Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios

Last updated on Oct 9, 2023 | Also applies to Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat 2017

About booklets

Booklets are documents with multiple pages arranged on sheets of paper that, when folded, present the correct page order. You can create 2-up saddle-stitched booklets, where two side-by-side-pages, printed on both sides, are folded once and fastened along the fold. The first page prints on the same printed sheet as the last page. The second page prints on the same sheet as the second-to-last page, and so on. Each page is automatically centered on the sheet, and large pages are scaled (shrunk) to fit the printable area. When you collate, fold, and staple the double-sided pages, the result is a single book with correct pagination.

To print booklets, your printer must support either automatic or manual duplex printing (printing on both sides of the paper). Manual duplex printing requires two separate printing passes: one to print the front side, and another to print the back side. To find out whether your printer supports duplex printing, check the printer manual or contact the printer manufacturer.

Multipage documents in Acrobat — Multipage document (left), pages arranged in booklet layout (center), and pages printed and folded into new booklet (right)

Print a booklet

Choose File > Print and select the printer.
Specify which pages to print:
- To print pages from front to back, select All.
- To divide a large booklet into smaller groupings, select Pages and specify a page range for the first grouping. Print each page range separately.
Click Booklet.
To print certain pages on a different paper or paper stock, specify those pages using the Sheets From/To option. Click the Properties button and select the correct paper tray and any other options as necessary.
Choose additional page handling options. The Preview image changes as you specify options.

Booklet Subset

Determines which sides of the paper print. Choose Both Sides to automatically print both sides of the paper (your printer must support automatic duplex printing). Choose Front Side Only to print all pages that appear on the front side of the paper. After these pages print, flip them, choose File > Print again, and choose Back Side Only. Depending on the printer model, you might have to turn and reorder the pages to print the back sides.

Caution:

If your printer does not support Automatic Duplex printing, you'll need to turn or flip the pages and feed them back in. The exact steps depend on your printer model, and you can update the settings using the printer Properties in the Print dialog box. For more information, see Double-sided Printing.

Auto-Rotate Pages Within Each Sheet

Automatically rotates each page for the best fit in the printable area.

Sheets From

Specifies the first and last sheet to print. Acrobat determines which sheets must print to accommodate the print job. For example, if you have a 16-page document, then sheets 1 through 4 print.

Binding

Determines the orientation for the binding. Choose Left for text read left-to-right; choose Left (Tall) for paper folded on the long side, where the printable area is long and narrow. Choose Right for text read right-to-left or for Asian-style vertical reading; choose Right (Tall) for paper folded on the long side.

Compare Right binding with Right (Tall).

Note:

To prevent others in a shared printing environment from printing on your pages before you print the back side, consider printing the back side pages using a different paper tray.

Print PDFs in a PDF Portfolio

A PDF Portfolio contains multiple documents wrapped in one PDF. You can print the component PDFs in a PDF Portfolio individually or together. Documents print in alphabetical order, regardless of the order of files.

Open the PDF Portfolio. To print only certain PDFs, select those PDFs.
Choose File > Print, and then choose one of the following:

All PDF Files

Prints all the PDFs in the PDF Portfolio.

Selected PDF Files

Prints the selected PDFs. This option is available only when multiple files are selected in the list of component documents.
Choose applicable printing options, and click OK.

Note:

You must use the native application to print any component file that is not a PDF. To open a component file in its native application, right-click the file and choose Open File In Native Application. (The native application must be installed for you to open the file.)

Print from the Bookmarks tab

You can print the pages associated with bookmarks directly from the Bookmarks tab. Bookmarks appear in a hierarchy, with parent bookmarks and child (dependent) bookmarks. If you print a parent bookmark, all page content associated with child-level bookmarks also prints.

Not all bookmarks display page content, and therefore cannot be printed. For example, some bookmarks open a file or play a sound. If you select a mix of printable and nonprintable bookmarks, the nonprintable bookmarks are ignored.

Note:

Bookmarks made from tagged content always display page content because the tagged content represents printable elements in the document structure, such as headings and figures.

Open a PDF with bookmarks. If necessary, choose View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Bookmarks so the bookmarks appear in the navigation pane.
Select one or more bookmarks, and then right-click the selection.
Choose Print Page(s) from the menu.

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