Imposition of pages using LaTeX

Imposition is one of the fundamental steps in the prepress printing process. It is the arrangement of the printed product’s pages on the printer’s sheet, in order to obtain faster printing, simplified binding and reduced paper waste. Example:

Prerequisites:

• Install LaTeX using command: $sudo apt-get install texlive-full • A pdf you want to print as a book e.g. Procedure: 1. If you want two blank pages at the start and end of the booklet, then follow this step. Copy the following code in tex file. documentclass{article} \usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig} \usepackage[final]{pdfpages} % for including pdf file \begin{document} \includepdf[pages={{},{},-,{},{}}]{complete path to your pdf file} % two empty pages at the start and end of the pdf \end{document} Compile the above code using command:$ pdflatex filename.  This will give you a pdf with four empty pages two starting and two at the end (means four extra pages)

2. Rotate the pages at 90° angle with imposition of two pages on a single page. For this use following code:

\documentclass[12pt,twoside]{article}
\pdfpagewidth 283mm
\pdfpageheight 460mm
\usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
\usepackage[paperwidth=283mm,paperheight=460mm,left=0cm,top=0cm,bottom=0cm,right=0cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[final]{pdfpages} %for including pdf files
\begin{document}
\includepdf[pages=-, signature=32,landscape]{demo.pdf} % dash means all pages, signature is the number of pages in each package landscape=90° angle
\end{document}
• In the above code pages=- means all the pages in a pdf
•  signature is the number of pages in each package(bundle)
• Here I take this value 32 because I need 32 pages in a bundle.
• landscape=90° angle

Compile the code with same command. o/p file is: two pages on one page with 90° rotation. And number of pages get reduced by half.

3. Now If you want four pages on single page, do following. Now in a bundle, 32 pages are on 16 pages because two pages on a single page thats why here I take signature as 16

\documentclass[12pt,twoside]{article}
\pdfpagewidth 7.25in
\pdfpageheight 15in
\usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx,epsfig}
\usepackage[paperwidth=15in,paperheight=20in,left=0in,top=0in,bottom=0in,right=0in]{geometry}
\usepackage[final]{pdfpages} % to include pdf
\begin{document}
\includepdf[pages=-,signature=16,landscape]{imp.pdf} % dash means all pages, signature is the number of pages in each package landscape=90° angle
\end{document}