Imposition is one of the fundamental steps in the prepress printing process. It consists of the arrangement of the printed product's pages on the printer's sheet, in order to obtain faster printing, simplify binding and reduce paper waste.

Wikipedia

Step 1: Select a PDF file

Step 2: Choose an imposition layout

All layouts assume that your are printing a PDF files with pages much smaller than your actual paper (that is, at least two pages will be printed on each paper page). Choose a layout depending on what you indend to do with this file, or how you would like to bind it.

🔗 Flash cards: Question on front, answer on back.

Short explaination of layout cards.
Choose this layout

🔗 Copy-cut-fold: Produce several copies of the same book.

Short explaination of layout copycutfold.
Choose this layout

🔗 Cut-stack-fold: Bind a book by stapling together one single stack of paper.

Short explaination of layout cutstackfold.
Choose this layout

🔗 Hardcover: Bind a book by sewing the quires together.

Short explaination of layout hardcover.
Choose this layout

🔗 One-page zine: A one-page fanzine, with a poster on the back.

Short explaination of layout onepagezine.
Choose this layout

🔗 N-up: Put several input pages on each output page.

Short explaination of layout pdfautonup.
Choose this layout

🔗 Saddle stitch: Bind a book by stapling through the bend line.

Short explaination of layout saddle.
Choose this layout

🔗 Wire: Bind book using a C-shaped spine.

Short explaination of layout wire.
Choose this layout

Step 3: Customize

For simple tasks, you might be happy with default values and skip to the next step.
Output format Output format can be set by defining the output format (the signature is then computed to fit this output format), or by setting the signature (output format is then computed).
Put as much source pages into the destination page of the given size (note that margins are ignored when computing this; if margins are set (see below), the resulting file might be larger than the required format).
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Size of the destination pages (e.g. 2x3): this represents the number of sheets you will get after having cut each printed sheet.
Width
Height

Resize input pages If set, input pages will be resized before being imposed.
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Scale
Repeat input file Set this to act as if your file was repeated several times. It might be useful with some layouts, or useless with others…
Repeat
Margins
Input margin
Output margin
Add marks?
Output format Output format can be set by defining the output format (the signature is then computed to fit this output format), or by setting the signature (output format is then computed).
Put as much source pages into the destination page of the given size (note that margins are ignored when computing this; if margins are set (see below), the resulting file might be larger than the required format).
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Size of the destination pages (e.g. 2x3): this represents the number of sheets you will get after having cut each printed sheet.
Width
Height

Resize input pages If set, input pages will be resized before being imposed.
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Scale
Repeat input file Set this to act as if your file was repeated several times. It might be useful with some layouts, or useless with others…
Repeat
Binding edge
Bind
Last pages Number of pages to keep as last pages. Useful to keep the back cover as a back cover.
Last pages
Group paper sheets If set, repeat the cutting-folding instructions above for every group of sheets. You get several sections, that you have to bind together to get a proper book.
Sheets
Margins
Input margin
Output margin
Add marks?
Output format Output format can be set by defining the output format (the signature is then computed to fit this output format), or by setting the signature (output format is then computed).
Put as much source pages into the destination page of the given size (note that margins are ignored when computing this; if margins are set (see below), the resulting file might be larger than the required format).
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Size of the destination pages (e.g. 2x3): this represents the number of sheets you will get after having cut each printed sheet.
Width
Height

Resize input pages If set, input pages will be resized before being imposed.
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Scale
Repeat input file Set this to act as if your file was repeated several times. It might be useful with some layouts, or useless with others…
Repeat
Binding edge
Bind
Last pages Number of pages to keep as last pages. Useful to keep the back cover as a back cover.
Last pages
Group paper sheets If set, repeat the cutting-folding instructions above for every group of the given number of sheets. You get several sections, that you have to bind together to get a proper book.
Sheets
Margins
Input margin
Output margin
Add marks?
Output format Output format can be set by defining the output format (the signature is then computed to fit this output format), or by setting the signature (output format is then computed).
Put as much source pages into the destination page of the given size (note that margins are ignored when computing this; if margins are set (see below), the resulting file might be larger than the required format).
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Size of the destination pages (e.g. 2x3): this represents the number of sheets you will get after having cut each printed sheet.
Width
Height

Resize input pages If set, input pages will be resized before being imposed.
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Scale
Repeat input file Set this to act as if your file was repeated several times. It might be useful with some layouts, or useless with others…
Repeat
Binding edge
Bind
Last pages Number of pages to keep as last pages. Useful to keep the back cover as a back cover.
Last pages
Group paper sheets If set, repeat the cutting-folding instructions above for every group of sheets. You get several sections, that you have to bind together to get a proper book.
Sheets
Margins
Input margin
Output margin
Add marks?

Resize input pages If set, input pages will be resized before being imposed.
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Scale
Binding edge
Bind
Last pages Number of pages to keep as last pages. Useful to keep the back cover as a back cover.
Last pages
Margins
Output margin
Add marks?
Output format
Put as much source pages into the destination page of the given size (note that margins are ignored when computing this; if margins are set (see below), the resulting file might be larger than the required format).
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height

Resize input pages If set, input pages will be resized before being imposed.
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Scale
Repeat input file Set this to more than one to repeat input file.
If file has one page, equivalent to fit (see below). If file has more than one page, do not repeat (equivalent to repeat once below).
Repeat a fixed number of times.
Repeat
Repeat as many times as necessary so that there is no empty cell.
Orientation If automatic, use the orientation that fits the more input pages.
Orientation
Algorithm Algorithm used to arrange source documents into destination documents. This program tries to put as many copies of the source document into the destination document, with the following constraint.
documents can overlap (a bit), or leave blank spaces between them, but as little as possible.
the gap length between documents is fixed, and a minimum destination margin is respected.
Output margin
Gap
Output format Output format can be set by defining the output format (the signature is then computed to fit this output format), or by setting the signature (output format is then computed).
Put as much source pages into the destination page of the given size (note that margins are ignored when computing this; if margins are set (see below), the resulting file might be larger than the required format).
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Size of the destination pages (e.g. 2x3): this represents the number of sheets you will get after having cut each printed sheet.
Width
Height

Resize input pages If set, input pages will be resized before being imposed.
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Scale
Repeat input file Set this to act as if your file was repeated several times. It might be useful with some layouts, or useless with others…
Repeat
Binding edge
Bind
Last pages Number of pages to keep as last pages. Useful to keep the back cover as a back cover.
Last pages
Group paper sheets If set, repeat the cutting-folding instructions above for every group of sheets. You get several sections, that you have to bind together to get a proper book.
Sheets
Margins
Input margin
Output margin
Add marks?
Output format Output format can be set by defining the output format (the signature is then computed to fit this output format), or by setting the signature (output format is then computed).
Put as much source pages into the destination page of the given size (note that margins are ignored when computing this; if margins are set (see below), the resulting file might be larger than the required format).
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Size of the destination pages (e.g. 2x3): this represents the number of sheets you will get after having cut each printed sheet.
Width
Height

Resize input pages If set, input pages will be resized before being imposed.
Same as above, but with custom paper size.
Width
Height
Scale
Repeat input file Set this to act as if your file was repeated several times. It might be useful with some layouts, or useless with others…
Repeat
Last pages Number of pages to keep as last pages. Useful to keep the back cover as a back cover.
Last pages
Margins
Input margin
Output margin
Add marks?

Step 4: Go!

Step 5: Print, fold, bind…

FAQ

The data we store are:
  • the PDF files you upload (for an hour; see next question);
  • anonymous daily statistics (such as today, XXX files have been processed, totalizing XXX Mb..
That's all. Nothing more.

  • Short answer: Do not upload here anything you would not want to be public.
  • Long answer: Nobody will look to the files you upload. However:
    • technically, I (the author and maintainer of this website) have access to everything you upload (but I won't bother reading it);
    • although I did my best, there might be security issues, and your files might be publicly accessible without my knowledge;
    • malicious hackers might try and gain access to the server.
    If you are not happy with it, you can use this software locally (see next question).

You can either:
  • install this webserver locally and run it from your computer;
  • locally install the underlying tools (pdfimpose and pdfautonup). However, as far as I know, no one bothered to build a graphical user interface to them, so you will need to know a bit of command line to use them.
Both solutions require a bit of technical knowledge…

You can either open an issue on Framagit or send me an email: contact(at)pdfimpose(dot)it.

French-speaking users can contact us at the very same address: contact(at)pdfimpose(dot)it. Other languages? Sorry…

  • Short answer: NO!
  • Long answer: I suck at designing easy-to-use applications. I spent ages coding this website, and I would spend hours to implement a tiny improvement. So I probably won't do it. However, if you can do it, I will be happy to merge your pull-request.

I wholly agree. But if I were to make them, I would spend hours for deplorable results. But I will be happy to include your videos!

About

This website is a free software, distributed under the GNU Affero General Public licence, version 3 or any later version. You can download the code powering it at Framagit to review it, study it, change it, download it, run it…

This website is built on top of pdfimpose and pdfautonup, which can be used offline.

Contact: contact(at)pdfimpose(dot)it.