MPAGE(Local)

NAME
mpage - print multiple pages per sheet on PostScript printer

SYNOPSIS
mpage [-1248cfovnluaASUr] [-p[prprog]] [-m[sheetmargins]] [-M[pagemargins]] [-Llines] [-Wwidth] [-hheader] [-P[printer]] [-j first[-last][%interval] [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.

The following options are recognized (note that arguments to options may be seperated from the option by spaces, except for -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).

-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).

-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.

-c  Toggle Concatenation off pages from different files on single sheets (default off).

-o  Toggle printing of outlines around each reduced page (default on).

-v  Toggle printing a count of the number of sheets produced for printing (default off) .

-f  Toggles folding lines longer than page width (default off) .

-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 characters wide by default. (default portrait) .

-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 respectivily 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 margins to 10 points. -ml50tb sets left margin to defualt 40 and top and bottom margin to 50 points. -m50l25bt30r set bottom and top margin to 25, left margin to 50 and right margin to 30 points.

-M[<num>[lrtb]*]
    Specify logical page margins. For syntax, see -m option. Defaults are 4 for -M option solely, and 8 for <num>.

-a  Toggle layout of the pages on the sheet so that sucessively numbered pages run down the sheet, as opposed to left to right. (default updown) .

-A  Prepare output for European A4 sized paper.

-U  Prepare output for US Letter sized paper.

-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.

-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 Laserwriter 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). 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 overides the default values normally supplied. (See the -loption.) 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 overides the default values normally supplied. (See the -loption.) 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.

-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.

ENVIRONMENT
Mpage examines the PRINTER environment variable to override its default printer.

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 environment variable, if it exists.) In the environment variable, white space is used as an option delimeter, 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, I'm sure.

VERSION
Version 2.13, Released May 1994.

AUTHORS
Mark P. Hahn (uunet!pyrdc!mark), Pyramid Technology Corportation Stuart Levy (slevy@geom.umn.edu), Geometry Group/University of Minnesota added -S, -r, -j options. Marcel Mol <marcel@duteca.et.tudelft.nl>, changed syntax of -p and -P options, added -c, -f, -m and -M option, improved output of 'moveto' in 'show' commands. (-m in cooperation with Frank ten Wolde <franky@duteca.et.tudelft.nl>).