Use PDFjam to “n-up” pdf pages

Task: downloaded a PDF book/paper with super large fonts therefore super many pages. How to save print out pages?

Solution 1. Acrobat reader (or kpdf, etc) has the build-in capability to print as a multi-page document. Pros: easy. Cons: it usually leaves a lot of margins. The font is typically too small.

Solution 2. pdfcrop (Perl version written by Heiko Oberdiek) to shrink the page before double-page printing. Pros: pages look much better. Cons: a) too slow! b) does not produce an actual 2-up PDF file.

Solution 3. pdfcrop (Python version written by Eric Doviak). Pros: fast, automatic. Cons: a) tries to outsmart people and produces crappy outcome; b) does not produce an actual 2-up PDF file.

Solution 4. pdfjam (a Bash wrapper around the LaTeX pdfpages packge). I find it the best solution. Pros: a) it actually produces a 2-up PDF file as output; b) very fast.

Usage:

  pdfnup --paper letter --scale 1.1 INPUT.PDF --outfile OUTPUT.PDF