Your First Imposition

Imposition places your PDF's pages onto the press sheet in the right order. It does not touch the content of the pages; it only decides where they go. This page explains which imposition to choose and how to do your first one.

Which imposition should I choose?

Your job	Choice	Note
Brochure or magazine stapled in the middle	Saddle-stitch booklet	The tool works out page order and front/back alignment.
Book folded in signatures	Signature book	Each signature (a folded print unit) is planned with its own page range.
Business cards, invitations, proofs	N-up	Several pages go on one sheet in a rows × columns grid.
Repeating one page across a sheet	Step-and-repeat	A single source page is repeated into validated cells.
Work that will be cut and stacked	Cut-and-stack	The page order after cutting and stacking is checked.

You can do saddle-stitch booklet and N-up imposition on their own pages, in the browser, without an account. You plan the other modes inside Studio.

Saddle-stitch booklet: step by step

N-up

On the N-up imposition page you choose the layout: 2-up places two pages side by side, 4-up places four pages in a 2×2 grid. Pages are not enlarged without your say when they are fitted to a cell. Cut marks sit on the trim area, and the file's own bleed is carried outward as far as you allow.

Points to watch with a signature book

• A signature is a folded print unit. A signature holds a multiple of 4 pages, from 4 to 64. A saddle-stitch booklet holds at most 64 pages including blank padding; for more, use signature book.
• In thick booklets, inner sheets push outward; you can optionally turn on creep compensation. With a few sheets the difference is invisible; on jobs over 40 pages it evens out the margins after trimming. Creep compensation (field Creep caliper (µm)) applies to booklet and signature modes.

What imposition changes and what it does not

• It moves pages, orders them, and adds blank pages when needed; it does not recolour, flatten transparency or change fonts in their content.
• If page sizes or rotations are mixed, it does not guess; it stops and names the pages that do not fit.
• Your original file is kept; imposition produces a new file.
• The output comes with a receipt carrying the digest of the plan and the bytes. It is a diagnostic receipt and not a guarantee that the imposed file is suitable for print. We recommend running a preflight after imposition too.