2026-01-03
I buy PDFs of various RPGs, and ones I really think I want to use and carry with me, I print out. The PDFs themselves are designed for A5 paper, which is not a great match for US Letter, which is how I print. So I had to come up with an approach that would accomplish several complex feats:
- Scale the pages so that they fit on one half of a US Letter sized page, printed 2-up
- Sequence the pages such that if the pages were printed double sided (even though I only have a single sided printer), that, when folded, they would form a booklet that could be stapled.
- Since printing the entire book would be many pages and difficult to fold, staple, and handle, first select which pages should be selected for which booklets, so several smaller booklets can be produced that focus on a particular aspect of gameplay.
- Develop a procedure for printing all this two-sided on a one-sided printer while keeping the correct page orientation.
Here's the approach I came up with:
- Use qpdf to slice out page ranges you want
- Use pdfbook2 to print booklets with proper sequencing
- Use PDF viewer to print odd pages in landscape, then flip the paper so the top stays on the right side of the printer, and print even sided pages in landscape
- Fold and staple on the spine 2-3 times from the outside of the fold