man a5booklet (Commandes) - copy two A5 pages from a .dvi file to one A4 page in another.
NAME
a5booklet - copy two A5 pages from a .dvi file to one A4 page in another.
SYNOPSIS
a5booklet file[.dvi]
DESCRIPTION
A5booklet is a little script that allows you to typeset two A5 pages next to eachother on a single A4 page (landscape), combining pages from the original file in such a way that after double sided printing and some reshuffeling of the pages you get a nice a5 booklet that is ready for a staple in the middle.
The script calls a very clever program dvidvi, written by Tomas Rokicki (the author of dvips), that does the real work.
The output is written to two files, file-1.dvi and file-2.dvi
dvips -ta4 -tlandscape file-1
then put the stack upside doen in the printer, and print the second file using
dvips -ta4 -tlandscape file-2
Make sure that the bottom of the A5-pages is on the correct side of the paper when you put the stack back for printing the back side. After the two print jobs, you must re-shuffle the paper stack before you can staple it.
SEE ALSO
BUGS
The script has A4 papersize hardwired into it. Admittedly, a European-centered way of thinking.
Page number 1 is always the first page in the original .dvi file, not the page numbered 1 by TeX's numbering scheme.
AUTHOR
A5booklet is written by David A. van Leeuwen (david@ElseWare.cistron.nl), but is is not original in any way. The main two lines that do the work are inspired from the man page of dvidvi. A5booklet is available under the conditions of the Gnu Public Licence.