Selectively rotate pages when using pdfpages includepdf

Question

This question is kind of close: pdfpages rotate odd pages 180º but, what I'm trying to achieve is different: I actually want 4 pages per page, i.e. nup=2x2, but I want the top two to be rotated 180 degrees.

I've read the documentation of pdfpages, but there doesn't seem to be a way to apply transformation to individual pages. I also tried to include pages one-by-one, and then rotate the ones I need, but, unfortunately, pdfpages puts them each on its own page, and I don't see a way to override this behavior.

The example layout I'm trying to achieve (for a booklet that is 8 pages long, printed on two sides):

| 1 | 8 |
|---|---|
| 4 | 5 |

| 3 | 6 |
|---|---|
| 2 | 7 |

Pages 1, 8, 3, 6 need to be rotated 180 degrees.

(Unfortunately, my printer doesn't allow me specifying this kind of layout in the settings dialog, so I need to craft this by hand).

PS. I tagged this "graphics" because another approach I tried was to use includegraphics, but I couldn't figure out a way to extract pages from the PDF I have.

Here's my minimal example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}

%% signature=8,landscape
\includepdf[pages={1-8},nup=2x2]{booklet.pdf}

\end{document}

booklet.pdf can be any PDF with at least 8 pages.

PPS. The resulting page needs to be a portrait: it is first folded on the long side, and then on the short side, but the order of folding can be changed, if you want to make it horizontal.

---

I kind of almost made it work like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[a4paper, margin=0pt]{geometry}

\begin{document}

\begin{picture}(595,842)(18,0)
  \put(0,842){\includegraphics[page=1,angle=180]{booklet.pdf}}
  \put(298,842){\includegraphics[page=8,angle=180]{booklet.pdf}}
  \put(0,0){\includegraphics[page=4]{booklet.pdf}}
  \put(298,0){\includegraphics[page=5]{booklet.pdf}}
\end{picture}

\end{document}

Things I don't understand is: why do I need to move the picture 18 points to the left, in order for it to fit the paper exactly.

Answer 1

No need for picture, just pack them in. (I used test5 instead of booklet.)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[a4paper, margin=0pt]{geometry}
\parindent=0pt
\lineskip=0pt

\newcommand{\filename}{test5}

\begin{document}
  \includegraphics[page=1,angle=180,scale=0.5]{\filename}%
  \includegraphics[page=8,angle=180,scale=0.5]{\filename}\\
  \includegraphics[page=4,scale=0.5]{\filename}%
  \includegraphics[page=5,scale=0.5]{\filename}
\end{document}

---

You can also use the following. The minipage prevents a pagebreak.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[a4paper, margin=0pt]{geometry}
\parindent=0pt
\lineskip=0pt

\newcommand{\filename}{test5}

\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
  \includegraphics[page=1,width=0.5\textwidth,height=0.5\textheight,angle=180]{\filename}%
  \includegraphics[page=8,width=0.5\textwidth,height=0.5\textheight,angle=180]{\filename}
  \includegraphics[page=4,width=0.5\textwidth,height=0.5\textheight]{\filename}%
  \includegraphics[page=5,width=0.5\textwidth,height=0.5\textheight]{\filename}
\end{minipage}
\end{document}

Answer 2

I'm not quite sure I correctly understood the wanted layout, but here a suggestion:

\documentclass[[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages,expl3}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\makeatletter 
\newcommand\myangle{
 \bool_if:nTF 
  {
   \int_compare_p:n { \AM@page = 1 } ||
   \int_compare_p:n { \AM@page = 8 } ||
   \int_compare_p:n { \AM@page = 3 } ||
   \int_compare_p:n { \AM@page = 6 } 
  }
  { 180 }
  {  0  }
 } 
\ExplSyntaxOff
\begin{document}


\includepdf[pages={1,8,4,5,3,6,2,7}, % order
            nup=2x2,
            angle=\myangle]{example-image-a4-numbered}

\end{document}