Using FOP to pull pages from an A4 PDF and create a A3 PDF - pdf

Question

Im hoping someone can help me.
At the moment I create A4 Documents using FOP and XSLT. I have been asked to take these A4 (portrait) pages and then stitch them into an A3 booklet. So for example I have a 4 page A4 document which I need to convert into a 2 sided A3 booklet with the ability to order the first side using page 4 and 1 (side by side) and then the other side to be page 2 and 3.
I have looked at PDFBOX to see if it can do this but have had no success.
Does anyone have any ideas of how I could get the outcome that I need?
All help is appreciated!

Answer 1

You can do that with FOP if you wish and if you install the PDF Images Plug-In for FOP
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
<fo:layout-master-set>
<fo:simple-page-master master-name="a3" margin-right="0mm" margin-left="0mm" margin-bottom="0mm" margin-top="0mm" page-width="42cm" page-height="29.7cm">
<fo:region-body margin-left="0mm" margin-top="0mm" margin-bottom="0mm" margin-right="0mm"/>
</fo:simple-page-master>
<fo:page-sequence-master master-name="a3n">
<fo:repeatable-page-master-alternatives>
<fo:conditional-page-master-reference master-reference="a3" page-position="any"/>
</fo:repeatable-page-master-alternatives>
</fo:page-sequence-master>
</fo:layout-master-set>
<fo:page-sequence master-reference="a3n">
<fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
<fo:block-container height="29.7cm" width="20.9cm" top="0mm" left="0mm" position="absolute">
<fo:block>
<fo:external-graphic content-height="29.7cm" content-width="21cm" height="29.7cm" width="21cm" src="yourpathdoc.pdf#page=2"/>
</fo:block>
</fo:block-container>
<fo:block-container height="29.7cm" width="20.9cm" top="0mm" left="209mm" position="absolute">
<fo:block>
<fo:external-graphic content-height="29.7cm" content-width="21cm" height="29.7cm" width="21cm" src="yourpathdoc.pdf#page=3"/>
</fo:block>
</fo:block-container>
<fo:block-container>
<fo:block font-size="0.1pt" page-break-after="always" break-after="page"> </fo:block>
</fo:block-container>
<fo:block-container height="29.7cm" width="20.9cm" top="0mm" left="0mm" position="absolute">
<fo:block>
<fo:external-graphic content-height="29.7cm" content-width="21cm" height="29.7cm" width="21cm" src="yourpathdoc.pdf#page=4"/>
</fo:block>
</fo:block-container>
<fo:block-container height="29.7cm" width="20.9cm" top="0mm" left="209mm" position="absolute">
<fo:block>
<fo:external-graphic content-height="29.7cm" content-width="21cm" height="29.7cm" width="21cm" src="yourpathdoc.pdf#page=1"/>
</fo:block>
</fo:block-container>
</fo:flow>
</fo:page-sequence>
</fo:root>
Edit
In case you want it portrait for easier printing, simply switch the page-width and page-height of the simple-page-master and replace the four block-container lines containing the position="absolute" with
<fo:block-container height="29.7cm" width="21cm" top="0mm" left="0mm" position="absolute" reference-orientation="270">
...
<fo:block-container height="29.7cm" width="21cm" top="210mm" left="0mm" position="absolute" reference-orientation="270">
...
<fo:block-container height="29.7cm" width="21cm" top="0mm" left="0mm" position="absolute" reference-orientation="270">
...
<fo:block-container height="29.7cm" width="21cm" top="210mm" left="0mm" position="absolute" reference-orientation="270">
and if you have more than two pages don't forget to insert the
<fo:block-container>
<fo:block font-size="0.1pt" page-break-after="always" break-after="page"> </fo:block>
</fo:block-container>
everywhere inbetween (after every second image)