N-up

Rearrange all pages of inFile file in order to reduce the number of pages and write the result to outFile. Each new page is composed of multiple original pages in a grid like fashion. The original page size is preserved.
Create outFile for a given paper size and arrange imageFiles on pages in a grid like fashion. For a single image file create a single page PDF file and fill the grid with copies of the image.
The N-up value n controls the grid layout.
Proper rotation based on involved aspect ratios will be applied during the process.
Have a look at some examples.

Usage

pdfcpu nup [ description ] outFile n inFile | imageFiles... [flags]

Flags

name	description	required
p(ages)	selected pages	no

Common Flags

Arguments

name	description	required
description	configuration string	no
outFile	PDF output file	yes
n	the N-up value	yes
inFile	PDF input file	inFile or imageFile(s)
imageFile…	one or more images	inFile or imageFile(s)

N-up Value

The following table lists all supported values for n and the resulting grid layout with respect to the orientation of the chosen output paper size. See here for a thorough explanation of N-up.

value	portrait	landscape
2	1x2	2x1
3	1x3	3x1
4	2x2	2x2
8	2x4	4x2
9	3x3	3x3
12	3x4	4x3
16	4x4	4x4

Description

A configuration string to specify the details of the n-up layout.

parameter	values	default
dimensions	(width, height) in user units eg. ‘400 200’	595 842
formsize, paper size	paper size to be used. Append L or P to enforce landscape/portrait mode	A4
orientation	one of `rd, dr, ld, dl` for PDF input files	rd
enforce	on/off true/false	on
border	on/off true/false	on
margin	float >= 0	0
backgroundcolor, bgcol	color	none

Orientation

This is usually associated with the writing direction used in the document to be processed. For PDF input files only

value	description
rd	right down, default
dr	down right
ld	left down
dl	down left

Enforce

true enforces best-fit orientation of individual content artifacts during rendering on destination page content.

false keeps original orientation of individual content artifacts during rendering on destination page content.

Default description

'formsize:A4, dimensions:595 842, orientation:rd, border:on, margin:3, enforce:on'

You only have to specify any parameter diverging from the default.
Only one of dimensions or formsize is allowed.
You may use parameter prefixes as long as the parameter can be identified.

Examples

Create out.pdf by applying 4-up to in.pdf. Each page fits 4 original pages of in.pdf into a 2x2 grid:

$ pdfcpu nup out.pdf 4 in.pdf

The output file will use the page size of the input file unless explicitly declared by a description string like so:

$ pdfcpu nup 'form:A4' out.pdf 9 in.pdf

nup also accepts a list of image files with the result of rendering all images in N-up fashion into a PDF file using the specified paper size (default=A4). Generate out.pdf using A4L landscape mode where each page fits 4 images onto a 2x2 grid. The grid element border lines are rendered by default, and the default margin of 3 points is applied:

$ pdfcpu nup 'form:A4L' out.pdf 4 *.jpg *.png *.tif

A single image input file supplied will produce a single page PDF output file.
In the following example logo.jpg will be 16-up’ed onto out.pdf. Both grid borders and margins are suppressed and the output format is Ledger:

$ pdfcpu nup 'form:Ledger, bo:off, ma:0' out.pdf 16 logo.jpg