Book Printing on Linux

[Brian Chabot]

Here's an odd question:

A couple years ago I was researching bookbinding as a hobby.  I'd love 
to be able to print books and bind them, but to do so, I need a very 
specific pagination.

I'd like to be able to print a book ready for binding, without a trip to 
a photocopier, as the electrostatic process of photocopies does not lend 
itself well to the high-pressures and long time periods involved in the 
type of bookbinding I do. (15th cent. European binding on cords in case 
you were curious...)  Thus both photocopies and laser printing would be 
bad.  So, I would very much prefer to use my inkjet printer under Linux.

To do this, I want to make quarto sections (four sheets, 4 pages each, 
like several sixteen page booklets...) or Octo sections (eight sheets, 4 
pageseach).  The pagination for quarto sections would be 2 pages 
(portrait) per sheet (landscape, letter sized), numbered as such:

Sheet one, side one: 1,16
Sheet one, side two: 2,15
Sheet two, side one: 3,14
Sheet two, side two: 4,13
Sheet three side one: 5,12
Sheet three side two: 6,11
Sheet fout side one: 7,10
Sheet four, side two: 8,9
Sheet five, side one: 17, 32
Sheet five, side two: 18, 31
Sheet six, side one: 19, 30
Sheet six, side two: 20, 29
Sheet seven, side one: 21, 28
Sheet seven, side two: 22, 27
Sheet eight side one: 23, 26
Sheet eight side two: 24, 25
...etc.

My choices seem to be so far:

1. Rearrainge the contents in a word processot or page layout program 
(OO.org, Scribus, etc.) to fit the page numbering.
2. Print in booklet form 16 pages at a time in OO.org.
3. Print normally, 2 pages per sheet, cut and reassemble for a 
photocopier or professional print job.

What I am looking for is something a little more automatic.  Something 
like the booklet print ability in OpenOffice.org, but in 16 page chunks.

Maybe this is a pipe dream and the above choices are already the 
best.... but with the number of utilities Linux has to offer I thought I 
would at least ask.

Thanks,

Brian


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