[XeTeX] Xelatex mirror image (pdf output) for print

[Jonathan Kew]

On 5 Oct 2009, at 15:30, Apostolos Syropoulos wrote:

> >I have a pdf book generated using xelatex that needs go for press
> >(print on paper). The printer wants a mirror image of the pdf.
> >How do i generate pdf mirror image in XeLaTeX?
>
> Well in TeX/LaTeX you could do it with the following command
> \special{!userdict begin
>           /bop-hook{600 0 translate  -1 1 scale }def end}

That would depend on using a workflow based on a particular dvi-to-ps  
translator, as well as being hard-coded for a certain paper size...  
hardly a portable solution.

>
> but I have no idea how you could do it with XeLaTeX. I assume
> one could use the equivalent (if any) of  userdict.

No, there's no postscript step involved, so no place to hook in that  
code.

It would presumably be possible to hack something into the output  
routine that would use the graphicx package to reflect each complete  
page before shipping out.

However, I think a much better approach is to generate the pdf  
normally, and then reflect the pages using a post-processing step;  
some printer drivers have an option to reflect the image during the  
printing process, for example, or I expect it can probably be done  
with the pdfpages package. Maybe someone familiar with a variety of  
pdf-manipulating tools can give more specific suggestions.

JK