Print a6 on a4 twice

[Tomomg]

Hi,
I’m printing a book I’ve written, to be double sided a5.

For efficiency, I want to print it onto a4 and then cut this in 2, so that 1 sheet of paper can give me 2 books (each made of 2 double sided a5 sheets). Each sheet will effectively have the same thing printed twice.

So far, I’ve managed to print a pdf that has 2 a5 sheets across the centre - but this means half a sheet of paper is wasted! I’ve been trying to think of how to do it, and messing with the settings, but all LibreOffice wants to do is print the full thing flowing across the page, rather than split the page with the same thing running along it twice!

I know I could find a template filling a4 sheets with a5 text boxes copying & pasting text into them, but I’m trying to avoid such a long process!

I’m running LibreOffice 7.1.4.2
On MacOS Catalina 10.15.7

Please help!

[anon73440385]

I know I could find a template filling a4 sheets with a5 text boxes copying & pasting text into them, but I’m trying to avoid such a long process!

This would be the hell - Don’t even think about such approach.

If I set `Pages per sheet` to `2` and make `2` copies, I get `2` pages for 2 books (i.e. 4 pages containing 2 pages twice) and not wasting any paper (You may need to expand the `> More` section in printer dialog) 

Personally I’d change the document’s page style to A5 and print 2 pages per sheet (selecting A4 as the print paper size, which not necessarily needs to be the same as the documents page size). But this approach requires consequent use of styles across the document.

[Tomomg]

Interesting suggestions, thanks for posting!

When I follow your first suggestion, I still end up with 4 different pages on the same sheet, as opposed to 2 pages printed twice.

And when I follow the second suggestion, my whole doc gets reformated so that the text is in a completely different placement. I can see this would probably require me to reshape everything into text boxes - but to be honest it looks like I’m running out of other options!

[anon73440385]

but to be honest it looks like I’m running out of other options!

I don’t see that, but you seem to be stuck on the idea to have the same site twice on a single (physical) paper, while ignoring your original intention (as far as I understand) to safe paper (which is a good idea) - and this look for me like an XY-problem. So can’t help further.

[keme]

You could use brochure print. No need to cut, just fold and saddle stitch/staple. (There will be some page creep, so you may find it necessary to trim the front edge.)

If “paperback” glue binding is your preferred process, or if you have to (e.g. because you have more sheets than your stapler can take), you can also cut the brochure-printed deck and fold it over, or print two sets and lay them against each other (centerfolds “face to face”).

Brochure-printing section by section is also an option if you consider perfect binding. For that, I guess I’d rather leave it to a print shop.

[Tomomg]

I am currently using brochure printing & planning to saddle stitch, cutting the edges as you describe, but this doesn’t solve my issue of brochure size!

I’m trying to print 2 identical a6 brochures onto a sheet of a4 (the same brochure twice), so I can then cut the a4 and get 2 copies of the same.

[keme]

I missed that distinction. Observed the A6 mention, but didn’t see it mentioned in the description so I mistook it for a typo for a5 (which you ha tagged on the question). Sorry! My mistake.

I will look into it again when back at computer. (Replying from phone now…)

[dimitargslavchev]

You can print to pdf as an A5 brochure and then print the A5 brochure as an A4 brochure.
Getting the proper pages might be a bit problematic, though. Margins could be wrong as well, so you will need to play with them too.

[LeroyG]

In the second step, printing two double A6 pages in direct and reverse order on A4 pages makes the trick (1,2,3,4,4,3,2,1). Excuse me the Spanish dialog, but the second screenshot is not from LibreOffice but from a popular PDF reader.