PdfTiler

PdfTiler is a Python script that takes a large, single-page PDF (such as a poster, map, or architectural drawing) and tiles it across multiple standard US Letter (8.5" x 11") pages. The output is a new PDF in which each page is a "tile" that can be printed on a regular printer, trimmed, and assembled to recreate the original large page.

Features

• Automatic Tiling: Splits a large PDF page into multiple 8.5"x11" tiles with configurable margins.
• Customizable Paper Size: Default is US Letter, but you can specify any paper size in inches.
• Crop and Center: Each tile is cropped from the source and centered on its own page.
• Print-Ready Output: Each tile page includes a thin magenta rectangle annotation marking the crop boundary for easy trimming and assembly.
• Simple Command-Line Usage

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• pypdf (install via pip install pypdf)

Usage

python PdfTiler.py input.pdf output.pdf

• input.pdf: The source PDF file (should contain a single, large page).
• output.pdf: The path to write the tiled output PDF.

Optional Parameters

If you want to change paper size or margins, modify the tile_pdf call in PdfTiler.py:

tile_pdf(
    input_pdf_path, 
    output_pdf_path, 
    paper_width_inches=8.5,    # Width of paper in inches
    paper_height_inches=11.0,  # Height of paper in inches
    margin=1                   # Margin in inches on all sides
)

Example

Suppose you have a 36"x24" poster as a single-page PDF. Run:

python PdfTiler.py poster.pdf poster_tiled.pdf

This will generate a poster_tiled.pdf consisting of enough 8.5"x11" pages to cover the entire poster, with magenta crop marks on each tile.

How It Works

• Reads the first page of the input PDF.
• Calculates how many tiles (rows/columns) are needed to cover the whole page based on the paper size and margins.
• Crops each tile from the original page and centers it on a new blank page.
• Adds a magenta rectangle annotation marking the tile boundary.
• Writes the resulting multi-page PDF for printing.

Tips

• Make sure your input PDF is a single page. If it's not, you can extract a page using PDF editors or tools.
• When printing, set scale to 100% (no scaling) to preserve the correct tile sizes.
• Use the magenta rectangles to trim each tile before assembly.

Limitations

• Only processes the first page of the input PDF.
• Tested with vector PDFs; results may vary with scanned/image-based PDFs.
• Only outputs US Letter by default; change parameters for other paper sizes.

License

MIT License

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Inspired by the need to print large posters on regular printers.