Producing PDFs to non-standard page sizes

[Ganz, Frank, SV USA]

Hi John,

The easiest fix would be this one:

(1) Produce a PostScript file without page size specification!

Make sure that DVIPSONE is used when you produce the PostScript. (DVIWINDO allows you to create a PostScript without using DVIPSONE. When you do that, you would need to edit the PostScript to erase the default page size feature stored inside the PS. This would just be a few lines to remove. Again, the objective is to create a PostScript without default page size.)

-l=letter mustn't be used with DVIPSONE. Check dviwindo.ini, dvipsone.cmd or any other command prompt entries.

(2) Determine the best position for the text on the page.

If you know the left and buttom margins you can measure by how much they are off vertically and horizontally. (Note, PostScript's coordinate system starts at the buttom left corner. Distiller will crop the page from top and right to fit custom page size.)

You can move the page around with

\hoffset=
\voffset=

they can take negative values and any unit of measure TeX understands.

Once you've determined the best margins, go to step

(3) Enter custom page size in Distiller job options under "Default Page Size" (Acrobat 5.0).

(4) Distill your PostScript for the whole book

This should give you a PDF file with the correct trim.

Thanks,
Frank


>-----Original Message-----
>From: John Hodgson [mailto:john at HWA.TO]
>Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 9:37 AM
>To: YANDYTEX at LISTS.UCC.IE
>Subject: Producing PDFs to non-standard page sizes
>
>
>Hi everyone
>
>I am trying to produce a PDF of a book to a non-standard page
>size (though
>it is a standard book size) The publishers we are working for
>require that
>the PDF has a logical page size of 216x138 mm. Try as I might I haven't
>been able to produce a .PS file with this page size, and
>Acrobat Distiller
>doesn't/won't/can't override the page size when producing the
>PDF. We've
>tried cropping the page size in Acrobat, which works when you
>view the PDF
>in Acrobat, but apparently the underlying page size remains in
>the PDF file
>and gives the printers (ie the firm who are printing the book)
>impossible
>problems when trying to send the book to plate. I've tried messing with
>the -l flag in DVIPSONE with no success.
>
>Has anyone run up against this problem and know what the solution is?
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>John Hodgson
>
>PS I'm a listserv newbie and apologise for any contravention
>of listserv
>etiquette!!
>