Pdfposter can be used to create a large poster by building it from multiple pages and/or printing it on large media. It expects as input a PDF file, normally printing on a single page. The output is again a PDF file, maybe containing multiple pages together building the poster. The input page will be scaled to obtain the desired size.

This is much like poster does for Postscript files, but working with PDF. Since sometimes poster does not like your files converted from PDF. :-) Indeed pdfposter was inspired by poster.

For more information please refer to the manpage or visit the project homepage.

Pdfposter requires

• `Python 2.x`__ or higher (tested with 2.5 and 2.6, but other versions should work, too, Python 3.x is not supported),
• `setuptools`__ for installation (see below), and
• pyPdf2.

Using setuptools, compiling and installing the remaining requirements is a piece of cake:

# if the system has network access
easy_install PyPdf2

# without network access download PyPdf2
# from http://mstamy2.github.io/PyPDF2/ and run
easy_install PyPdf2-*.zip

When you are reading this you most probably already downloaded and unpacked pdfposter. Thus installing is as easy as running:

python ./setup.py install

Otherwise you may install directly using setuptools/easy_install. If your system has network access installing pdfposter is a breeze:

easy_install pdftools.pdfposter

Without network access download pdfposter from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pdfposter and run:

easy_install pdftools.pdfposter-*.tar.gz

pdfposter uses setuptools for installation. Thus you need either

• network access, so the install script will automatically download and install setuptools if they are not already installed

or

• the correct version of setuptools preinstalled using the `EasyInstall installation instructions`__. Those instructions also have tips for dealing with firewalls as well as how to manually download and install setuptools.

pdfposter is just a single script (aka Python program). So you can copy it where ever you want (maybe fixing the first line). But it's easier to just use:

# install to /usr/local/bin
python ./setup.py install --prefix /usr/local

# install to your Home directory (~/bin)
python ./setup.py install --home ~

Please mind: This effects also the installation of PyPdf2 (and setuptools) if they are not already installed.

For more information about Custom Installation Locations please refer to the `Custom Installation Locations Instructions`__ before installing pdfposter.