12

When I use the geometry package (2010/09/12 v5.6) for a twoside document with one paper size (e.g. A4) and another layout size (e.g. A5), I had expected that I could print a page, turn the paper, print the other side, and cut the paper according to the crop marks. For this to work the crop marks at both sides of the sheet of paper must lay at the same position, i.e. if the first side is placed at the left of the sheet of paper, the second one must be placed at the right side. But the MWE

\documentclass[twoside]{article}
\usepackage[twoside,a4paper,layout=a5paper,showframe,showcrop]{geometry}
\begin{document}
1
\newpage
2
\end{document}

and pdfLaTeX result into

pdfLaTeX MWE.tex

What must I change to get "twoside-mode"?

5
  • have you tried asymmetric=true?
    – cmhughes
    Feb 21, 2012 at 16:07
  • Can't find any option in the code. Maybe manually set layouthoffset dependent on oddness? Ok, doesnt solve the crop mark problem...
    – ejoerns
    Feb 21, 2012 at 17:14
  • 1
    It's probably easier to use the crop package here. Feb 21, 2012 at 17:35
  • @cmhughes: asymmetric=true changes the content inside of the layout but does not move the position of the layout on the paper.
    – Stephen
    Feb 22, 2012 at 21:16
  • @ThorstenDonig: Didn't know that package yet. Thanks for pointing out.
    – Stephen
    Feb 22, 2012 at 21:34

1 Answer 1

6

Looks to me like a bug in the code. The package switches to twoside within the calculations for the layout=a5paperbut neglects to move the whole area within the paper area as well (which it should in that case, I would say).

So I guess the answer is to do this manually:

\makeatletter
\newlength\hcorr
\setlength\hcorr{\paperwidth}
\addtolength\hcorr{-\Gm@layoutwidth}
\makeatother

\geometry{layouthoffset=.5\hcorr,
          layoutvoffset=1in}

The value of \Gm@layoutwidth is simply the internal width calculated by the layout= key or specified by layoutwidth=. The assumption is that \paperwidth minus that length divided by 2 puts our page smack in the middle horizonatally. And the layoutvhoffset=1inis just there to move the top cropmark onto the paper, you may not want that.

3
  • +1 and accepted: It solves the problem, thank you! (And you explain why/how it works.) I'll file a bug report. Moving the top cropmark onto the paper is a good idea, I think, because now all four sides are treated in the same way. As you can see from my posted figure, at the one page the line of the top cropmark is visible and at the other one it is not, and cutting away just some pt of paper is probably difficult, while 1in should be easy.
    – Stephen
    Feb 22, 2012 at 21:29
  • @Stephen I'm in contact with Hideo and he intends to look into it. Feb 26, 2012 at 16:09
  • After some years, any new way to handle this without hacking?
    – gigabytes
    Sep 5, 2018 at 15:39

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