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

Solution 1

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

Solution 2

Use pdfbook from texlive-extra-utils

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

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

source

Solution 3

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.

Solution 4

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).

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

Solution 5

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

View more solutions

Comments

[con-f-use]

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.

[thorstorm]

I installed adobe reader and that solved the problem but it was not so simple on Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit.

[krlmlr]

Calling apt-file search pdfpages.sty shows that you need to install texlive-latex-recommended, too.

[thorstorm]

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.

[krlmlr]

Better call it a "workaround"...

[krlmlr]

Exists, too: psbook or pdfbook do this for you. See this related post: askubuntu.com/q/52269/30266

[Steven Roose]

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.

[Richa Ankit]

bookletimposer is in Debian and Ubuntu. apt install bookletimposer -> et voila.

[Peterino]

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.

[Bhikkhu Subhuti]

As per the dependencies for acrobat reader. Follow the instructions for this answer. 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.

[Dɑvïd]

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]

16pp = 16,1,2,15,14,3,4,13,12,5,6,11,10,7,8,9 ;)

[user]

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!

[Gabriel Staples]

Use pdfbook --short-edge mypdf.pdf for "short-edge" printing instead of the default "long edge".

[Gabriel Staples]

Even better for my use case: use pdfnup. Details, example, & install command here: askubuntu.com/a/1095789/327339.

[Carlos Pinzón]

Is it possible to make the binding over the short edge?

[Carlos Pinzón]

+1 for bookletimposer

[holzkohlengrill]

pdfbook is part of pdfjam so a short-edge option should exist. See also here: github.com/DavidFirth/pdfjam

[Carlos Pinzón]

Didn't find any. I ended up using bookletimposer.

[Astrid_Redfern]

@GabrielStaples Do you know of any pdfbook option that would add page numbers?

[Astrid_Redfern]

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.

[Forty-Two]

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 .

[netbat]

+1 for bookletimposer