Double-sided printing on a home printer

A booklet only works if the back of each sheet lines up with the front. Most problems come from one setting: which edge the printer flips the sheet on. This guide shows how to get it right the first time, with or without an automatic duplex printer.

Automatic duplex

If your printer prints both sides by itself:

1. Open the booklet PDF and choose Print.
2. Set the scale to Actual size or 100%. Never use “Fit to page”.
3. Turn on Print on both sides.
4. Choose Flip on short edge. The booklet PDF uses landscape sheets, which are turned over along their short edge.
5. Print.

If the back pages come out upside down, you used the long edge. Switch to the short edge and print again.

Manual duplex

Printers without duplex can still print booklets. You print the fronts, turn the stack over and print the backs.

1. Print odd pages only (sometimes called “front sides”).
2. Take the stack out without changing its order.
3. Turn it over and put it back into the tray. How you turn it depends on your printer, so use the test below the first time.
4. Print even pages only. Some printers need reverse order for this pass; the test sheet tells you.

The two-sheet test

Before printing a whole notebook, mark the orientation with a test:

1. Print just the first sheet (pages 1 and 2 of the PDF).
2. Before printing the front, draw a small arrow on a blank sheet pointing into the printer, on the side facing up.
3. Print the front side on that sheet and see where the arrow ended up relative to the printed side.
4. Feed it back to print the back, and check that the page numbers line up when you fold.

Write the result on a sticky note on your printer. You only need to do this once.

Front and back don’t line up

Most printers shift the paper slightly on the second pass. The printer calibration in the maker measures this offset and moves the back pages to match. A 1 to 2 mm shift is normal and easy to correct.

Single pages instead

If you don’t want to bind anything, export the reading-order (single pages) PDF instead. Each notebook page is one PDF page, ready for a ring binder, clipboard or worksheet, and it prints one-sided without any of the steps above.