I want to be able to print several A6 pages onto a single A4 sheet (for those not familiar with European paper sizes, A4 is close to Letter size and A6 is 1/4 of an A4 sheet).
Ideally I would like to be able to set A6 as my paper size in for example Word, then print it directly onto A4, four pages to a sheet.
I know I can mess about with formatting in Word and arrange the 4-to-a-page before I print, or perhaps use my regular printer’s driver to shrink 4 A4 pages onto one, but it is a real PITA and not possible from all applications I may wish to print from.
What I envisage would install as a printer driver, assemble the output itself and hopefully forward this to a real printer in one go. I am sure this is feasible but does it exist? Freeware/Shareware preferred.
here is what I would try. I am not, by any means, an expert and I am using American software, but the principle might be the same.
If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed (it is a free program), there is a way to make any print job output into a pdf file instead of a physical copy (not real clear on the details of this. I think it is a function that comes along when you download Reader, but someone please correct me). Anyway, when you have your document, you go to “File–Print” and in the window that pops up to confirm the print job, you select Acrobat Reader instead of the printer. Presto, your file is now a pdf file. Open up the pdf file and you can then muck about with the printing settings to make it go 4-to-a-page. This is especially handy if the program that originally created the file won’t let you print like that, or if you need to be able to print the file from almost any kind of computer without losing the formatting. Again, though I’m not exactly sure how to set up Reader to make it do this.
That’s Adobe Acrobat, not Reader - ie, it’s the three-figure-sum software. But you’re right in suggesting the PDF route - print the document via any freeware PDF Print utility, then use Reader to do as described.
That is pretty much what I have done, except my printer allows me to do it directly. It works OK but the problem is it shrinks the full page down to a quarter page. It can be difficult sometimes getting the sizeing correct and graphics come out particularly badly.
Wait, so you are taking files that are already set to be 100% at A6 (or 1/4 letter) paper size? Could it be that the files are being shrunken because they are designed to be full size on A4 (or letter sized) paper? Therefore, when you tell the computer to print 4-up, it thinks it has to strink the files to fit 4 of them on an A4 (letter sized) paper? Is that an accurate description of what is happening?
I use FinePrint to fit multiple source pages to one printed page. It works like a printer driver, and pops up with an options page when you print. It’s free if you don’t mind a small border around the page with “Printed with FinePrint” in the corner.
In Word 2003 you can do a File > Print and look for the “Zoom” box in the lower left-hand corner. Change the value of “Pages per sheet” to 2 or 4 or 6 or however many document pages you want to per per sheet of paper. Note that the actual printing will use the default paper size of the printer (letter size in the US), so plan your spacing out accordingly. In other words, if your printer’s default paper size is “legal” and your document is in “letter” size, Word will make as many pages of the letter size document appear on legal paper as you you have indicated.
I have no idea if this works in previous versions of Word.
I just tried FinePrint and it does seem to be a useful piece of software. I shall definitely keep it around.
For this specific task, however, it has the same drawback as the other solutions I have used - namely it scales the output so that a nominally A4 document prints at A6 size. What I desire is a way to work in Word at A6 (easy - just set A6 as my paper size in the Page Setup menu) and print this A6 document on A4, 4 pages to a sheet and un-scaled (conceptually easy, if only I could find the software to do it)
Sorry REX for missing that one, and thanks SavageNarce for pointing that out. Seems like that is the best option I have and, as long as I am using Word, pretty much just what I am after. Thanks to all others who responded also
What OS? Macs can do this (under either MacOS 9 or MacOS X), are you sure PC operating system don’t have it embedded in the Page Setup options?
Under MacOS X, I can put up to 16 pages per sheet after selecting the page size, and decide whether the consecutive pages should go down the first column and then over to start the second column or, instead, go across the first row and then down to start the second row.
Under MacOS 8.6 (and 9) this flexiblity is probably confined to the LaserWriter printer driver (i.e., you may not be able to do this with your home inkjet), but again there’s a Layout tab that lets you select how many pages per actual sheet of paper, and the choices are divided into rows first (then columns) or columns first (then rows), and again it maxes out at 16 “pages” per page.
If you’re on a PC, delve deep into the Print Setup dialogs; I know you have to keep clicking to dig into them, even for simple things like scaling (100%, 92% etc), but if you keep exploring you may find that the options are all there, just not as readily accessible as they probably ought to be. In particular, look for any setting that bears the term “layout”, that might be where it’s kept.
