# Print A6 book on A4 double-sided in correct order

How can i print out a A6 sized book onto A4 paper, so that i can cut it into 4 pieces and glue-bind them to a book? i am NOT looking for a BOOKLET!

i think the order i need would be:

A4 sheet #1 - front   A4 sheet #1 - back
+--------|--------+  +--------|--------+
|        |        |  |        |        |
|        |        |  |        |        |
| page 1 | page 3 |  | page 4 | page 2 |
|        |        |  |        |        |
+--------|--------+  +--------|--------+
|        |        |  |        |        |
| page 5 | page 7 |  | page 8 | page 6 |
|        |        |  |        |        |
|        |        |  |        |        |
+--------|--------+  +--------|--------+


the problem seems to be that the back side is "reversed" basically i just need the following page on the backside of the paper matching the front page.

edit: you have to include pgfmorepages BEFORE pdfpages, else it might put all pages one the first page causing a big clutter.

• Welcome to TeX.sx! A MWE would be great start. :) In general, when I have to achieve something similar, I use pdfpages and manually set the pages to include and in which order. To ease my life, I have a script to generate the sequence for me. – Paulo Cereda Nov 19 '15 at 17:42
• i hoped there is a package already that does that. yea i can write a script easily when im sure about the formula :) the "picture" above is basically the MWE? \documentclass[a4paper,twoside]{article} \usepackage{pdfpages,geometry} \begin{document} \includepdf[pages={1,3,5,7,4,2,8,6},nup=2x2]{file} \end{document} – babuntu Nov 19 '15 at 18:04
• Oh the picture gaves us the general idea indeed, I just wanted to be sure we were on the same page (no pun intended). :) Although, on a second thought, using pdfpages for this task is almost vernacular... :) – Paulo Cereda Nov 19 '15 at 18:07

I wrote the pgfmorepages (CTAN and github) extension of pgfpages for instances such as this.

The layout you want isn't predefined, but is straightforward to make.

\documentclass{article}
%\url{http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/279042/86}
\usepackage{pgfmorepages}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\pgfpagesdeclarelayout{8 on 2, book format}
{%
\edef\pgfpageoptionheight{\the\paperheight}
\edef\pgfpageoptionwidth{\the\paperwidth}
\def\pgfpageoptionborder{0pt}
\def\pgfpageoptionfirstshipout{1}
}%
{%
\pgfpagesphysicalpageoptions
{%
logical pages=8,%
physical pages=2,%
physical height=\pgfpageoptionheight,%
physical width=\pgfpageoptionwidth,%
current logical shipout=\pgfpageoptionfirstshipout%
}
\pgfpagesphysicalpage{1}{}
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{4}
{%
border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
resized width=.5\pgfphysicalwidth,%
resized height=.5\pgfphysicalheight,%
center=\pgfpoint{.25\pgfphysicalwidth}{.75\pgfphysicalheight}%
}%
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{2}
{%
border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
resized width=.5\pgfphysicalwidth,%
resized height=.5\pgfphysicalheight,%
center=\pgfpoint{.75\pgfphysicalwidth}{.75\pgfphysicalheight}%
}%
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{8}
{%
border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
resized width=.5\pgfphysicalwidth,%
resized height=.5\pgfphysicalheight,%
center=\pgfpoint{.25\pgfphysicalwidth}{.25\pgfphysicalheight},%
}%
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{6}
{%
border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
resized width=.5\pgfphysicalwidth,%
resized height=.5\pgfphysicalheight,%
center=\pgfpoint{.75\pgfphysicalwidth}{.25\pgfphysicalheight},%
}%
\pgfpagesphysicalpage{2}{}
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{1}
{%
border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
resized width=.5\pgfphysicalwidth,%
resized height=.5\pgfphysicalheight,%
center=\pgfpoint{.25\pgfphysicalwidth}{.75\pgfphysicalheight}%
}%
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{3}
{%
border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
resized width=.5\pgfphysicalwidth,%
resized height=.5\pgfphysicalheight,%
center=\pgfpoint{.75\pgfphysicalwidth}{.75\pgfphysicalheight}%
}%
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{5}
{%
border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
resized width=.5\pgfphysicalwidth,%
resized height=.5\pgfphysicalheight,%
center=\pgfpoint{.25\pgfphysicalwidth}{.25\pgfphysicalheight},%
}%
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{7}
{%
border shrink=\pgfpageoptionborder,%
resized width=.5\pgfphysicalwidth,%
resized height=.5\pgfphysicalheight,%
center=\pgfpoint{.75\pgfphysicalwidth}{.25\pgfphysicalheight},%
}%
}

\pgfpagesuselayout{8 on 2, book format}

\newcommand\dopage{%
\noindent\resizebox{.99\linewidth}{!}{Page \thepage}
\newpage}

\begin{document}
\dopage\dopage
\dopage\dopage
\dopage\dopage
\dopage\dopage
\end{document}


First page:

Second page:

• nice! it seems to do what i want! (just one correction, i copied the page layout ascii-drawing from a different question, thats why the first page is actually the 2nd i knew it would cause confusion, sorry about this). is there a way to use \includepdf{page=-} with this? so i can have my document and a print.tex? – babuntu Nov 19 '15 at 20:40
• @babuntu It would be simple enough to swap the pages. I presume you mean that the two printed pages should be swapped. I haven't tried it with \includepdf but I know of no reason why it shouldn't work. – Loop Space Nov 19 '15 at 21:20
• for me it will overlay all pages onto the first page i only replaced the document block: \begin{document} \includepdf[pages=1-2]{datei} \end{document} – babuntu Nov 19 '15 at 21:46
• @babuntu I just tried it with \includepdf and it works for me. – Loop Space Nov 19 '15 at 21:59
• Perhaps it should be on CTAN, though? This isn't the first kind of question of this sort. Although I would ideally like to see pdfpages do this, since it doesn't in any easy way.... – cfr Nov 21 '15 at 0:40