Java - apache PDFBox two A3 papers to one A2?

Question

I've got a printer which doesn't support the feature I need.

The printer prints A2 paper size. I would like to print two A3 size pages, that would fit on a single A2 paper, but my printer doesn't support this.

I already called the support of the company, but they told me I need to buy a newer one because my printer doesn't support this function. (Its very funny because an even older version of that printer does support this function).

So I tried to use the Apache PDFBox, where I can load my pdf file like this:

File pdfFile = new File(path);
PDDocument pdfDocument = load(pdfFile);

The file I loaded is size A3. I think it would be enough if I could get a new PDDocument with A2 paper size. Then put my loaded pdfFile twice in an A2 paper.

All in all, I need the file I loaded there two times on one page. I just don't know how to do that.

Best regards.

Answer 1

You might want to look at the PageCombinationSample.java which according to its JavaDoc does nearly what you need:

This sample demonstrates how to combine multiple pages into single bigger pages (for example two A4 modules into one A3 module) using form XObjects [PDF:1.6:4.9].

Form XObjects are a convenient way to represent contents multiple times on multiple pages as templates.

The central code:

// 1. Opening the source PDF file...
File sourceFile = new File(filePath);

// 2. Instantiate the target PDF file!
File file = new File();

// 3. Source page combination into target file.
Document document = file.getDocument();
Pages pages = document.getPages();
int pageIndex = -1;
PrimitiveComposer composer = null;
Dimension2D targetPageSize = PageFormat.getSize(SizeEnum.A4);
for(Page sourcePage : sourceFile.getDocument().getPages())
{
    pageIndex++;
    int pageMod = pageIndex % 2;
    if(pageMod == 0)
    {
        if(composer != null)
        {composer.flush();}

        // Add a page to the target document!
        Page page = new Page(
            document,
            PageFormat.getSize(SizeEnum.A3, OrientationEnum.Landscape)
        ); // Instantiates the page inside the document context.
        pages.add(page); // Puts the page in the pages collection.
        // Create a composer for the target content stream!
        composer = new PrimitiveComposer(page);
    }

    // Add the form to the target page!
    composer.showXObject(
        sourcePage.toXObject(document), // Converts the source page into a form inside the target document.
        new Point2D.Double(targetPageSize.getWidth() * pageMod, 0),
        targetPageSize,
        XAlignmentEnum.Left,
        YAlignmentEnum.Top,
        0
    );
}
composer.flush();

// 4. Serialize the PDF file!
serialize(file, "Page combination", "combining multiple pages into single bigger ones", "page combination");

// 5. Closing the PDF file...
sourceFile.close();