February 24, 2024: Mind If I Impose?

This may be the least surprising statement ever, but I do a lot of printing at home. I have three printers in my office, and a backup of one of those in the garage. One aspect of printing that's incredibly useful is making little booklets. As anyone who's tried to print a folded booklet knows, this is trickier than it seems; even if you take a simple "four-page booklet" (that is, one sheet of paper folded in half), you'll quickly realize that – for it to read correctly when assembled – it needs to be structured such that it's page 2 and 3 on one side, and 4 and 1 on the other (in that order). This is called "imposing" the pages, and can be the source of countless jokes . . . or exactly one joke, restated countless ways.

Getting the pages to line up correctly in this way requires software or (if doing it by hand) a general willingness to be sad and frustrated.

I've decided on the former method. I'm on a Mac, so my app of choice has been Create Booklet, by TheKeptPromise. I'm sure other software exists that also does it, but Create Booklet was well-regarded and within my budget. It's simple to use, but powerful enough to allow for lots of tweaks and adjustments, many of which can be applied incorrectly. Speaking hypothetically.

I love Create Booklet and have used it for years. Honestly, it's so straightforward that I don't even think about it too often, outside of situations like now, where I go, "Hey, I really like this and should mention it to folks." And thus I am.

-- Steven Marsh