How to use pgfpages for creating sheets of labels

Question

I am trying to create sheets of labels using pgfpages but, apparently, I'm doing it wrong. Here is what I have tried:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=2in,paperheight=2in,nohead,nofoot]{geometry}
\pagestyle{empty}

\usepackage{pgf}
\usepackage{pgfpages}

% Layout from http://www.onlinelabels.com/OL3016.htm
\pgfpagesdeclarelayout{OL3016}
{
  \edef\pgfpageoptionheight{\the\paperheight}%
  \edef\pgfpageoptionwidth{\the\paperwidth}%
  \edef\pgfpageoptionborder{0pt}%
  \edef\labelheight{2in}%
  \edef\labelwidth{2in}%
  \edef\labelmargin{0.25in}%
  \edef\labelxsep{1in}%
  \edef\labelysep{0.8333in}%
}
{
  \pgfpagesphysicalpageoptions
  {%
    logical pages=12,%
    last logical shipout=12,
    physical height=\pgfpageoptionheight,%
    physical width=\pgfpageoptionwidth,%
    current logical shipout=1,%
  }
%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{1}
  {% 
    %copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{1.25in}{1.25in}%
  }%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{2}
  {%
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{4.25in}{1.25in}%
  }%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{3}
  {%
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{7.25in}{1.25in}%
  }%
%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{4}
  {% 
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{1.25in}{3.25in+\labelysep}%
  }%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{5}
  {%
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{1.25in+3in}{3.25in+\labelysep}%
  }%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{6}
  {%
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{7.25in}{3.25in+\labelysep}%
  }%  
%  
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{7}
  {% 
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{1.25in}{5.25in+2*\labelysep}%
  }%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{8}
  {%
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{4.25in}{5.25in+2*\labelysep}%
  }%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{9}
  {%
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{7.25in}{5.25in+2*\labelysep}%
  }%  
%  
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{10}
  {% 
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{1.25in}{7.25in+3*\labelysep}%
  }%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{11}
  {%
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{4.25in}{7.25in+3*\labelysep}%
  }%
  \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{12}
  {%
    copy from=1,%
    border code=\pgfstroke,%
    border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
    resized width=\labelwidth,%
    resized height=\labelheight,%
    center=\pgfpoint{7.25in}{7.25in+3*\labelysep}%
  }%  
}


\pgfpagesuselayout{OL3016}[letterpaper]

\begin{document}

This is my label 1.\clearpage
This is my label 2.\clearpage
This is my label 3.\clearpage
This is my label 4.\clearpage
This is my label 5.\clearpage
This is my label 6.\clearpage
This is my label 7.\clearpage
This is my label 8.\clearpage
This is my label 9.\clearpage
This is my label 10.\clearpage
This is my label 11.\clearpage
This is my label 12.\clearpage
This is my label 13.\clearpage

\end{document}

I was expection to have one sheet with 12 copies of the same label (because of the copy from option). What I am getting is the first physical page with label 1 -- 12 and the next with label 13 and eleven label 1.

Can pgfpages be used to declare a layout with 12 copies of the same logical page on each physical page?

Answer 1

This is not an answer but another solution to your problem. What I propose is to draw all your labels in a file and make copies with pdfpages package help.

Your labels file will be:

%----labels.tex ---------%
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=2in,paperheight=2in,nohead,nofoot]{geometry}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
This is my label 1.\clearpage
This is my label 2.\clearpage
This is my label 3.\clearpage
This is my label 4.\clearpage
This is my label 5.\clearpage
This is my label 6.\clearpage
This is my label 7.\clearpage
This is my label 8.\clearpage
This is my label 9.\clearpage
This is my label 10.\clearpage
This is my label 11.\clearpage
This is my label 12.\clearpage
This is my label 13.\clearpage
\end{document}

After creating your labels.pdf, create a printlabels.tex with:

%----printlabels.tex----------
\documentclass[letter]{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
\includepdf[pages={1-13},% which labels do you want to print
    delta=.5in 0.8333in,% space between copies
    frame,% comment if don't want frames
   noautoscale,% keep original labels size
   nup=3x4,% how many labels on physical page
   duplicatepages=12 % how many copies of same label
]{labels.pdf}
\end{document}

pdflatex it and you will get what you want: a 13 pages pdf file with 12 copies of one label in each page.

Update:

Applying Herbert's answer to Can you make the "graphic" option of LTXinputExample able to render all pages of a multi-page PDF file?, it's possible to reduce my previous answer to one file processed once.

With filecontents package, labels.tex file is included in printlabels.tex and processed with \immediate\write18{pdflatex lables.tex} command. After that labels are replicated with pdfpages command.

You only need to change geometry options to fix labels size.

\documentclass[letter]{article}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{mylabels.tex}
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=2in,paperheight=2in,nohead,nofoot]{geometry}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
This is my label 1.\clearpage
This is my label 2.\clearpage
This is my label 3.\clearpage
This is my label 4.\clearpage
This is my label 5.\clearpage
This is my label 6.\clearpage
This is my label 7.\clearpage
This is my label 8.\clearpage
This is my label 9.\clearpage
This is my label 10.\clearpage
This is my label 11.\clearpage
This is my label 12.\clearpage
This is my label 13.\clearpage
\end{document}
\end{filecontents*}

\immediate\write18{pdflatex mylabels.tex}

\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
\includepdf[pages={1-13},%
    delta=.5in 0.8333in,%
    frame,%
   noautoscale,%
   nup=3x4,%
    duplicatepages=12]{mylabels.pdf}
\end{document}