Restore reading order from scanned booklet sheets

Recognise the booklet sheets

1. Open the PDF of your unfolded sheets, or try the 8-page booklet.
2. Choose scan order. Correct upside-down backs if needed and adjust each side’s split.
3. Check every thumbnail, confirm, then create and download your reading PDF.

This tool reverses booklet imposition. One stack of sheets was folded in the middle and stapled along the fold. Pages are distributed across those sheets so they follow each other once the booklet is closed. Before scanning, remove the staples and unfold the sheets without mixing them. Keep every front and back, including sides that look blank.

Do not use this layout for a bound book, several signatures joined together or a booklet photographed open in reading order. Those documents have different arrangements. If the pages are already in reading order, use Split scanned spreads instead: it splits pages without reordering them.

Choose the scan layout

Start with the front of the outermost sheet. In an eight-page booklet it shows 8 | 1; its back shows 2 | 7. The next sheet carries 6 | 3 and 4 | 5. Compare your own scan with this small example, even if the cover has no printed page number.

Choose alternating fronts and backs when your scanner captured both sides of each sheet in sequence. For two scanning passes, choose all fronts then all backs. The third layout handles a reversed stack of backs. The first pass must still run from the outermost sheet inward. The tool does not read printed page numbers automatically.

Correct orientation and the split

If text on the backs is upside down, enable their 180° rotation. Browse several sides and check that fronts remain upright. If the entire scan is rotated by a quarter turn, correct it in Rotate pages first. The tool expects two side-by-side pages after taking the PDF’s rotation into account.

Place the split on the fold, then move to the next side. Each side keeps its own split. With a neatly aligned stack, Use this split on every side saves repeated work. The split is limited to 20–80% so both regions remain usable. Check text and picture edges: a split cannot restore a margin missing from the scan.

Check before downloading

Thumbnails appear in the future PDF’s reading order. Their numbers describe reading positions, not recognised printed page numbers. Check the cover, opening, centre spread and final page, then browse the remaining thumbnails. Confirm only when the layout matches your sheets. A missing side shifts the calculation; an odd number of sides is rejected.

Download the result and open it in your usual reader. Pages are not re-encoded as JPEG and no OCR is added. Links, annotations and bookmarks are not reproduced; forms, digital signatures and encrypted PDFs are rejected. The split is visual cropping, not confidential removal of content outside the frame. Keep the source PDF. Failed imports and cancellations leave the previous result available. Work stays in this tab without uploading documents; download before closing or reloading.