How to print two or four PDF pages per sheet, or as a booklet

Two layouts for two different jobs

• N-up printing: Printing several pages on one sheet is called N-up printing, where N is the number of pages per sheet: 2-up puts two pages side by side, and 4-up arranges four in a grid. It suits slide handouts, review copies and reference material you want to carry in fewer sheets.
• Booklets: A booklet works differently. Its pages are rearranged (printers call this imposition). When the sheets are printed on both sides, stacked and folded in half, the pages read in order from the cover to the back. Booklets suit programs, guides, short manuals and newsletters.
• Both shrink the pages: Both layouts shrink pages to fit, so both work best with text that's large enough to stay readable.

Two pages per sheet

• How it lays out: N-up PDF with two pages per sheet uses landscape A4 sheets and places two pages side by side, each scaled to fit its half while keeping its proportions. An A4 portrait page shrinks to about 71 percent of its original size, roughly the size of an A5 page, so ordinary body text stays comfortable to read.
• Reading order: Pages are placed left then right, in document order, which suits documents that read left to right.
• Choosing which pages: Use the page grid to choose which pages to include, for example to leave out a cover or an appendix.
• Good for marking up: Two-up is a good default for drafts you want to mark up, because there's still room for handwritten notes.

Four pages per sheet

• How it lays out: With four pages per sheet, N-up PDF uses portrait A4 sheets divided into a two-by-two grid: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right. Each page is scaled to about half its width and height, so the text is roughly half its original size.
• Best for slides: That works well for presentation slides, which use large type, and for quick reference copies, but dense documents with small print become hard to read.
• Watch the ink: If the pages have colored backgrounds, printing four per sheet uses a lot of ink, so consider converting the file with Grayscale PDF first.
• Choosing which pages: As with two-up, you can select which pages to include.

Making a booklet

• What Booklet PDF does: Booklet PDF rearranges your pages for saddle-stitched booklets, the kind folded in the middle and stapled along the fold.
• Rounded to a multiple of four: Because every folded sheet has four pages, the page count is first rounded up to a multiple of four by adding blank pages at the end.
• The folding order: The pages are then placed two per side on landscape A4 sheets, in the order folding needs. The first side shows the last page on the left and page 1 on the right. The next side shows page 2 and the second-to-last page, and so on.
• Finished size: Each page is scaled to about A5, so the finished booklet is A5 when folded.
• Reading direction: The layout is made for documents that read left to right.

Printer settings that make or break a booklet

• Flip on the short edge: Print the booklet file double-sided and choose flip on the short edge, because the sheets are landscape. Flipping on the long edge turns every other side upside down.
• Print at actual size instead of letting the printer add its own scaling or margins, and don't switch on the printer driver's own booklet mode, which would rearrange pages that are already arranged.
• If your printer can't print both sides: If your printer can't print on both sides by itself, print the odd sides first, turn the stack over and print the even sides. Try it with a short document first so you learn which way to put the paper back in.
• Stack, fold and staple: Then stack the sheets in order, fold them in half and staple along the fold.

Preparing the PDF before you print

A few minutes of preparation saves reprinting.

• Add page numbers first: Add page numbers with Add Page Numbers before arranging the pages, so readers can find their way around the smaller pages.
• Remove blanks and plan the count: Remove unwanted blank pages from scans with Remove Blank Pages, and plan the page count. A document with a page count that's already a multiple of four needs no blank pages at the end, so you get to decide where the covers fall.
• Keep content off the fold: Keep important content away from the inner edges, because the fold takes up space in the middle.
• Where to read more: For more on margins, page sizes and flattening before print, see the guide to preparing a PDF for printing.

Questions

Tools for this topic