pdfposter - Scale and tile PDF images/pages to print on multiple
pages.
pdfposter <options> infile outfile
pdfposter can be used to create a large poster by building
it from multiple 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 moderately.
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.
- -h,
--help
- Show help message and exit
- --help-media-names
- List available media and distance names and exit
- --help-box-definitions
- Show help about specifying BOX for --media-size and
--poster-size and exit
- --version
- Show program's version number 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.
- -f,
--first
- First page to convert (default: first page).
- -l,
--last
- Last page to convert (default: last page).
- -A,
--art-box
- Use the content area defined by the ArtBox (default: use the area defined
by the TrimBox)
- -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.
The scaling factor is applied to the width and height of the
input image size. Thus, a scaling factor of 2 results in a poster 4
times the area compared to the original.
Default is deriving the scale factor to fit a given poster
size.
The BOX mentioned above is a specification of horizontal
and vertical size. The syntax is as follows (with multiplier 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 height differ. Thus using media names is a bit tricky:
- 10x20cm
- obvious: 10 cm x 20 cm (portrait)
- 20x10cm
- same as 10x20cm, since all boxes are rotated to portrait format
Now when using media names 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 (approx.) the
same as 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.
- 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
https://pdfposter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Examples.html
- •
- For printing 2 portrait A4 pages high (approx. 58cm) and let
pdfposter determine how many portrait pages wide, specify a large number
of vertical pages. eg:
- •
- For printing 2 landscape A4 pages high (approx. 20cm) and let
pdfposter determine how many landscape pages wide, specify a large number
of horizontal pages. eg:
poster(1), pdfnup(1)
https://pypi.org/project/pdfnup/, pdfsplit(1)
https://pypi.org/project/pdfsplit/, pdfgrid(1)
https://pypi.org/project/pdfgrid/
Project Homepage https://pdfposter.readthedocs.io/
Hartmut Goebel <h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com>
License: GNU Public License v3 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later)
2008-2022 by Hartmut Goebel