Bookbinder's Collator opens PDF documents and arranges the pages so that, once printed, the sheets of paper can be folded, gathered into groups called 'signatures', and bound into a book or booklet. Without this app, the pages would be out of order after assembling the book. You can layout and design the book with sequential pages in your preferred page-layout application, then use Bookbinder's Collator to order them appropriately before printing.

Folding Options

You can select from 3 folding formats. Folio makes 2 pages on each side of each sheet using a single fold. Quarto makes 4 pages on each side of each sheet using two folds (requires cutting the top edge of the signatures to free the pages). Octavo makes 8 pages on each side of each sheet using three folds (requires cutting the top and bottom edges of the signatures to free the pages).

Signature Size Options

You can select between 1 and 10 sheets of paper per signature with the Folio format (due to the extra folds, quarto is limited to 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 sheets of paper per signature, and octavo is limited to 4 or 8 sheets). This allows you to find the right balance between the strength of the signatures to hold the sewing or stapling, and the ability of the book to open easily with the pages laying flat. Use fewer pages per signature for thicker paper, and more pages per signature for thinner paper.

Folding Guide

Includes animations that demonstrate how to gather and fold the pages appropriately for the settings you have chosen.

Automatic Scaling

Ideally, you would design your PDF pages at the size they will be in the book (i.e. for 8.5" x 11" paper in the folio format, the source PDF should be 8.5" x 5.5"). That ensures that all of the text is legible. However, this not always possible, especially if someone else made the PDF. To help, we now support automatically scaling the pages down to fit if you choose paper that is too small. Since this could produce text that is too small to be easily read, it should only be used as a last resort.

Tips

For best results, use the default duplex (two-sided, short-edge or long-edge) settings. The app will automatically choose the correct ones for your configuration and pre-fill the print settings dialog. These settings will cause your document to print two-sided, with folio and octavo using the short-edge binding setting, and quarto using the long-edge binding.

Version 1.1 Tutorial: Quarto & Octavo

Version 1.0 Tutorial: Folio

Privacy Policy

Bookbinder's Collator does not collect any information about you. The app is sandboxed and does not include an entitlement to access the Internet, so it can not send any information off of your computer. Apple handles the payment processing when you buy the app, and I never see that information. If you opt-in to Apple's Share-Crash-Reports-with-Developers Program and Bookbinder's Collator crashes on your computer, I might see the crash report, but identifying information is stripped out before I get it.