28 Jul 2006 arauzo   » (Journeyer)

How to print a PDF user manual in an appropriate size

Usually the user manual of the tech gadgets we buy comes on a CD in PDF format. Sometimes there is also a printed copy included. This was my case, but it came in the wrong language. If I wanted the spanish manual, I would have needed to return the camera and wait longer to have it again. So that was not an acceptable option. I have tried to understand portuguese, but unsuccessfull. I have tried without the manual and it was ok for standard features, but... ok, let's print the manual.

The size of the manual is such that four pages fit well on an a4 paper. I have used:

pdf2ps Manual.pdf
psselect -p3-185 Manual.ps sel.ps 
psbook sel.ps | pstops 8:0,1,4,5,2,3,6,7 | psnup -4 -pa4 -b-5cm >out.ps

  1. First line converts it to postscript.

  2. Second line removes some problematic unusefull pages.

  3. Third line:
    • psbook arranges pages to be folded when printed two on each side of paper.

    • pstops arranges pages to have 4 on each side (cutted on the middle and folded each pair.

    • psnup effectively puts 4 pages on each final a4 page with '-b-5cm' used to remove the excesive individual margins of original pages.

More advanced info on making impositions with pstops.

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