simple script to make printable booklets for DIY book bindings

make booklets

#!/bin/bash

set -u

# requires pdfinfo pdfseparate pdfunite pdfbook2

PDF_INPUT=$1
PDF_OUTPUT=$2

echo "converting $PDF_INPUT"
echo "writing output file: $PDF_OUTPUT"

PAGES=`pdfinfo $PDF_INPUT | grep -i pages | awk '{print $2}'`

echo "contains $PAGES pages"

GROUP_BY=16

echo "grouping by $GROUP_BY pages per batch"

loops=$((PAGES/GROUP_BY))

PARTS_LIST=""

for i in $(seq 0 $loops)
do
    echo "i (batch number): $i"
    f=$((i*GROUP_BY+1))
    if [ $f -gt $PAGES ]; then
        echo "Nothing left to process" 
        break;
    fi
    echo "f (starting page for batch number $i): $f"
    l=$(((i+1)*GROUP_BY))
    echo "l (last page for batch number $i): $l"
    pdfseparate -f $f -l $l $PDF_INPUT output-%d.pdf
    echo "pdfunite: " $(ls -1v output*)
    pdfunite $(ls -1v output*) part_$i.pdf
    rm output-*
    pdfbook2 --no-crop --short-edge part_$i.pdf
    echo "Created: part_$i-book.pdf"
    rm part_$i.pdf
    PARTS_LIST=$PARTS_LIST" part_$i-book.pdf"
done

echo "pdfunite " $PARTS_LIST
echo "writing $PDF_OUTPUT"
pdfunite $PARTS_LIST $PDF_OUTPUT