Make a booklet from a PDF

Why two-up and fold gives the wrong order

Take an 8 page PDF, lay it out at two pages per sheet and fold the stack in half. The first sheet holds pages 1 and 2, so the fold puts page 2 on the back of page 1 and the rest of the booklet lands in no order a reader can follow.

A folded booklet needs pairs that meet across the fold. For 8 pages the first sheet carries page 8 beside page 1 on its front and page 2 beside page 7 on its back. The second sheet carries 6 beside 3 and 4 beside 5. Fold the stack and the pages run 1 to 8. That pairing is booklet imposition, and it is what Booklet mode writes.

The multiple of 4 rule

Each sheet gives a booklet four pages, two on the front side and two on the back. A pdf booklet therefore needs a page count that divides by 4. The tool pads the count for you. A 6 page file gets 2 blank pages, a 9 page file gets 3, and the count is shown before you run and again on the receipt as "blank pages added for complete booklet signatures".

The blanks are added after the last page, so they land at the end of the folded booklet, on the back cover and the page facing it. If you want the blank somewhere else, for example after a title page so chapter one starts on a right hand page, add it yourself first. Add pages to a PDF covers making a blank page and putting it where it belongs.

Make the booklet

Open the N-up tool, choose the PDF and switch the mode to Booklet. Orientation is locked to Landscape, because two portrait pages side by side need a wide sheet. Choose the Sheet size: US Letter, A4, A3 or US Legal. The preview shows the front of the first sheet with its two page numbers, and the plan lists every front and back pair before the file is written.

Binding edge is Left for a booklet read left to right. Choose Right for a right to left script, which mirrors every pair. Leave Signature size on Whole document unless the booklet is thick, which the next section covers. Margin and Gutter default to 8 mm and 4 mm; the gutter is the space at the fold between the two pages.

Signatures for thick booklets

A single fold through 20 sheets is hard to make and the inner pages creep outward. The Signature size control splits the document into stacks of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 sheets. Each stack is imposed on its own and folded on its own, then the stacks are stapled or sewn together.

Each signature is padded to a multiple of 4 on its own, so choosing signatures can add blanks at the end of each stack rather than only at the end of the document. The blank count on the receipt includes all of them.

Print PDF as booklet

The output alternates sides: sheet one front, sheet one back, sheet two front, and so on. Print it double sided and, in the printer dialog, choose flip on the short edge. Printers name this differently, so if the backs come out upside down, the long edge setting was used and the short edge one is what you want.

On a single sided printer, print the odd numbered pages of the output, put the stack back in the tray and print the even numbered pages on the backs. Check one sheet first, because trays differ in which way they turn the paper.

Then fold the stack in half along the gutter and staple through the fold. Two staples on the fold is a saddle stitch, and it is the whole of the binding for a booklet up to about the thickness a stapler can reach.

How large the pages print

A US Letter page on a US Letter sheet prints at 60%, and an A4 page on an A4 sheet at 65%, because two pages share a sheet of the same size. The pages are roughly A5 or half Letter. For pages at their full size, choose a sheet twice as large: A4 pages on an A3 sheet print at 95%.

The tool scales each page to fit its half of the sheet and never crops it. A source page with wide margins of its own wastes part of its half, so a document laid out for booklet printing uses narrow margins from the start.

Covers and order come first

The imposition takes the file's order as given. Page 1 becomes the front cover and the last page the back cover. If the file has a cover in the wrong place, or a chapter that should open on a right hand page and does not, open it in Organize pages, move the pages, download the result and impose that.

Adding a blank page to push a chapter across is the most common fix, and the tool has no insert button of its own. The add pages guide linked above walks through it.

What the output keeps, and what is verified

Every page is embedded as PDF content, so text stays selectable and vectors stay sharp. Links, comments and form field widgets are dropped; the tool counts them first and asks you to confirm. Document properties are cleared, and an encrypted file is refused until it is unlocked.

The written file is reopened and verified: the side count matches the plan, every side has the chosen sheet size, the text of each source page is present on the side it was placed on, and at least 98% of the drawn content survived. A failed check means no download.

A booklet that only needs two pages on a sheet without the fold order is a different job, and Put two PDF pages on one page covers it. The pages hub lists the rest of the cluster.