PDF booklet printing

Question

I have a Samsung ML-2851nd printer (laser, duplex)

When printing booklets from PDF files, what is best?

• Printing with "standard" Page Scaling from Reader, and selecting Booklet printing from the Printer Properties
• Using the Booklet Printing option from Reader, and only selecting "Print on Both Sides" in the Printer Properties.

If I go with the first option, can I use Page Scaling "None" to get bigger text or will it cause any problems? (Fit to printable area shrinks to 93%, I'm using A4 paper)

If I go with the second one, what's the correct setting: "Flip on Long Edge" or "Flip on Short Edge"?

Thanks!

Solution

Either approach should be fine. It's often best to use the application's print dialog rather than the printer's as the application has more information about the document in its control.

For the 'flip on x edge' question, it depends on the layout of your booklet. If your booklet is A4 sheets folded (and so each page of the booklet is an A5 page, 4 per sheet) then you want 'flip on short edge'.

The way to think about it is to imagine holding a finished sheet of your duplexed printout and turning it over so that the text stays the correct way up. If you imagined turning it over the short side, then select 'flip on short edge'.

Another rule of thumb is if the finished sheet is in landscape then flip on short edge, otherwise flip on long edge:

------------------------------
|             |              |
|   Text      |   Text       |
|   Page 1    |   Page 2     |   <--- Single sheet of paper
|             |              |
|             |              |
------------------------------

Select 'Flip on short edge'

---------------
|             |
|   Text      |
|   Page 1    |                  <--- Single sheet of paper
|             |
|             |
|             |
|             |
---------------

Select 'Flip on long edge'

Comments

[quack quixote]

my own experiences also suggest the application's settings is best as well, but some applications and some printers are more capable than others, so it never hurts to experiment.

[Diego]

Thanks Mark! I only had one issue, even pages were printed upside down :-( So, either we got the Flip on Short/Long Side backwards, or I should select Auto-Rotate Pages (is that what that setting is for?)