NAME

       pdfposter - Scale and tile PDF images/pages to print on multiple pages.

SYNOPSIS

       pdfposter <options> infile outfile

DESCRIPTION

       Pdfposter can be used to create a large poster by building it from multple pages and/or
       printing it on large media. It expects as input a PDF file, normally printing on a single
       page. The output is again a PDF file, maybe containing multiple pages together building
       the poster.  The input page will be scaled to obtain the desired size.

       The program uses a simple but efficient method which is possible with PDF: All new pages
       share the same data stream of the scaled page. Thus resulting file grows moderatly.

       To control its operation, you need to specify either the size of the desired poster or a
       scale factor for the image:

       • Given the poster size, it calculates the required number of sheets to print on, and from
         that a scale factor to fill these sheets optimally with the input image.

       • Given a scale factor, it derives the required number of pages from the input image size,
         and positions the scaled image centered on this area.

OPTIONS

   General Options
       --version
              Show program's version number and exit

       -h, --help
              Show help message and exit

       --help-media-names
              List available media and distance names and exit

       -v, --verbose
              Be verbose. Tell about scaling, rotation and number of pages. Can be used more than
              once to increase the verbosity.

       -n, --dry-run
              Show what would have been done, but do not generate files.

       -A, --art-box
              Use the content area defined by the ArtBox (default: use the area defined by the
              TrimBox)

   Defining Output
       -m BOX, --media-size=BOX
              Specify the desired media size to print on.  See below for BOX. The default is A4
              in the standard package.

       -p BOX, --poster-size=BOX
              Specify the poster size. See below for BOX.  pdfposter will autonomously choose
              scaling and rotation to best fit the input onto the poster (see EXAMPLES below).

              If you give neither the -s nor the -p option, the default poster size is identical
              to the media size.

       -s NUMBER
              Specify a linear scaling factor to produce the poster.  Together with the input
              image size and optional margins, this induces an output poster size. So don't
              specify both -s and -p.

              Default is deriving the scale factor to fit a given poster size.

   Box Definition
       The BOX mentioned above is a specification of horizontal and vertical size. The syntax is
       as follows (with multipier being specified optionally):
          box = [ multiplier ] unit

          multiplier = number "x" number

          unit = medianame or distancename

       Many international media names are recognised by the program, in upper and lower case, and
       can be shortened to their first few characters, as long as unique. For instance 'A0',
       'Let'. Distance names are like 'cm', 'inch', 'ft'.

       Medias are typically not quadratic but rectangular, which means width and hight differ.
       Thus using medianames is a bit tricky:

       10x20cm
              obviuos: 10 cm x 20 cm (portrait)

       20x10cm
              same as 10x20cm, since all boxes are rotated to portrait format

       Now when using medianames it gets tricky:

       1x1a4  same as approx. 21x29cm (21 cm x 29 cm, portrait)

       1x2a4  same as approx. 21x58cm (21 cm x 58 cm, portrait)

              This are two a4 pages put together at the small side: One portrait page wide and
              two portrait pages high.

       2x1a4  same as approx. 42x29cm, which is rotated to portrait and is the same a 29x42cm (29
              cm x 42 cm)

              This are two a4 pages put together at the long side: Two portrait pages wide and
              one portrait page high.

EXAMPLES

       pdfposter -mA3 -pA0 a4.pdf out.pdf
              Prints an A4 input file on 8 A3 pages, forming an A0 poster.

       pdfposter -p3x3Let a4.pdf out.pdf
              Prints an inputfile on a poster of 3x3 Letter pages.

       pdfposter -mA0 input.pdf out.pdf
              Enlarges an inputfile to print on a large-media A0 capable device.

       pdfposter -s4 input.pdf out.pdf
              Enlarge an inputfile exactly 4 times, print on the default A4 media, and let
              pdfposter determine the number of pages required.

       pdfposter -m10x10cm -pa0 a4.pdf out.pdf
              Just to show how efficient pdfposter is: This will create a file containing 192
              pages, but only 15 times as big as the single page.  With a4.pdf being a quite
              empty page, this ratio should be even better for filled pages.

       More examples including sample pictures can be found at
       http://pythonhosted.org/pdftools.pdfposter/examples

   Examples for automatic scaling
       • For printing 2 portrait A4 pages high (approx. 58cm) and let pdfposter determine how
         many portrait pages wide, specify a lage number of vertical pages. eg:

            pdfposter -p999x2a4 testpage-wide.pdf out.pdf

       • For printing 2 landscape A4 pages high (approx. 20cm) and let pdfposter determine how
         many landscape pages wide, specify a lage number of horizontal pages. eg:

            pdfposter -p2x999a4 testpage-wide.pdf out.pdf

SEE ALSO

       poster(1), pdfnup(1) http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pdfnup/, pdfsplit(1)
       http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pdfsplit/, pdfgrid(1) http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pdfgrid/

       Project Homepage http://pythonhosted.org/pdftools.pdfposter/

AUTHOR

       Hartmut Goebel <h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com>

       Licence: GNU Public Licence v3 (GPLv3)

COPYRIGHT

       2008-2013 by Hartmut Goebel