Printing 4 pages from 2 PDF´s in one page

[Translator Pekka]

This is something, that I do not seem to find anything on. I´ve made a 400-page translation work, and now I´ve got the original language PDF (I´ll call it PDF-1 here) and my translated PDF (PDF-2). So 800 pages altogether. The pages should be exactly identical, except the language. One page has width: 148mm, height 105mm.

Now for checking purposes, I would need to get FOUR pages into one Landcape A4: on its upper part, two pages from PDF-1, and on its lower part, two pages from PDF-2. And of course, if the upper part has pages 1-2 from PDF-1 then lower part must have pages 1-2 from PDF-2. Just so I can easily look at the original and the translated page, when they are on the same paper (A4).

Of course I could print both separately, and look at them separately, and that´s what I´ve been doing, but that´s driving me nuts. I have some lower back issues and I´m doing this checking work standing up and working with two separate papers is just not practical, as I often need to write some corrections to one paper or something.

I guess there has to be some way? Note, I´m using Indesign CS5 for the layout, and I print the PDF´s from there. Also using Acrobat Pro. I´ve tried to mix the pages from PDF-1 and PDF-2 in Acrobat, but the way page order is handled there, ohhh... once again, not very practical, when there are 800 pages! 

I could actually do it easily in Indesign. But the problem is, it has got to be automated. I can´t go and change the link 800 times, that is simply too time consuming.

I have never used scripts in Indesign, but thinking that it might be the way to go.

I´ve also thought about printing two pages from PDF-1 into the upper part of a landscape A4, then flipping pages in PDF-2 180 degrees, and then using the printed pages that have PDF-1 already, feeding them turned 180 degrees into the printer, to get PDF-2 printed in that same paper the way I want to. Sounds a bit complicated, if it even works.

Printing only even and odd pages could also offer some possibilityfor this, but haven´t figured it out yet.

Any suggestions on this? Thank you.

[try67]

There's no easy way to do that directly in Acrobat, unless you first merge the two files together, interleaving the pages from both sources. You can do that with a single click (more or less...) by using a script, such as this (paid-for) one I've developed exactly for this task: https://www.try67.com/tool/acrobat-combine-even-odd-pages-2018

Once the files have been merged you can just use the Multiple option in the Print dialog to print 4 PDF pages per one physical page.

[Translator Pekka]

Ok, thank you for the tip, I´ll see if I can´t make it work, then I could definitely give it a go. Once again thanks.

[Luke Jennings3]

This could probably be scripted in InDesign, but you can also save some steps if you do it manually, first export spread pdfs from both language versions (page 1&2, page 3&4, etc.), the InDesign files will need to be set up as facing pages as shown in the screen shot below. Place the spread pdfs into a new 200 page InDesign file, sized to allow spread pages top and bottom. There is a script in InDesign to place multipage pdfs and also a better free version here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/place-multipage-pdf-script-problem/m-p/10939258

Note you are using an older version of InDesign, I'm not sure a version of the free script is still available for CS5, or if the original script included in InDesign is in your version (Window> Utilities> Scripts> Application> Samples) you can only use the script for the first document, if you try to use it for the 2nd document, it will add additional pages instead of creating 4 page spreads*. When you have all pages into position in InDesign, export to a new pdf and print from Acrobat (fit to page).

*To speed the manual placement of the 2nd document, reduce the magnification of your InDesign document to about 5% and place several pages at a time from the "place cursor gun" loaded with all 200 pages.

If you make changes to the original document, export a new pdf and update the links in the 4 page InDesign document.