Printing in booklet format

Question

In the past I had a printer that had the booklet format option that would print the document two pages at a time ordered in a way that folding the whole printout would produce a booklet, half the size of the paper which could be stapled in the middle.

My current printer does not support this feature. I would like to use some utility or script to convert an A4 pdf to an A5 booklet one.

I found this page but I'm getting an error : pdfjam ERROR: can't find pdflatex!

How do I get past this issue? Does anybody know of any other solution?

I'm on Ubuntu 12.10 AMD64

If pdflatex can't be found, you should install it... sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base. The Acrobat Reader has a software booklet option, but your printer should support duplex printing for that. — con-f-use, Nov 08 '12 at 11:11
I did that and got another dependency issue. pdfjam ERROR: LaTeX package pdfpages.sty is not installed. It doesn't seem to be a very stable package. I'm resorting to another solution. — To Do, Nov 08 '12 at 13:58
I installed adobe reader and that solved the problem but it was not so simple on Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit. — To Do, Nov 08 '12 at 13:59
Calling apt-file search pdfpages.sty shows that you need to install texlive-latex-recommended, too. — krlmlr, Jan 16 '13 at 12:26

score 44 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:50

44

Use pdfbook from texlive-extra-utils

Install texlive-extra-utils:
sudo apt-get install texlive-extra-utils
Then run pdfbook:
pdfbook [pdf file]

This will output a pdf file that is in the form of a booklet.

source

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:50

Community

1

answered Jan 18 '17 at 19:23

olfek

1,305

This worked really well for me, along with using the "long edge" duplex printing option and printing one page per side. (Which, in my specific case, resulted in each A4 printed page holding a total of four A5 pages; two on the front, two on the back.) The only downside is that the resulting booklet was too thick for my stapler, but I can't blame the software tools for that! – user Nov 07 '18 at 20:29
7

Use pdfbook --short-edge mypdf.pdf for "short-edge" printing instead of the default "long edge". – Gabriel Staples Nov 24 '18 at 23:53
1

Even better for my use case: use pdfnup. Details, example, & install command here: https://askubuntu.com/a/1095789/327339. – Gabriel Staples Nov 25 '18 at 00:26
@GabrielStaples Do you know of any pdfbook option that would add page numbers? – Astrid_Redfern Dec 15 '20 at 23:59
I found an option that would add page numbers, but some of them were upside down: pdfbook --short-edge NameOfDocument.pdf --pagecommand '' - note those are two apostrophes, not a quotation mark. – Astrid_Redfern Dec 16 '20 at 09:30
3

The command seems to be pdfbook2 as of 22.04+, everything else remains the same. – neo post modern Mar 20 '23 at 17:04
1

@neopostmodern Yes, that's very important. It should be added in an edit to the answer – Wilson Jun 24 '23 at 17:21

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 24 '16 at 07:36

21

I installed Boomaga from Ubuntu 16.04's repository. It solves all the problems, and dependencies from Acrobat Reader (now unsupported in GNU/Linux). It works with any installed printer.

It works very well and opens quickly with perfect render.

sudo apt install boomaga

edited Jul 24 '16 at 07:36

Bhikkhu Subhuti

1,238

answered Apr 27 '16 at 12:14

Sergio Sorrenti

226

As per the dependencies for acrobat reader. Follow the instructions for this answer. http://askubuntu.com/a/512665/485280 . I can confirm that it works after you do the apt command. I had problems with boomaga giving me extra large margins (2.5 inches) on the inside left page... Otherwise, it is a really great program. – Bhikkhu Subhuti Jul 24 '16 at 10:47
1

Took a bit of experimenting with settings to get booklet print correct (n.b., configure printer to "Printer has duplexer", and set all margins to "0" in my case), but then it worked a treat. I followed the Ubuntu installation instructions on Github. (I'm on 16.04 LTS.) – Dɑvïd Jan 12 '17 at 10:35

holzkohlengrill · Answer 3 · 2020-11-20T08:39:50.523

20

tl;dr

pdfjam seems the best option:

pdfjam --landscape --signature 40 /path/to/your/document.pdf

What we want is one or more signatures/booklets (a bunch of sheets folded in half).

signatures

pdfbook is one option which was, however, not quite satisfying since it is only able to create one booklet. In order to create multiple booklets its "brother" pdfjam helps us out here:

pdfjam --landscape --signature 40 /path/to/your/document.pdf

Creates a document mirrored along the long edge and creates 40 signatures.

Note: For --signature n: n must be a multiple of 4

There's also pdfbook2. Unlike pdfjam it shows the --signature option in the manpage. However it seems to be very slow or not working compared to pdfjam

edited Nov 20 '20 at 08:39

answered Oct 05 '16 at 20:19

holzkohlengrill

714
8
13

Is it possible to make the binding over the short edge? – Carlos Pinzón Oct 08 '20 at 03:48
1

pdfbook is part of pdfjam so a short-edge option should exist. See also here: https://github.com/DavidFirth/pdfjam – holzkohlengrill Oct 08 '20 at 10:14
1

Didn't find any. I ended up using bookletimposer. – Carlos Pinzón Oct 12 '20 at 14:43
Note: pdfbook2 has not been updated since 2020. → GitHub – Nicolai Weitkemper Mar 07 '23 at 13:12
there is pdfjam --longedge and pdfjam --shortedge – milahu Aug 17 '23 at 09:36

score 17 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 16 '20 at 11:49

17

I found a solution. I installed PDF XChange Viewer for Windows (running through Wine). It has booklet format printing option that works well.

Another option native to Ubuntu is to install Adobe Reader for Linux. It has booklet format printing as well. Install Acrobat Reader on Ubuntu

EDIT

An even better option that I just found out about is a package called bookletimposer.

edited Dec 16 '20 at 11:49

Astrid_Redfern

117

answered Dec 04 '12 at 00:15

To Do

15,502

3

Better call it a "workaround"... – krlmlr Jan 16 '13 at 12:26
The bookletimposer does strange things for me. It copies some of the images from one page to the page next to it, over the text. – Steven Roose Dec 04 '14 at 09:09
6

bookletimposer is in Debian and Ubuntu. apt install bookletimposer -> et voila. – odinho - Velmont Sep 04 '15 at 16:45
2

+1 for bookletimposer – Carlos Pinzón Oct 08 '20 at 04:07
+1 for bookletimposer – netbat Mar 28 '22 at 13:18

Al F · Answer 5 · 2019-10-07T20:17:56.040

The best solution I found is at http://bernaerts.dyndns.org/linux/74-ubuntu/248-ubuntu-imposition-print-book (linked as "this page" in original question).

Installation command given is

sudo apt-get install poppler-utils pdfjam texlive-extra-utils

which should take care of dependencies.

This is an easy step-by-step guide, including a nifty right-click for Nautilus (which is easily done in Thunar as well).

I still wonder why this function isn't included in CUPS or the general print dialogue.

EDIT oct '19: As of now I recommend the answer above, https://askubuntu.com/a/763721/142472 - install Boomaga

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 04 '13 at 16:53

3

It should have nothing to do with your printer as long as the printer has duplex(both sides of a page) printing. It has to do with page ordering.

It is incredible that such a simple function does not exist yet in Ubuntu.

I solved for my 4 pages booklet, putting the number of the pages to be printed in this order: 4,1,2,3. For a 8 pages booklet it would be 8,1,2,7,6,3,4,5. For a 16pages one... 16,1,2,15,14,3,4,13,12,5,6,11,10,5... and so on .... Not practical and immediate but Works.

answered Jan 04 '13 at 16:53

humanurine

39
1

1

The booklet function was a feature of my previous printer's driver. The driver of the printer I have now doesn't have that feature. – To Do Jan 04 '13 at 17:26
Exists, too: psbook or pdfbook do this for you. See this related post: http://askubuntu.com/q/52269/30266 – krlmlr Jan 16 '13 at 12:30
The order specified in the print dialog seems to be ignored on 14.04.3 LTS. The pages are printed in the numeric order, no matter in what order you specify them. Tested with a Samsung CLX-3175N printer. – Peterino Oct 14 '15 at 08:39
1

16pp = 16,1,2,15,14,3,4,13,12,5,6,11,10,7,8,9 ;) – Dɑvïd Sep 26 '17 at 14:55

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered May 05 '14 at 17:38

3

I found this python-gtk script, pdfbooklet that takes a PDF, rearranges the pages to make a booklet, and saves that as a PDF. It has a number of options to automatically generate different types of booklets.

It depends on python-poppler.

answered May 05 '14 at 17:38

David L

175

Gabriel Staples · Answer 8 · 2021-03-25T18:41:12.717

For some cases you may want to use pdfnup instead. It allows you to pack multiple sheets on 1.

Install pdfnup on Ubuntu with:

sudo apt install texlive-extra-utils

Examples:

Sample usage:

This creates a pdf with 2 pages side-by-side per sheet on a landscape view, to be printed flipped over the short edge. See man pdfnup for a few more details:

pdfnup --nup 2x1 mypdf.pdf

You can do multiple pdfs as a batch like this (this example is taken from the man page: man pdfnup):

pdfnup --nup 2x2 --suffix '2x2' --batch myfile1.pdf myfile2.pdf

The --sufix '2x2' part simply says to add 2x2 as a suffix to the output file name, for easier recognition of which files it just generated.

References:

Super User: one answer to "How to convert a 1 page PDF to a 2 page per sheet PDF?" (and see comments underneath)
Super User: another answer to "How to convert a 1 page PDF to a 2 page per sheet PDF?" (and see comments underneath)
man pdfnup

to perform an IMPOSITION, nothing is better than Multivalent.jar (latest free version with tools inside, latest Multivalent build currently hosted on sourceforge - 2009 - has no more pdf tools)

you can download the Multivalent.jar build with tools from:

http://www.ziddu.com/download/1794145/Multivalent.tar.gz.html
http://ge.tt/#!/21OPDHX/v/4
http://dingodog.minus.com/mjhNX8Eiu
online man - http://multivalent.sourceforge.net/Tools/pdf/Impose.html

use:

java -cp path...to/Multivalent.jar tool.pdf.Impose -dim (rowsxcols) -paper (paper sizes where pages will be imposed) file.pdf

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 26 '16 at 12:56

I’ve written a zsh script that prints a A4 PDF as booklet (on A3 Paper):

#!/bin/zsh

zmodload zsh/mathfunc

f="$1"; shift

if [[ ! -f "$f" ]]; then
    echo "Not a file: “$f”" >&2
    exit 1
fi

total_pages="$(pdfinfo "$f" | grep '^Pages:' | grep -Po '\d+$')"

pages="${2-$total_pages}"

sig="$(( int(ceil(pages / 4.) * 4) ))"

pdf="$(mktemp --suffix=.pdf)"

pdfbook --a3paper --signature "$sig" -o "$pdf" "$f" "1-$pages"

#two-sided-long-edge apparently only means *long edge* when in portrait mode
lpr \
    -o media=A3 \
    -o sides=two-sided-long-edge \
    -o landscape=true \
    "$pdf"

unlink "$pdf"

note that your printer config might be less broken than mine and you actually need to use -o sides=two-sided-short-edge

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 13 '17 at 18:55

1

Qoppa's free PDF Reader called PDF Studio Viewer has a booklet printing option under the Print dialog and runs on Linux. PS: I am a developer. https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudioviewer/

answered Jul 13 '17 at 18:55

Leila Holmann

37
2

Your software is beautiful. I wish that this had been a solution for me but it did not print double sided on my brother printer. I ended up going with the windows pdfxchange viewer which worked. I tried printing to a file with your software but the file got cut off on the edges. Otherwise whenever it becomes stable it will be an awesome solution for Linux users. Thank you . – Joshua Robison Aug 17 '21 at 15:15

To Do · Answer 12 · 2020-10-08T08:10:12.897

0

I'm currently using Gnome Manual Duplex. It works out of the box for a number of printers and can be used with others with manual configuration. https://sourceforge.net/projects/g-manual-duplex/files/

edited Oct 08 '20 at 08:10

answered Nov 30 '18 at 00:41