Setting up a multipage booklet style design for print

These instructions are to help you set up correctly to print multipage booklets with Peterkin. Other printers may have different approaches to pagination.

Adobe InDesign is most suited to create designs for multipage printing as it has specialist tools to make it easy for designing books or magazines.

However… if you’re designing a church booklet or order of service with only a few pages then it’s easy to create the artwork in Illustrator, InDesign or Canva.

Booklets usually have an outer cover made of card-weight (170gsm+) and multiple paper pages within stapled or tied to the cover. It’s popular to have the paper pages a little smaller than the cover so that they sit nicely inside without being visible when folded, but it’s a personal choice, and you can have internal paper pages the same size as the cover.

The technical bit...

Think of your booklet as ‘spreads’ made up of two pages on each side of the paper.

Because the paper is folded in half to create four pages per piece, you must have a number that’s divisible by four.

For example:

4 page cover = 1 sheet of double-sided paper

8 page internal paper pages = 2 sheets of double-sided paper 

If you only have enough information/designs for 7 pages for instance, then one of the pages (usually the first or last page will be blank/unprinted, but must be included in your design even if there’s no printing on that page.)

To make a thicker booklet you can include more pages that are unprinted.

Pagination (getting the pages to print in the correct order)

The easiest way to visualise this is to draw out your pages on physical pieces of paper. Use both sides of the paper and fold them in half to make your own test booklet. You can then see if you’ve got the right information in the right place.

Example 8 page A5 scored Wedding Order of Service booklet.

1. To design your internal paper pages, create an A4 (297x210mm) document with four pages (two double page prints). 
2. Use a guide to mark the centre point to show where the score/fold will be therefore creating two A5 size pages.
3. Follow the illustration below to design your booklet with the pages in the correct order.

If you only have enough information/designs for 7 pages, then one of the pages (usually the first or last page will be blank/unprinted, but must be included in your design even if there’s no printing on that page.)

To make a thicker booklet you can include more pages that are unprinted.

Don't forget, the easiest way to get your pages in the right order is to create your own little booklet with folded paper pages and a pen! Once you've got the hang of pagination it's easy 🤗.

Related articles:

How to set up your design for scored cards