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I need a way to take a source tex (LaTeX) document generated by rednotebook and have the pages distributed and oriented on landscape paper such that when bound, the pages are oriented the correct way in a booklet.

I found the booklet package, but I do not see a way to use this package to accomplish my objective. The booklet package seems to address quartos, octavos, etc, in traditional bookbinding. But I am looking for a way to distribute and orient pages for stitching through the fold. Quartos and octavos are an example of case binding (cf. wikipedia on bookbinding -> methods of hardcover binding).

A "composition notebook" for the purposes of this question, is a mass produced booklet of 100 sheets (200 sides) with pages measuring 7 1/2" x 9 3/4". The booklet has hard cardstock or cardboard for a cover with pages sewn through the fold.

So for example, suppose I have a tex document which would render to a 200 page dvi at 7 1/2" x 9 3/4". These could potentially be printed front and back to create 100 sheets.

Instead, I would want to modify that tex document so that instead I have a 200 pages distributed across 100 sides of 50 sheets. Pages would be distributed this way:

  • Sheet 1: Side front: Pages 1, 200
  • Sheet 1: Side back : Pages 2, 199
  • Sheet 2: Side front: Pages 3, 198
  • Sheet 2: Side back : Pages 4, 197
  • etc.

Ideally, I could modify a .tex file so that for any arbitrary number of pages, the TeX would render so that multiple .dvi files are created, or that there is some concept of distributing these pages across multiple composition notebooks. So 500 pages would result in 3 documents with 1-200 in the first, 201-400 in the next and 401-500 in the last. Or to allow distribution across books with a specified number of pages. But this is only a nice-to-have.

I'm a beginner to TeX. As for the source I am modifying, rednotebook does seem to generate fairly clean .tex files. Rednotebook uses txt2tags to render to .tex files from txt2tags source. The resulting .tex file is of the article document class. I would provide more source of the headers if it is helpful. I don't have that available on the machine I am using presently.

Clément
  • 5,591
Justin Haynes
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  • Welcome! You can provide links rather than obfuscating them : use the markdown syntax, i.e. [Rednotebook](http://rednotebook.sourceforge.net/) will give you a clickable link. You might find this answer of interest: have you considered composing your leaflet from your pdf, with tools that manipulate pdf, rather than editing your document? – Clément Mar 13 '16 at 20:29
  • As I only have 1 reputation point, I was told by tex.stackexchange.com that I was not able to include more than 2 links so I removed them. – Justin Haynes Mar 13 '16 at 20:35
  • @Clément, thanks I will explore this when I have my files in front of me so I can try it out! – Justin Haynes Mar 13 '16 at 20:37
  • @Clément (or I suppose anyone with experience can answer) - if I find the perfect answer in pdf tools outside of TeX will it be considered in scope? Should I answer my own question with the solution even though the solution will have used tools outside of Tex? – Justin Haynes Mar 13 '16 at 21:10
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    The terminlogy you are looking for is 'signature' or 'quire', and I must say that so large a quire is unusual to say the least. (If you look closely at a nicely bound book, you will see that they do not fold and sew 100 pages together.) A more normal one would be 8 'pages', folded to give 32 printing pages. One easy way to achieve this is to create your document normally in *TeX, then include it in another 'shell' document via the pdfpages package and its signature option (which must be in multiples of 4 for obvious reasons). See this answer. – jon Mar 13 '16 at 22:50
  • @jon, Uncommon for a book, yes, but in a composition notebook, this is actually how it works - not with 100 pages but with 50. One nice thing about this configuration for a notebook is that the pages will lay flat and all of the inner margin is accessible, as opposed to a notebook or journal of the same size; which, though nicely bound, continues to spring closed or has a rigid spine which does not allow for accessible inner margins. – Justin Haynes Mar 18 '16 at 03:00
  • @jon and clement, you have both pointed me toward pdfpages directly or indirectly. Pdfpages worked very well as a step to execute on the resulting pdf. Jon, you have mentioned and linked to an answer which is your answer to another question wherein you recommend including the source tex file for the main document (called dummy.tex) in a parent tex file called quire.tex. I'll try that as soon as I have access to the needed computer. Am I reading correctly that i would only have to render my .tex once and the pdfpages postprocessing will happen without need to execute it separately? – Justin Haynes Mar 18 '16 at 03:12
  • Composition notebook? You mean a notebook for notetaking? Why is LaTeX being used to imitate such books? For the inner margin? (Just curious.) Anyway, you need two documents according to my answer, but only one file contains the content, while the second (quire.tex) simply includes the content, but 'redistributes' the pages so that you can fold and bind the pages in the manner you suggested. Note also that pdfpages can make a quire of any multiple of 4, so you can do what you want. You will understand what I mean when you compile both documents in that answer. – jon Mar 18 '16 at 03:34
  • @jon - For my own personal journals, I standardized on composition notebooks, because they are an excellent value for the price, they are bound with stitches, and are of a standard dimension. They have been mass produced for decades and will likely continue to be. I normally write by hand, however at certain times in my life I will write on a device. I will write on a different device 30 years from now, but tex, pdf and markdown (RedNotebook) seem similarly permanent. A 90 year old me will value historical consistency. – Justin Haynes Jul 14 '21 at 13:47

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