PDF Booklet and N-up
Print a PDF as a folded booklet, or 2 or 4 pages per sheet on A4 or Letter
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How to Use
- Choose or drop your PDF.
- Pick a layout: Booklet, 2 pages per sheet or 4 pages per sheet, and the paper: A4 or Letter.
- Set the Outer margin and the Gap at the fold (Gap between pages in the 2 and 4 modes) in millimetres, and switch on Thin border around each page if you want one. The result panel shows how many sheets you need and, for a booklet, which pages go on each sheet.
- Press Make booklet PDF (or Make 2-up PDF / Make 4-up PDF) and print it as the panel says. For a booklet: double-sided, flip on short edge, at 100%, then fold and staple.
Print a PDF as a booklet or with several pages per sheet
This PDF booklet maker rearranges a PDF so it prints the way you want on ordinary paper. In booklet mode it puts two pages side by side on each side of a landscape A4 sheet, in the special order that makes the pages run 1, 2, 3… once you fold the stack in half. A4 folded in half gives an A5 booklet (148 × 210 mm), handy for a wedding card insert, a puja vidhi, a school magazine, a menu or a small product manual. The 2-up and 4-up modes put two or four pages on each sheet to save paper when you print notes or slides. Everything runs in your browser; the PDF isn't uploaded.
How booklet page order works
When you fold a stack of sheets, the outermost sheet carries the first and last pages, and the innermost sheet carries the middle pages. So the pages can't be printed in plain order. The page count is first rounded up to a multiple of 4 (each folded sheet makes 4 pages), with blank pages added at the end. Then, for a booklet of n pages:
sheet k back = [ k + 2 , n − k − 1 ]
for k = 0, 2, 4 … (left page, right page)
Worked example: an 8-page booklet
| Sheet | Front (left | right) | Back (left | right) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (outside) | 8 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 2 (inside) | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Two sheets of A4 make the whole 8-page booklet. A 10-page PDF is rounded up to 12: you need 3 sheets, and pages 11 and 12 come out blank (the inside of the back cover and the back cover). If you want the blanks somewhere else, add blank pages to your PDF before you start.
Printing it the right way
A booklet must be printed on both sides. In the print dialog choose Print on both sides and Flip on short edge (some printers call it "short-edge binding" or "tablet"). Print at 100% or "Actual size" so the pages aren't shrunk. Then stack the sheets with sheet 1 (the one with page 1 on it) on the outside, fold the stack in the middle and staple on the fold.
If your printer can't print both sides, print the odd pages of the new PDF first, put the stack back in the paper tray, and print the even pages. Try it with one sheet first, because printers differ in which way the paper has to go back in.
| Layout | Sheet | Double-sided setting | 20-page PDF needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booklet | Landscape, 2 pages per side | Flip on short edge | 5 sheets |
| 2 per sheet | Landscape, 2 pages side by side | Flip on short edge | 10 sides, 5 sheets |
| 4 per sheet | Portrait, 2 × 2 grid | Flip on long edge | 5 sides, 3 sheets |
Margins, gap and border
Each page is scaled to fit its space and centred, keeping its shape, so nothing is stretched or cut. An A4 page shrinks to about 70% to fit half of a landscape A4 sheet. The outer margin keeps content away from the edge, where most home and office printers can't print (about 5 mm is a safe start). In booklet mode the gap is the space at the fold; a larger gap helps thicker booklets, where the inner pages creep outwards. The thin border is useful for cutting 2-up handouts or for showing the page edges of slides.
Tips
- Pages that were rotated in the original PDF are placed the way you see them on screen.
- Small text gets smaller in 4-up mode (each page is about half its width). Check one sheet before printing the lot.
- For a thick booklet, split the PDF into smaller sections, make each one a booklet, and stack the folded sections.
- Password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first with the Unlock PDF tool.