NAME

psbind - Transform PostScript files to save trees and reduce guilt

SYNOPSIS

psbind [option]... [input-file-name [output-file-name]]

DESCRIPTION

psbind examines the margins in a PostScript document and rearranges the pages to fit them onto paper efficiently. It outputs a transformed PostScript document.

Because psbind detects the margins in its input automatically, it is particularly useful on documents with large or unbalanced margins. For example, many PostScript documents are laid out for paper sizes smaller than A4 or Letter. psbind can place two such pages onto one output page, often without shrinking the text. It is also useful for printing documents formatted for A4 paper on Letter stock, or vice versa.

The simplest way to invoke psbind is without any arguments, as in:

psbind

By default, psbind reads a PostScript document from standard input and reformats it 2-up (i.e., placing two input pages on each output page). It leaves approximately 1/4 inch (6 mm) margins, and writes the result to standard output.

By adding command line options, you can:

• Place a different number of input pages onto each output page (e.g., psbind -4).

• Recenter the text on each page without combining pages (psbind -C).

• Simply trim off the margins, for further processing by another program (psbind -T).

• Send the output to a printer (psbind -Pprinter-name) or a file.

• Fine-tune output formatting (e.g., psbind --margin=2cm), margin detection (e.g., psbind --sample=2-10), and other options.

The rest of this document describes how.

OPTIONS

In addition to specifying the options described below to psbind on the command line, you can put them in an environment variable named PSBIND. As one might expect, options specified in this environment variable can be overridden on the command line.

Input and output locations

You can invoke psbind with zero, one, or two file names on the command line.

• If you invoke psbind with no file name on the command line, it acts as a filter. In other words, it reads a PostScript document from standard input and writes a transformed document to standard output.

  psbind

• If you invoke psbind with one file name on the command line, it reads from the specified file and writes to standard output.

  psbind input-file-name

• If you invoke psbind with two file names on the command line, it reads from the first file and writes to the second file. If the second file already exists, it will be overwritten.

  psbind input-file-name output-file-name

You can also send the output directly to a printer.

-P/--printer=printer-name

Send output to printer.

Send the transformed PostScript document to the specified printer by invoking lpr. This option cannot be specified in conjunction with an output file name.

Output formatting options

You can tell psbind to do one of three things: combine pages, recenter pages, or trim pages. The default is to combine pages (2-up).

-N/--nup

Combine pages.

Place multiple input pages (2 by default) on each output page. Resize the material and optimize the layout to minimize wasted space. To change the number of input pages combined into each output page, use the -n/--nup-n option.

-C/--center

Recenter pages.

Shift each page by an offset so that margins are balanced between top and bottom and between left and right. Do not resize or combine pages.

-T/--trim

Trim pages.

Shift each page by an offset, and change the paper size information in the document, so that there is no margin whatsoever in the output document. This option is useful only if the output of psbind is fed into another program for post-processing.

The following option is relevant only when combining pages (-N/--nup) or recentering pages (-C/--center):

-p/--paper=a4/letter/other-paper-size

Set output paper size.

By default, psbind produces output for the default paper size returned by paperconf (if libpaperg is installed), or Letter paper (otherwise). You can use this option to switch to a different paper size: any size known to libpaperg (if it is installed), or A4 or Letter (otherwise).

The following options are relevant only when combining pages (-N/--nup).

-n/--nup-n=n

Set number of input pages per output page.

By default, psbind puts 2 input pages on each output page; this option adjusts the number. To zoom each input page to fit one output page, say -n1.

-1, -2, ...

Abbreviation for -n1, -n2, ....

--margin/--nup-margin=dimension

Set output margin.

This option specifies how much margin to leave around each output page. The default is 1/8 inch (3 mm). You can override this setting in centimeters (0.3cm), millimeters (3mm), inches (0.125in), or PostScript points (9pt). If you do not specify a unit, PostScript points are assumed.

--border/--nup-border=dimension

Set output border.

This option specifies how much space to leave around each input page in the combined output. The default is 1/8 inch (3 mm).

--magic

Try very hard to keep the size of the original image.

Documents generally look worse when rescaled. This is especially true of documents that contain bitmaps, be them bitmap fonts or bitmap images. The --magic option suppresses the default rescaling behavior of psbind whenever possible. By "whenever possible" we mean whenever the unscaled originals will fit in the output, without taking --margin or --border into account. This option is particularly useful for documents that psbind would normally decide to expand after trimming off margins.

The following options are effective at all times, but probably useful only when combining pages (-N/--nup).

--scoot

Prepend blank page to input.

Many documents show page numbers to the right on odd-numbered pages and to the left on even-numbered pages. When printing such documents 2-up, the page numbers on adjacent input pages end up next to each other and look funny. To solve this problem, this option prepends a blank page to the input, so that odd-numbered pages appear to the right, and even-numbered pages to the left.

--tumble

Rotate every other output page.

Some people like to flip through their duplex documents along the short edge of the paper rather than the long edge. This option rotates every other page in the output document by 180 degrees to achieve the effect.

Margin detection options

psbind detects margins in the input document as follows:

1. Run Ghostscript to compute the extent of each input page. By default, only sample the first 10 pages.

2. Compute the left and right margins to be the maximum amounts that would not run into any sampled extent. By default, compute separate left and right margins for odd-numbered and even-numbered pages.

3. Compute the top and bottom margins to be the maximum amounts that would not run into any sampled extent. By default, compute a single set of top and bottom margins for all pages.

4. Check if the computed margins seem strange. ("Strange" is defined as: The computed extent of odd-numbered pages, even-numbered pages, or both exceed 1200 PostScript points or fall under 100 PostScript points in either or both dimension.) If they seem strange, run Ghostscript to rewrite the input document, then try detecting the margins again.

The following options allow you to fine-tune this margin detection process.

-s/--sample=pages

Choose input pages to sample.

By default, the first 10 pages are sampled from the input document to detect its margins. This options allows you to specify a different set of pages to sample. The list of pages should be a comma-separated list of page ranges, each of which may be a page number, or a page range of the form first-last. If first is omitted, the first page is assumed, and if last is omitted, the last page is assumed. Negative numbers indicate that pages relative to the end of the document, counting backwards. For example, to skip page 5 (perhaps because it sticks out a little bit), say --sample=1-4,6-10.

--xmodulus=n

Specify page modulus for detecting horizontal extent.

By default, left and right margins are determined separately for odd-numbered pages and even-numbered pages. This behavior corresponds to a default setting of --xmodulus=2. To determine a single horizontal extent for all pages taken together, say --xmodulus=1. You can also change this setting to integers greater than 2, but it probably does not make any sense.

--ymodulus=n

Specify page modulus for detecting vertical extent.

By default, a single set of top and bottom margins is determined for all pages taken together. This behavior corresponds to a default setting of --ymodulus=1. To determine vertical extents separately for odd-numbered pages and even-numbered pages, say --ymodulus=2. You can also change this setting to integers greater than 2, but it probably does not make any sense.

--fix=auto/no/yes/force

Invoke or suppress fixps.

By default, psbind first tries to determine margins using the original input document; if this first attempt fails, it then invokes fixps --force to rewrite the document for a second try. To disable fixps invocation altogether, say --fix=no. To invoke fixps --force right away, say --fix=force. To invoke fixps right away (without --force), say --fix=yes.

Miscellaneous options

-q/--quiet

Suppress status messages.

Usually, psbind prints external commands as it executes them. It also produces messages summarizing the margin detection process. This option suppresses these messages.

--ghostscript=program-name

--psnup=program-name

--pstops=program-name

--psselect=program-name

--fixps=program-name

--lpr=program-name

--paperconf=program-name

Specify locations of external programs.

To do its job, psbind invokes the external programs listed above. By default, psbind searches for these programs under their standard names on the executable path. These options override how psbind invokes external programs. For example, to invoke lp instead of lpr, say psbind --lpr=lp.

--help

Display usage information.

This option makes psbind display usage information and do nothing else.

--manual

Display complete documentation.

This option makes psbind display complete documentation and do nothing else.

PREREQUISITES

psbind is a Perl program; to run it, your system needs to have Perl 5 installed (see perl(1)). psbind also requires Ghostscript with bbox device support (see gs(1)), as well as psutils (see psnup(1), pstops(1), psselect(1), and fixps(1)).

COREQUISITES

For sending its output to a printer, psbind relies on lpr (see lpr(1)). For paper size information, psbind relies on libpaperg if it is available (see paperconf(1)).

VERSION

This version of psbind is dated 2003-01-01.

AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2001-2003, Chung-chieh Shan.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

You may contact Chung-chieh Shan at:

240 Franklin St Apt 4
Cambridge, MA 02139-3986, USA
ccshan@post.harvard.edu

Latest contact information may be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.digitas.harvard.edu/~ken/

THANKS

Thanks to Dylan Thurston, Danny Calegari, Nathan Dunfield, Norman Ramsey, and Kaihsu Tai for helpful suggestions and encouragement.

README

psbind examines the margins in a PostScript document and rearranges the pages to fit them onto paper efficiently.

SCRIPT CATEGORIES

CPAN/Administrative

cpanm psbind

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install psbind