Multiple Pages per Sheet (N-up)

About the Multiple Pages per Sheet (N-up)

Put several pages of a PDF on each sheet of paper — 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 or 16 — in the order you choose: across then down (Z), down then across (N), or starting from the right for right-to-left documents. Pick the sheet size (A4, US Letter, A3 and more), let Auto choose the orientation that shows the pages largest, and set the margin, the space between pages and an optional thin border. You can also fill each sheet with copies of one page (four flyers on one A4 sheet), or stack every page into one long page for reading on a phone or sharing as a single page.

The pages are not turned into pictures: each one is placed on the sheet as it is, with one scaling instruction, so text stays sharp and searchable and drawings stay crisp at any zoom. Form values, and comments set to print, are printed with their page. The live preview draws the same layout that is saved, and everything happens in your browser — the file is never uploaded.

Common uses

• Printing lecture slides or notes as a handout with 4, 6 or 9 slides on each sheet.
• Proof-reading a long draft on fewer sheets of paper.
• Printing several copies of a small flyer, ticket or label on one sheet to cut out.
• Turning a multi-page receipt, chat export or web page PDF into one long page that scrolls on a phone.
• Making an overview sheet of a whole document (16 pages per sheet).

How the layout is worked out

The sheet inside the margins is divided into equal cells — 2 × 1, 2 × 2, 3 × 2, 4 × 2, 3 × 3 or 4 × 4 (turned for portrait sheets) — with the chosen space between them. Each page is scaled to fit its cell without distortion and centred in it: scale = the smaller of (cell width ÷ page width) and (cell height ÷ page height). Auto orientation tries both a portrait and a landscape sheet and uses the one that gives the most common page size the larger scale.

With Same scale for all, every page uses the scale of the page that needs the most shrinking, so a small page stays smaller than a big one instead of being enlarged to fill its cell.

Page order

• Across, then down (Z) — 1 2 on the first row, 3 4 on the next, like reading a page of text.
• Down, then across (N) — 1 and 2 in the first column, 3 and 4 in the next, like newspaper columns.
• Across from the right and Down, from the right — the same, starting at the top-right corner, for Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu or manga.

Typed page lists are used in the order you type them, so 5-8, 1-4 puts pages 5 to 8 on the first sheet.

Paper sizes

• A4 210 × 297 mm, A3 297 × 420 mm, A5 148 × 210 mm — ISO 216. A0 has an area of one square metre and each A size is half the one before it, with sides in the ratio √2, which is why 2-up and 4-up scale A pages so neatly.
• US Letter 8.5 × 11 in and Tabloid / Ledger 11 × 17 in — sizes A and B of ANSI/ASME Y14.1; US Legal 8.5 × 14 in.
• Custom sizes from 1 inch to 200 inches (5.08 m) a side.

One long page

The pages are put one below the other, centred, with the chosen gap between them and the margin around the whole strip. They keep their own size, or all become as wide as the widest page. PDF readers handle pages up to 14,400 points (200 in, 5.08 m) long (ISO 32000-1 Annex C), so a longer document continues on a second long page — about 17 A4 pages fit on each without margins.

Sources

• ISO 216 — A and B series paper sizes (A4 = 210 × 297 mm; checked against Markus Kuhn’s ISO paper size reference, University of Cambridge).
• ANSI/ASME Y14.1 — sheet sizes A (8.5 × 11 in) and B (11 × 17 in).
• ISO 32000-1:2008 §8.10 (form XObjects, used to place each page as it is) and Annex C (pages up to 14,400 units a side).

Limitations

• Links, bookmarks and fillable form fields don’t carry over: a sheet shows several pages, so they are printed as they look instead.
• Encrypted or password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first with Unlock PDF.
• The result is a new file, so a digital signature in the original isn’t part of it.
• Pages keep their orientation in their cell; a landscape page in a portrait cell is simply shown smaller.
• The first use downloads the PDF engine once, so it needs an internet connection.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.