[OS X TeX] Problem with psnup

[Joachim Kock]

Hello list,

I have a problem with psnup which I would always ascribe 
to my own lack of expertise, were it not for the fact that 
it works on a linux machine.

I have a ps file (produced with latex/dvips from MacTeX-2007).
 
Then I do

    psnup -2 document.ps doctup.ps

in order to put two pages on each A4 sheet.

The result of psnup is unexpected: it looks like
something involving the letter paper size: if I give
the -d option to have a thin frame around the
pages, I can see that there is spurious extra
space along the long side of the A4 sheet containing
the two pages (i.e. along the bottoms of the two pages), 
whereas the right-hand page on the sheet it truncated
on the right as if the sheet was not long enough.

I have tried with the -pa4 switch, but it makes no
difference.

The psnup command works as expected on a linux machine, 
and therefore I conclude that there is something wrong 
with my tex installation.

I have verified that it is not a problem with 
Preview or the underlying pstopdf: the ps file produced 
by psnup on the linux machine is correctly distilled by
Preview.

(The linux machine is some sort of ubuntu, it is not
mine, and I know nothing about linux.)

My own machine is an iMac with 10.5.2.
The MacTeX is TeX-live-2007.  I have no other tex
installation or alternative psutils.

psnup says "psnup release 1 patchlevel 17"
(that's exactly the same version reported on the
linux machine).

[My settings are for A4, as far as I know: in the System
Preferences, Print and Fax I have A4 as preferred paper size.
The MacTeX installer does not ask, but there is a mention that
if problems occur, to issue these two commands (which I have 
tried):

    sudo texconfig-sys paper a4
    sudo texconfig-sys dvips paper a4

Both these commands gave the message: 

texconfig: updated configuration saved as file `/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-config/dvips/config/config.ps'

Is there a way to query the value of the paper-size setting?

In any case, it seems this is unrelated since the -pa4 switch
has no effect, and I have also noticed that in the ps file
produced by psnup there is DocumentPaperSizes: a4 in the
preamble.]



Any advice is appreciated.  It would also be interesting
to hear if anybody else experience this problem.

I am ready to provide more details if needed, and to invest
some time in debugging, if given proper instructions.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Joachim.

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Joachim Kock <kock at mat.uab.cat>
Departament de Matemàtiques -- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Edifici C -- 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona) -- ESPANYA
Phone: +34 93 581 25 34        Fax: +34 93 581 27 90
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