MPAGE(Local)
NAME
mpage - print multiple pages per sheet on PostScript
printer
SYNOPSIS
mpage [-1248cfovlaAHOERSUXrt] [-p[prprog]] [-B[textboxmar-
gins]] [-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 symme-
try).
-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 speci-
fied 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. Depending on compile time option this encod-
ing 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
produced 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. Land-
scape pages are 55 lines long by 132 characters
wide by default. Portrait pages are 66 lines long
by 80 characters wide by default. (default por-
trait) .
-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 thick-
ness. Specifying -B solely toggles printing of the
box. l, r, t or b set the left, right, top or bot-
tom margin respectively 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 mar-
gins 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 bot-
tom margin respectively to <num> points. Not spec-
ifying 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 default 40 and top and
bottom margin to 50 points. -m50l25bt30r set bot-
tom and top margin to 25, left margin to 50 and
right margin to 30 points. Margins can have nega-
tive 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
successively 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 separa-
tors 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 num-
ber, 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
overrides 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
supplied. (See the -l option.) If used in con-
junction 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 printcom-
mand" 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 vari-
able. 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 Corpo-
ration
Marcel Mol lt;marcel@mesa.nl. Lots of other changes. More
or less the main author now.
Help from many others, pleas see the CHANGES file.