Putting two A5 pages on one A4, from dvitps output

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2 total messages Started by Afzal Ballim Mon, 02 Nov 1992 16:46

#103

Author: Afzal Ballim
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1992 16:46

61 lines
2741 bytes

Hi there. I have a problem and was wondering if anyone can help me out.
I am currently printing my dissertation. The document is formatted in LaTeX,
with postscript output produced by "dvitps". So far, so good. Now the problems.

First, the dissertation has to be on A5 paper (half the size of A4). What I've
done (from LaTeX) is to produce output that fits onto A5 paper with appropriate
margins. This means that left-hand pages look like:

+-------+
|    ** |
|    ** |
|       |
|       |
+-------+

while right-hand side pages look like:

+-------+
|**     |
|**     |
|       |
|       |
+-------+

This allows me, with the aid of a double-sided photocopier, to do double-
sided copying such that the text folds onto itself. This was all well and
good, but wastes half the paper! In addition, the printer says that the
best way for him to bind is if I produce a sheet with 4 "pages" on it.
One side should have the fourth page (left side) and first page (right side)
while the other side should have the second (left side) and third (right side).
Now, I can do this using the photocopier from the printed form I have right now,
however, it seems to me that it would save time and paper if I could massage the
PostScript file to take every four pages, and produce 4/1 and 2/3 appropriately:

A4 page on its side, with overlayed pages:


      +-+---------++---------+-+
      | | ******  ||  ****** | |
      | | ******  ||  ****** | |
      | | ******  ||  ****** |<--------- A4 page (seen side-ways)
      | | ******  ||  ****** | |
      | | ******  ||  ****** | |
      | +---------||---------+ |
      |           ||           |
      |           ||           |
      |           ||           |
      +-----------++-----------+      
	     ^           ^
             |           |
       pg. 4 or 2      pg. 1 or 3

So, briefly, can anyone give me an idea of (i) whether this can be done in 
PostScript, (ii) how to do it?

Thanks in advance, Afzal
-- 
Afzal Ballim	             |BITNET,EARN,MHS,X.400: afzal@divsun.unige.ch
 ISSCO, University of Geneva |UUCP: mcsun!divsun.unige.ch!afzal
 54 route des Acacias	     |JANET: afzal%divsun.unige.ch@uk.ac.ean-relay
 CH-1227 GENEVA,Switzerland  |CSNET,ARPA: afzal%divsun.unige.ch@relay.cs.net

Re: Putting two A5 pages on one A4, from dvitps output

#121

Author: Afzal Ballim
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1992 13:30

45 lines
2074 bytes

To those of you who mailed me solutions, I thank you all.

The final solution I adopted was one brought on by laziness. I could
have taken the "soft" option, and reformatted the LaTeX file by 
adjusting the book style to use the entire of the A4 page (in 12pt)
and then using (for example) a conbination of "dvidvi" and
"psnup -2" to get the intended result. This, however, would have 
reduced 12pt to something like 8.4pt which was not acceptable to
me (I wanted 10pt). 

So, the solution I adopted was the following:

1) produce conforming postscript from the dvi file, by

   dvitps -C src >trg.ps

2) transform the postscript file into "signature" format using

   psbook -s4 trg.ps trg-s.ps

which gives a page ordering of 4,1,2,3

3) use pstops to print this by

   pstops -w21cm -h29.7cm 2:OL@1(29.5cm,-5.9cm)+1L@1(29.5cm,15.2cm) trg-s.ps 
	> trg-fin.ps

And, heh presto! 

"psbook" and "pstops" are part of the "psutils" package, which may be found
at 
	colonsay.dcs.ed.ac.uk		(Europe)
	guardian.cs.psu.edu		(US)
	
among others. If anyone would like copies of my modified LaTeX "book"
style which produces the correct format for the above transformations,
they can contact me at the below address.

Again, thanks all.

-- 
Afzal Ballim	             |BITNET,EARN,MHS,X.400: afzal@divsun.unige.ch
 ISSCO, University of Geneva |UUCP: mcsun!divsun.unige.ch!afzal
 54 route des Acacias	     |JANET: afzal%divsun.unige.ch@uk.ac.ean-relay
 CH-1227 GENEVA,Switzerland  |CSNET,ARPA: afzal%divsun.unige.ch@relay.cs.net

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