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Annotated edit history of mpage(1) version 3, including all changes. View license author blame.
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3 IanMcDonald 1 <verbatim>
1 perry 2 NAME
3 IanMcDonald 3 mpage - print multiple pages per sheet on PostScript printer
4
1 perry 5 SYNOPSIS
3 IanMcDonald 6 mpage [-1248aAcEfHloOrRStuUvVxX] [-b papersize] [-B[num[lrtb]]*] [-C
7 [encoding]] [-da|p] [-D dateformat] [-F fontname] [-h header]
8 [-j first[-last][%interval]] [-J startpageno] [-L lines]
9 [-m[num[lrtb]]*] [-M[num[lrtb]]*] [-p[prprog]] [-P[printer]] [-s tab-
10 stop] [-W width] [-z printcmd] [-Z printcmd_args] [file...]]
11
1 perry 12 DESCRIPTION
3 IanMcDonald 13 mpage reads plain text files or PostScript documents and prints them on
14 a PostScript printer with the text reduced in size so that several
15 pages appear on one sheet of paper. This is useful for viewing large
16 printouts on a small amount of paper. It uses ISO 8859.1 to print
17 8-bit characters.
1 perry 18
3 IanMcDonald 19 The following options are recognized (note that arguments to options
20 may be separated from the option by spaces, except for -B, -m, -M, -p
21 and -P): Also when mpage encounters -- as option it will stop parsing
22 arguments and the remaining arguments are interpreted as filenames.
1 perry 23
3 IanMcDonald 24 -1 Print 1 normal page per sheet (included for symmetry).
1 perry 25
3 IanMcDonald 26 -2 Print 2 normal pages per sheet.
1 perry 27
3 IanMcDonald 28 -4 Print 4 normal pages per sheet (default).
1 perry 29
3 IanMcDonald 30 -8 Print 8 normal pages per sheet.
1 perry 31
3 IanMcDonald 32 -a Toggle layout of the pages on the sheet so that successively
33 numbered pages run down the sheet, as opposed to left to right.
34 (default updown) .
1 perry 35
3 IanMcDonald 36 -A This option is deprecated, see -b. Prepare output for A4 sized
37 paper. For default see 'mpage -x'.
1 perry 38
3 IanMcDonald 39 -bpapertype
40 Prepare output for selected paper type. Papersize can be A3 for
41 European A3, A4 for European A4, Letter for US Letter or Legal
42 for Legal sized paper. For default see 'mpage -x'. To see the
43 list of currently available types, just give the 'mpage -bl' or
44 'mpage -b?' command (Note: mpage exits after finding such option
45 use.)
1 perry 46
3 IanMcDonald 47 -B[<num>[lrtb]*]
48 Setup a box around a particular part of your page. Specify text
49 box margins and line thickness. The default is 0 columns
50 (lines) for both left and right (top and bottom) margins and 0
51 line thickness. Specifying -B solely toggles printing of the
52 box. l, r, t or b set the left, right, top or bottom margin
53 respectively to <num> columns (lines). Not specifying any of
54 the sides, will set the line thickness when <num> is given. For
55 example -B1 sets the line thickness to 1. Sides with negative
56 margins will not print.
1 perry 57
3 IanMcDonald 58 -c Toggle concatenation off pages from different files on single
59 sheets (default off).
1 perry 60
3 IanMcDonald 61 -C[encodingfile]
62 Specify the character encoding file. The file should be in the
63 mpage library directory (/usr/share/mpage). Mpage has an inter-
64 nal default encoding based on Latin-1 or IBM codepage 850.
65 Depending on compile time option this encoding definition is on
66 or not. Not specifying an encodingfile will toggle the usage of
67 the internal encoding.
1 perry 68
3 IanMcDonald 69 -da|p Force input to be taken as ascii (a) or postscript (p) text.
70 This way you can print your postscript code as text, or print
71 postscript code that mpage does not recognise. When using -dp,
72 make sure that the the postscript code contains %Page page sepa-
73 rators or else things will probably look odd.
1 perry 74
3 IanMcDonald 75 -Ddateformat
76 </verbatim>
77 <pre>
78 Set the date format as in [strftime(3)] to be used in date/time
79 representations (e.g. in headers). (Note: to be useful you
80 probably need the -H option.)
81 </pre>
82 <verbatim>
1 perry 83
3 IanMcDonald 84 -e Print 2 normal pages per sheet in duplex mode. Every first and
85 fourth page or on one side and every second and third on the
86 other side. This is more or less a combination of the -O and -E
87 option but then in one pass.
1 perry 88
3 IanMcDonald 89 -E Print 2 normal pages per sheet. However, this option will print
90 every second and third page of every set of four pages. This
91 option will ignore -a and -l. See also the -O option. Using
92 these options double sided prints can be created without a
93 duplex printer.
1 perry 94
3 IanMcDonald 95 -f Toggles folding lines longer than page width (default off) .
1 perry 96
3 IanMcDonald 97 -Ffontname
98 Specify font. (default Courier). Check your printer for sup-
99 ported fonts. Note: this has almost nothing to do with the fonts
100 used for your X-windows/KDE/Gnome environment.
1 perry 101
3 IanMcDonald 102 -hheader
103 This is used only when the -p or -H switch is used and is passed
104 as the "-h header" option to pr(1) or as the header for -H.
1 perry 105
3 IanMcDonald 106 -H Create header line for each logical page separated from page
107 text by a horizontal line. Unless -h is given, the header con-
108 sist of last file modification time, filename and page number,
109 all in bold and slightly larger font. This option only applies
110 to non-postscript files.
1 perry 111
3 IanMcDonald 112 -Iindent
113 Indent text by indent characters.
1 perry 114
3 IanMcDonald 115 -jfirst[-last][%interval]
116 Print just the selected sheets, specified by a number, starting
117 at 1. Here last defaults to the end of data, interval to 1.
118 Several -j options can be given (upto MAXJARGS, default 100) to
119 create a complex selection of pages. Thus -j1-10 selects the
120 first 10 sheets, while -j 1%2 prints just the odd-numbered
121 sheets and -j 2%2 prints just the even ones.
1 perry 122
3 IanMcDonald 123 You can do double-sided printing, in two passes, as follows. If
124 you use 3-hole punched paper, put it in the printer such that
125 the holes will appear at the top of the page -- on the right as
126 you pull out the printer tray, in our Laser writer II NTX.
127 Print the odd-numbered sheets with
1 perry 128
3 IanMcDonald 129 mpage ... -j 1%2 ...
1 perry 130
3 IanMcDonald 131 Note the number of pages it reports. (Only half this many will
132 really be printed). When printing finishes, if mpage reported
133 an odd number of pages, remove the last one from the stack,
134 since there will be no even-numbered sheet to match it. Then
135 arrange the stack of paper for printing on the other side. (If
136 it's punched, the holes will now be on the left.) On our II
137 NTX, the paper comes out blank-side up; replace it in the tray
138 still blank-side up but rotated 180 degrees. For other print-
139 ers, you figure it out. Now print the even-numbered sheets in
140 reverse order with
1 perry 141
3 IanMcDonald 142 mpage ... -r -j 2%2 ...
1 perry 143
3 IanMcDonald 144 hoping no one else reaches the printer before you do.
1 perry 145
146
3 IanMcDonald 147 -Jstartpageno
148 Set the start value of the sheet page count to startpageno
149 instead of 1.
1 perry 150
151
3 IanMcDonald 152 -k When mpage finds a %%TRailer or %%PSTrailer in the postscript
153 input file it normally assumes this is the end of the postscript
154 file and stops reading the input file. But when the PS file
155 includes EPS files, %%Trailers might be anywhere. Using this
156 option ignores the %%TRailer and %%PSTRailer lines.
1 perry 157
3 IanMcDonald 158 -l Toggle printing landscape or portrait mode. Landscape pages are
159 55 lines long by 132 characters wide by default. Portrait pages
160 are 66 lines long by 80 characters wide by default. (default
161 portrait.)
1 perry 162
3 IanMcDonald 163 -Llines
164 Adjust the page reduction parameters so that lines lines will
165 fit in the space of one page. This overrides the default values
166 normally supplied. (See -l.) If used in conjunction with -p
167 then this value is passed to the pr(1) as well. As a side
168 effect this changes the font size as well (as will the -W
169 option.) So while there is an option to change font family,
170 there is no explicit option to change font size!
1 perry 171
3 IanMcDonald 172 -m[<num>[lrtb]*]
173 Specify sheet margin. The default margin is 20 points. Only
174 specifying -m sets left margin to 40 points. l, r, t or b set
175 left, right, top or bottom margin respectively to <num> points.
176 Not specifying any of the sides will set all sides when <num> is
177 given. <num> defaults to 40 points. For example -m10 sets all
178 margins to 10 points. -ml50tb sets left margin to default 40
179 and top and bottom margin to 50 points. -m50l25bt30r set bottom
180 and top margin to 25, left margin to 50 and right margin to 30
181 points. Margins can have negative numbers. Very large values
182 have funny effects. This is left as an exercise to the user.
1 perry 183
3 IanMcDonald 184 -M[<num>[lrtb]*]
185 Specify logical page margins. For syntax, see -m option.
186 Defaults are 4 for -M solely, and 8 for <num>. Margins can be
187 negative. This way large white borders in your (postscript)
188 documents can be reduced. Very large values have funny effects.
189 This is left as an exercise to the user.
1 perry 190
3 IanMcDonald 191 -o Toggle printing of outlines around each reduced page (default
192 on).
1 perry 193
3 IanMcDonald 194 -O Print 2 normal pages per sheet. However, this option will print
195 every first and fourth page of every set of four pages. This
196 option will ignore -a and -l. See also the -E option. Using
197 these options double sided prints can be created without a
198 duplex printer.
1 perry 199
3 IanMcDonald 200 -p[prprog]
201 Pipe input through prprog command (including specified options)
202 before printing (assumes the input is a text file). When no
203 command is specified, it defaults to pr(1).
1 perry 204
3 IanMcDonald 205 -P[printer]
206 Specify the printer to which the PostScript output will be sent
207 (e.g.lpr -Pprinter). Using -P with no printer specified will
208 send the PostScript to the default printer queue (e.g. lpr).
209 Using -P- will return output to stdout, useful in combination
210 with MPAGE environment variable. Without -P output will be send
211 to standard output.
1 perry 212
3 IanMcDonald 213 -r Reverse printing. The last sheet is printed first. The way of
214 arranging reduced pages on the sheets doesn't change.
1 perry 215
3 IanMcDonald 216 -R Switch to left to right mode, starting first page on left bottom
217 corner. This might be useful for landscape postscript files.
218 (Note: using -l after -R undoes -R, and switches to normal land-
219 scape mode.
1 perry 220
3 IanMcDonald 221 -stabstop
222 Set tabstop width (default 8 characters). Should by >= 2.
1 perry 223
3 IanMcDonald 224 -S Accept non-square page reduction. By default, pages are shrunk
225 equally in X and Y, even if this wastes some space on the sheet.
226 With -S, reduced pages are larger but slightly distorted. (only
227 used when printing postscript files.)
1 perry 228
3 IanMcDonald 229 -t Toggle printing on both sides of the paper. This option has 3
230 states: nop, yes, no, which mean: NOP:
231 dont do anything on PostScript, so printer default will be
232 used; YES:
233 force printer to do duplex; NO: force printer not to do it. If
234 there is no -t, then the duplex is NOP. If you put some -t on
235 the command line, the state toggles as "yes,no,yes,no...". So,
236 if your printer is set to print, by default, in duplex mode, you
237 will use "-t -t" on command line to force it to print in non-
238 duplex mode. Use this option only if your printer is capable of
239 printing in duplex mode. (default NOP).
1 perry 240
3 IanMcDonald 241 -T Toggle tumble of every second pages. This option has 3 states:
242 nop, yes, no (with behaviour similar to -t). So, if your
243 printer is set to print, by default, in duplex mode, with tumble
244 on, you will use "-T -T" on command line to print in nontumble
245 mode. Use this option only if your printer is capable of print-
246 ing in duplex mode. With this version of mpage, you may use
247 this option even if you do not use -t. (default NOP.)
1 perry 248
3 IanMcDonald 249 -u Toggle checking for UTF-8 input (not relevant for postscript
250 input).
1 perry 251
3 IanMcDonald 252 -U This option is deprecated, see -b. Prepare output for US Letter
253 sized paper. For default see 'mpage -x'.
1 perry 254
3 IanMcDonald 255 -v Toggle printing a count of the number of sheets produced for
256 printing (default off.)
1 perry 257
3 IanMcDonald 258 -V Print version information and exit.
1 perry 259
3 IanMcDonald 260 -Wwidth
261 Adjust the page reduction parameters so that a line with width
262 characters long will fit in the space of one page. This over-
263 rides the default values normally supplied. (See -l.) If used
264 in conjunction with -p then this value is passed to the s pr(1)
265 program as well. See also the -L option on font sizes.
1 perry 266
3 IanMcDonald 267 -x Force usage display, which also shows current defaults.
1 perry 268
3 IanMcDonald 269 -X [header]
270 Print header on the left and the page number on the right of
271 each physical page (sheet). If no header is given, the default
272 is the current filename (note influence of -c), the filename of
273 the first file on the page is used.
1 perry 274
3 IanMcDonald 275 -zprintcommand
276 Specify command to use to send output to. Default is lpr (1)
277 for BSD style spooler, lp (1) for SYSV style spooler. You can
278 specify command line options, but note -Z. For example -zlp for
279 system V Unix.
1 perry 280
3 IanMcDonald 281 -Zprintprog_queuename_arg
282 Specify what option to use for the "-z printcommand" to specify
283 a printqueue. For example -zlp -Z-d for system V Unix. Default
284 is -P for BSD style spooler, -d for SYSV style spooler.
1 perry 285
3 IanMcDonald 286 ENVIRONMENT
287 mpage examines the PRINTER (or LPDEST for SYSV style spooler) environ-
288 ment variable to override its default printer.
1 perry 289
3 IanMcDonald 290 The MPAGE_LIB environment variable can be used to control where the
291 character encoding files (-C) can be found.
1 perry 292
3 IanMcDonald 293 mpage also examines the MPAGE environment variable for default option
294 settings. Any option or combination of options can be specified in the
295 MPAGE environment variable. For example, if MPAGE is set to the
296 string:
1 perry 297
3 IanMcDonald 298 -2oPqms -L60
1 perry 299
3 IanMcDonald 300 it would (in the absence of other command line arguments) print 2 pages
301 per sheet, 60 lines per page, with outlines, on the printer named qms
302 (overriding the PRINTER/LPDEST environment variable, if it exists.) In
303 the environment variable, white space is used as an option delimiter,
304 and no quoting is recognized.
1 perry 305
3 IanMcDonald 306 Any command line options will override both the PRINTER and MPAGE envi-
307 ronment variables.
1 perry 308
3 IanMcDonald 309 FILES
310 /tmp/mpageXXXXXX
311 /usr/share/mpage
1 perry 312
3 IanMcDonald 313 BUGS
314 Suffers under the burden of far too many switches. (But you wanted the
315 choices!)
1 perry 316
3 IanMcDonald 317 NULL characters in a postscript input file will cause mpage to crash!
1 perry 318
3 IanMcDonald 319 Many others, we're sure.
1 perry 320
3 IanMcDonald 321 Mpage is year 2000 compliant, as long as the underlying operating sys-
322 tem is!!!
1 perry 323
3 IanMcDonald 324 VERSION
325 Version 2.5.4, Released may 2004.
326 Location:
1 perry 327
3 IanMcDonald 328 http://www.mesa.nl/pub/mpage
329 ftp://ftp.mesa.nl/pub/mpage
1 perry 330
3 IanMcDonald 331 AUTHORS
332 Marcel Mol <marcel@mesa.nl> (current maintainer).
1 perry 333
3 IanMcDonald 334 Mark P. Hahn (Original author)
335 </verbatim>
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