NAME

posterazor - splits an image across multiple pages for assembly into a poster

SYNOPSIS

posterazor [ inputfile ]

DESCRIPTION

The PosteRazor splits an image to form a multi-page PDF document. When printed, the sheets can be arranged to form a large poster of the original image.
If no inputfile is specified as a command line argument, the user will be prompted for one.
Current Features:
Input image formats
All image formats that FreeImage can read should be usable as input for the PosteRazor: BMP, DDS, Dr. Halo, GIF, ICO, IFF, JBIG, JPEG/JIF, KOALA, LBM, Kodak PhotoCD, PCX, PBM, PGM, PNG, PPM, PhotoShop PSD, Sun RAS, TARGA, TIFF, WBMP, XBM, XPM.
Color types
PosteRazor can handle the following image color types: Monochrome, Grayscale, 4 Bit palette, 8 Bit palette, 24 Bit RGB, 48 Bit RGB (only via TIFF and PNG), 32 Bit CMYK (only via TIFF) 32 Bit RGBA images can be loaded, but are transformed to 24 Bit RGB by "merging" them with a white background.
Dimension units
Because people around the world invented so many different dimension units, PosteRazor supports quite a few: m, mm, cm, inch, ft, pt(72th inch).
Printer page layout
The page size and orientation of the printer where the poster will be printed can be set manually or selected one from the following list of predefined formats: DIN A4, DIN A3, Legal, Letter or Tabloid. The size limit for one page is 5 meters (16.4 feet), which is the maximum that PDF allows.
Poster size
The size of the final poster can be set through one of these three ways:
- Absolute image size
You want to have a specific size of your poster.
- Size in Pages
You want to use whole paper sheets and specify how many of them of them you want to use.
- Image Size in percent
Your input image has a certain size which is defined by the number of pixels and dpi (dots per inch) and your want to scale the image by a certain factor.
The final size of the poster is theoretically unlimited. Let's say it this way: it is less limited that the ink of your printer. It is possible to select the alignment of the image on the total paper. This is useful if you want to keep the unused paper.
Image tile overlapping
For a bigger tolerance when cutting spare paper borders and for easier pasting, an overlapping width and height of an image tile over the next can be set.
PDF output
The PDF output is implemented with the maximum image quality and a good compression in mind. A source image is embedded once in the PDF document and referenced from every tile page. Image color types remain unchanged. As compression method, the PDF "FlateDecode filter" (zip) is used. If a JPEG image is used as input it gets directly embedded into the document without recompression. The PDF version is 1.4, so any compatible reader should be able to read the resulting document.
Missing Support:
•
Cut lines/aids;
•
Support of JPEG-CMYK images;
•
Support of 16 Bit Grayscale images;
•
Embedding an ICC profile into the PDF if there is one embedded in the input image.

AUTHORS

PosteRazor was written by Alessandro Portale <[email protected]>.
This manual page was originally written by Simrun Basuita <[email protected]> for the Debian project and updated by Marcelo Soares Mota <[email protected]>.