Bug 45701 - PRINTING: Allow printing multiple copies of a page on a single sheet of paper
Summary: PRINTING: Allow printing multiple copies of a page on a single sheet of paper
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords:
: 47431 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Print
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2012-02-06 07:14 UTC by Lance Haverkamp
Modified: 2023-05-05 22:29 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Sample half-letter notepad (9.79 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2012-02-06 07:14 UTC, Lance Haverkamp
Details

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Description Lance Haverkamp 2012-02-06 07:14:40 UTC
Created attachment 56675 [details]
Sample half-letter notepad

Created a simple notepad (8.25 x 5.5 portrait) to print 2-up, on letter sized paper.  Set printer to US Letter landscape, set layout to 2 per page, requested 2 copies.  Instead of getting 2 per page, I got 1 per page on 2 pages.

Repeatable every time.  Document attached.  

Using LibreOffice 3.4.4
OOO340m1 (Build:402)
on Mint Linux, with an HP lasterjet 4L

Forum consensus here: http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/2388
Comment 1 sasha.libreoffice 2012-05-15 04:33:57 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 2 Lance Haverkamp 2012-05-15 08:30:40 UTC
Yes, this is a bug:  The phrases 2-up, 4-up, etc. is a commercial printing term that means printing multiple copies of the same page on one, larger sheet of paper.  I this case the document to print should fit exactly twice on a US letter sized page...that's 2-up.
Comment 3 sasha.libreoffice 2012-06-12 01:10:24 UTC
*** Bug 47431 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 sasha.libreoffice 2012-06-12 01:14:28 UTC
Due to  Bug 47431 looks like regression or new functionality
Reproducible in 3.5.4 on Fedora 64 bit (Windows not tested)
Comment 5 Lance Haverkamp 2012-06-12 09:09:16 UTC
Until this is fixed, here's a work-around:

1) Export your single document as a PDF file.
2) Open that PDF using Adobe Reader, and select to print "multiple copies per page" (many smaller pdf readers don't support printing multiple copies on a page).

For those needing a detailed how to print using Adobe Reader, there's a training video here: http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/printing-documents-acrobat-and-reader-x
Comment 6 Lance Haverkamp 2012-06-24 22:15:21 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 sasha.libreoffice 2012-06-29 03:36:19 UTC
Possible workaround is here:
Bug 48231 - : Printing multiple copies on page not possible on Mac
Comment 8 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2012-07-03 21:20:50 UTC
Regression does appear in oldest version of bibisect-3.5.tar.lzma and must be older.
Comment 9 Roman Eisele 2012-09-24 13:19:36 UTC
According to bug 47431 comment no. 0, the first version in which this problem is known to exist was 3.4.5. (NB: the version field should always contain the FIRST version in which a bug is known to exist, not the last one.) So if there is a regression, it has happened probably in the 3.4 (or 3.3) development process.
Comment 10 sasha.libreoffice 2012-09-24 13:27:59 UTC
reproduced in 3.3.4 on Fedora 64 bit
IMHO regression may happens or during switching from OO to LO. If so, AOO should work correctly now. Or it happens during meging BrOffice. It happens between 3.2 and 3.3 versions of LO.
Comment 11 Roman Eisele 2012-09-24 14:43:16 UTC
@ Sasha:
Thanks for your hints! Very reasonable ...

(In reply to comment #10)
> If so, AOO should work correctly now.

Could someone test AOO, please? (I can’t test printing issues.) Then we would know this for sure ...
Comment 12 KDM 2014-01-16 19:14:04 UTC
(In reply to comment #5)
> Until this is fixed, here's a work-around:
> 
> 1) Export your single document as a PDF file.
> 2) Open that PDF using Adobe Reader, and select to print "multiple copies
> per page" (many smaller pdf readers don't support printing multiple copies
> on a page).
> 
> For those needing a detailed how to print using Adobe Reader, there's a
> training video here:
> http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/printing-documents-acrobat-and-reader

So... the best solution is to use someone else's program? Adobe's Reader works great-and could serve as a model for how the LibreOffice printer functions SHOULD work, but we shouldn't need to do this! The link to Adobe Reader appears to be broken. As I have noted discussing this same bug elsewhere (can't find the other bug Numbers right now) - the Reader adds extra margins and shrinks the page - so the only way this works for me is to set all the LO document margins to 0" and increase the font size so that when exported and loaded into Adobe-and tiled to 2-up the page looks closer to what I intended. Pretty cludgy!
Comment 13 KDM 2014-01-16 19:26:21 UTC
Really a showstopper for me. A common bug since at least version 3--I'll have to look up the other bug numbers - at least 3 others. Adding extra pages doesn't help. In LO 4 I've been able to make it work by selecting "Use only paper size from printer preferences" under the Options Tab in the Print Dialog. - Sure wish I could make that the Default behavior like other programs!
Comment 14 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2014-01-17 00:56:01 UTC
Testing on Ubuntu 12.04.3 + LibreOffice 4.2.0.1 and 3.3.0

(In reply to comment #0)
> Created a simple notepad (8.25 x 5.5 portrait) to print 2-up, on letter
> sized paper.  Set printer to US Letter landscape, set layout to 2 per page,
> requested 2 copies.  Instead of getting 2 per page, I got 1 per page on 2
> pages.

Carefully reviewing this bug, I now believe that this is the expected behavior. The pages of content in a given document are resized to n-per-page, but are not duplicated, etc..

(In reply to comment #2)
> Yes, this is a bug:  The phrases 2-up, 4-up, etc. is a commercial printing
> term that means printing multiple copies of the same page on one, larger
> sheet of paper.  I this case the document to print should fit exactly twice
> on a US letter sized page...that's 2-up.

I'm not an expert on printing terminology, but here's what Wikipedia and Adobe say (WP references Adobe's page):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-up#Printing
http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/print-multiple-pages-per-sheet.html
"You can print more than one page of a PDF onto a single sheet of paper. Printing multiple pages per sheet is also called n-up printing (such as 2-up or 6-up)"

To be precise, LibreOffice doesn't use the term "n-up". It uses the terminology "pages per sheet," which definitely seems to convey the current behavior, and contrasts with "copies per sheet" or similar terms that would imply automatic duplication.

Given *that* description, my testing indicates that LO 3.3.0 and 4.2.0.1 (and presumably all versions inbetween) are acting as expected, and this is not a regression.

(Joel -- Thoughts on this one before we resolve as NOTABUG?)

---

All that being said, I do understand a desire to duplicate pages of content in a document, especially for printing purposes. That sounds like a reasonable enhancement request (which should be filed separately from this bug).
Comment 15 Joel Madero 2014-01-17 15:55:37 UTC
Agreed - not a bug - but likely a valid enhancement request. 

Updated title as well - tricky because it's "allow printing multiple copies of single page on a single page" - that sounded weird so I just made it weirder ;)
Comment 16 Lance Haverkamp 2014-01-17 16:40:56 UTC Comment hidden (no-value)
Comment 17 Joel Madero 2014-01-17 16:42:32 UTC
Um - you posted 2 years ago, LibreOffice has only been around for just over 2 years . . .

and why it took 2 years, because we have somewhere between 40 million and 100 million users and a very small group of volunteers to handle the workload. If you're volunteering to donate some of your time, please send me an email, trust me we have PLENTY of backlog work that needs to get done - no programming experience required
Comment 18 Joel Madero 2014-01-17 16:44:26 UTC
and as you can see Qubit had to do some personal research (which takes time) to get to the answer. We have anywhere from 15-40 bugs reported per day, with a backlog that hovers between 750-1600, our team is slowly growing to tackle these things faster but developing cohesive teams takes time - thus, hopefully you will volunteer some time to add one more "hand on deck"
Comment 19 Björn Michaelsen 2014-02-28 12:45:53 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 20 František 2014-11-06 22:50:48 UTC
I have found that this problem on Mac can be party solved by disabling Mac printing dislog in preferences. It is not nice but usefull.  You will get probably Linux dialog that allows you print 1,1,1,1 etc.
Comment 21 Björn Michaelsen 2015-01-27 22:55:10 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 22 Regina Henschel 2016-11-06 19:05:02 UTC
Set the Page Layout to 2, left to right. In tab General write 1,1 or 1;1 in the Pages field.
Comment 23 Lance Haverkamp 2021-12-03 23:02:24 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #22)
> Set the Page Layout to 2, left to right. In tab General write 1,1 or 1;1 in
> the Pages field.

WOW!!! That's amazing, great work-around! Thanks!

Note: This is still a problem, unless someone knows this word-around.
Comment 24 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-05-05 22:29:14 UTC
In OOo 3.3, I am already getting the two copies on two separate sheets, so marking as inherited.
Regina's comment 22 workaround was already working back then.