Convert a/any (ps, pdf, dvi, and plain text) file to a booklet for printing on an A4 duplex printer to save paper. By default the output is sent to the systems standard printer.

a2book.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
#  DESCRIPTION
#	
#	Convert a(ny) file to a booklet for printing
#	on an A4 duplex printer to save paper.
#	By default the output is sent to the systems
#	standard printer.
#	
#	Supports ps, pdf, dvi, and plain text.
#	
#	OPTIONS:
#		-h	Print message
#   	-p	Sent to named printer     
#		-o	Store output in file
#

printHelp() {  
cat << EOF

a2book - convert file to booklet

DESCRIPTION
	
	Convert a(ny) file to a booklet for printing
	on an A4 duplex printer to save paper.
	By default the output is sent to the systems
	standard printer.
	
	Supports ps, pdf, dvi, and plain text.
	
OPTIONS:
	-h	This help message
  	-p	Sent to named printer     
	-o	Store output in file

EOF
}

#check iff input
if [ -z $1 ];then
	printHelp
  	exit 1
fi

#get params
PRINTER=""
OUTFILE=""

while getopts ":p:o:h" OPTION;do

	case "$OPTION" in
	"h")	
		printHelp
		exit 1
		;;
	"o")
		OUTFILE=$OPTARG
		;;
	"p")
		PRINTER=$OPTARG
		;;
	*)
		printHelp
		exit 1
		;;
	esac

done

#so we can access $1
shift $((OPTIND-1))

#create name for a temporary file

TEMPFILE="/tmp/$(basename $1).$RANDOM.ps"

# make $1 to ps
case `file -b $1` in
	*PDF* ) 				pdftops $1 $TEMPFILE;;
	*PostScript* ) 			cp $1 $TEMPFILE;;
	*DVI* ) 				dvips -o $TEMPFILE $1 ;;
	#	*LaTeX* )				a2ps -B1q --border=no -o temp.ps $1;;
	*    ) 					a2ps -B1q --border=no --delegate=no -o $TEMPFILE $1;;
esac

#make it a booklet
psbook -q $TEMPFILE | pstops -q -pa4 '2:0L@0.7(21cm,0)+1L@0.7(21cm,14.85cm)' | 
pstops -q -pa4 '2:0,1U(21cm,29.7cm)' |
 sed '/^%!PS-Adobe./a\%%BeginFeature *Duplex True\n << \/Duplex true >> setpagedevice \n%%EndFeature' >$1.book

# store it 
if [ -z $OUTFILE ];then
	if [ -z $PRINTER ];then
		lpr $1.book
	else
		lpr -P$PRINTER $1.book
	fi	
	rm $1.book	
else	
	mv $1.book $OUTFILE
	echo "Booklet saved to $OUTFILE"
fi

# del temp file 
rm $TEMPFILE