Tool to produce A5 booklet from A4 pages PS / PDF

[Rolf Nielsen]

On 2010-04-02 02:27, Polytropon wrote:
> In order NOT to try to reinvent the wheel, I'd like to ask
> if anyone knows a tool that does helps to produce a printable
> and foldable booklet from A4 pages.
>
> I'm searching for a tool that scales down and reorders A4
> pages (from a document, usually PS or PDF) in a way that
> the result can be printed with a duplex printer (content
> on both sides of the paper sheet) and then be folded in
> the middle in order to get a "book" (or let's better call
> it a booklet) in A5 format. Additionally, the booklet
> can be stapled where it has been folded (using the proper
> mechanical tool).
>
> Of course, this just seems useful for standard A paper
> formats (A4 / A5) which keep the aspect ratio sqrt(2)
> (or nearly 1.414:1) even after folding or combining:
>
> 	       A4
> 	+------++------+
> 	|      ||      |
> 	|  A5  ||  A5  |
> 	|      ||      |
> 	+------++------+
>
> Illustration here:
> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/A_size_illustration.svg
>
> Depending on the "real" page number, it would require to
> completely re-order and rotate (90 or 270 degree) the
> contained pages, depending where they will appear on the
> result paper.
>
> For example, page 1 needs to be placed on page 1, top,
> rotated 270 degrees, while the lase page also has to be
> placed on page 1, bottom, rotated 270 degrees. Page 2
> will be on page 2 (which is the rear side of page 1),
> top, rotated 90 degrees... and now my imaginary force
> is failing. :-) All pages have to be scaled down to
> 50% of their original size, of course.
>
> In ideal case, the number of pages to be processed this
> way is modulo 4, because 4 pages go to one sheet (two
> per side).
>
> So basically, I'm searching for a program that does the
> renumbering and rotation magic, provided PS or PDF files
> as input, and also as output.
>
> What tool can you suggest to do so?

print/psutils-a4 has tools to do the job for you.