Universe

Preview multipage documents with a defined grid layout.

Usage

The main function of this package is nup, which takes two main arguments: layout specifying the number of rows and columns, and pages, an array of images to place in the layout. The function also takes optional keyword arguments for customization:

Parameter Type Description Default
gutter size Spacing between cells in the grid layout. 0.1cm
shadow boolean Whether to draw a shadow around images. true
shadow-args "line", "label" Arguments passed to shadowed(). (:)
rect-args "line", "label" Arguments passed to rect() (:)
page-args "line", "label" Arguments passed to page() (:)

Some notes about these parameters:

  • By default, a thin shadow is drawn around images, with built-in parameters fill: white, radius: 0pt, inset: 0pt, clip: false, shadow: 4pt, color: luma(50%).

  • Setting shadow: false will switch to wrapping the images with a rect element instead, which by default is invisble with stroke: none, inset: 0pt.

  • The document page is set by default as paper:"a4", margin:1cm, flipped:true, background:rect(width:100%, height:100%, fill: luma(95%)). The page can be set differently using the page-args argument, noting that auto sizes are unlikely to work as intended as the grid needs concrete sizes to work out the number of rows.

Intended use

This package grew from the need to preview multipage documents, similar to the \includepdfpages[nup=...]{} function in LaTeX. The original document must first be exported as multipage pdf (locally), or multiple images (svg or png), before being placed in the preview document.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, it is not possible to call Typst as a subprocess, which would bypass the need for intermediate files. When using the online typst.app rather than a local typst compiler, one must first export images before reimporting them on the app (and note that multipage pdf files cannot be uploaded).

Example

The script below illustrates the use of a script to export images from a multipage document, and arrange them using nup.

#set page(margin:0pt,flipped: true)
#let pages = range(1,13).map(i => rect(width:100%, height:100%,fill: color.hsv(i*30deg, 30%, 100%)))
#stack(..pages)

Compiled with

typst compile test.typ 

#import "@preview/nup:0.1.0": nup
// #import "src/nup.typ": nup
#import "@preview/muchpdf:0.1.0": muchpdf
#let images = muchpdf(read("preview.pdf", encoding: none))
// use data from image sequence
#nup("2x3", images.children.map(x => x.source))

Result of example code, page 1 Result of example code, page 2

Alternatively, export and reimport pages as individual image files,

mkdir images
typst compile preview.typ images/preview{p}.svg

#let pages = range(1,12).map(
  i => "/images/preview" + str(i) + ".svg")
#nup("3x4", pages)

Of course one must try to export these pages and preview them,

Inception left as an exercise to the reader