How to fold a booklet
Short answer: To fold a booklet, put the printed sheets together with the cover sheet on the outside and the middle pages in the center. Line up the edges, fold the stack in half, crease the fold firmly with a ruler, then open it flat and put two staples through the fold from the outside.
You’ve printed a booklet PDF double-sided — now it needs to become a booklet. These steps work for any booklet printed two pages per side, including an Oolshak birthday magazine, and take about five minutes.
Before you fold: check the page order
Each booklet sheet holds four pages, two on each side, so the page numbers look jumbled until the sheet is folded. That’s normal. In an 8-page booklet, the pages sit like this:
| Sheet | Front side | Back side | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheet 1 | Pages 8 and 1 (back and front cover) | Pages 2 and 7 | Outside |
| Sheet 2 | Pages 6 and 3 | Pages 4 and 5 (the middle spread) | Inside |
A 4-page booklet is a single sheet: pages 4 and 1 on one side, 2 and 3 on the other. In an Oolshak birthday magazine, the middle spread of the 8-page issue is the reasons page beside the interview; in the 4-page issue it’s the reasons page beside the gallery. Inside pages also have a small page number at the bottom.
How to fold a booklet, step by step
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Put the sheets in order
Find the sheet with the front and back covers side by side (pages 8 and 1 in an 8-page booklet): it goes on the outside. The sheet with pages 6 and 3 goes inside it, with pages 4 and 5 in the very middle. Tap the sheets on the table so the edges line up.
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Fold the stack in half
Lay the cover sheet face down and put the inner sheet on top, middle pages facing up. Bring the right edge over to meet the left edge, line up the corners, and press the fold down from the middle outward. Turn the booklet so the cover is on the front and the fold is on the left.
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Crease it sharply
Run the edge of a ruler — or a bone folder or the back of a spoon — firmly along the fold two or three times. A crisp crease helps the booklet stay closed.
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Staple the spine
Open the booklet flat, cover side up, and put two staples through the fold, each about a quarter of the way in from the top and bottom. Turn to the middle pages and press the staple legs flat. No long-reach stapler? See other ways to bind a magazine.
How to fold a booklet without staples
Staples are the quickest finish, but not the only one:
- Leave it unbound. A 4-page booklet is a single folded sheet, so it holds together on its own.
- Sew it. Three holes and a needle and thread make a beautiful spine — the pamphlet stitch.
- Glue the fold. Run a thin line of glue stick along the outside of the inner sheet’s fold and press it into the cover sheet. This works well for two or three sheets.
- Use an elastic. Open the booklet to the middle, lay a long rubber band or elastic cord along the fold and loop it around the outside of the spine.
- Tape the spine. Wrap a strip of washi tape around the outside of the fold, half on the front and half on the back.
- Fold a one-sheet mini magazine. Eight small pages from a single cut sheet need no binding at all — see how to make a mini magazine.
Folding a thick booklet (and fixing creep)
With more than about five sheets, two things change: the stack gets too stiff to fold neatly in one go, and the middle pages start to stick out at the open edge. Printers call this creep: each sheet wraps around the ones inside it, so the inner pages push out a little further.
- Fold each sheet in half on its own, with the side where the left-hand page number is the higher one facing out (8 and 1, 6 and 3, and so on).
- Slide the folded sheets inside one another in order, cover sheet outermost, and line up the folds.
- Crease the whole booklet again and leave it under a pile of heavy books for an hour.
- Staple or sew the spine.
- Trim the open edge: on a cutting mat, lay a metal ruler a millimeter or two in from the edge of the closed booklet and cut with a craft knife in several light strokes. That’s a job for an adult — or use a paper trimmer.
In a typical birthday magazine of one or two sheets, creep is too small to notice and nothing needs trimming. Either way, keep text and faces at least 6 mm (¼ in) from the outer edge so a trim never cuts into them — Oolshak pages already have white margins.
Common folding problems
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Pages are out of order | Restack with the page-pair check above: cover sheet outside, middle spread inside. |
| Back pages are upside down | The sheets were printed flipping on the long edge. Reprint with flip on the short edge — see how to print a birthday magazine. |
| The fold is off-center | Line up the corners before you press the fold. If the printing itself is shifted, fold exactly between the two pages rather than edge to edge. |
| The fold cracks or turns white | Score the fold line before folding — common with thick paper and laser prints. |
| Middle pages stick out | That’s creep: trim the open edge, or use thinner paper for the inside pages. |
| The booklet won’t stay closed | Crease it again with a ruler and leave it under heavy books overnight. |