How to Print a PDF as a Booklet
To print a PDF as a booklet, put the pages in folding order two per sheet, print double-sided flipping on the short edge, and fold the stack in half. PDFDEN's free PDF booklet maker does the reordering in your browser, so any printer and any PDF reader can print the result.
PDF Booklet: Arrange pages to print a folded booklet. Free, and your file never leaves your device.
Open PDF BookletSteps
Open PDF Booklet and drop in your PDF.
Choose the sheet size: A4, Letter, or twice the size of the original page.
Download the booklet PDF.
Print it double-sided, set to flip on short edge.
Fold the printed stack in half and staple along the fold.
Why booklet pages need reordering
In a folded booklet, the first sheet carries the front cover, the back cover and the two pages just inside them. If you print the pages in normal order, the fold scrambles them.
The booklet tool pairs the pages in the order a saddle-stitched booklet needs. A 16-page document on 4 sheets puts pages 16 and 1 on the outside of the first sheet, then 2 and 15 on the back, and so on. After folding, everything reads in order.
Booklets need a page count that is a multiple of four. The tool adds blank pages at the end when the document falls short.
Printer settings that matter
Two settings make or break a booklet. Print on both sides, and choose flip on short edge (sometimes called short-edge binding). With the long edge setting, every other page prints upside down.
Print at actual size or 100%, not "fit to page", so the margins stay even. If your printer only prints one side, print the odd pages, put the stack back in the tray and print the even pages. Test with two sheets first to learn which way your printer wants the paper.
PDF Booklet: Arrange pages to print a folded booklet. Free, and your file never leaves your device.
Open PDF BookletPrint an A4 PDF as an A5 booklet
An A5 booklet is an A4 sheet folded in half. Choose A4 as the sheet size and each A4 page of your document shrinks to fit half the sheet. The same works for Letter: a Letter sheet folds to a half-letter booklet.
To keep your pages at full size, choose twice the original page. The sheet is then double the width of your page, so you need paper that large, such as A3 for an A4 document.
How to print a PDF as a booklet in Acrobat Reader or on a Mac
Acrobat Reader has a built-in booklet mode. In the print dialog, find the Page Sizing & Handling area, choose Booklet, set the subset to both sides and the binding to left, then print.
The Mac print dialog does not have that option for most printers. Some printer drivers add their own booklet layout, but many do not. That is the main reason to prepare the file first: once the booklet PDF is made, you print it like any other document from Preview, a browser or any reader, with no special software.
Page numbers and long documents
Add page numbers before you make the booklet, not after. Run the original through Add Page Numbers so the numbers follow the reading order. The guide on how to add page numbers to a PDF has the options.
More than about 40 pages makes a booklet hard to fold flat. Split the document into sections with Split PDF, make a booklet from each, and stack the folded sections. If you only want two pages side by side on a sheet without folding, use Multiple Pages Per Sheet instead.