How can I split these pdf pages to print them as the designer intended?

March 13, 2014 6:23 PM

I have this document to print. Most of the pdf file is in landscape oriented pages, with two of what would be the (portrait oriented) printed pages side by side on each pdf page. I assume they've done this for ease of reading on a computer screen. I want, however, to print to two 8.5x11 pages for each of their pdf pages. Additional difficulty: Since I'm travelling, I have only access to the local public library Windows printer software, which offers 2x2 splitting, for four printed pages per one pdf page, but no 1X1 splitting. I do have a linux laptop with me. Could I perhaps use gimp -- which I've never used before -- to produce pre-split pdf file? Or some other tool?
posted by bertran to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I don't know exactly what tool you would do this with - possibly pdftk if you're comfortable on the command line - but could you generate a PDF that has a 2x2 layout (by stacking one pdf page on top of another), and then the library printer's splitting can do the rest for you?

I'm not sure that's clear, so I'll try saying it another way: your PDF has two logical pages per 'physical' page. If you stack two of those on top of each other, now you have two columns of two pages each, for 2x2, which the printer can handle.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 6:31 PM on March 13, 2014

check your mefi mail
posted by lampshade at 6:36 PM on March 13, 2014

Best answer: fwiw and for continuity of this question...I split PDFs like this with Abbyy Fine Reader. It has a nice page splitting function that works well with PDFs.
posted by lampshade at 8:01 PM on March 13, 2014

Response by poster: lampshade lent a hand and solved the immediate problem with proprietary Abbyy Fine Reader.

(Thanks!)

It looks like pdftk would be a solution too, for either merging or splitting, though with reading of man pages involved.
posted by bertran at 8:13 PM on March 13, 2014

The PDF looks like it's an incorrect form of a press layout. He's done press spreads, but put the pages in sequential order, rather than in the order needed for assembly and binding. Weird.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:20 AM on March 14, 2014