[SOLVED] CUPS command line Duplex Multiple Documents

deerewright · 10-26-2015, 12:33 PM

Is there a command line option in CUPS to print two documents on opposite sides of same page. I have 2 single-page documents that I would like to print to opposite sides of the same page. I want to be able to do this from the command line, so that I can add it as a CRON job. If there is not an 'lpr' command option, anyone have a script that might work?

michaelk · 10-26-2015, 12:39 PM

Welcome to LinuxQuestions

Yes, http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/options.html

deerewright · 10-26-2015, 12:45 PM

I have already read the CUPS docs, thank you. I can see how to print multiple documents, and how to duplex, but nothing I have found will do what I am attempting. Could you show an example of how I might accomplish my goal?

michaelk · 10-26-2015, 12:56 PM

Sorry, I did not read the question correctly...

What type of documents i.e text, otf PDF etc.

Is your printer duplex capable?

deerewright · 10-26-2015, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

Sorry, I did not read the question correctly...

What type of documents i.e text, otf PDF etc.

Is your printer duplex capable?

They are both pdf files and are both located in the same folder. My printer is duplex capable. I have tried setting the the default option of duplex (in the CUPS options web interface), and using the following command to print:

Code:

lpr -P HP8500 /path/to/first/file /path/to/second/file

That just prints each document on separate pages with blank duplex (blank back side of page).

michaelk · 10-26-2015, 01:30 PM

A simple script using pdftk to join the documents together like the example below.

pdftk /path/to/file1.pdf /path/to/file2.pdf cat output /path/to/combined.pdf
lpr -o sides=two-sided-long-edge -P HP8500 /path/to/combined.pdf

https://www.pdflabs.com/docs/pdftk-man-page/

deerewright · 10-27-2015, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

A simple script using pdftk to join the documents together like the example below.

pdftk /path/to/file1.pdf /path/to/file2.pdf cat output /path/to/combined.pdf
lpr -o sides=two-sided-long-edge -P HP8500 /path/to/combined.pdf

https://www.pdflabs.com/docs/pdftk-man-page/

That works, thanks, but what if you have two different types of files?

michaelk · 10-27-2015, 06:29 PM

For text files you can use enscript.

For word processor type files (doc,otf) I believe you can use Libreoffice writer command line to convert them to PDF and then use pdftk as above.