Pecha printing with Linux

Preparation
	Make sure you have installed the software for your operating system described in Working with PDF Documents.

Contents 1 Transforming PDF Pechas for Printing 1.1 Printing three pecha pages on one A4 landscape page 1.2 Printing small pechas, six pechas on one A4 page 2 Internal Links

Transforming PDF Pechas for Printing

Printing three pecha pages on one A4 landscape page

• Your pecha needs to available as PDF document with each pecha page being one PDF page. The total number of pages needs to be a multiple of six. (Add empty pages to the document if necessary.)
• Use LinuxFormatPrinter to calculate the page reordering sequence for A4 landscape pecha (3 pechas on one A4 landscape page): Enter the number of pages (which must be a multiple of six) of the original PDF document, select 'A4 lanscape pecha (3 on a page)' and 'Calculate'. Copy the strange number-string that results. It will be used to re-order the PDF document so that pages are in right order for printing. (See image [1])
• Use a terminal to execute a command similar to (all in one line):

 pdfnup original.pdf --pages 41,1,2,41,41,3,4,41,40,5,6,39,38,7,8,37,36,9,10,35,34,
 11,12,33,32,13,14,31,30,15,16,29,28,17,18,27,26,19,20,25,24,21,22,23 --nup 2x1 
 --orient landscape --outfile booklet.pdf

(Of course replace the page-number string with the page numbers you generated above with the FormatPrinter tool)

This creates a booklet.pdf from original.pdf. booklet.pdf can be printed directly.

• The resulting PDF can be printed using the double-sided long-edge binding option. When printing from Adobe Reader make sure to switch off page scaling selections like: "Fit to printable area". Select Page Scaling: "None".

Printing small pechas, six pechas on one A4 page

• Create a pecha PDF document with a page size that is a multiple of twelve. (Add empty pages to the document if necessary)
• Use LinuxFormatPrinter to calculate the page reordering sequence for booklet creation: Enter the number of pages (which must be a multiple of twelve) of the original PDF document, select A4 portrait pecha (6 pecha pages on one portrait A4 page) and 'Calculate'. Copy the strange number-string that results. It will be used to re-order the PDF document so that pages are in right order for printing. (See image [1])
• Use a terminal to execute a command similar to (all in one line):

 pdfnup original.pdf --pages 41,1,2,41,41,3,4,41,40,5,6,39,38,7,8,37,36,9,10,35,34,
 11,12,33,32,13,14,31,30,15,16,29,28,17,18,27,26,19,20,25,24,21,22,23 --nup 2x2 
 --outfile booklet.pdf

(Of course replace the pages string with the page numbers you generated above with the FormatPrinter tool)

This creates a booklet.pdf from original.pdf. booklet.pdf can be printed directly.

• The resulting PDF can be printed using the double-sided short-edge binding option. When printing from Adobe Reader make sure to switch off page scaling selections like: "Fit to printable area". Select Page Scaling: "None".
• You can use this template to cut the pages: 1x6 cutting template

Internal Links

• Working with PDF Documents