Make a DIY Half Letter-Size Booklet Using Affinity Publisher

This guide will show you how to make a DIY 5.5” x 8.5” booklet by folding letter-size (8.5” x 11”) papers in half using Affinity Publisher.

This kind of printing where the software arranges the pages into the correct order when the paper is folded is called imposition. And it can save you a ton of time and headache when compared to trying to do it yourself manually.

Before starting, you’ll need to make sure that your printer can print on both sides or is capable of 2-sided printing.

Open Affinity Publisher and create a new document (Command+N or Ctrl+N for Windows users).

Change “Number of pages” to a number divisible by 4. If you are short, just round up to the nearest number divisible by 4 (example: you have 9 pages, enter “12”. The last 3 pages will be blank).

Page dimensions should be 5.5” by 8.5”. DPI should be set to 300. Adjust the margins, bleed, etc. as necessary.

Add the content of your booklet (text, images, etc.)

When you’re ready to do a test print, go to File > Print. If you get this window, click Show Details. Otherwise, skip to the next step.

Click on Range and Scale and change it to Document Layout.

Change Model to Booklet. Then click on Document Layout and change it to Layout.

Change Two-Sided to Short-Edge binding. That should do the trick. Go ahead and do a test print run!

After the pages are printed, and you’ve folded them in half, you should end up with a perfectly ordered booklet. Pair this with a long reach stapler and you can now make nifty take-out menus, event programs, school projects, short stories, and a million other things!

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