Oldham Programme

Vain hope but will try anyway …

Oldham were producing physical programmes earlier in the season but have now stopped until fans are allowed back. For our game the other night they instead issued a free electronic version (Oldham vs Walsall). This is OK for a read, but for a collector like myself it would be good to be able to print it off to go with the others.

That’s where my problem lies - the PDF is organised so that it reads like a physical but doesn’t print off correctly as a booklet. Does anyone know how to do it (e.g. some “free” compositor tool)?

Ideally what I want is the front and back covers one one side of a A4 sheet, with pages 2 and 15 on the other side, etc so that it comes out exactly like a normal programme would.

When you try to print your PDF do you not get the booklet option under page sizing and handling?

I guess it may depend on your printer, I know the staple option can be dodgy when printing as a booklet

Thanks but the way the PDF is structured it doesn’t print out properly as a booklet just using that option.

As there are 16 pages (if printed as a programme) I want 4 sheets of A4 with the first sheet having pages 16 & 1 on one side (L to R), 2 & 15 on the other side. Next page 14 & 3, 4 & 13; followed by 12 & 5, 6 & 11; and then 10 & 7, 8 & 9. Staple and fold - I’ve got a programme.

The PDF has the front and back covers (1 and 16) as separate pages, then 2&3 as a single page (ditto 4&5, 6&7, 8&9, 10&11, 12&13, 14&15). Need to somehow split the readable pages and then get them to print as A5 sized images on the A4 sheet as detailed above.

Have you contacted Oldham to ask them?

Not about printing it myself, but I e-mailed them about whether I could buy a hard copy from them on Monday - still haven’t had a reply.

I got a reply from Matthew Kirkham from their club shop saying there was only the free pdf version available.
I’ve just printed the front and back covers.

Try www.printaprogramme.com , they print from pdfs.

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Thanks very much for that @Stroller - have e-mailed them to see if they can help. Fingers crossed …

You could try double sided print 1,16,2,15
And so on.

Im the PDF, there are 7 “double” pages which are how it would look if you had a real programme open.

This means p2 is on the same page as p3, so you need to split if from that as p3 needs to be on the next sheet for it to work as a gatefold booklet. Then p1 and p16 (front and back cover) are 2 separate pages - need them to be printed side by side on one page (2 A5 images on one side of a sheet of A4).

It needs some special compositor tools to sort it out.

EDIT: To be clear, that’s 2 programme pages ( p ) per PDF page.

Ouch. Anyone you know got an Adobe pro account!

I’m trying the people that @Stroller helpfully suggested.

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Print-a-Programme have got back to me. They say that they have had a number of Oldham fans asking the same question, but they can’t help as the PDF needs to be restructured first for them to be able to print it properly - so advised going back to Oldham to see if they can provide a printer-friendly version.

Oldham still haven’t replied to my original e-mail to them on Monday, but will try again …

The website www.smallpdf.com allows you to convert and manipulate pdf files. Free 7-day trial. You might be able to do what you want there. www.ilovepdf.com is free, and also might be useful to you (try the Organise pdf section).

For anyone interested, while looking how to buy a hard copy of the programme for our next away match at Stevenage (only an electronic download on the club’s own online shop), I came across this site: https://www.m60footballprogrammes.com/

They can supply the Oldham programme I originally asked about (hooray!) but obviously can’t supply for the games where the home club didn’t produce even a downloadable version (Forest Green, Newport & Mansfield so far - although FGR did do a printed teamsheet).