Double-sided printing saves paper, looks professional, and makes your music book feel like a real book. But there's a catch: if a 3-page song starts on the back of another song, you'll be flipping pages back and forth during practice. That's worse than having loose sheets.
The Double-Sided Printing Problem
Here's the scenario: Song A has 3 pages, and Song B has 2 pages. If you just merge the PDFs and print double-sided, Song B starts on the back of Song A's last page. Now you can't see the start of Song B without flipping away from Song A's ending.
The solution? Insert a blank page after Song A so that Song B starts on a fresh left-hand page. It sounds simple, but doing this manually for 30+ songs is tedious and error-prone.
How Page Alignment Works
The rule is straightforward: every multi-page song should start on a left page (an even-numbered page in the book). That way, when the book is open, you see both pages of the song spread without flipping.
When a song has an odd number of pages, a blank page is inserted after it to push the next song to the correct starting position. Single-page songs are an exception — they can go on either side since there's no flipping involved.
The Manual Approach
You can do this manually in any PDF editor:
- Open your merged PDF
- Go through each song and count pages
- After any song with an odd number of pages, insert a blank page
- Repeat for the entire book
This works, but it's slow and you have to redo it every time you add or remove a song. If you have 40 songs, you'll be counting pages for a while.
The Automatic Approach
MakeMySongBook handles page alignment automatically. Upload your song PDFs, and the tool analyzes each song's page count. When you generate the final PDF, it inserts blank pages exactly where needed — no counting, no manual editing.
If you rearrange songs or add new ones, the alignment recalculates instantly. Change the order, and the blank pages adjust automatically.
Let MakeMySongBook handle page alignment for you
Upload your song PDFs, organize them into chapters, and generate a print-ready book in minutes. Free, no account needed.
Open the BuilderPrinter Settings Guide
Once your PDF is ready, use these printer settings for the best results:
- Two-sided printing: On (also called "duplex")
- Flip on: Long edge (for portrait orientation)
- Paper size: A4 or Letter, depending on your region
- Scaling: "Fit to page" or "Actual size" (avoid "Shrink to fit" — it makes music too small)
- Quality: Standard is fine; high quality uses more ink without much visual difference for sheet music
Troubleshooting
- Pages printed upside down on the back? You're using "flip on short edge" instead of long edge. Change this in printer settings.
- Songs still not aligned? Make sure you're printing the book PDF from MakeMySongBook, not the original song PDFs. The alignment is baked into the generated file.
- Blank pages appearing where you don't want them? These are intentional alignment pages. If you prefer no alignment, you can disable it in MakeMySongBook's settings, but your songs may span across page flips.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 'flip on long edge' mean?
When printing double-sided, 'flip on long edge' means the back of the page is printed so that you turn the page like a book (left to right). This is the correct setting for portrait-oriented music books.
My printer doesn't support automatic duplex. What do I do?
You can print manually: first print all odd-numbered pages, then flip the stack and print all even-numbered pages on the back. Most PDF readers have an option to print odd/even pages separately.
Does page alignment work with booklet printing too?
Yes. MakeMySongBook handles page alignment for both full-size (A4) books and A5 booklet format. The booklet format automatically reorders pages for folding and stapling.
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