Make a PDF booklet
Reorder pages for folded booklet printing.
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What imposition means
To make a folded booklet, pages cannot print in reading order. Fold a stack of sheets in half and the outermost sheet carries the last page and the first page on one side, and the second page and the second-to-last on the other. Work inward from there.
Getting that ordering right by hand is genuinely fiddly and easy to get wrong by one, which is why this exists. Upload a document in normal reading order and get back sheets ready to print.
How to print it
Double-sided, flipping on the short edge. This is the step people get wrong. Flipping on the long edge — which is often the default — prints every second side upside down, and the mistake is not obvious until the stack is folded.
Print one test copy of a four-page document before committing to a hundred.
Page count and padding
A folded booklet always has a page count that is a multiple of four, because each sheet carries four pages. Documents that do not divide evenly are padded with blanks, which land at the end of the booklet where they belong. You are told how many were added.
Sheet size
Two portrait pages sit side by side on a landscape sheet, so A5 pages produce A4 sheets and A4 pages produce A3. If your printer only takes A4, make the source A5 first with change page size.
Binding
This produces saddle-stitch imposition — the arrangement for booklets stapled through the fold. Perfect binding, where sheets are glued at the spine, needs no imposition at all: those print in normal order.
Common questions
How do I print the result?
Double-sided, flipping on the short edge. Long-edge flipping prints every second side upside down.
Why were blank pages added?
A folded booklet always has a page count divisible by four, since each sheet carries four pages.
What size paper do I need?
Twice the page size — A5 pages make A4 sheets, A4 pages make A3.
My printer only takes A4.
Resize the source to A5 first, then impose.
Does this work for glued binding?
No, and it is not needed — perfect-bound documents print in normal order.