How to print multiple copies of an image on a single page

Question

I have an image, about 300x300 pixels large. I want to print as many copies as possible on a single page (I am planning to cut them apart with scissors afterwards).

Is there a way to do this? Is there a way to generate a PDF with copies (without opening something like gimp and manually doing copy-paste work).

Solution 1

You can use ImageMagick's montage tool.

1. Install the imagemagic tools

   sudo apt-get install imagemagick
   

2. Combine your images. I have created this image, called foo.png as a demonstration:

   

   Run montage, telling it to make 3 rows of 5 images each (-tile 3x5), keeping the original size of the image (-geometry 300x400 and give it the same image 15 times as input:

   montage -geometry 300x400 -tile 3x5 foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png \
    foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png  montage.ps
   

   The result is:

   

3. Since that creates a postscript file (the language printers speak), you can print it directly from the command line using tools like lp or enscript. I don't have a printer at the moment so I can't check but this should work

   lp montage.ps
   

   or

   enscript montage.ps
   

Solution 2

From Command-Line Printing in Linux.

N-Up Printing

The -o number-up=value option selects N-Up printing. N-Up printing places multiple document pages on a single printed page. CUPS supports 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, and 16-Up formats; the default format is 1-Up:

lp -o number-up=1 filename 
lp -o number-up=2 filename 
lp -o number-up=4 filename 
lpr -o number-up=16 filename

The -o number-up-layout=value option chooses the layout of the pages on each output page:

-o number-up-layout=btlr
Bottom to top, left to right
-o number-up-layout=btrl
Bottom to top, right to left
-o number-up-layout=lrbt
Left to right, bottom to top
-o number-up-layout=lrtb
Left to right, top to bottom (default)
-o number-up-layout=rlbt
Right to left, bottom to top
-o number-up-layout=rltb
Right to left, top to bottom
-o number-up-layout=tblr
Top to bottom, left to right
-o number-up-layout=tbrl
Top to bottom, right to left

---

So I assume it will be something like this:

lp -o number-up=4 number-up-layout=lrtb -d {printer} {filename} -n {copies} 

And it should print 4 images from left to right, top to bottom per page for the amount of {copies}. The numbers you can use seems fixed...

---

If this does not work please leave a comment.

Solution 3

install gThumb (sudo apt-get install gthumb)

execute gThumb

select several image

right-click and select print

select image tab

increase Rows and Coulms

Solution 4

It is possible and convenient with PhotoPrint.

Install the app in the Terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install photoprint

When you open the image in the app, click it and choose from the menu Image > Duplicate Image. (also available via rightclick on the image)

Next you choose the amount of columns and/or rows you want to produce under Layout and adjust the other settings like margins and distances between the images.

You can save your settings as default under File in the menu.

View more solutions

Comments

[GuySoft]

Hey, Tried this but I think the DPI is wrong, the images come out pixelated. -density 300x300 does not seem to help. Any ideas?

[terdon]

@GuySoft when you print them or in the image itself as well? Try using fewer images: montage foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png -tile 2x3 montage.ps, just play around with the settings, you probably just need to get the number right so it fits on a single page. Also try Rinzwind's approach.

[GuySoft]

Is there a way to set -d to print to a file, and not a printer?

[terdon]

@GuySoft use the -geometry option to set the size of each image: montage -geometry 303x453 foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png foo.png -tile 3x montage.pdf gives me this pdf.

[GuySoft]

'-geometry' works I can generate PDF like this. thanks!

[drevicko]

Note that the dimensions given in '-geometry` refer to the pixel size of each tile, not of the whole output file.

[Aoeuid]

This was not successful for me. Using -n 4 -o number-up=4 caused four sheets to be printed, each with a 1/4 scale copy of my work. I got it to work by piping the output of pdftk like so: pdftk A=file.pdf cat A A A A output - | lp -o number-up=4 -

[Rinzwind]

@GuySoft nope. But I assume you can pipe it to a file ( > file.pdf) (?)

[Rinzwind]

@Aoeuid nice one :)

[DJCrashdummy]

for screenshots better use LC_ALL=C command to start the program!

[Hitechcomputergeek]

What the heck would you use the C locale for? Since this site is mostly English, why not en-US.UTF-8?

[Mikko Rantalainen]

LC_ALL=C is quaranteed to work, locale en_US.utf8 may be missing on the system so asking somebody to run LC_ALL=en_US.utf8 command may end up not working. I agree that if real locale is available, it probably is a better option.

[sailfish009]

pdf output option is better than ps.

[Saksow]

This is the best answer

[Manuzziman]

PhotoPrint is not supported on 20.04 at this moment. The anwer on the question askubuntu.com/questions/1179374/… also works.