I would like to print (several) single sided A5 booklets using my double-sided A4 printer. I am using the example from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/150302/34993 currently as a template. However, I would like to avoid cutting the printouts at all. That is I want to fold the printouts and just place them inside each other. I will staple all the pages together in the end at the "spine".
If we imagine looking at the booklet closed and then turning the pages one by one, I only want print on the right hand page. That is the left hand page should always be blank. The cover should go on the front page of course.
In other words, the pages as we go through the book should be Cover, blank, page 1, blank, page 2, blank, page 3 etc.
In this way, the final page will be printed on the same piece of paper as the Cover on the opposite side of the paper.
Is there an automated way to achieve this slightly complicated result?
Here is a sample document I am starting with.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[osf]{garamondx}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[cmyk,dvipsnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{lipsum}
%\setlength{\DefaultNindent}{0em}
\setcounter{DefaultLines}{4}
\input Zallman.fd
\newcommand*\initfamily{\usefont{U}{Zallman}{xl}{n}}
\renewcommand{\LettrineFontHook}{\initfamily}
\usepackage{bbding}
\pagestyle{empty}
\linespread{1.5}
\begin{document}
\newcommand{\pamphlet}{%
{\Huge\hfill\textsc{\textcolor{RoyalBlue}{T}he
\textcolor{RoyalBlue}{F}reedom} \textit{of} \textsc{the
\textcolor{RoyalBlue}{P}ress}\hfill} \vspace{\baselineskip}
\lettrine{\textcolor{RoyalBlue}{I}}{} am well acquainted with all
the arguments against freedom of thought and speech ---the
arguments which claim that it cannot exist, and the arguments
which claim that it ought not to. I answer simply that they don't
convince me and that our civilization over a period of four
hundred years has been founded on the opposite notice. For quite
a decade past I have believed that the existing Russian
\textit{r\'egime} is a mainly evil thing, and I claim the right to
say so, in spite of the fact that we are allies with the USSR in a
war which I want to see won. If I had to choose a text to justify
myself, I should choose the line from Milton:
\begin{quote}
\itshape By the known rules of ancient liberty.
\end{quote}
The word \textit{ancient} emphasizes the fact that intellectual
freedom is a deep--rooted tradition without which our
characteristic western culture could only doubtfully exist. From
that tradition many of our intellectuals are visibly turning away.
They have accepted the principle that a book should be published
or suppressed, praised or damned, not on its merits but according
to political expediency. And others who do not actually hold this
view assent to it from sheer cowardice. An example of this is the
failure of the numerous and vocal English pacifists to raise their
voices against the prevalent worship of Russian militarism.
According to those pacifists, all violence is evil, and they have
urged us at every stage of the war to give in or at least to make
a compromise peace. But how many of them have ever suggested that
war is also evil when it is waged by the Red Army? Apparently the
Russians have a right to defend themselves, whereas for us to do
[\textit{so}] is a deadly sin. One can only explain this
contradiction in one way: that is, by a cowardly desire to keep in
with the bulk of the intelligentsia, whose patriotism is directed
towards the USSR rather than towards Britain. I know that the
English intelligentsia have plenty of reason for their timidity
and dishonesty, indeed I know by heart the arguments by which they
justify themselves. But at least let us have no more nonsense
about defending liberty against Fascism. If liberty means
anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not
want to hear. The common people still vaguely subscribe to that
doctrine and act on it. In our country ---it is not the same in
all countries: it was not so in republican France, and
it is not so in the USA today--- it is the liberals who fear
liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the
intellect: it is to draw attention to that fact that I have
written this preface.
\vspace{\baselineskip}
\noindent\textit{Extract from}
\textsc{The Freedom of the Press}\textit{, by
\textcolor{RoyalBlue}{George Orwell}.
Proposed Preface to `Animal Farm', 1945.
First published: The Times Literary Supplement,
September 15, 1972.}\par
} \pamphlet
\lipsum{100}
\end{document}
Best Answer
If you do not have too many pages, you could do it this way. However, it is not entirely automatic as you need to tell
pdfpagesto insert the blank pages.We start by creating
prebooklet.pdffrom the sample file used in my earlier answer:This generates a 17-page A5 document. We then use
pdfpagesto produce the booklet as follows:The
{}in the page specification tellspdfpagesto insert a blank page. Because the page numbers are already set in the original.texfile, this does not affect the visible pagination in any way.