Make template with 4 x A6 on 1 x A4 page?

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#1

So I have a whole heap of (separate) documents that I need to print in “A6” size… Some need to be in “landscape” orientation, others need to be in “portrait” orientation. Each document must be no bigger than A6, not even by a little bit.

The problem is, I have since discovered that printing A6 is a rather niche thing and everywhere I have asked about printing A6, has told me / said that I will need to put 4 x A6 documents on a single A4 document.

We do our printing at Officeworks - which is pretty much the only nation-wide printing / finishing / stationary / office furniture and equipment / etc company Australia has for small and medium businesses… They gave me the same answer as the few alternatives I could find online… Make it 4 x A6 per page and they’ll print it.

This means that whatever solution I come up with must be “good to go”; I must be able to just give them the document and let them hit “print”, with 4 x A6 coming out the other side.

How can I achieve this?

When it comes to small and medium businesses, Officeworks is the main option for commercial printing in Australia… Everything above them is either in-house or is for high-volume printing… Seeing as A6 is supposedly common in the business world (that’s what it says online), there must be a way to do this, then.

#2

Possibly just print to a PDF printer, and make it 4 pages per sheet in print dialog?

#7

Can you not use the printer option PRINT TO FILE?

You can define the PAGE STYLE to make the page A6. This controls the page size. You can then either print the document directly 4 up onto an A4 sheet, or print to file 4 up onto the A4 format. Then the publisher can print the provided file.

The FILE > PRINT > PAGE LAYOUT can be set to PAGES PER SHEET > 4.

The critical option is to set the PAGE STYLE to A6 and the printed paper to A4.

#8

Print to file with multiple pages per sheet is the logical route, and you can make it work in some cases. Alas, the procedure varies between operating systems and between virtual-print solutions (OS or third party app), and it does not always work as expected. That is my reason for suggesting the ready-made template. It is less flexible but more intuitive, and works the same regardless of technology platform.

#3

Use frames. You can link frames if you have documents with multiple A6 pages. Unfortunately there is limited support for rotating frames in Writer, so you don’t get booklet printing in quarto/fold-and-cut sheets in any sensible way. For loose sheets you can try these templates. (You will most likely want to remove borders from the frames.)

The “folio” and “quarto” templates expect that you start typing (or paste) into the top right frame on the first page. “Simulated quarto” means that you cut the sheet to A5 first, then overlay and staple. For fold-staple-cut workflow you need to rotate half of the frames, but as mentioned, sensible frame rotation is not available with Writer.

Also note that this only works for simple content flow. Stuff such as page breaks, page header/footer, ToC, will not work as expected. Hence, only useable for small documents. Could be extended to a second “quarto sheet” for up to sixteen A6-pages, but that is as far as I would go. It quickly becomes unmanageable. Post a comment if this approach is OK and you want a 16p version mock-up.

Edit: A6 cardfile template as requested.

#4

The “A6 cardfile separate sheets” template is exactly what I am looking for… But is there a way to make it landscape, without screwing up the frames (when I tried it with the page orientation functionality, it mucked up multiple frames and put the cursor outside of the frames)?

#5

Added landscape version as requested. The “cursor outside frames” will occur from all suggested templates as you navigate your document. The reason is that the sheet is a “foundation” where text is expected. Editing on page level can be disallowed, but then it becomes difficult to adjust/extend document when needed.

You have to click a frame and press enter to activate it.

#6

Thanks bud!

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