Multiple copies of a PDF on one page?

[kanini]

Have searched the forums, net and everywhere but always end up on a dead end. I have a simple task that is hard to solve apparently:

I have a PDF file with let's say 72 pages.

I want to print on a standard printer (letter size for example) a paper that comes out with 2 copies on one page, but NOT page 1,2 and another paper with 3,4 etc. side by side but one paper with page 1, 1 and another with 2, 2 and another with 3, 3 side by side so I could guilliotine cut them later on. Simply: two copies on one paper.

I've tried at least 10 different programs but none seem to do what I want, all just use the same "multiple page" function that is available in Acrobat.

I enclose a illustration of what I want to accomplish. So far I've had to manually insert a copy of the page in the PDF file, but this is very time consuming if you have 100's of pages...

If anybody have a suggestion for a program or something that could create this for a reasonable sum (I know maybe Pitstop could handle this but the license costs about a grand, I have about a 100$ tops in mind...)

Thank you very much!

 

[PromoGuyTy]

We do this with Xerox Command Center

 

[James Burke]

Indesign?


JB

 

[jfiscus]

Any RIP program that comes with your printer should be able to do this. Or, manually the easiest way I know is use InDesign & place the PDFs in there, shouldn't take 10 minutes.

 

[kanini]

Thank you for the replies!
Unfortunately I don't have a RIP to run these printers (Konica Minolta Bizhub:s), they have built-in RIP:s but don't have this function.
It doesn't take THAT long to do the same thing in Adobe as you guys suggest using Indesign for, but I just like the idea to have it automated. If you have about 100 pages it takes about 10 minutes, and you also have the risk of placing some pages wrong...

 

[signswi]

InDesign definitely. Look into EFI Micropress RIPs, that's what we used back in the day when I was in quick-print.

 

[rfulford]

There is also a nice little acrobat program called Quite Imposing that is perfect for this.

 

[mark galoob]

I've got a friend that does this regularly. In fact I just printed 15k 11 x 17 2 up w addresses and variable data in 2 separate places with his system. He can set it up for u however u want and u print it

Call me if this interests u

Mark Galoob
682 560 6485

 

[kanini]

Thanks a lot for the replies, I'll check out Quite Imposing.
Mark, thank you for the offer, however since I'm from Europe it feels a bit far away to call you over there just for a PDF, but thank you anyway... =) I'd really like to be able to make these myself since it's every now and then we have the same problem.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

I would have thought that any decent printer program could do what you wanted: if you selected multiple copies (2), and uncheck 'collate', then check 'multiple pages per piece of paper' or equivalent.

The main thing is to make sure 'collate' is not turned on-that should give you your required number of copies per page, before moving on to the next page, I'm certain.

(I've used 'Quite Imposing', and don't really think it'll help here. It's more for pagination of a booklet, in my opinion, especially when the printer driver won't do that for you.)

 

[kanini]

Thank you for your reply! I tried every setting imaginable with collate on or off, "offset" setting on or off, etc. etc., but to no avail. It prints exactly the same regardless of the setting. Sigh. I tried to discuss this with my printer techs and a competitors brand but neither had anything that could do this. One of the techs said that it couldn't bee that hard to write for example a script or something that inserts a copy of every page in a PDF, but I don't know...
Well, later today I'll have a visitor from one of the print manufacturers head office, so I'll go ahead and ask him. At least he will get something to think about =D

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Sorry to hear that it didn;t work...

Normally if you wanted say three copies of a multi-page file, and you checked 'collate' (or sometimes 'booklet') it'll print pages 1,2,3,4,5, 1,2,3,4,5, 1,2,3,4,5, in that order,
but if collate was not checked, it should print 1,1,1, 2,2,2, 3,3,3, 4,4,4, 5,5,5 etc

 

[kanini]

OK, so I asked the guys that came in and one of them called up his head tech and he just said that the only thing is to buy a Fiery RIP for about 3-4k...
The collate function does rearrange the way the pages come out but not how they are placed on the paper...

 

[kanini]

OK, so just minutes after my previous post I got hold of one that knew of a program called FinePrint (49,95$) that works very well! You can select how many copies you want and with what imposition, e.g. how many pages you want on one page. At last! Thank you all for your replies anyways!

 

[GAC05]

Nice find.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Techman]

Ive used fineprint for years. IT is perfect for this