Counted Pages, Book Sheets and Parent Sheets.
Every booklet is built from large Parent Sheets, printed double-sided,
folded in half into Book Sheets, nested together, and stapled at the
spine. One Parent Sheet always becomes 2 Book Sheets, 4 Counted Pages,
so your Counted Pages total is always a multiple of 4.
New to this? Switch on Show above for examples.
- Counted Pages Your book’s total finished page count, counted as singles — cover included, always a multiple of 4.
- Book Sheets Pages ÷ 2 — each printed, double-sided leaf of the finished book.
- Parent Sheets Pages ÷ 4 — the actual sheets that go through the printer, each folded into 2 Book Sheets and nested with the rest.
- Size The closed, trimmed size of the finished book — not the flat sheet.
How your book’s pages become sheets
This is saddle stitch binding: Parent Sheets are printed double-sided, folded in half into Book Sheets, nested inside one another, and stapled through the fold at the spine. Every Parent Sheet contributes exactly 4 Pages — 2 on the outside of the fold, 2 on the inside — so your Pages total is always a multiple of 4.
An 8-page book like this is built from just 2 Stapled Parent Sheets — 1 Cover Parent Sheet and 1 Inside Parent Sheet — folded into 4 Book Sheets.
Add another Parent Sheet and you add 4 more pages — a 12-page book like this one uses 3 Stapled Parent Sheets (1 Cover, 2 Inside), folded into 6 Book Sheets. This nesting happens automatically on our end during production — you never need to arrange your own file this way. See “Setting up your file” below for exactly what to send us.
Cover pages vs. Inside pages
Every book has exactly 4 Cover pages, and they’re not the first 4 pages in a row — they’re the very first 2 pages and the very last 2 pages. Together those 4 pages make up the Cover Parent Sheet shown above (purple) — the outermost sheet, wrapped around every other sheet. Every page in between is an Inside page, printed on an Inside Parent Sheet (gray). Cover and Inside print on their own separate paper stocks, which is why this form asks for two paper weights instead of one.
- Page 1 Outside Front Cover
- Page 2 Inside Front Cover
- Pages 3–6 Inside Pages
- Page 7 Inside Back Cover
- Page 8 Outside Back Cover
4 Cover + 4 Inside = 8 Pages total — exactly what the Number of Pages dropdown shows as “8 Pages (4 Cover, 4 Inside).”
Size is your book’s finished size, not the flat sheet
On most of our products, Size is the flat sheet you’re printing on. On a folded, stapled book it’s different: Size is the closed, trimmed size of the finished book sitting on a shelf — the size after every sheet has been folded in half, nested, and stapled at the spine. Picking 8.5in x 11in means your finished book is 8.5in x 11in closed, printed on sheets roughly twice that size before folding. That’s why Step 1 on the form is labeled “Pick a Size (After Folding/Stapling).”
Setting up your file
Submit your PDF as Straight Pages, not spreads — one page per PDF page, in order: page 1, page 2, page 3, and so on, straight through to your back cover. We don’t want the pages paired up into spreads of any kind — not reader spreads (cover shown next to page 2) and not printer spreads (page 1 paired with your back cover) — that pairing is something we handle ourselves during production, from your straight pages.
Your PDF’s page count should match the Pages total you select exactly — including the 4 cover pages.
We recommend numbering your pages (a small page number printed in a corner of each page) — it makes it much easier for both you and our layout team to confirm every page landed where it should before printing.
Not sure your page count lands on a multiple of 4? Add blank pages at the end of your file to round up, or send it over and ask — it’s much easier to fix before we print than after.
