[reportlab-users] Need to put together a quick script, some basic questions

[Tim Roberts]

Pedro wrote:

> Ok, this is my very first message to this list, I've never used

> reportlab's pdf library nor I've red the documentation yet.

> What I need to do is this:

> take a document with 16 A4 pages and then squeeze them all in two A4

> pages, 8 on each side. They should be place in such way that after

> printing both pages on both sides of a sheet, I can fold the sheet a

> few times, cut the edges, staple them in the middle and end up with a

> very little 16 pages book.

>

> My questions are:

> -Is this possible to do using this the pdf library?

> -What issues will arise?

> -Text in general prints very well, is it possible to keep the text

> format or do I need to convert to to images?

>   


This is not a Reportlab task.  I gather that you already have this
16-page document, created by some other application, right?  What you
need are PDF manipulation tools.  Reportlab is used to create documents,
not to manipulate existing documents.  If you were creating the document
from scratch, then Reportlab could do it.

The standard Acrobat PDF reader can create booklets right out of the
box, but it only does 2 pages per side.  It can print your document
8-up, but not so that it can be folded and stapled like this.

If you Google for "pdf booklet conversion", you'll find a number of hits
for tools that can do this.  I don't have experience with any of them.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.