psdim(1)psdim(1)NAMEpsdim - calculate optimal page format for n-up printing from a post‐
script file
SYNOPSISpsdim [options] [filename]
DESCRIPTIONpsdim is a small utility to be used in conjunction with pstops. It
looks at the contents of a postscript document to determine the size of
the printed pages. From this, it calculates the optimal placement of
the pages for n-up printing. It outputs a format string suitable for
processing by pstops.
In order to determine the size of the pages in a postscript document
accurately, psdim uses the ghostscript interpreter to render the docu‐
ment. For this reason, psdim is relatively slow, but yields very accu‐
rate results that could not be obtained by just naively looking at the
postscript headers. For psdim to work, gs must be installed on your
system.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-h, --help Print usage information and exit.
-v, --version
Print version information and exit.
-l, --license
Print license information and exit.
-q, --quiet
Suppress printing progress information. Normally, psdim
prints page numbers to stderr for each page processed.
-x, --width dim
Specify the physical width of the output paper.
-y, --height dim
Specify the physical height of the output paper.
-p, --page format
Specify the format of the output paper: one of a4, a3, a5,
b5, letter, legal, tabloid, statement, executive, folio,
quarto, 10x14. The default is letter. Paper formats are case
insensitive. The -p option is equivalent to a corresponding
pair or -x and -y options.
-m, --margin dim
Set the width of the margins between the document and the
edge of the paper. The default is 0.5in.
-n, --hmargin dim
Like -m, but only set the horizontal (left and right) mar‐
gins.
-o, --vmargin dim
Like -m, but only set the vertical (top and bottom) margins.
-s, --sep dim
Set the width of the white space separating input pages when
they are combined on a single output page. The default is
0.5in.
-t, --hsep dim
Like -s, but only set the space in the horizontal direction.
-u, --vsep dim
Like -s, but only set the space in the vertical direction.
-L, --landscape
Select the landscape orientation (pages are rotated to the
left). This is the default for 2-up and 8-up printing. Note
that the printed text is rotated, not the physical page.
-R, --seascape
Select the seascape orientation (pages are rotated to the
right). Note that the printed text is rotated, not the phys‐
ical paper.
-U, --upside-down
Select the upside-down orientation.
-P, --portrait
Select the portrait (upright) orientation. This is the
default for 4-up, 9-up, and 16-up printing.
-f, --format nxm
Arrange pages in n rows and m columns.
-a, --hpolicy n
Select the horizontal alignment policy. For n=0, the hori‐
zontal alignment of pages follows a rigid grid. For n=1, the
pages in each column are aligned, but each column is cen‐
tered in its available horizontal space. For n=2, each page
is centered horizontally in its column. n=3,4 behave like
n=1,2, except the width of the columns is variable.
-b, --vpolicy n
Select the vertical alignment policy. For n=0, the vertical
alignment of pages follows a rigid grid. For n=1, the pages
in each row are aligned, but each row is centered in its
available vertical space. For n=2, each page is centered
vertically in its row. n=3,4 behave like n=1,2, except the
height of the rows is variable.
-c, --columnmode
Arrange the pages in columns (default is in rows). For
instance, in 4-up printing, pages 1 and 2 will normally
appear above pages 3 and 4. If -c is selected, pages 1 and 2
will appear to the left of pages 3 and 4.
-d, --righttoleft
Arrange the pages with page numbers increasing from right to
left (default is from left to right).
-e, --bottomtotop
Arrange the pages with page numbers increasing from bottom
to top (default is from top to bottom).
-C, --color
Handle colored backgrounds. This option must be given when
the document uses a background color other than white. Color
processing is significantly slower than black-and-white pro‐
cessing, and should only be used when necessary. Note: while
psdim will calculate the correct document dimensions, pstops
is very bad at cropping colored backgrounds and will proba‐
bly do a bad job with such documents.
-S, --shrink
Only shrink, never enlarge page.
-1, --1up Fit to size. Equivalent to -f1x1 --portrait.
-2, --2up Equivalent to -f1x2 --landscape.
-4, --4up Equivalent to -f2x2 --portrait.
-8, --8up Equivalent to -f2x4 --landscape.
-9, --9up Equivalent to -f3x3 --portrait.
-6, --16up Equivalent to -f4x4 --portrait.
OPERANDS
If a filename is given, then a postscript document is read from that
file. Otherwise, a postscript document is read from standard input.
DIMENSIONS
Several command line options take a dimension argument. Dimensions can
carry one of the optional units "in", "cm", "mm", or "pt". Here, 1pt is
a postscript point, or 1/72 inches. The default unit is "in".
ALIGNMENT POLICIES
In n-up printing, several input pages are rearranged into rows and col‐
umns on a single output page. If all the input pages are of equal
width, height, and margins, then it is a straightforward task to
arrange them in a grid. However, if the input pages are of variable
width, height, and/or margins, then several choices arise regarding
their optimal placement. These choices are governed by the horizontal
and vertical alignment policies, which are specified by the -a and -b
options. The horizontal alignment policy affects only the x-coordinates
of the pages in the output, and the vertical policy affects only the y-
coordinates.
EXAMPLES
In the simplest case, psdim can be used to figure out an optimal format
string for 2-up printing:
> psdim--2up test.ps
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
2:0@0.93L(9.79in,-1.13in)+1@0.93L(9.79in,4.09in)
The resulting format string can be fed directly to pstops:
> pstops `psdim --2up test.ps` test.ps test.2up.ps
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Wrote 5 pages, 155746 bytes
EXIT STATUS
On successful completion, 0 is returned, otherwise a positive error
number.
VERSION
1.4
AUTHOR
Peter Selinger, http://quasar.mathstat.uottawa.ca/~selinger/.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2001-2005 Peter Selinger.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. See also
http://www.gnu.org/.
SEE ALSOpstops(1), gs(1)Version 1.4 March 2005 psdim(1)
