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mpage

MPAGE(Local)                                                      MPAGE(Local)



NAME
       mpage - print multiple pages per sheet on PostScript printer


SYNOPSIS
       mpage   [-1248aAcEfHloOrRStUvxX]   [-b papersize]  [-B[num[lrtb]*]  [-C
       [encoding]]   [-da|p]   [-D dateformat]    [-F fontname]    [-h header]
       [-j first[-last][%interval]]         [-J startpageno]        [-L lines]
       [-m[num[lrtb]*] [-M[num[lrtb]*] [-p[prprog]] [-P[printer]] [-s tabstop]
       [-W width] [-z printcmd] [-Z printcmd_args] [file...]]





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.  It  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):


       -1     Print 1 normal page per sheet (included for symmetry).


       -2     Print 2 normal pages per sheet.


       -4     Print 4 normal pages per sheet (default).


       -8     Print 8 normal pages per sheet.


       -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) .


       -A     This  option is deprecated, see -b.  Prepare output for European
              A4 sized paper.  For default see 'mpage -x'.


       -bpapertype
              Prepare output for selected paper type.  Papersize can be A3 for
              European  A3,  A4 for European A4, Letter for US Letter or Legal
              for Legal sized paper.  For default see 'mpage -x'.  To see  the
              list  of currently available types, just give the 'mpage -bl' or
              'mpage -b?' command (Note: mpage exits after finding such option
              use.)


       -B[<num>[lrtb]*]
              Setup a box around a particular part of your page.  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 thickness.  Specifying -B solely toggles  printing  of  the
              box.   l,  r,  t  or b set the left, right, top or bottom 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
              margins will not print.


       -c     Toggle  concatenation  off  pages from different files on single
              sheets (default off).


       -C[encodingfile]
              Specify the character encoding file.  The file should be in  the
              mpage library directory (/usr/share/mpage).  Mpage has an inter-
              nal default encoding based  on  Latin-1  or  IBM  codepage  850.
              Depending  on compile time option this encoding definition is on
              or not.  Not specifying an encodingfile will toggle the usage of
              the internal encoding.


       -da|p  Force  input  to  be  taken as ascii (a) or postscript (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 sepa-
              rators or else things will probably look odd.


       -Ddateformat
              Set  the  date  format as in strftime(3) to be used in date/time
              representations (e.g. in headers).   (Note:  to  be  useful  you
              probably need the -H option.)


       -e     Print  2  normal pages per sheet in duplex mode. Every first and
              fourth page or on one side and every second  and  third  on  the
              other  side. This is more or less a combination of the -O and -E
              option but then in one pass.


       -E     Print 2 normal pages per sheet. However, this option will  print
              every  second  and  third page of every set of four pages.  This
              option will ignore -a and -l.  See also the  -O  option.   Using
              these  options  double  sided  prints  can  be created without a
              duplex printer.


       -f     Toggles folding lines longer than page width (default off) .


       -Ffontname
              Specify font.  (default Courier). Check your  printer  for  sup-
              ported fonts. Note: this has almost nothing to do with the fonts
              used for your X-windows/KDE/Gnome environment.


       -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  con-
              sist of last file modification, filename and page number, all in
              bold and slightly larger font.  This option only applies to non-
              postscript files.


       -Iindent
              Indent text by indent characters.


       -jfirst[-last][%interval]
              Print  just the selected sheets, specified by a number, starting
              at 1.  Here last defaults to the end of  data,  interval  to  1.
              Several  -j options can be given (upto MAXJARGS, default 100) to
              create a complex selection of pages.  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 print-
              ers, 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.


       -Jstartpageno
              Set  the  start  value  of  the  sheet page count to startpageno
              instead of 1.


       -k     When mpage finds a %%TRailer or %%PSTrailer  in  the  postscript
              input file it normally assumes this is the end of the postscript
              file and stops reading the input file.  But  when  the  PS  file
              includes  EPS  files,  %%Trailers  might be anywhere. Using this
              option ignores the %%TRailer and %%PSTRailer lines.

       -l     Toggle printing landscape or portrait mode.  Landscape pages are
              55 lines long by 132 characters wide by default.  Portrait pages
              are 66 lines long by 80 characters wide  by  default.   (default
              portrait.)


       -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  -l.)  If used in conjunction with -p
              then this value is passed to the  pr(1)  as  well.   As  a  side
              effect  this  changes  the  font  size  as  well (as will the -W
              option.) So while there is an  option  to  change  font  family,
              there is no explicit option to change font size!


       -m[<num>[lrtb]*]
              Specify  sheet  margin.  The  default margin is 20 points.  Only
              specifying -m sets left margin to 40 points.  l, r, t or  b  set
              left,  right, top or bottom margin respectively to <num> points.
              Not specifying 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 bottom
              and top margin to 25, left margin to 50 and right margin  to  30
              points.   Margins  can have negative 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 solely, and 8 for <num>.  Margins can be
              negative.  This way large white  borders  in  your  (postscript)
              documents can be reduced.  Very large values have funny effects.
              This is left as an exercise to the user.


       -o     Toggle printing of outlines around each  reduced  page  (default
              on).


       -O     Print 2 normal pages per sheet.  However, this option will print
              every first and fourth page of every set of  four  pages.   This
              option  will  ignore  -a and -l.  See also the -E option.  Using
              these options double sided  prints  can  be  created  without  a
              duplex printer.


       -p[prprog]
              Pipe  input through prprog command (including specified options)
              before printing (assumes the input is a  text  file).   When  no
              command is specified, it defaults to pr(1).


       -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.


       -r     Reverse printing.  The last sheet is printed first.  The way  of
              arranging reduced pages on the sheets doesn't change.


       -R     Switch to left to right mode, starting first page on left bottom
              corner.  This might be useful for  landscape  postscript  files.
              (Note: using -l after -R undoes -R, and switches to normal land-
              scape mode.


       -stabstop
              Set tabstop width (default 8 characters).  Should by >= 2.


       -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.)


       -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 print-
              ing in duplex mode and together with -t.


       -U     This option is deprecated, see -b.  Prepare output for US Letter
              sized paper.  For default see 'mpage -x'.


       -v     Toggle printing a count of the number  of  sheets  produced  for
              printing (default off.)


       -Wwidth
              Adjust  the  page reduction parameters so that a line with width
              characters long will fit in the space of one page.   This  over-
              rides  the default values normally supplied.  (See -l.)  If used
              in conjunction with -p then this value is passed to the s  pr(1)
              program as well.  See also the -L option on font sizes.


       -x     Force usage display, which also shows current defaults.


       -X [header]
              Print  header  on  the  left and the page number on the right of
              each physical page (sheet).  If no header is given, the  default
              is  the current filename (note influence of -c), the filename of
              the first file on the page is used.


       -zprintcommand
              Specify command to use to send output to.  Default  is  lpr  (1)
              for  BSD  style spooler, lp (1) for SYSV style spooler.  You can
              specify command line options, but note -Z.  For example -zlp for
              system V Unix.


       -Zprintprog_queuename_arg
              Specify  what option to use for the "-z printcommand" to specify
              a printqueue.  For example -zlp -Z-d for system V Unix.  Default
              is -P for BSD style spooler, -d for SYSV style spooler.




ENVIRONMENT
       mpage  examines the PRINTER (or LPDEST for SYSV style spooler) environ-
       ment variable to override its default printer.


       The MPAGE_LIB environment variable can be used  to  control  where  the
       character encoding files (-C) can be found.


       mpage  also  examines the MPAGE environment variable for default option
       settings.  Any option or combination of options can be specified in the
       MPAGE  environment  variable.   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 envi-
       ronment variables.


FILES
       /usr/tmp/mpageXXXXXX
       /usr/share/mpage


BUGS
       Suffers under the burden of far too many switches.  (But you wanted the
       choices!)

       NULL characters in a postscript input file will cause mpage to crash!

       Many others, we're sure.

       Mpage is year 2000 compliant, as long as the underlying operating  sys-
       tem is!!!


VERSION
       Version 2.5.3, Released oktober 2002.
       Location:

              http://www.mesa.nl/pub/mpage
              ftp://ftp.mesa.nl/pub/mpage

AUTHORS
       Marcel Mol <marcel@mesa.nl> (current maintainer).

       Mark P. Hahn (Original author)



                                  2002/10/20                      MPAGE(Local)