How to make a booklet from a PDF
- Drop your PDF Any page count works. Anything that isn't a multiple of 4 gets padded out with blanks.
- Click Make booklet. Pages are reordered into saddle-stitch sequence and placed two per landscape sheet.
- Print double-sided, flipping on the short edge. Fold the whole stack in half, staple along the fold, and you're done.
Longer booklets: use signatures
A 60-page booklet folded as one stack is a brick that won't lie flat. Set a signature size under Options instead, say 4 sheets per group. You get several nested groups to fold and staple separately, then bind together, the way real paperbacks are made.
The paper-size arithmetic
Folding a sheet in half halves the page size, so the paper you print on decides the booklet you get. A4 sheets fold into an A5 booklet, US Letter into a 5.5×8.5-inch one, and printing the same imposition on A3 or Tabloid gets you a full-size A4 or Letter booklet. Your pages are scaled onto their half of the sheet automatically; generous margins in the source survive the scaling better than text that runs to the paper's edge, since most desktop printers can't print the last few millimetres anyway.
One physical effect to know about before you print forty copies: in a thick folded stack the inner sheets get pushed outwards by the paper wrapped around them, so the middle pages of a fat booklet protrude slightly at the open edge. Print shops call it creep and trim it off. At home, the practical answer is the same one that makes thick booklets foldable at all: smaller signatures.
Why not just use the printer's booklet checkbox?
Some drivers do offer booklet printing. Plenty don't, or bury it three dialogs deep, or get the back sides wrong. And it vanishes the moment you print from a phone, a Chromebook, or a print shop counter. A pre-imposed PDF behaves the same everywhere. What you hand over is already in booklet order, so "print it double-sided" is the only instruction anyone needs. It's also the format print shops ask for.
Common uses for booklet printing
- Print a saddle-stitch booklet: imposed to fold in half and staple down the spine.
- Make a program or menu: lay out an event program or a menu for booklet printing.
- Print at a print shop: a ready-to-print imposed PDF the shop can run as it is.
Frequently asked questions
How do I print a PDF as a booklet?
Drop your PDF above and click Make booklet. The pages come back in saddle-stitch printing order, two per landscape sheet. Print that double-sided with the flip on the short edge, fold the stack in half, staple the spine.
What is saddle-stitch page order?
The counterintuitive order booklet printing needs. For an 8-page booklet, the first sheet holds pages 8 and 1 on the front and 2 and 7 on the back. Fold the printed stack in half and everything reads in sequence. Working that out by hand is the error-prone chore this tool removes.
What if my page count isn't a multiple of 4?
Booklets always need a multiple of 4, so anything else gets padded automatically with blank pages at the end. They turn up as blank sides at the back of the finished booklet.
Which duplex setting do I use?
Flip on the short edge, sometimes labelled “short-edge binding”. Long-edge duplex prints the backs upside down. Most print dialogs let you choose.
Is my document uploaded?
No. Imposition only rearranges and scales pages, and all of it happens in your browser.