How to print a folded booklet
Program Fold's booklet PDF has two booklet pages on each side of a landscape sheet, already in folding order. Your printer only has to print both sides correctly.
Settings
- Size: "Actual size" or "100%". Not "Fit to page" (it shrinks the pages and moves the fold).
- Two-sided: on. Choose flip on short edge (also called "short-edge binding" or "Tablet").
- Booklet option: leave it off. The PDF is already a booklet; turning it on as well scrambles the pages.
Check one copy
Print one copy, fold it, and read it through. Page 2 should face page 3. If the backs are upside down, switch to "flip on long edge" and try again (a few printers name the settings the other way round).
Folding and stapling
Keep the sheets in the order they come out of the printer, cover side down. Fold the stack in half together, crease it with a ruler, and staple twice on the fold with a long-reach stapler, or fold each sheet and nest them.
No two-sided printing?
- Print the odd pages of the booklet PDF (sheet fronts).
- Put the printed stack back in the paper tray. Most printers want it printed side down with the top edge going in first; print one test sheet to learn yours.
- Print the even pages.
At a print shop
Send them the "pages in reading order" PDF and ask for a saddle-stitched booklet on letter (or A4) folded to half-letter (A5). They will do the imposition themselves.