Booklets on legalpaper using pdfpages

Question

I want to make a signature for a small pocket booklet. I don't want to use ISO sized paper, but every reference to pdfpages uses A5 or A6 booklet examples. Is this possible to do? Do I need to produce a distinct PDF file for each page of the booklet? Should I be using a different package or documentclass to accomplish this, or should I be investing time in pdfpages? I'm a little overwhelmed by the documentation, and unsure about how to proceed.

I used the example from this website:

http://www.mostlymaths.net/2010/11/creating-a6-booklets-in-7-easy-steps.html

File 1 (thedocument.pdf):

\documentclass{memoir}
   \usepackage{lipsum}
   \begin{document}
      \lipsum[1-40]
   \end{document}

File 2 (b2x1.pdf):

\documentclass[legalpaper]{article}
   \usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
   \usepackage[left=2cm,top=2.cm,bottom=2.cm,right=2cm]{geometry}
   \usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
   \begin{document}
      \includepdf[pages=-, signature=80,landscape, frame=true]{thedocument.pdf}
   \end{document}

File 3 (b4x1.pdf):

\documentclass[legalpaper]{article}
   \usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
   \usepackage[left=2cm,top=2.cm,bottom=2.cm,right=2cm]{geometry}
   \usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
   \begin{document}
      \includepdf[pages=-, signature=40,landscape, frame=true]{b2x1.pdf}
   \end{document}

File 4 (b8x1.pdf):

\documentclass[legalpaper]{article}
   \usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
   \usepackage[left=2cm,top=2.cm,bottom=2.cm,right=2cm]{geometry}
   \usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
   \begin{document}
      \includepdf[pages=-, signature=20,landscape, frame=true]{b4x1.pdf}
   \end{document}

I get a strange output. There's a very large margin on the left and right of the page, and there's only one page of the document showing up on each paper (instead of multiple pdfpages per paper).

Example: Example

As always, a minimal working example (MWE) would be helpful. Perhaps you could show us the solution you'd like to use with ISO, and what problems you are running into when you try to adapt it to non-ISO. It is not obvious to me why that should be different? — cfr, Jan 27 '15 at 01:39

score 3 · Answer 1 · 2015-01-27T07:40:36.643

3

You can change the size using geometry

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\usepackage[paperheight=7.5in,paperwidth=5in]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\pagestyle{empty}
\includepdf[pages=1-8, signature=8,landscape]{pgfmanual}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Change the paper size suitably (as you wish) in

\usepackage[paperheight=7.5in,paperwidth=5in]{geometry}

Edit:

In the thedocument.tex you have to choose the paper width to be (at most) half of the legal papers height, i.e. 279.4mm. In this I have set the width to be 170mm

\begin{filecontents}{thedocument.tex}
\documentclass[twoside]{article}   %% changed
\usepackage[paperheight=215.9mm,paperwidth=170mm,top=2cm,bottom=2cm,inner=2cm,outer=1cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
    \lipsum[1-65]
\end{document}

\end{filecontents}

\documentclass[legalpaper]{article}
\usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
\usepackage[margin=0cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
\immediate\write18{pdflatex thedocument}
\begin{document}
    \includepdf[pages=-, signature=12,  landscape,frame=true]{thedocument.pdf}
\end{document}

enter image description here

edited Jan 27 '15 at 07:40

answered Jan 27 '15 at 02:35

I'm going to give this a try. A quick question: does the paper height/width setting for geometry set the size for the individual pdfpages on a single page, or for the entire piece of paper that the pdfpages are on? – Nick Jan 27 '15 at 02:40
Using geometry like this didn't work. It only changed the size of the physical page I'm printing on. It didn't make any difference if I kept the original geometry setting on the final b8x1 page. – Nick Jan 27 '15 at 02:47
1

@NickolasPeterO'Malley pdfpages will automatically scale the contents to the paper size, so theoretically if you choose preoper physical paper size this should work. – Jan 27 '15 at 02:57
perhaps I'm doing something wrong? It's not working, regardless of whether I use the geometry setting in the pdfpages TeX file, or the thedocument TeX file. To make things easier, I've used only one pdfpages TeX file, and eliminated b4x1 and b8x1. Either way, I'm getting the same result. – Nick Jan 27 '15 at 03:03
1

@NickolasPeterO'Malley Remove left=2cm,top=2.cm,bottom=2.cm,right=2cm, you won't need it in b2x1 document. Put it in thedocument instead. Also the final pagenumber and the signatures should be same as in pages=1-40,signature=40,. – Jan 27 '15 at 03:09
just did that, still having no luck. I tried changing around nup also, which sets the number of logical pages per sheet of paper, and nothing. There's definitely something strange going on. This is the code I currently have, maybe you'll find some error with it? http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=kFXzfiAb – Nick Jan 27 '15 at 03:12
1

@NickolasPeterO'Malley Now I gotta go. I will see later on today. – Jan 27 '15 at 03:13
@NickolasPeterO'Malley Please see the edit. – Jan 27 '15 at 07:00

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

0

Solved here: How to automatically output page order to print 8 pages of a booklet on a single sheet of Letter paper?

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

1

answered Jan 27 '15 at 06:19

Nick

675

Booklets on legalpaper using pdfpages

2 Answers2

Edit: