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Currently when printing a document the Layout Two-side options are Off, Long-Edge binding, Short-edge binding and Booklet, see image Print dialog box

I want to add the single page booklet, which works like the image below. enter image description here

What options exist to customize this on macOS?

bmike
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OrigamiEye
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  • Surely the booklet (and other) printing options are options provided by the printer, not by Pages. I don't think any amount of Pages (or other) magic is going to help here. – High Performance Mark Aug 28 '20 at 10:27
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    Is the options menu I opened created by the printer driver? That's what I'm trying to figure out first. I know it's not Page specific. – OrigamiEye Aug 28 '20 at 18:42
  • Bear in mind that if that is one sheet, then there are pages on the other side. So Page 1 will be on the reverse side of the Front Cover. – benwiggy Sep 27 '21 at 07:08

2 Answers2

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According to another stack exchange question thread, it looks like these options are in fact provided by the printer drivers rather than the app you use to print.

Here a user mentions:

That option will only be available for printers that offer duplexing and automatic booklet making. Booklets made by printer drivers may place each page inside the print area of the sheet, thus scaling the pages to be smaller than necessary.

and in this answer's comment thread one user claims that they don't have the booklet option. Another user then claims that the booklet option comes from the printer drivers at their work.

If you wanted to make a new layout, your best bet is to make a template document in your word processing app of choice (Pages, Word, LaTex, etc) and then save it. Then always open that document and save a copy, then create your one page booklet by adding images/text/etc to the copy, so you can keep using the original as a template.

Wimateeka
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  • The PDF scripting with python or a command line tool look like exactly what’s needed here. – bmike Sep 26 '21 at 11:17
  • @bmike I've used this script before, and it does not make one page booklets. It would have to be heavily edited, or someone would have to make a custom one for single page booklets. I personally don't know enough python or any of the OS/Quartz libraries to make one. I'm also not sure about OP's capailities either which is why I am suggesting to make a template doc via word processing app. – Wimateeka Sep 26 '21 at 12:06
  • I agree, this is so not easy or quick. The linked answer explains how, “fusion happens when two hudrofen atoms combine” and not how, “this is the recipe for making a DIY home fusion reactor.” – bmike Sep 26 '21 at 12:59
  • @Wimateeka By a 'one-page booklet', do you mean just one page printed on the right-hand side of landscape sheet, with the other "3 pages" blank? – benwiggy Sep 26 '21 at 14:49
  • @benwiggy by "one page booklet" I mean the template mentioned in the original question; it is all on a single page and then cut and folded to make a booklet. The template in the question above creates a booklet like this. This is different from a booklet made by the python script. – Wimateeka Sep 26 '21 at 18:20
  • @Wimateeka Ah! Didn't look at the question, just your comment. I will post an answer. – benwiggy Sep 27 '21 at 07:04
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The process of placing pages on a sheet is called Imposition. "Mutiple-fold" imposition of this kind is usually done only in commercial and large-scale printing, because the more pages on your sheet, the bigger the sheet needs to be. (An A3 sheet folded 3 times gives you a tiny A6 page. Your HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 only does A4!)

Large-scale printing devices may have options in their drivers to impose pages. There is also standalone Imposition software, which tends to manipulate PDFs as part of a pre-press workflow. That's probably your best bet for adding this feature.

There are plenty of cheap or free Imposition apps, which you can search for: though many of them will only do 4-page-per-sheet booklet, e.g. A4 page on A3 sheet. More complex imposition apps tend to be quite expensive (Imposition Wizard is $559, or $260 p.a.; Imposition Studio Digital on the Mac App Store is c. $250 -- and that's a 'Light' version of the $450 app!) because they are geared to commercial work.

Adobe's InDesign comes with Imposition built-in to its print options. There are also Adobe Acrobat imposition plug-ins.

If you are sending your PDFs to a commercial printer, then they will deal with the imposition that they need for their equipment.

It would be possible to write a script using MacOS CoreGraphics APIs (in python, AppleScriptObjC, or Swift) that would perform the necessary imposition on a PDF document.

benwiggy
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