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NAME
mpage - print multiple pages per sheet on PostScript printer
SYNOPSIS
mpage [-1248cfovlaAHOERSUXrt] [-p[prprog]]
[-B[textboxmargins]] [-da|p] [-m[sheetmargins]]
[-M[pagemargins]] [-Llines] [-Wwidth] [-C[encoding]
[-hheader] [-P[printer]] [-j first[-last][%interval]
[-stabstop] [-Ffontname] [-zprintcommand]
[-Zprintcommand_args] [-Ddateformat] [-bpapersize]
[files...]
DESCRIPTION
Mpage reads plain text files or PostScript documents and
prints them on a PostScript printer with the text reduced in
size so that several pages appear on one sheet of paper.
This is useful for viewing large printouts on a small amount
of paper. Uses ISO 8859.1 to print 8-bit characters.
The following options are recognized (note that arguments to
options may be separated from the option by spaces, except
for -B, -m, -M, -p and -P):
-8 Print 8 normal pages per sheet.
-4 Print 4 normal pages per sheet (default).
-2 Print 2 normal pages per sheet.
-1 Print 1 normal page per sheet (included for symmetry).
-O Print 2 normal pages per sheet. But, this option will
print every first and forth page of every set of four
pages. This option will ignore the -a and -l options.
-E Print 2 normal pages per sheet. But, this option will
print every second and third page of every set of four
pages. This option will ignore the -a and -l options.
-p[prprog]
Pipe input through prprog command (including specified
options) before printing (assumes the input is a text
file). When no command is specified, it defaults to
pr(1).
-c Toggle Concatenation off pages from different files on
single sheets (default off).
-C[encodingfile]
Specify then character encoding file. Default is none.
The should be in the mpage library directory
(/usr/local/lib/mpage). Mpage has an internal default
encoding based on Latin-1 or IBM codepage 850. Depend-
ing on compile time option this encoding definition is
on or not. Not specifying an encodingfile will toggle
the usage of the internal encoding.
-Ddateformat
Set the date format as in strftime(3) to be used in
date/time representations (e.g. in headers).
-o Toggle printing of outlines around each reduced page
(default on).
-v Toggle printing a count of the number of sheets pro-
duced for printing (default off) .
-f Toggles folding lines longer than page width (default
off) .
-Ffontname
Specify font. Default is Courier.
-l Toggle printing landscape or portrait mode. Landscape
pages are 55 lines long by 132 characters wide by
default. Portrait pages are 66 lines long by 80 charac-
ters wide by default. (default portrait) .
-R Switch to left to right mode, starting first page on
left bottom corner. This might be useful for landscape
postscript files. (Note: using the -l option after -R
undoes the -R, and switches to normal landscape mode.
-B[<num>[lrtb]*]
Specify text box margins and line thickness. The
default is 0 columns (lines) for both left and right
(top and bottom) margins and 0 line thickness. Speci-
fying -B solely toggles printing of the box. l, r, t or
b set the left, right, top or bottom margin respec-
tively to <num> columns (lines). Not specifying any of
the sides, will set the line thickness when <num> is
given. For example -B1 sets the line thickness to 1.
Sides with negative margins will not print.
-m[<num>[lrtb]*]
Specify sheet margin. The default margin is 20 points.
Specifying -m solely sets left margin to 40 points. l,
r, t or b set left, right, top or bottom margin respec-
tively to <num> points. Not specifying any of the
sides, will set all sides when <num> is given. <num>
defaults to 40 points. For example -m10 sets all mar-
gins to 10 points. -ml50tb sets left margin to default
40 and top and bottom margin to 50 points. -
m50l25bt30r set bottom and top margin to 25, left mar-
gin to 50 and right margin to 30 points. Margins can
have negative numbers. Very large values have funny
effects. This is left as an exercise to the user.
-M[<num>[lrtb]*]
Specify logical page margins. For syntax, see -m
option. Defaults are 4 for -M option solely, and 8 for
<num>. Margins can be negative. This way large white
borders in your (postscript) documents canbe reduced.
Very large values have funny effects. This is left as
an exercise to the user.
-a Toggle layout of the pages on the sheet so that succes-
sively numbered pages run down the sheet, as opposed to
left to right. (default updown) .
-da|p
Force input to be taken as ascii (a) or postacript (p)
text. This way you can print your postscript code as
text, or print postscript code that mpage does not
recognise. When using -dp , make sure that the the
postscript code contains %Page page separators or else
things will probably look odd.
-A deprecated, see /fB-b/fP option. Prepare output for
European A4 sized paper. For default see 'mpage -x'.
-U deprecated, see /fB-b/fP option. Prepare output for US
Letter sized paper. For default see 'mpage -x'.
-bpapersize
Prepare output for selected paper size. Papersize can
be A4 for European A4, Letter for US Letter or Legal
for Legal sized paper. For default see 'mpage -x'.
-S Accept non-square page reduction. By default, pages
are shrunk equally in X and Y, even if this wastes some
space on the sheet. With -S, reduced pages are larger
but slightly distorted. (only used when printing
postscript files.)
-r Reverse printing. The last sheet is printed first.
The way of arranging reduced pages on the sheets
doesn't change.
-t Toggle printing on both sides of the paper. This will
toggle duplex mode of the printer. Use this option
only if your printer is capable of printing in duplex
mode. (default off).
-T Toggle tumble of every second pages when printing in
duplex mode. Use this option only if your printer is
capable of printing in duplex mode and together with -t
.
-jfirst[-last][%interval]
Print just the selected sheets, specified by number,
starting at 1. Here last defaults to the end of data,
interval to 1. Thus -j1-10 selects the first 10
sheets, while -j 1%2 prints just the odd-numbered
sheets and -j 2%2 prints just the even ones.
You can do double-sided printing, in two passes, as
follows. If you use 3-hole punched paper, put it in
the printer such that the holes will appear at the top
of the page -- on the right as you pull out the printer
tray, in our Laser writer II NTX. Print the odd-
numbered sheets with
mpage ... -j 1%2 ...
Note the number of pages it reports. (Only half this
many will really be printed). When printing finishes,
if mpage reported an odd number of pages, remove the
last one from the stack, since there will be no even-
numbered sheet to match it. Then arrange the stack of
paper for printing on the other side. (If it's
punched, the holes will now be on the left.) On our II
NTX, the paper comes out blank-side up; replace it in
the tray still blank-side up but rotated 180 degrees.
For other printers, you figure it out. Now print the
even-numbered sheets in reverse order with
mpage ... -r -j 2%2 ...
hoping no one else reaches the printer before you do.
-P[printer]
Specify the printer to which the PostScript output will
be sent (e.g.lpr -Pprinter). Using -P with no printer
specified will send the PostScript to the default
printer queue (e.g. lpr). Using -P- will return output
to stdout, useful in combination with MPAGE environment
variable. Without -P output will be send to standard
output.
-Llines
Adjust the page reduction parameters so that lines
lines will fit in the space of one page. This over-
rides the default values normally supplied. (See the
-l option.) If used in conjunction with the -p option
then this value is passed to the pr program as well.
-Wwidth
Adjust the page reduction parameters so that a line
width characters long will fit in the space of one
page. This overrides the default values normally sup-
plied. (See the -l option.) If used in conjunction
with the -p option then this value is passed to the pr
program as well.
-Iindent
Indent text by indent characters.
-stabstop
Set tabstop width (default 8 characters). Should by >=
2.
-hheader
This is used only when the -p or -H switch is used and
is passed as the "-h header" option to pr(1) or as the
header for -H.
-H Create header line for each logical page separated from
page text by a horizontal line. Unless -h is given, the
header consist of last file changetime, filename and
page number, all in bold and slightly larger font.
This option only applies to non-postscript files.
-X [header]
Print header centered on each physical page (sheet). If
no header is given, the default is the current filename
(note the -c option) on the left and the page number on
the right.
-zprintcommand
Specify command to use to send output to. Default is
lpr .
for UCB style spooler, lp for ATT style spooler. You
can specify command line options, but see -Z option.
For example -zlp for system V Unix.
-Zprintprog_queuename_arg
Specify what option to use for the "-z printcommand" to
specify a printqueue. For example -zlp -Z-d for system
V Unix. Default is -P for UCB style spooler, -d for
ATT style spooler.
ENVIRONMENT
Mpage examines the PRINTER (or LPDEST for ATT style spooler)
environment variable to override its default printer.
The MPAGE_LIB environment variable can be used to control
where the character encodings (-C) can be found.
Mpage also examine the MPAGE environment variable for
default option settings. Any option or combination of
options can be specified in the MPAGE environment variable.
For example, if MPAGE is set to the string:
-2oPqms -L60
it would (in the absence of other command line arguments)
print 2 pages per sheet, 60 lines per page, with outlines,
on the printer named qms (overriding the PRINTER/LPDEST
environment variable, if it exists.) In the environment
variable, white space is used as an option delimiter, and no
quoting is recognized.
Any command line options will override both the PRINTER and
MPAGE environment variables.
FILES
/bin/pr /bin/fold
/usr/tmp/mpageXXXXXX
BUGS
Suffers under the burden of far too many switches. (But I
wanted the choices!)
Many others, w're sure.
VERSION
Version 2.4, Released September 1996.
AUTHORS
Mark P. Hahn (uunet!pyrdc!mark), Pyramid Technology Corpora-
tion
Marcel Mol <marcel@mesa.nl>. Lots of other changes. More or
less the main author now.
Help from many others, pleas see the CHANGES file.