Printing handouts
A 40-page slide set becomes 10 sheets as 4-up and is handed out in class.
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Guide
PDF N-up puts several pages on one sheet: handouts, review copies and slide exports rarely fill a page, so 2-up or 4-up cuts the number of printed sheets in half or to a quarter. The result is a new set of A4 pages with the originals embedded as vectors, which stays sharp when printed large.
Updated 2026-09-092 min read
PDF N-up puts several pages on one sheet: handouts, review copies and slide exports rarely fill a page, so 2-up or 4-up cuts the number of printed sheets in half or to a quarter. The result is a new set of A4 pages with the originals embedded as vectors, which stays sharp when printed large.
Sheets are filled in “current arrangement” order, so delete a cover page or change the order in the page organizer before you lay the file out.
<original-name>_2-up.pdf or <original-name>_4-up.pdf.| Input | Output | Notes |
|---|---|---|
A 10-slide deck, 2-up |
5 landscape A4 sheets, one page on each half |
Each cell is scaled to 94%, leaving white space |
A 10-slide deck, 4-up |
3 portrait A4 sheets, the last one with content in only 2 cells |
Leftover cells on a partly filled sheet stay empty |
Portrait A4 originals, 4-up |
Each page shrinks to about 47% of its width |
Cells scale proportionally, so nothing is distorted |
A 40-page slide set becomes 10 sheets as 4-up and is handed out in class.
Laid out 2-up in landscape, each page has white space beside it for handwritten comments.
Alternate source and translated pages, then go 2-up so the two sit left and right.
The original pages are embedded as vectors rather than turned into images, so the text information is still in the file and most readers let you select it.
The original file sets a rotation attribute on that page, and embedding works from the unrotated direction. Straighten those pages in the page organizer, click “Export current arrangement”, and run n-up on the new file.
No. This tool fills cells in order only; there is no page-order reshuffle for saddle stitching.
Imposition is done in the browser by a PDF library and the file is never uploaded.
Updated 2026-09-09
N-up imposition: place 2 or 4 pages on one A4 sheet to save paper when printing
Everything runs locally in your browser; files are never uploaded to a server