pdfposter

creates posters from PDF

TLDR

Create an A3 poster on A4 pages from an A1 source

$ pdfposter -p a3 -m a4 [input.pdf] [output.pdf]

Scale input by factor of 4

$ pdfposter -s 4 [input.pdf] [output.pdf]

Target A0 poster on A4 media

$ pdfposter -p a0 -m a4 [input.pdf] [output.pdf]

Use a custom media size (with margins)

$ pdfposter -m 160x247mm [input.pdf] [output.pdf]

Preview without writing output (dry run)

$ pdfposter -n -p 2xa4 [input.pdf] [output.pdf]

SYNOPSIS

pdfposter [options] infile outfile

pdfposter scales and tiles a PDF document so a single page can be printed on multiple sheets and assembled into a large poster.The desired output size is defined with -p/--poster-size or a direct -s/--scale factor; -m/--media-size selects the paper that tiles are rendered onto. Many standard media names (A4, A3, Letter, ...) are accepted, as are explicit distances such as `10x15cm` or `160x247mm`.Only the first page of the input is used. The program computes the number of tiles needed and writes a multi-page PDF whose pages, when printed and joined, recreate the scaled original.

PARAMETERS

-p BOX, --poster-size BOX

Target poster size (e.g. `a0`, `2xa4`, `30x40cm`).

-s NUMBER, --scale NUMBER

Linear scaling factor applied to the input.

-m BOX, --media-size BOX

Output media (page) size (default: A4).

-A, --art-box

Use ArtBox instead of TrimBox for the input page.

-n, --dry-run

Show what would be done without writing output.

-v, --verbose

Verbose output (repeat for more detail).

--help-media-names

List recognized media and distance names.

--version

Display version information.

CAVEATS

Python-based tool built on pypdf/PyPDF2. Only the first page of the input is tiled. Combine with `pdfjam` or `pdftk` if you need to pre-select a page.

HISTORY

pdfposter was written by Hartmut Goebel as a Python alternative to `poster`(1), which operates on PostScript. It has been packaged by major Linux distributions since the mid-2000s.