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PDF Booklet Maker

Turn a PDF into a printable booklet. Pages are reordered and placed two per sheet, so you can print double-sided, fold and staple.

For books read from right to left (Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese manga…).

How to make a booklet from a PDF

  1. Drop a PDF file in the drop zone, or click it to choose one. The tool shows the file name, its number of pages and its size, and the Page layout of every sheet.
  2. Choose the Sheet size: A4 (booklet pages in A5) or US Letter (booklet pages in half letter).
  3. Tick Right-to-left binding if the book is read from right to left, such as Arabic, Hebrew or Japanese manga.
  4. Click Make booklet, then Download.
  5. Print the new PDF at actual size (100 %), double-sided, flipping on the short edge. Stack the sheets in order, fold the stack in half and staple along the fold.

What booklet imposition does

A saddle-stitched booklet is a stack of sheets folded in the middle and stapled on the fold. Each sheet carries four pages of the booklet: two on the front and two on the back. Because the sheets nest inside each other, the pages can’t simply be printed in order. The first sheet holds the outer pages (the first two and the last two), and the innermost sheet holds the middle pages.

This tool computes that order for you. With an 8-page document, it produces:

Sheet Front (left | right) Back (left | right)
1 8 | 1 2 | 7
2 6 | 3 4 | 5

The rule behind it: with N pages, sheet i (counting from 0) carries N − 2i and 2i + 1 on the front, and 2i + 2 and N − 2i − 1 on the back. Each pair adds up to N + 1, which is why the pages face each other correctly once folded.

Blank pages and scaling

A booklet always has a multiple of 4 pages. When your PDF has, say, 10 pages, the tool adds 2 blank pages at the end, so the back cover is blank. The Page layout summary tells you how many blank pages were added. To choose where they go (for example, a blank page after the cover), add blank pages to your PDF before making the booklet.

Each page is scaled to fit half of the sheet, keeps its proportions and is centred. An A4 page on an A4 sheet is reduced to A5 (about 71 %), and a Letter page on a Letter sheet to half letter (about 65 %, with small margins because the proportions differ). Rotated pages are straightened, and cropped pages keep only their visible area.

Tips for a good result

  • Print a test copy of one or two sheets first: printers name the duplex setting differently (“flip on short edge”, “short-edge binding”, “tablet”).
  • For more than about 40 pages (10 sheets), the stack becomes hard to fold and the inner pages stick out at the front edge. Split the document into several booklets and bind them together.
  • Leave generous inner margins in your document: part of each page disappears in the fold.

Privacy

Your PDF is read and rearranged by your browser, on your device. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

Frequently asked questions

How should I print the booklet?

Print double-sided at 100 % (not “fit to page”) and flip on the short edge. If every other side comes out upside down, choose the long-edge option instead.

Why were blank pages added to my booklet?

Each folded sheet carries four pages, so a booklet needs a multiple of 4 pages. The tool adds the missing pages as blanks at the end of the document.

What is right-to-left binding?

In languages read from right to left, the spine is on the right and the first page is on the right of the cover. Tick Right-to-left binding to mirror the layout of every sheet.

Can I make an A5 booklet from an A4 PDF?

Yes. Choose A4 (booklet pages in A5): each A4 page is reduced to A5, and two of them fit side by side on each side of an A4 sheet.

Does the tool change the quality of my PDF?

No. Pages are placed as vector content, not images, so text stays sharp and selectable. Only the size and the position of each page change.

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