Booklet ImposerSaddle Stitch Page Order Calculator
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This page order calculator shows exactly which page lands where on each sheet of a saddle-stitched booklet. It runs the real tool, so instead of filling in a table by hand you can load your own PDF (or a sample) and see the order for your booklet. Sheets view labels the front and back of every sheet, and added blank pages are marked Blank.
The page order rule
Number the sheets from the outside in, starting at 0, and let N be the total number of pages (a multiple of four). On sheet i, the front carries page N − 2i on the left and 2i + 1 on the right; the back carries 2i + 2 on the left and N − 2i − 1 on the right. In the exported PDF, each sheet’s front comes first and its back second. The whole booklet is one set of nested sheets.
Worked examples
| Pages | Sheet (outside first) | Front L | R | Back L | R |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 sheet | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 8 | outer | 8 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 8 | inner | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 16 | outer | 16 | 1 | 2 | 15 |
| 16 | innermost | 10 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
If you load a 5-page PDF, the booklet becomes 8 pages and pages 6, 7, and 8 are blank. For every sheet of a 16-page booklet, see the 16-page example.
What it doesn’t do
The calculator is for saddle stitch only: one set of nested sheets folded once. It doesn’t work out page order for perfect binding (glued spines) or for books made of several folded sections, and it never drops pages to make the count fit. Page numbers run left to right; right-to-left layouts are not mirrored.
Printing the result
Print the exported PDF double-sided with flip on short edge, at 100% scale, with the printer’s booklet mode off. If you also turn on booklet mode, the pages are rearranged twice and the order on paper won’t match what you see here. Files can be up to 400 pages and 200 MB; password-protected PDFs need the password removed first.