0

I want to make a signature for a small pocket booklet. I don't want to use ISO sized paper, but every reference to pdfpages uses A5 or A6 booklet examples. Is this possible to do? Do I need to produce a distinct PDF file for each page of the booklet? Should I be using a different package or documentclass to accomplish this, or should I be investing time in pdfpages? I'm a little overwhelmed by the documentation, and unsure about how to proceed.

I used the example from this website:

http://www.mostlymaths.net/2010/11/creating-a6-booklets-in-7-easy-steps.html

File 1 (thedocument.pdf):

\documentclass{memoir}
   \usepackage{lipsum}
   \begin{document}
      \lipsum[1-40]
   \end{document}

File 2 (b2x1.pdf):

\documentclass[legalpaper]{article}
   \usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
   \usepackage[left=2cm,top=2.cm,bottom=2.cm,right=2cm]{geometry}
   \usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
   \begin{document}
      \includepdf[pages=-, signature=80,landscape, frame=true]{thedocument.pdf}
   \end{document}

File 3 (b4x1.pdf):

\documentclass[legalpaper]{article}
   \usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
   \usepackage[left=2cm,top=2.cm,bottom=2.cm,right=2cm]{geometry}
   \usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
   \begin{document}
      \includepdf[pages=-, signature=40,landscape, frame=true]{b2x1.pdf}
   \end{document}

File 4 (b8x1.pdf):

\documentclass[legalpaper]{article}
   \usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
   \usepackage[left=2cm,top=2.cm,bottom=2.cm,right=2cm]{geometry}
   \usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
   \begin{document}
      \includepdf[pages=-, signature=20,landscape, frame=true]{b4x1.pdf}
   \end{document}

I get a strange output. There's a very large margin on the left and right of the page, and there's only one page of the document showing up on each paper (instead of multiple pdfpages per paper).

Example: Example

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    As always, a minimal working example (MWE) would be helpful. Perhaps you could show us the solution you'd like to use with ISO, and what problems you are running into when you try to adapt it to non-ISO. It is not obvious to me why that should be different?
    – cfr
    Jan 27, 2015 at 1:39
  • @cfr I'm sorry about that. I updated the post.
    – Nick
    Jan 27, 2015 at 2:35

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

You can change the size using geometry

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\usepackage[paperheight=7.5in,paperwidth=5in]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\pagestyle{empty}
\includepdf[pages=1-8, signature=8,landscape]{pgfmanual}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Change the paper size suitably (as you wish) in

\usepackage[paperheight=7.5in,paperwidth=5in]{geometry}

Edit:

In the thedocument.tex you have to choose the paper width to be (at most) half of the legal papers height, i.e. 279.4mm. In this I have set the width to be 170mm

\begin{filecontents}{thedocument.tex}
\documentclass[twoside]{article}   %% changed
\usepackage[paperheight=215.9mm,paperwidth=170mm,top=2cm,bottom=2cm,inner=2cm,outer=1cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
    \lipsum[1-65]
\end{document}

\end{filecontents}

\documentclass[legalpaper]{article}
\usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
\usepackage[margin=0cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
\immediate\write18{pdflatex thedocument}
\begin{document}
    \includepdf[pages=-, signature=12,  landscape,frame=true]{thedocument.pdf}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Improve this answer
8
  • I'm going to give this a try. A quick question: does the paper height/width setting for geometry set the size for the individual pdfpages on a single page, or for the entire piece of paper that the pdfpages are on?
    – Nick
    Jan 27, 2015 at 2:40
  • Using geometry like this didn't work. It only changed the size of the physical page I'm printing on. It didn't make any difference if I kept the original geometry setting on the final b8x1 page.
    – Nick
    Jan 27, 2015 at 2:47
  • 1
    @NickolasPeterO'Malley pdfpages will automatically scale the contents to the paper size, so theoretically if you choose preoper physical paper size this should work.
    – user11232
    Jan 27, 2015 at 2:57
  • 1
    @NickolasPeterO'Malley Remove left=2cm,top=2.cm,bottom=2.cm,right=2cm, you won't need it in b2x1 document. Put it in thedocument instead. Also the final pagenumber and the signatures should be same as in pages=1-40,signature=40,.
    – user11232
    Jan 27, 2015 at 3:09
  • 1
    @NickolasPeterO'Malley Now I gotta go. I will see later on today.
    – user11232
    Jan 27, 2015 at 3:13

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .