[Scribus] Mulatiple page print-out

[Peter Nermander]

> Perhaps - but then, not above fixing the file format or the text system,
> I'm sure. Nor any work that makes the app more maintainable in the long
> term.

The only thing really needed to make imposition work is the ability to import a
page from one Scribus document into a frame in another. The rest is a piece of
cake. The user then just have to create a document with one page for each side
of the print sheet and place numbered (and possibly rotated) frames on the
sheet. A script could then import the pages from the document to print in the
order by the numbered frames.

This CAN be done using for example pdftk burst function and import PDF pages
into the frames, but it will take a lot of memory.

And for simple impositions multivalent is fully usable. Maybe we can make a page
on the wiki with multivalent layouts for some simple N-up impositions?

Here is an example of how to use multivalent to take a 36 page A4 PDF and print
it onto A3 so it can be folded into a magazine (I use it to proof read a
magazine for a computer club).

multivalent.jar tool.pdf.Impose -dim 2x1 -layout
2,35,36,1,4,33,34,3,6,31,32,5,8,29,30,7,10,27,28,9,12,25,26,11,14,23,24,13,16,21,22,15,18,19,20,17
-paper "420x297 mm" infile.pdf

(The reason for using units for paper size is that multivalent did not seem to
handle landscape)

Here is an example of 8 page signature (on A4) to be folded twice.

multivalent.jar tool.pdf.Impose -dim 2x2 -layout 1u,8u,4,5,7u,2u,6,3 -paper A4
infile.pdf

And a 4-page signature (to be folded just once).

multivalent.jar tool.pdf.Impose -dim 2x1 -layout 2,3,4,1 -paper "297x210 mm"
infile.pdf

But really, when all you have to do is fold a paper, write numbers on the
pages and unfold it, why would we list impositions that might not match the
way people want to fold? There are really no "standard" impositions (I learned
when trying to learn how to make impositions).

My howto on the wiki assumes knowledge of how an imposition is designed, maybe I
should add a page teaching that part? But then again, it is just about folding a
paper, writing numbers on the pages and unfold. Then you seee the numbers (and
possible rotation) right in front of you.

/Peter