ARCHIVED: In Unix, what are the up, 2up, 4up, 8up, and 16up utilities, and how do I use them to manipulate PostScript files?
In Unix, the up
utility takes a PostScript
file as input, scales it, rotates it, and transforms it, so that you can
print more than one page on a single sheet of paper. Commonly included with
up
are 2up
, 4up
, 8up
,
and 16up
, which are actually symbolic links to up
that specify a layout.
For example, to use up
to print a file in landscape mode,
with two pages side-by-side on each piece of paper, at the Unix
prompt, enter:
2up filename | printcommand
Replace filename
with the name of the PostScript file and
replace printcommand
with the print command you want to
use (i.e., lpr
for BSD-compatible systems and
lp
in System V).
Note: The destination printer must be able to handle PostScript files.
To create printed output that displays in portrait mode and fits four
pages per printed sheet, you would use 4up
. 8up
and 16up
are similar, but they fit more pages per printed page.
Alternately, you can call specific layouts using up
with the
-n
option. For example, an equivalent to the 2up
command would be:
up -n 2up filename | printcommand
You can also design your own layouts by creating a .uprc
file. For more information, read the up
and uprc
man pages. To do so, at the Unix prompt, enter one of the following:
man up man uprc
At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see Get help for Linux or Unix at IU.
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Last modified on 2018-01-18 12:18:00.