Number of Pages

[ishfaque.b]

Hi. Recently someone told me that indesign booklet must be divisible by 4. I was making a 14 pgs doc. He said make it 12 as on 3 A3 we get 12 pgs and it is a multiple of 4.

Can you clarify please?

And what do i do if i want to create the 14 pgs or 5 pgs brochure?

[Mike Witherell · Accepted solution]

Take a sheet of paper and fold it over once. You have 4 physical page surfaces. Slip two more similar physical paper sheets together into it and you have 12 physical page surfaces. That's the way physically printed pages are: You have to account for physicality and folding.

On the other hand, if it will only be posted for online viewing, you really aren't bound by any page count. Maybe by twos, if you want to print front and back on a sheet of paper coming forth from a laser printer.

So you see that there cannot be a physical 5-page brochure. But there can be an online PDF of 5 pages, and you could loosely term it a brochure. Same could be true for brochures designed for a tablet viewing device.

[SJRiegel]

If it is to be made of folded pages stapled at the spine, it has to be multiples of 4. Pick up a sheet of paper and fold it in half - this will demonstrate why is has to be in fours.

Any page count that doesn't fit that standard will have to be printed as individual sheets and stapled in the corner.

[Derek Cross]

In answer to your last question, 14pp would give you an extra 2 blank pages (16 pages) and 5pp would give you an extra 3 blank pages (8 pages)!

[ishfaque.b]

Blank pages?  So where will this blankpages be in my brochure? Back? Front?

[Derek Cross]

The blank pages could be wherever you want!

To be clear, a page is one side of one sheet, so for example, an 8 page booklet consists of four sheets

[ishfaque.b]

Oh okay. So if i understand correctly, i always have to design using a multiple of 4 when printing commercially and to avoid blank pages, right?

[Derek Cross]

Yes, you could put it like that for publications consisting of more than two pages, that is one sheet printed 1 side (1 page) or printed both sides (2 pages).

An 8 page booklet would consist of two 4 page sections stitched together (or one sheet printed 4 pages each side, folded, trimmed and stitched).

[Migintosh]

To have a 14-page brochure, you would need 3 sheets of 4 pages each, and a sheet of 2 pages. This is common for things like flyers or grocery ads, but while 3 of the sheets can be bound together or tucked into each other, the sheet of 2 pages will be loose. If you don't mind it falling out, you could go that way, but it may need a separate setup if you are going to sheet-fed press (one setup to print on the 4-page sheet, and a different setup to print on the 2-page sheet). If you print on a network printer or copier, you may need to insert the loose sheet manually, so keep that in mind if you will have many copies.