PDF Commons

Step and repeat PDF

Draws the same page four times on one portrait Letter sheet. It runs in this tab. The file is not uploaded.

A $6 day pass is 24 hours, charged once, and it does not renew. Pricing

No ad script loads from this choice. It stays in this browser.

Where the four copies sit

Step and repeat PDF takes one PDF and draws each source page four times on its own sheet. There is no paper field and no page field. The download is one file named step-repeat.pdf. The worker loads the file with pdf-lib and builds a new portrait US Letter sheet. That sheet is 612 by 792 points. A margin of 36 points sits on every edge, and a 36 point gutter sits between the slots. Each slot is 252 points wide and 342 points tall. The same source page is drawn with embedPage in all four slots. The first slot is the top left. The second slot is the top right. The third slot is the bottom left. The fourth slot is the bottom right. That order is reading order, not a fold. The next source page starts a new sheet. Two source pages become two sheets, and each sheet holds four copies of its own page. pdf-lib 1.17 reads the media box, so a rotation of 90 or 270 swaps width and height before the fit. The scale is the smaller ratio of the slot to that visual size, so the aspect stays and the drawing is centered. Nothing is cropped and nothing is rasterized. A page of 200 by 100 points is scaled to fit the slot without stretching. Text that says TILE stays selectable in every slot. A page rotated 90 degrees that says Hello still yields Hello. Annotations and form fields are not copied. The new catalog has no AcroForm. This is not Four-up PDF, which places four different pages on one sheet and can choose A4. This is not Two-up PDF, which uses a landscape sheet and two pages. This is not Booklet PDF, which changes page order so a duplex print can fold. This is not Split horizontal PDF, which writes split-horizontal.pdf. The original file on disk is not rewritten.

The repeat runs in this tab with the open-source workers. The file is not uploaded. There is no GridFS copy. Closing the tab drops the copy. The browser downloads step-repeat.pdf. Four-up PDF writes four-up.pdf when four different pages share a sheet. Two-up PDF writes a landscape sheet. The Word page at /pdf-to-word uploads.

There is no page cap on this repeat. The tab has to hold the file. This page does not need a pass. A day pass is $6, charged once, for 24 hours, and it does not renew. A year is $60 for 365 days. Neither charge is required to repeat a page here. The 20-page server cap is not this tool. That cap belongs to PDF to Word, OCR, and heavy compress.

An empty file stops with "This PDF could not be read." Bytes that are not a PDF stop with "This PDF could not be read." A file with no pages stops with "This PDF has no pages." A locked file, opened without its password, stops with "Expected instance of PDFDict, but got instance of undefined". Unlock PDF is the separate page. This page does not ask for a password and does not guess one.

Steps

  1. Drop the file. It stays in this tab.
  2. Set the one option on the page, if it has one.
  3. Download the result. Closing the tab drops the copy.

Questions

Which copy is drawn first?

The same page is drawn top left, then top right, then bottom left, then bottom right, in step-repeat.pdf.

Is the PDF uploaded?

No. The repeat runs in this tab. The file is not uploaded. Closing the tab drops the copy. You get one file named step-repeat.pdf. The Word page at /pdf-to-word uploads.

What size is each sheet?

Each sheet is portrait US Letter, 612 by 792 points, with a 36 point margin. Four copies of one source page share that sheet. A second source page starts a second sheet. Form fields are not copied.

Does this page need the $6 day pass?

No. A $6 day pass lasts 24 hours, is charged once, and does not renew. A $60 year lasts 365 days. Neither charge is required to repeat a page here. The 20-page server cap is not this tool.

Also