[Tex/LaTex] how to position pdf with \includepdf in book, also depending on even/odd page

marginspdfpagespositioning

I am writing my thesis for which we have specific requirements regarding the paper size. This is what I have at the beginning of my thesis file:

documentclass[a4paper]{book}
\textheight=175mm
\textwidth=120mm
\oddsidemargin=-1in
\addtolength{\oddsidemargin}{22mm}
\evensidemargin=-1in
\addtolength{\evensidemargin}{68mm}

New chapters start on the right page if you look at a two-page view. The pages "lean in toward the middle" with the margins on the outer sides and down below. I have no problems with this when using ordinary TeX-input, but when I try to include a pdf I cannot force it to obey the margins. This is how I do it now:

\cleardoublepage
\includepdf[pages=-,templatesize={120mm}{175mm},noautoscale=true]{myfile.pdf}

I tried using the offset option but I could not put the pdf pages where I wanted them. Their position should also alternate depending on odd or even page number. Any help is appreaciated!

Best Answer

This is actually my question but it somehow got registered to an unregistered user. Anyways, I managed to solve the problem I was having. The solution is a little hands-on but it worked in my case.

Basically I ran my normal TeX code through pdflatex, opened the file and cropped out the text (with footer and header). When cropping in Acrobat you get information about the crop box size. So from there I knew how big I wanted my pdf to be. It was a bit larger than the text height and width definitions I had previously had. After that I converted my pdf (by printing to a new pdf) to the correct dimensions. And then all I had to do was figure out the offset option for \includepdf. I took four post-its and attached them to the screen on my laptop. They formed a frame around the text box. By scrolling through the pages I could compare the included pdf with the post-it frame. Moving the offset numbers back and forth I managed to locate the pdf exactly where I wanted it.

Here's the final version of the code:

    \cleardoublepage
    \includepdf[pages=-,templatesize={145mm}{210mm},noautoscale=true,offset=-65 50]{myfile.pdf}

It also helped to use the option frame=true while figuring out the dimensions and the offset.

Thanks a lot to my boyfriend who came up with the post-it idea! Good luck everyone.

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