Booklet Printing

I have re-figured this out so many different times (and no doubt in different ways) that I thought I'd blog it if only for my benefit.

The scenario is this. You have a pdf or postscript file and you want to print it out as a booklet (ie that folds in the middle). If it's big (ie. a booklet rather than a book) you want the pages grouped into bundles of 16 or so pages.

The incantation I just successfully used was:

pdf2ps foo.pdf | psbook -s16 | psnup -2 > foo-book.ps

Note that this output postscript doesn't include the tumbling commands. In my case it's no big deal since I'm sending the data to the printer via it's web page interface which allows me to specify double siding (head to toe). If you don't have that option then you can pipe the output through pstops with the appropriate options before sending it to the printer.

e2 has a great page (An introductory guide into the fascinating (and highly anal retentive) world of bookbinding.) about binding your own book - even down to the stitching. Neat!