Fixing Page Order When Cropping Two-Column Persian PDFs

2026-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

Fixing Page Order When Cropping Two-Column Persian PDFs</h1>

Some e-book readers render two-column scanned PDFs poorly. Splitting each spread into individual pages fixes readability — but for Persian (right-to-left) books, a naive split leaves the pages in the wrong order.</p>

Credit to Jadi's original post</a> for the convert</code>-based approach — this uses mutool</code> instead, which handles the splitting in one step.</p> </blockquote>


1. Split Each Two-Column Page Into Two Single Pages</h2>
sudo</span> apt install mupdf-tools</span></span></code></pre>mutool</span> poster -x</span> 2</span> haj_sayah.pdf output.pdf</span></span></code></pre>
What this does:</strong> Splits each two-column spread into two separate single-column pages.</p>

2. Fix the Resulting Page Order</h2>
Why it breaks:</strong> Persian is written right-to-left, so pages in a Persian book are ordered in
reverse relative to a left-to-right book. mutool poster</code> splits pages assuming left-to-right order,
which works fine for English books but scrambles the order for Persian ones.</p>
The fix:</strong> Swap each even page with the odd page next to it.</p>
sudo</span> apt install pdftk</span></span></code></pre>pdftk</span> output.pdf shuffle even odd output haj_sayyah_.pdf</span></span></code></pre>

3. Restore the Original Cover</h2>
The shuffle step also reorders the cover. Swap it back from the original file:</p>
pdftk</span> A=haj_sayyah_.pdf B=haj_sayah.pdf cat B1 A3-end output out1.pdf</span></span></code></pre>

Result</h2>
out1.pdf</code> is the final, correctly-ordered, single-column file — readable page by page on any e-reader.</p>
Step</th> Command</th> Purpose</th></tr></thead>

1</td> mutool poster -x 2</code></td> Split columns</td></tr>
2</td> pdftk shuffle even odd</code></td> Fix RTL order</td></tr>
3</td> pdftk cat B1 A3-end</code></td> Restore cover</td></tr>
</tbody></table>


Run Multiple Debian VMs with Vagrant and VirtualBox
2026-06-20T00:00:00+00:00
Run Multiple Debian VMs with Vagrant and VirtualBox</h1>
This guide sets up 3 Debian virtual machines</strong> with working vagrant ssh</code>, using VirtualBox</strong>
as the provider. The box choice and shell provisioner below are what makes SSH work reliably on
Debian — both trip people up if skipped.</p>

1. Vagrantfile</h2>
Save this as Vagrantfile</code> in your project directory. It defines the 3 VMs in a loop rather than
repeating the same block three times:</p>
Vagrant</span>.</span>configure</span>(</span>"2"</span>)</span> do</span> |</span>config</span>|</span></span>
  # Only this Debian box works reliably with Vagrant SSH + VirtualBox</span></span>
  config</span>.</span>vm</span>.</span>box</span> =</span> "generic/debian12"</span></span>
</span>
  (</span>1</span>..</span>3</span>).</span>each</span> do</span> |</span>i</span>|</span></span>
    config</span>.</span>vm</span>.</span>define</span> "debian</span>#{</span>i</span>}</span>"</span> do</span> |</span>vm</span>|</span></span>
      vm</span>.</span>vm</span>.</span>hostname</span> =</span> "debian</span>#{</span>i</span>}</span>"</span></span>
      vm</span>.</span>vm</span>.</span>network</span> "private_network"</span>,</span> ip</span>:</span> "192.168.56.</span>#{</span>149</span> +</span> i</span>}</span>"</span></span>
</span>
      vm</span>.</span>vm</span>.</span>provider</span> "virtualbox"</span> do</span> |</span>vb</span>|</span></span>
        vb</span>.</span>memory</span> =</span> 1024</span></span>
        vb</span>.</span>cpus</span> =</span> 1</span></span>
      end</span></span>
</span>
      # Required to be able to SSH into the guest machines</span></span>
      vm</span>.</span>vm</span>.</span>provision</span> "shell"</span>,</span> inline</span>:</span> <<-SHELL</span></span>
        chmod</span> 700</span> /home/vagrant/.ssh</span></span>
        chmod</span> 600</span> /home/vagrant/.ssh/authorized_keys</span></span>
        chown</span> -R vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant/.ssh</span></span>
      SHELL</span></span>
    end</span></span>
  end</span></span>
end</span></span></code></pre>
This produces debian1</code>, debian2</code>, debian3</code> on 192.168.56.150</code>, .151</code>, .152</code> respectively —
same result as writing out three separate blocks, less to maintain.</p>

2. Usage</h2>
Destroy any previous VMs and clear old state:</strong></p>
vagrant</span> destroy -f</span></span>
rm</span> -rf .vagrant</span></span></code></pre>
Start all 3 VMs:</strong></p>
vagrant</span> up</span></span></code></pre>
SSH into each VM:</strong></p>
vagrant</span> ssh debian1</span></span>
vagrant</span> ssh debian2</span></span>
vagrant</span> ssh debian3</span></span></code></pre>
Stop all VMs:</strong></p>
vagrant</span> halt</span></span></code></pre>
Remove all VMs permanently:</strong></p>
vagrant</span> destroy -f</span></span></code></pre>

3. Notes</h2>

Use generic/debian12</code></strong> — other boxes (like debian/bookworm64</code>) can leave authorized_keys</code>
empty and break SSH.</li>
The shell provisioner block</strong> is required on Debian to set correct SSH permissions; without it,
vagrant ssh</code> fails.</li>
Each VM uses a private network</strong> for predictable IPs.</li>
Tested with VirtualBox 7.x</strong> and the Vagrant AppImage on Linux, macOS, and Windows.</li>
</ul>

EsmaeelE - Free Software enthusiast - Guide

Fixing Page Order When Cropping Two-Column Persian PDFs

Run Multiple Debian VMs with Vagrant and VirtualBox