How to print several PDF pages on one sheet of paper

Printing a 40-slide presentation one slide per page uses 40 sheets. Two slides per page halves that; four per page uses ten. This is called n-up printing, and it is one of the simplest ways to save paper on drafts, handouts and notes.

Choose a layout

Each step down shrinks every page. At 4-up, each page is about half its original width, so small print becomes hard to read; slides with large text cope far better than documents.

Make the sheets step by step

1. Add the PDF to Multiple PDF Pages Per Sheet.
2. Choose how many pages per sheet and the paper size.
3. Set the margin and the gap between pages.
4. Turn on the light outline if you plan to cut the pages apart.
5. Save the new PDF and print it at 100% — no further scaling.

Each page is placed as a scaled copy of its content rather than as a picture, so text stays sharp and selectable. Pages read left to right, then down. The sheet turns landscape automatically when the grid is wider than it is tall, as a 2-up layout needs.

Why not use the printer's own setting?

Many print dialogs have a pages-per-sheet option, and it works well when you print the file yourself. Making an n-up PDF is better when someone else will print it, when you want to check the layout before printing, or when you want to keep or share the handout version.

Print it properly

• Print at actual size. The sheets are already the paper size you chose, so scaling them again only makes everything smaller.
• Leave a margin of at least 5 mm. Most printers cannot print right to the edge of the paper.
• Print double-sided to halve the paper again.
• Print in black and white for drafts, or convert the file with Convert PDF to Grayscale when a print shop charges by colour page.

How much paper it saves

For a 40-page document:

• printed normally, one side: 40 sheets;
• 2-up, one side: 20 sheets;
• 2-up, double-sided: 10 sheets;
• 4-up, double-sided: 5 sheets.

For a slide deck, 4-up double-sided is often perfectly readable. For a text document, 2-up is usually the limit before the print becomes too small.

Odd page counts

The last sheet is filled as far as the pages go, with the remaining spaces left empty. Nothing is stretched to fill them.

N-up is not a booklet

Pages on an n-up sheet run in reading order across the sheet. A folded booklet needs a different order, so that pages read correctly once the sheets are nested and folded. For that, use the PDF Booklet Maker — see how to print a booklet from a PDF.