PDF Stacking and Book Assembly Script

This script is useful for anyone looking to print large PDFs in a structured way for physical bookbinding.

Overview

These scripts are designed to process and organize PDFs into structured entities called stacks, which contain a certain number of pages. These stacks are later stitched together in a specific arrangement to assemble a printable book. The script ensures that pages are correctly split, oriented, and formatted for an optimized print layout.

Features

• Splitting PDFs into Stacks: The script intelligently divides a given PDF into multiple stacks, each with a predefined number of pages.
• Page Formatting & Scaling: Adjusts pages to fit within an A4 landscape layout while maintaining appropriate margins and scaling.
• Correct Page Ordering: Organizes pages in a way that allows seamless assembly into a booklet format.
• Crop Detection: Analyzes the PDF content to detect text regions and crops pages accordingly.
• Automatic Page Numbering: Adds visual indicators to help align pages correctly during the bookbinding process.
• Processing Time Estimation: Provides estimated completion time based on the number of pages and stacks being processed.

How It Works

1. Extract & Crop Pages:
   • The script reads an input PDF and determines the appropriate text regions.
   • It crops all pages based on detected dimensions.
2. Organizing Pages into Stacks:
   • The script calculates the number of A4-sized stacks required.
   • It assigns pages to stacks while ensuring proper order for booklet printing.
3. Combining Pages into a Landscape Format:
   • Each A4 landscape page is filled with two PDF pages, ensuring an optimal layout.
   • A separator line is added to distinguish pages.
4. Generating the Final Output:
   • The script outputs separate stack files, ready for printing and assembly.

Requirements

To run this script, ensure you have the loaded requirements.txt pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt

Usage

I'll write full guide later, begin looking at crop.py and examples down below the script

    book = 'linear-algebra-mathematica.pdf'
    output_pdf_path = "cropped-{book}"
    input_pdf = output_pdf_path
    output_pdf = "stacks/stack.pdf"
    start_page_i = 15
    len = 668

    tuple = get_text_area_dimensions(start_page_i, len, book)
    crop_all_pages(start_page_i, len, tuple, book, output_pdf_path)
    combine_pages_landscape_with_margins(input_pdf, output_pdf, 
                                        margin_bleed_side = 15, margin_side = 5)

1. If you have .epub then use module epub2pdf.py (will be uploaded later), convert to pdf first
2. Supply number of pages the PDF book has and the starting page (make it odd)
3. Adjust margins. I recommend keep number of stacks as it is in code 10 since most of A4 pages are quite thick, so it will be easier to bend your book.

The output will consist of multiple stack files stack.1.pdf, stack.2.pdf...stack.25.pdf, stack.26.pdf, each representing a portion of the final book. Once printed, these stacks can be bound (to be stitched) together into a complete makeshift book.

Notes & Comments

• Ensure the input PDF is properly formatted before processing.
• The script assumes an A4 landscape format; adjustments may be required for other sizes.
• Processing time may vary depending on the number of pages.

I have tested and created own makeshift book consisted of 668 pages, For 668 pages the logic will split PDF book into 668 / 4 / 10 + 1 stacks (17 stacks). The pages in stack will be organized in proper order for stitching i.e. (beginning page 1 on right side landscape) page 1 with last page on the same sheet to the left, then on the other side of that same sheet page 2 with pre-last page of the book. All caveats took into account. I personally printed the book and stitched it. I would recommend to increase the marging on each page towards the center of sheet, to be easy on turning the page over.