folding in KDE?

stefano · 2020-03-10 00:03:05

I am trying to achieve a remarkably simple goal (or so it seemed....):

- Take a pdf file

- Print it 2 pdf pages per paper page (2x1)

- Print it landscape-mode

- Print it double-sided

- Take any/all output sheet(s) and fold it _once_ vertically across the longest side to create a 4-page flyer for every sheet of paper.

- Finally, collate all 4-page flyers back to front to create a book.

(I believe I am trying to do what in ancient times was called a folio book, but I may be wrong)

The front side (A) page should look like:

+---------------+---------------+
|               |                |
|               |                |
|         1     |          2     |                   (A)
|               |                |
|               |                |
|               |                |
+---------------+---------------+

and when turned around the leftmost edge, the backside (B) should show:

+---------------+---------------+
|               |                |
|               |                |
|         3     |          4     |                   (B)
|               |                |
|               |                |
|               |                |
+---------------+---------------+

Instead, I get all kind of different variations, the most common being that the back side is
(u/d = upside down):

+---------------+---------------+
|               |                |
|               |                |
|     u/d 4     |      u/d 3     |                   (B')
|               |                |
|               |                |
|               |                |
+---------------+---------------+

(This configuration is obviously meant for turning pages around the long edge, not my goal)

I failed. I am using the KDE-provided print dialog which has a very cryptic set of options for 2x1 printing, i.e.:

"left to right, top to bottom"
"left to right, bottom to top"
"right to left, top to bottom",
and so on.

I can't understand which one to use. In fact, I don;t even understand the logic behind the option offered.

How do I get A-B instead of A-B'?

Can anyone enlighten me?

Last edited by stefano (2020-03-31 14:40:43)

Trilby · 2020-03-10 00:22:46

Your schematics don't match your description. If you want a single sheet folio with 4 "pages" of content, then one side should have pages 4+1 and the other 2+3. But your schematics suggest you want 1+2 and 3+4. Which one do you want?

If you want what's in your schematics, left to right and top to bottom should work, but you'll also need short-edge flip for the double-sided settings. If you want a 4 page booklet, I doubt the print settings will get that, but there are a number of tools that can: I use latex for this which even includes an executable "pdfnup" specifically for this type of task.

Last edited by Trilby (2020-03-10 00:24:23)

stefano · 2020-03-10 15:53:41

Trilby wrote:

Your schematics don't match your description. If you want a single sheet folio with 4 "pages" of content, then one side should have pages 4+1 and the other 2+3. But your schematics suggest you want 1+2 and 3+4. Which one do you want?
If you want what's in your schematics, left to right and top to bottom should work, but you'll also need short-edge flip for the double-sided settings. If you want a 4 page booklet, I doubt the print settings will get that, but there are a number of tools that can: I use latex for this which even includes an executable "pdfnup" specifically for this type of task.

My bad, I'm sorry. I actually got the descriptions and schema confused, as you noticed. And that is because I actually need to do both:

1. print double-sided 2x1 with a 1/2 3/4 result, or just 1x1 with 1/ 2

2. print a double-sided 2x1 ready-for folding-and-binding with a 4/1 2/3 result

For problem (1), your suggestion is correct. I was confused because there is no "flip" option in the print dialog where you chose 2x1, it is in the main dialog under the "Options" tab /Duplex printing and it does not mention "flip" which is what my brain was attuned to. So, yes, "left to right, top to bottom" plus "short edge" in the option tab solves problem 1

For option (2), you were right to remind me of the pdfnup possibility. I am a LaTeX user myself, but I had forgotten about it. However, pdfnup seems to have disappeared. It was one of the options in pdfjam, but it has been removed from the latest distribution (see here), because it was just a template for pdfjam itself. The (not so simple) pdfjam command that makes what I want is:

 pdfjam --landscape --scale 0.9 --twoside --nup 2x1 --outfile ~/test-2up-flyer.pdf myFile.pdf 4 myFile.pdf 1 myFile.pdf 2 myFile.pdf 3

I had to disassemble/reassemble the pdf file to achieve the desired imposition (and scale down a bit to fit the result in my printer's print area). Then okular printed it correctly with the short edge option. Of course the pdfjam command is rather cumbersome for a long file, so a script is needed to automate the procedure.

Thanks for the help!

Trilby · 2020-03-10 21:44:01

I'm glad that helped - and happy that you were able to do so much with a point in the right direction.

You're right that pdfjam/pdfnup can get cumbersome for non-trivial cases. I never actually use it as I'm also a latexer - you can create your own wrapper document and use pdfpages to accomplish similar goals with much more control.

A while back I had a script that generated an appropriate .tex file to make various folio sizes for a given many-page pdf. So I'd run the script, then compile the resulting .tex file and get a "book".

Arch Linux

#1 2020-03-10 00:03:05

[SOLVED]How to print a booklet 2x1, double-s. with cnt folding in KDE?

#2 2020-03-10 00:22:46

Re: [SOLVED]How to print a booklet 2x1, double-s. with cnt folding in KDE?

#3 2020-03-10 15:53:41

Re: [SOLVED]How to print a booklet 2x1, double-s. with cnt folding in KDE?

#4 2020-03-10 21:44:01

Re: [SOLVED]How to print a booklet 2x1, double-s. with cnt folding in KDE?

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