Bookbinders Collator opens PDF documents and arranges the pages so that, once printed, the sheets of paper can be folded, gathered into groups called signatures, and bound into a book or booklet. Without this app, the pages would be out of order after assembling the book. You can layout and design the book with sequential pages in your preferred page-layout application, then use Bookbinders Collator to order them appropriately before printing.
FOLDING OPTIONS
You can select from 3 folding formats. Folio makes 2 pages on each side of each sheet using a single fold. Quarto makes 4 pages on each side of each sheet using two folds (requires cutting the top edge of the signatures to free the pages). Octavo makes 8 pages on each side of each sheet using three folds (requires cutting the top and bottom edges of the signatures to free the pages).
SIGNATURE SIZE OPTIONS
You can select between 1 and 10 sheets of paper per signature with the Folio format (due to the extra folds, quarto is limited to 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 sheets of paper per signature, and octavo is limited to 4 or 8 sheets). This allows you to find the right balance between the strength of the signatures to hold the sewing or stapling, and the ability of the book to open easily with the pages laying flat. Use fewer pages per signature for thicker paper, and more pages per signature for thinner paper.
FOLDING GUIDE
Includes animations that demonstrate how to gather and fold the pages appropriately for the settings you have chosen.
AUTOMATIC SCALING
Ideally, you would design your PDF pages at the size they will be in the book (i.e. for 8.5" x 11" paper in the folio format, the source PDF should be 8.5" x 5.5"). That ensures that all of the text is legible. However, this not always possible, especially if someone else made the PDF. To help, we now support automatically scaling the pages down to fit if you choose paper that is too small. Since this could produce text that is too small to be easily read, it should only be used as a last resort.
TIPS
For best results, print your document two-sided, with the short-edge binding setting.
