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--- products:ict:linux:pdfjam_pdfjoin_pdfnup [2023/07/29 23:50] – wikiadmin
+++ products:ict:linux:pdfjam_pdfjoin_pdfnup [2023/07/29 23:50] (current) – wikiadmin
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 https://github.com/rrthomas/pdfjam
+https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/254308/printing-two-pages-per-sheet-from-the-command-line
+Printing two pages per sheet from the command line
+Asked 7 years, 6 months ago
+Modified 1 year, 2 months ago
+Viewed 13k times
+Say I start off from a PDF document, say of 12 pages, viewed with evince. To produce another PDF of 6 sheets, with a page setup of two pages per side, I normally use the "Print to File" device listed in the ^P dialogue window. This works out pretty neatly.
+I would like to translate this operation for the command line.
+To my understanding, this is not an operation that pdftk can do. Please cross check.
+The command lp, which would accept the option -o number-up=2, does not recognize any device called "Print to File", which indeed does not show up in lpstat -p -d.
+I am aware of the post What is “Print to File” and can it be used from command line?. I have installed cups-pdf whereby a new printer named PDF is acknowledged. However, the print quality of a simple text file is way too raw (for example, no print margins to start with). Moreover, if I reprint an existing PDF file on this device, say lp -p PDF existing.pdf, evince can't even manage to open that copycatted output, while this is not the case with the "Print to File" way.
+I had a look at man evince. At the bottom, it touches upon a few print preview options and redirects to a GNOME-developer project page. Admittedly I am not able to make sense and use of it.
+Is there actually a way to combine the flexibility of the command line with the print quality that I obtain from that "Print to File" option in the GUI evince?
+My test case, again, would be to create from the command line a PDF out of a source document printed with two pages per sheet.
+Thanks for thinking along.
+pdfcupsevincepdftklp
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+edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:36
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+asked Jan 9, 2016 at 21:45
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+There is the pdfnup (or pdfjam) command line tool. You can install it from the repositories of your distribution (sudo apt-get install pdfjam for Debian-based distributions, yaourt -S pdfnup on Arch etc).
+The default options will take the input PDF file and produce an output PDF with two input pages per page:
+pdfnup -o output.pdf input.pdf
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+edited Oct 14, 2016 at 16:56
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+answered Jan 9, 2016 at 21:56
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+This produces the desired result ahead of engaging with printing commands. Man pages are available on-line from Linux.die.net –
+XavierStuvw
+ Jan 10, 2016 at 12:48
+For pdfjam you need to add the option --nup 2x1, otherwise it just pipes the document as-is. –
+comfreak
+ Oct 23, 2021 at 19:29
+Note that the pdfnup script from pdfjam is no more, you'll have to use pdfjam directly. –
+vonbrand
+ Jan 17 at 14:05
+pdfjam sources: github.com/rrthomas/pdfjam and github.com/rrthomas/pdfjam-extras (pdfnup, pdfpun, pdfjoin, pdf90, pdf180, pdf270, pdfflip, pdfbook, pdfjam-pocketmod, pdfjam-slides3up, pdfjam-slides6up), pdfjam old source: warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/statistics/staff/academic-research/firth/software/pdfjam –
+milahu
+ yesterday
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+To expand on the accepted answer:
+Using pdfjam you will need to pass the landscape option as well. The usage is:
+pdfjam input.pdf -o output.pdf --nup 2x1 --landscape
+Note that the extra --angle 90 might save your day, depending on the orientation of the pages in the original PDF.
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+edited May 23, 2022 at 15:38
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+answered Oct 28, 2021 at 8:15
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+Yes you can print multiple pages:
+command | lpr -P <printername> -p <priority from 1 to 100>
+Example of use:
+ls -l | lpr -P hpprinter -p 2
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+edited Jan 9, 2016 at 23:13
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+answered Jan 9, 2016 at 22:37
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+Hi. This answer bumps against the limitation that, if I launch lpr -P PDF -p 2 the quality of the result is way too raw. It is useful if that is not a requirement. –
+XavierStuvw
+ Jan 10, 2016 at 12:45
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