How to print a booklet from a PDF on an ordinary printer

A programme for an event, a zine, a short manual, a recipe collection: a folded booklet is easier to read and handle than a stack of loose pages, and you can make one on any printer that prints on both sides. The only tricky part is the page order, and that can be done for you.

How a booklet is put together

A simple booklet is a stack of sheets folded in half and stapled along the fold — what printers call saddle stitching. Each sheet carries four pages: two on the front and two on the back. Because the sheets nest inside each other, the pages on one sheet are not next to each other in the document. The outermost sheet carries the first and last pages; the innermost carries the middle two.

For a 12-page booklet printed on three sheets, the order is:

This rearranging is called imposition. Getting it wrong by one page ruins the whole stack, which is why it is worth letting a tool do it.

Why the page count must be a multiple of four

Every sheet holds exactly four pages, so a booklet always has 4, 8, 12, 16 or more pages. A 10-page document needs two blank pages to make 12. The PDF Booklet Maker adds the one to three blanks needed at the end, where a reader expects them. If you would rather control where the blanks fall — say, a blank inside front cover — add blank pages to the document yourself before making the booklet.

Choose the finished size first

The booklet sheet is twice the width of one page, because two pages sit side by side at their original size. That means:

• A5 pages print two-up on A4 paper — the usual home and office booklet.
• A4 pages need A3 paper, which most home printers cannot take.
• Half-letter pages (5.5 × 8.5 inches) print two-up on US Letter.

If your document is A4 and you want an A5 booklet on A4 paper, convert the pages to A5 first with the PDF Page Size Converter using Scale to fit. Text shrinks by about 30%, so check that the smallest print is still comfortable to read; a document designed at A5 from the start reads better.

Make the booklet step by step

1. Finish the content: final page order, final page count, and page numbers if you want them. Add page numbers before imposing, with Add Page Numbers to PDF — once the pages are rearranged onto sheets, numbering them is no longer possible.
2. Convert the page size if needed, as above.
3. Add the PDF to the PDF Booklet Maker and save the booklet file.
4. Print one sheet as a test, double-sided, with the printer set to flip on the short edge.
5. Fold the test sheet and check that the pages read in order and the right way up.
6. Print the rest.

Short-edge or long-edge?

Booklet sheets are landscape, and a landscape sheet has to be flipped along its short edge for the back to come out the right way up. If your test sheet has every back page upside down, the printer flipped on the long edge. Change the duplex setting and print again. If your printer cannot print on both sides, print all the fronts, put the stack back in the paper tray, and print all the backs — test with one sheet first to learn which way round the paper goes.

Folding and stapling

1. Fold each sheet in half on its own, creasing firmly with a ruler or the back of a spoon.
2. Stack the folded sheets in order, with sheet 1 on the outside.
3. Fold the whole stack together and line up the edges.
4. Staple along the crease, two staples placed about a quarter of the way in from each end.

A long-reach stapler makes the last step easy. Without one, open an ordinary stapler fully, lay the open booklet face down on something soft such as a folded towel or cardboard, staple through from the outside along the crease, and bend the staple legs flat by hand.

Thick booklets and creep

When many sheets are folded together, the inner sheets stick out further than the outer ones at the open edge. Printers call this creep. A thin booklet barely shows it; a thick one has a stepped edge. Trim the open edge with a paper guillotine for a clean finish, and keep text away from the outer margins of the inner pages. Beyond a few dozen pages, two booklets — or a different binding — usually work better than one fat one.

Paper

Ordinary office paper works. Slightly heavier paper, around 100 gsm, stops print showing through from the back and gives a more solid feel. A thicker cover sheet looks good but is harder to fold neatly on a home printer; if you use one, print the outer sheet separately on the heavier stock.