In the past I would do this with an InDesign script on Windows. I could still do so, but I'm trying to learn how to do things without Microsoft or Adobe.
I am about to receive a 200-page PDF file (a book) from a customer. The output will be to laser. The format will be half-letter, that is, 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches high. The PDF file will be in this format. Since it will be printed on 8.5 x 11 paper landscape, I need to place each page of the PDF twice on each side. That is, the first sheet will have page 1 twice on one side and page 2 twice on the back. The second sheet will have page 3 twice on one side and page 4 twice on the back -- and so on. The books will be printed collated so each copy coming out of the laser is really two copies of the book. Before binding the stacks are cut in two with the guillotine. I have Scribus 1.3.3.8 on Ubuntu Feisty amd64. It runs just fine, but I don't think it can place PDF files one page at a time. Others have mentioned to me ps2pdf, but it's command line and the syntax to do an imposition is impossible to figure out. Is there anything else I can use to do this imposition? Or can it be done in Scribus now?
