How to print multiple PDF pages on one sheet of paper
By the PdfDady team · Updated · 6 min read
Most print dialogs can do this on their own: look for a setting called "Pages per sheet" or "Multiple" and choose 2 or 4. That is enough when you are printing on your own printer.
When someone else will print the file, or the setting is missing or behaves oddly, make a PDF that already has the layout in it. Our Pages per sheet tool places 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 or 16 pages on each sheet and gives you a new PDF that prints the same way everywhere. This kind of layout is often called N-up: 2-up, 4-up and so on.
How small will the text get?
This is the question that decides everything, so start here. A-series paper has a useful property: cut a sheet in half and you get the next size down with the same shape. A4 is 210 × 297 mm and A5 is 148 × 210 mm. So two A4 pages fit side by side on a landscape A4 sheet with almost no wasted space, each one shrunk to A5.
| Pages per sheet | Each page becomes about | 12 pt text looks like | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | A5 (71% of original) | about 8.5 pt | Notes, reports, question papers |
| 4 | A6 (50%) | about 6 pt | Slides, drafts, large-type documents |
| 6 or 9 | a third or less | 4 pt or smaller | Slide overviews, thumbnails |
| 16 | a quarter | about 3 pt | Contact sheets, checking page order |
Two per sheet is comfortable for ordinary typed documents. Four per sheet works for presentation slides, which have big text to begin with, but a normal page of 11 or 12 pt text becomes hard to read. Six and above are for an overview, not for reading.
Photographs of handwritten notes need extra care. Handwriting that was already small in the scan will be very hard to read at four per sheet. Stay with two.
Make an N-up PDF
- Open the Pages per sheet tool and add your PDF (one file, up to 100 MB).
- Pick the number of pages per sheet. A small diagram shows the layout.
- Choose the paper (A4, Letter, A3, A5 or Legal), the orientation and the page order. Tick the border option if you want a thin line around each page.
- Download
pages-per-sheet.pdfand print it at 100% (actual size).
The tool works out the grid and orientation that make the pages as large as possible, and you can override it. Pages that were saved sideways are placed upright.
Text stays sharp. The pages are placed as they are, not turned into pictures, so the result is as crisp as the original and you can still select the text. It is only smaller.
Page order: across or down
With two pages per sheet there is nothing to decide. From four upwards you choose how the pages run:
- Across, then down: page 1 top left, page 2 top right, page 3 bottom left. This matches how most people read.
- Down, then across: page 1 top left, page 2 below it, page 3 at the top of the next column. Handy for columns of slides you want to follow downwards.
Borders are worth turning on for slides and for pages with white backgrounds, because without them it is hard to see where one page ends and the next begins.
Printing it properly
Print at actual size. The layout already fills the sheet. If the print dialog is set to "Fit" or "Shrink oversized pages", everything shrinks a second time. Choose 100% or Actual size.
Don't use both methods at once. If you make a 2-up PDF and the printer is also set to 2 pages per sheet, you get four tiny pages per side. Set the printer's own pages-per-sheet option back to 1.
Add double-sided printing for more savings. Two per sheet, printed on both sides, puts four pages on one piece of paper. A 40-page set of notes drops from 40 sheets to 10. For portrait sheets, choose "flip on long edge". For landscape sheets, which is what 2-up on A4 usually produces, choose "flip on short edge", otherwise the back of each sheet comes out upside down. Printers differ, so print one sheet first and turn it over.
Leave room for binding. If the handout will be punched or spiral bound, the holes go through the edge of the sheet. Print one sheet and check that the punch does not eat into the text.
At a print shop
A ready-made N-up PDF is the simplest thing to hand over. The shop prints it like any normal A4 file and there is nothing to explain except single or double sided.
- Tell them it should print at actual size on A4.
- If you want both sides, say so, and ask them to check the first sheet.
- If you want A3 sheets with four full-readable pages each, choose A3 as the paper in the tool and confirm the shop has A3 before you go.
N-up is not a booklet
Two pages per sheet gives you pages 1 and 2 on the first sheet, 3 and 4 on the next. If you fold that stack in half, the pages will not read in order.
For something you fold down the middle and staple, like a programme or a small magazine, the pages have to be shuffled into a special order. Our Booklet PDF tool does that, and the guide on printing a PDF as a booklet explains the folding and duplex settings.
Problems and fixes
Pages look tiny with wide white gaps. The original pages probably have large margins, or their shape does not match the paper (slides on portrait sheets, for example). Try the other orientation, or trim the margins first with Crop PDF.
The mix of portrait and landscape pages looks uneven. Each page is fitted into its own cell, so a landscape chart among portrait pages will look smaller. That is normal. If the chart matters, print that page separately at full size.
Filled-in form values are missing. Form fields are not kept. Flatten the PDF first, as described above.
The file will not open in the tool. Check that it is a single PDF under 100 MB. To join several PDFs into one before laying them out, use Merge PDF.
Questions people ask
Can I print 3 pages per sheet?
The tool offers 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 16. Three per sheet with lines for notes is a handout style from presentation software, so print that from the slide program itself.
Will the print quality drop?
No. The pages are not converted to images. Text and line drawings stay sharp at the smaller size.
Does it work for A4 pages printed on Letter paper?
Yes. Choose the paper you will actually print on and the pages are scaled to fit it.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The layout is made in your browser and the file stays on your device.