[pdftex] producing a5 booklets from a4

[Jens-Uwe Morawski]

On 08 Oct 2002 13:35:55 +0100
Kester Clegg <kester at cs.york.ac.uk> wrote:

> Hans Hagen <pragma at wxs.nl> writes:
> 
> > At 11:39 AM 10/8/2002 +0100, Kester Clegg wrote:
> > >Rolf Niepraschk <Rolf.Niepraschk at ptb.de> writes:
> > >
> > > > > I product a5 booklets from pdflatex produced a4 pdf using texexec
> > > > > utility, e.g.
> > > > > texexec --pdfarrange --paper=a5a4 --print=up
> > > > > However, this does not achieve the correct typesetting of the page
> > > > > layout in a book format, in the way psbook used to.  That is, left-hand
> [...]
> But does it typset each page correctly for an a5 booklet, or does it
> typset them all with the same margins as if they were being printed on
> single side a4?

In order to be independent from ConTeXt in respect to the margin settings
i tested with the following LaTeX input. It adds some marking to show
the page boundary and a green bar to show the 5mm binding correction
(BCOR parameter available in the KOMA-Script classes).

% -- itsname.tex-->>
\documentclass[a5paper,twoside,BCOR5mm,DIV9,pdftex]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{color,ifthen}
\usepackage{eso-pic}

\definecolor{Gray}{gray}{0.7}

\newcommand\BCORmarking{\color{green}%
	\ifthenelse{\isodd{\thepage}}{%
	\put(0,0){\rule{5mm}{210mm}}}{%
	\put(143,0){\rule{5mm}{210mm}}}}


\AddToShipoutPicture{%
	\setlength{\unitlength}{1mm}%
	\BCORmarking\color{Gray}%
	\put(0,0){\rule{10mm}{5mm}}% lower left
	\put(143,0){\rule{5mm}{10mm}}% lower right
	\put(138,205){\rule{10mm}{5mm}}% upper right
	\put(0,200){\rule{5mm}{10mm}}\normalcolor}% upper left
	
\begin{document}

\whiledo{\value{page}< 7}{%
	\input tufte \clearpage}

\end{document}
% -- itsname.tex--<<

Running this file with pdflatex gives a doublesided A5 document with a
small inner margin and a wide outer margin.

The re-arranging of those A5-pages on a A4-paper using

texexec --pdfarr --noduplex --paper=A5A4 itsname

gives a A4-paper with two A5-pages arranged side-by-side. No margin is
added. No margin is removed. The pages are not rescaled and do not
intersect. IMO, everything is as it should be. So, what's your
problem? Are you sure that the page layout in your file is setup
correctly?

Jens