Page counts
One folded sheet is always four pages. There is no way to have thirteen.
A sheet folded in half has two sides and two halves: four pages. Booklets are made of whole sheets, so a saddle-stitched booklet has 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 pages and nothing in between.
This is not a software limitation. It is a property of paper.
When the service does not fit
It never does, exactly. A Common Worship Order One eucharist with hymns and a psalm typically wants somewhere between ten and fourteen pages, which means printing twelve and being disciplined, or printing sixteen and having room to breathe.
If you are one or two pages over
- Set the hymns as first lines and numbers rather than full text, if your congregation has hymn books in the pews.
- Drop the psalm to the notice sheet.
- Use a rubric instead of printing a text everyone knows — The Lord’s Prayer rather than its 60 words.
- Tighten the leading slightly before you shrink the type. A congregation notices small type long before it notices tight lines — and see large print before you shrink anything.
If you are one or two pages under
Spare pages are not a problem, they are an opportunity, and they belong at the back — never in the middle, where a blank page mid-eucharist looks like a printing fault. Fill them with the week’s notices, the collect for the coming week, the names on the prayer list, service times, or simply the parish’s contact details and a welcome.
Questions
Why must a booklet have a page count divisible by four?
Because one sheet of paper folded in half produces four pages. Saddle-stitched booklets are made of whole folded sheets, so the total is always a multiple of four.
Where should a blank page go in a service booklet?
At the back, after the notices. A blank page in the middle of the service reads as a printing fault.