Four identical A5 pages per A3 page
Posted: 01 December 2009 10:20 PM   [ Ignore ]
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I will try to explain my problem.
I use PDFClerk for printing A5 paperback books, so no imposition. I print on a A3 printer and I make a layout of 4 identical A5 pages per A3 page so the result is four identical book when I cut the whole.

I never could find out how to obtain that layout directly with PDFClerk. I tried different ways using the imposition tool but the result was never right.
For example I tried:
front
1 1
1 1
back
2 2
2 2
and the result begins well but after a few pages, some pages are missing. I know, the imposition tools is not really made for that but I tried…


So up to now I have used a clumsy trick: I start with the original A5 PDF and make a PDF with each page duplicated 4 time (1,2,3,4 ->  1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4 and so on).
Then I use the standard imposition template for 4 pages on one page. It is probably not the best way but at least it works.

Problem: I don’t know how to make this 4 time duplication in one step with PDFClerk. I select all pages, copy and paste and when I click on the “label” column headline the two pages with the same label are together:

1,2,3 … 99,100,1,2,3 … 99,100
becomes
1,1,2,2,3,3 … 99,99,100,100

This is all right but then I need to do so a second time in order to have 1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4…
If I do the same copy+paste it seems to work but after a certain number of pages the order begins to be wrong then completely confused.
So I have to export first the 1,1,2,2,3,3 PDF, import it back into PDFClerk to duplicate all the page again as I did the first time… Then it is correct, I can use the imposition to obtain the 4 A5 on A3 and finally export the PDF for printing.
I am quite sure it is possible to do all this in a better way but I tried so many things that now I prefer to ask for some advice.

I hope this long story is not too confused… Sorry!

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Posted: 01 December 2009 11:12 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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Have you tried a step and repeat layout with a single rule: Impose pages in groups of 1 a total of 4 times?

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António Nunes
SintraWorks

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Posted: 02 December 2009 10:35 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]
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I thought I had tried all possible configuration with “step and repeat” but now I thing I had tried all but the right one!
Of course your tip works perfectly. So many hours wasted just because I misunderstood the way “step and repeat” works…
Thank you so much and sorry for my obtuse brain!

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