Duplex in LaTeX revisited

Back in the 90'ies when I studied at the university I wrote all my documents in LaTeX and I was really fond of it. I still think that it is the best layout system / engine ever invented. Back then I actually wrote some styles myself that were used at the university quite a lot. One of them were a duplex for PostScript functionality so you could enable duplex printing easilly via dvips.

Now my indepth knowledge of LaTeX is long gone but as a homage to it I will post the style right here on this blog for now - it should still be fully working though not tested:

% Definitions for enabling duplex print on PostScript printers (dvips)
% (c) Copyright 1998 Kasper Løvschall

\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
\ProvidesPackage{psduplex}[1998/03/23 v1.1 Duplex print on PostScript device (KL)]

% Defining duplex options

\DeclareOption{longedge}{\special{!userdict begin /start-hook{
  1 dict dup /Duplex true put setpagedevice
  1 dict dup /Tumble false put setpagedevice
  }def end}\PackageInfo{psduplex}{Duplex Long Edge Binding is active}}
\DeclareOption{shortedge}{\special{!userdict begin /start-hook{
  1 dict dup /Duplex true put setpagedevice
  1 dict dup /Tumble true put setpagedevice
  }def end}\PackageInfo{psduplex}{Duplex Short Edge Binding is active}}
\DeclareOption{none}{\special{!userdict begin /start-hook{
  1 dict dup /Duplex false put setpagedevice
  1 dict dup /Tumble false put setpagedevice
  }def end}\PackageInfo{psduplex}{Duplex None is active}}

% Defining media position

\DeclareOption{tray2}{\special{!userdict begin /start-hook{
  1 dict dup /DeferredMediaSelection true put setpagedevice
  1 dict dup /MediaPosition 0 put setpagedevice
  }def end}\PackageInfo{psduplex}{Tray 2 media selected}}
\DeclareOption{tray3}{\special{!userdict begin /start-hook{
  1 dict dup /DeferredMediaSelection true put setpagedevice
  1 dict dup /MediaPosition 1 put setpagedevice
  }def end}\PackageInfo{psduplex}{Tray 3 media selected}}
\DeclareOption{envelope}{\special{!userdict begin /start-hook{
  1 dict dup /DeferredMediaSelection true put setpagedevice
  1 dict dup /MediaPosition 2 put setpagedevice
  }def end}\PackageInfo{psduplex}{Envelope media selected}}
\DeclareOption{tray1}{\special{!userdict begin /start-hook{
  1 dict dup /DeferredMediaSelection true put setpagedevice
  1 dict dup /MediaPosition 3 put setpagedevice
  }def end}\PackageInfo{psduplex}{Tray 1 media selected}}
\DeclareOption{tray4}{\special{!userdict begin /start-hook{
  1 dict dup /DeferredMediaSelection true put setpagedevice
  1 dict dup /MediaPosition 4 put setpagedevice
  }def end}\PackageInfo{psduplex}{Tray 4 media selected}}

% Beginning-Of-Page hooks

\DeclareOption{kopi}{\special{!userdict begin /bop-hook{gsave 200 30
  translate 65 rotate /Courier-Bold findfont 300 scalefont setfont
  50 -10 moveto 0.8 setgray (KOPI) show grestore}def end}}
\DeclareOption{kladde}{\special{!userdict begin /bop-hook{gsave 200 30
  translate 65 rotate /Courier-Bold findfont 200 scalefont setfont
  50 20 moveto 0.8 setgray (KLADDE) show grestore}def end}}
\DeclareOption{udkast}{\special{!userdict begin /bop-hook{gsave 200 30
  translate 65 rotate /Courier-Bold findfont 200 scalefont setfont
  40 20 moveto 0.8 setgray (UDKAST) show grestore}def end}}
\DeclareOption{hemmeligt}{\special{!userdict begin /bop-hook{gsave 200 30
  translate 65 rotate /Courier-Bold findfont 135 scalefont setfont
  40 40 moveto 0.8 setgray (HEMMELIGT) show grestore}def end}}

% Error message if invalid argument

\DeclareOption*{%
  \PackageWarning{psduplex}{Unknown argument "\CurrentOption"}}
\ProcessOptions*\relax

\endinput %EOF

In you preamble you can now add:

\usepackage[longedge]{psduplex}

to enable duplex on the long edge. Other options include: shortedge, tray1, tray2, tray3, tray4, envelope and none. They should be self explanatory. Also some backdrop text usually now provided by the printer driver are included (and needs to be translated, if you like): kopi (copy), kladde (draft), udkast (outline) as well as hemmeligt (secret).

If I will have some spare time I will take a look at the LyX project: http://www.lyx.org which looks rather interesting.