Put two pages on each landscape sheet in the order a folded, stapled booklet needs, padded with blanks to a multiple of 4.
This tool turns a PDF into a booklet by putting two pages on each landscape sheet in the order a folded, stapled booklet needs. Each sheet of paper folded in half gives four pages, so the page count is first raised to a multiple of 4 with blank pages at the end. For a booklet of P pages, sheet s counting from 0 carries page P - 2s on the left and page 2s + 1 on the right of its front, and page 2s + 2 on the left and page P - 2s - 1 on the right of its back. An 8 page PDF therefore becomes 2 sheets: the first front is 8 | 1 and its back is 2 | 7, the second front is 6 | 3 and its back is 4 | 5. A 12 page PDF becomes 3 sheets with the fronts 12 | 1, 10 | 3 and 8 | 5. A 5 page PDF is padded to 8, which adds 3 blank pages, so page 5 is followed by 3 blank halves. Choose a right edge binding for a language read right to left and every side is mirrored.
The output PDF has one landscape page for every printed side, so 8 pages become 4 sides. Print it double-sided and choose flip on the short edge. The sheets are landscape, so the short edge is the one the paper turns over, which keeps the back of each sheet upright. Flip on the long edge would print the back upside down. Print at actual size, not fit to page, collect the sheets in order, fold the stack in half and staple on the fold. On a printer without duplex printing, print the odd output pages, turn the stack over the way your printer's manual says, and then print the even pages. Test with a 4 page sample first, because trays differ. Choose A4 for A4 paper or Letter for US Letter paper. The sheet is the paper turned landscape: 297 by 210 mm for A4 and 11 by 8.5 in for Letter.
Each page is scaled evenly to fit its half of the sheet and centred, never stretched. An A4 page on an A4 sheet with no margin is scaled to 70.7 percent, because each half is 148.5 by 210 mm. Text set at 11 points prints at about 7.8 points. With the small margin, 18 points on every side, the same page is scaled to 64.7 percent. Pages of different sizes are each fitted on their own, and a page that is rotated by its own setting is turned the right way up. Only what is drawn on the pages is kept. Links, bookmarks and form fields are not carried into the booklet, and a page with no content stays blank. The tool does not add a cover, and it does not shift inner pages to make up for the thickness of folded paper, which matters for a very thick booklet that you trim. A PDF with a password cannot be opened until the password is removed.
The PDF is opened and rebuilt by code running in your browser, inside a background worker, so you can press Cancel and the page stays responsive. There is no upload step and no server that receives the file. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, using rough groups such as 1 to 10 MB, never a file name or any text from the document. A PDF over 200 MB or over 1000 pages asks you to confirm before it loads, and the tool stops at 2000 pages. A job that runs longer than 2 minutes is stopped.
Add the PDF, choose A4 or Letter and the binding edge, and press Make booklet. You get a new PDF with two pages on each landscape sheet. Print that file double-sided, flipping on the short edge, then fold the stack in half and staple on the fold. A 5 page PDF becomes 2 sheets with 3 blank pages.
Flip on the short edge. The booklet sheets are landscape, so the short edge is the one the paper turns over, and the back of every sheet then reads upright. Flipping on the long edge prints the backs upside down. If your first test sheet has upside-down backs, switch the setting.
One sheet of paper folded in half has four pages: two on the front and two on the back. A PDF of 10 pages needs 3 sheets, which is 12 pages, so 2 blank pages are added at the end. Any page count from 1 to 2000 works. The tool shows how many blanks it adds before you make the booklet.
Two sheets: the first front is page 8 on the left and page 1 on the right, and its back is 2 on the left and 7 on the right. The second front is 6 | 3 and its back is 4 | 5. The table in the tool shows the order for your own page count, and it mirrors for a right edge binding.
Yes. Two pages share one sheet, so an A4 page on an A4 sheet with no margin is scaled to 70.7 percent: 11 point text prints at about 7.8 points. A margin makes it smaller still, 64.7 percent with the small one. Pages already set for A5 or half Letter lose nothing but the margin.
No. The PDF is opened and rebuilt by code running in your browser, in a background worker, and the file is not uploaded. The page counts visits with Google Analytics using rough size groups such as 1 to 10 MB, never a file name or any text from the document. Your paper, binding and margin choices are remembered in this browser.