Imposition
How saddle-stitch page order works
When you fold a stack of sheets in half and staple the spine, the pages are no longer in the order you printed them. The first sheet carries the front and back covers, the second sheet carries pages 3 and 6, and the middle sheet carries the centre spread. Working out this order by hand is called imposition, and it is the step that trips up most first-time zine makers.
Here is the order for an 8-page zine on two sheets:
| Sheet | Front side (left | right) | Back side (left | right) |
|---|---|---|
| Sheet 1 (outside) | 8 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Sheet 2 (inside) | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Sizes
Paper and page sizes
Each booklet page is half of the sheet you print on. Design your pages at that size and nothing gets scaled.
| Print on | Booklet page size | Common name |
|---|---|---|
| A4 | 148 × 210 mm | A5 |
| A3 | 210 × 297 mm | A4 |
| US Letter | 5.5 × 8.5 in | Half letter, digest |
| Tabloid | 8.5 × 11 in | Letter |
Pages of a different size are scaled to fit. Choose Fill (crop) to fill the page area instead, and From page size to print on a custom sheet exactly twice your page width.
Printing
Printing and binding
Print double-sided
Actual size (100%), flipped on the short edge. If your printer only offers long-edge flipping, turn on “Rotate back sides 180°”.
Nest the sheets
Keep them in printed order and slide each sheet inside the previous one, so sheet 1 ends up on the outside.
Fold
Fold the stack in half and crease it firmly with a bone folder or the back of a spoon.
Staple the spine
Two staples on the fold, about a quarter of the way in from each end. No long-reach stapler? Open a normal stapler flat, staple through the fold into corrugated cardboard, then bend the legs closed by hand.
Thick zines
Signatures and creep
Signatures. Past about 40 pages on normal paper, a single folded stack gets too thick to close flat. Split the zine into 8- or 16-page signatures, fold each one separately, and bind them side by side with glue or thread.
Creep. In a thick booklet the inner sheets stick out further at the open edge than the outer ones. If you trim the edge straight, the inner pages lose more of their margin. The creep setting shifts the inner pages slightly toward the spine to compensate. For a home-printed zine of 10 or more sheets, 0.5–1 mm is a good start.
FAQ
Booklet printing questions
Why does a zine need a multiple of 4 pages?
Every sheet folded in half makes four pages, so a booklet always has 4, 8, 12, 16… pages. The one-sheet mini zine always has 8. If your PDF is shorter, Zine Machine adds blank pages. By default they go before the back cover so it stays on the back; you can move them to the end instead.
What page size should my PDF be?
For a booklet, design each page at half the sheet: A5 (148 × 210 mm) to print on A4, or 5.5 × 8.5 in to print on US Letter. For a mini zine each page is one eighth of the sheet: 74 × 105 mm on A4, 2.75 × 4.25 in on Letter.
Other sizes work too. They are scaled to fit, or cropped to fill if you choose Fill.
My PDF has two-page spreads. Will it work?
Export single pages instead. In InDesign, choose “Pages” rather than “Spreads” in the PDF export dialog. In Affinity Publisher and Canva, export each page as its own PDF page. Zine Machine handles the spread order for you.
How do I print double-sided correctly?
Print at actual size and choose two-sided printing, flipped on the short edge. If your printer only flips on the long edge, turn on “Rotate back sides 180°” before downloading. Print one sheet first to check.
My printer can’t print double-sided. What now?
The booklet PDF alternates front and back: page 1 is the front of sheet 1, page 2 its back, and so on. Print the odd pages, put the stack back into the paper tray, and print the even pages. Test with one sheet to find out which way round your printer needs the paper.
Why are my margins wrong after printing?
The print dialog is probably set to “Fit to page”, which shrinks the sheet and moves the folds off-centre. Choose “Actual size” or 100%. Most home printers also can’t print right to the paper edge, so keep a margin of at least 5 mm.
What is creep, and do I need it?
In a thick booklet the inner sheets stick out further at the open edge than the outer ones. When you trim that edge straight, inner pages lose more of their margin. The creep setting moves inner pages slightly toward the spine. Below about 10 sheets of normal paper you can ignore it; above that, try 0.5–1 mm.