NAME
pdfposter - Scale and tile PDF images/pages to print on multiple pages.
SYNOPSIS
pdfposter <options> infile outfile
DESCRIPTION
Pdfposter can be used to create a large poster by building it from
multple pages and/or printing it on large media. It expects as input a
PDF file, normally printing on a single page. The output is again a PDF
file, maybe containing multiple pages together building the poster.
The input page will be scaled to obtain the desired size.
The program uses a simple but efficient method which is possible with
PDF: All new pages share the same data stream of the scaled page. Thus
resulting file grows moderatly.
To control its operation, you need to specify either the size of the
desired poster or a scale factor for the image:
· Given the poster size, it calculates the required number of sheets to
print on, and from that a scale factor to fill these sheets optimally
with the input image.
· Given a scale factor, it derives the required number of pages from
the input image size, and positions the scaled image centered on this
area.
OPTIONS
General Options
--version
Show program´s version number and exit
-h , --help
Show help message and exit
--help-media-names
List available media and disctance names and exit
-v , --verbose
Be verbose. Tell about scaling, rotation and number of pages.
Can be used more than once to increase the verbosity.
-n , --dry-run
Show what would have been done, but do not generate files.
Defining Output
-m BOX, --media-size=BOX
Specify the desired media size to print on. See below for BOX.
The default is A4 in the standard package.
-p BOX, --poster-size=BOX
Specify the poster size. See below for BOX. pdfposter will
autonomously choose scaling and rotation to best fit the input
onto the poster (see EXAMPLES below).
If you give neither the -s nor the -p option, the default poster
size is identical to the media size.
-s NUMBER
Specify a linear scaling factor to produce the poster. Together
with the input image size and optional margins, this induces an
output poster size. So don´t specify both -s and -p.
Default is deriving the scale factor to fit a given poster size.
Box Definition
The BOX mentioned above is a specification of horizontal and vertical
size. The syntax is as follows (with multipier being specified
optionally):
box = [ multiplier ] unit
multiplier = number "x" number
unit = medianame or distancename
Many international media names are recognised by the program, in upper
and lower case, and can be shortened to their first few characters, as
long as unique. For instance ´A0´, ´Let´. Distance names are like ´cm´,
´inch´, ´ft´.
Medias are typically not quadratic but rectangular, which means width
and hight differ. Thus using medianames is a bit tricky:
10x20cm
obviuos: 10 cm x 20 cm (portrait)
20x10cm
same as 10x20cm, since all boxes are rotated to portrait format
Now when using medianames it gets tricky:
1x1a4 same as approx. 21x29cm (21 cm x 29 cm, portrait)
1x2a4 same as approx. 21x58cm (21 cm x 58 cm, portrait)
This are two a4 pages put together at the small side: One
portrait page wide and two portrait pages high.
2x1a4 same as approx. 42x29cm, which is rotated to portrait and is the
same a 29x42cm (29 cm x 42 cm)
This are two a4 pages put together at the long side: Two
portrait pages wide and one portrait page high.
EXAMPLES
pdfposter -mA3 -pA0 a4.pdf out.pdf
Prints an A4 input file on 8 A3 pages, forming an A0 poster.
pdfposter -p3x3Let a4.pdf out.pdf
Prints an inputfile on a poster of 3x3 Letter pages.
pdfposter -mA0 input.pdf out.pdf
Enlarges an inputfile to print on a large-media A0 capable
device.
pdfposter -s4 input.pdf out.pdf
Enlarge an inputfile exactly 4 times, print on the default A4
media, and let pdfposter determine the number of pages required.
pdfposter -m10x10cm -pa0 a4.pdf out.pdf
Just to show how efficient pdfposter is: This will create a file
containing 192 pages, but only 15 times as big as the single
page. With a4.pdf being a quite empty page, this ratio should
be even better for filled pages.
More examples including sample pictures can be found at
http://pdfposter.origo.ethz.ch/wiki/examples
Examples for automatic scaling
· For printing 2 portrait A4 pages high (approx. 58cm) and let
pdfposter determine how many portrait pages wide, specify a lage
number of vertical pages. eg:
pdfposter -p999x2a4 testpage-wide.pdf out.pdf
· For printing 2 landscape A4 pages high (approx. 20cm) and let
pdfposter determine how many landscape pages wide, specify a lage
number of horizontal pages. eg:
pdfposter -p2x999a4 testpage-wide.pdf out.pdf
SEE ALSO
poster(1)
Project Homepage http://pdfposter.origo.ethz.ch/
AUTHOR
Hartmut Goebel <h.goebel@goebel-consult.de>
COPYRIGHT
GNU Public Licence v3 (GPLv3)